Winter – Page 14 – M. Sullivan Photography

January 28, 2012 M. Sullivan Photography Landscapes, Photos, Sledding

Week In Review

Another week has passed. We spent the last two Fridays at Bulldog hockey games. Last week’s game we enjoyed with Mike’s parents with a nice dinner at Valentini’s prior to the game. We had gymnastics class for Sophia and basketball practices for Sebastian during the week. Sebastian had his weekly Saturday morning basketball game. No ski races last week, but the kids are planning to race tomorrow at Chester Bowl. The mornings were cloudy and gray most of the week as seen below.

The gray start to the week was followed by a sunny Friday morning with snow showers in the afternoon and a beautiful sunset.

I have a couple of photos I haven’t posted yet of the kids getting geared up for the ski races two weeks ago. They put on everything except their skis before getting into the car – even their helmets.

I’m sure they received a few looks while they were on the way to the ski hill by other vehicles on the road. I guess the extra head protection would come in handy in case of a fender bender.

Sophia had a playdate with a friend today. They spent some time sliding on the fresh snow, making snow cones (with “white” snow” from the backyard), playing with play dough and mastering Super Mario Brothers on the Wii.

We still hope to get out to Spirit Mountain and Mont Du Lac to ski before winter is over. We keep waiting for a big snow storm to drop some nice powder, but it hasn’t happened yet. This last small storm was enough to cover the bare grass in our yard. Unless we get a major snow event, the “bobsled” course in our backyard will not happen this year. 😦

January 11, 2012January 11, 2012 M. Sullivan Photography Daphne, Gymnastics, Landscapes, Photos, Weather

An End To “Spring”, CleanWare, Basketball & An Angry Bird

With highs near 50 yesterday, today’s weather was a bit of a shock to us all. I think we were hoping to ease back into winter slowly, but instead we have snow, wind gusts over 30 mph and wind chills in the negative digits. Hard to believe I took Daphne out for a walk last night in capri length athletic pants and a light jacket. The beautiful sunrises also came to an end this morning when the cloudy skies took over. I did catch these photos before work yesterday morning. It was calm on Lake Superior which led to some great reflections on the water.

The kids have been busy with a number of things in recent weeks including Sebastian’s invention project. He was given materials before Christmas break to document and create an invention to display at his school. He had to keep track of his time, the process, trial and error, cost along with documenting the problem and solution that his invention was designed for. Sebastian’s idea was to create a product that could keep meal time tidier. Silverware creates a mess if you lay it on the table. If you put it on your plate, it can slide off and make messes on the table, floor or your clothes. Sebastian designed two utensil holders that clip onto either side of your plate to hold your messy silverware. He used small Tupperware containers, magnets and clips and came up with a very cool product. He displayed his “CleanWare” invention and a poster board at school yesterday. Here’s a snapshot of his display.

When he wasn’t busy with his invention, Sebastian has been busy with basketball. He plays for an area youth rec basketball league. His division is made up of 5th and 6th graders, although his team has only 5th graders. The height advantage of the other teams makes it a bit challenging – as shown in the picture below.

He has a great coach and an awesome group of kids on his team. It’s been fun to see the progress they have made since the season began in the fall.

Sophia finished up her last swimming lesson before Christmas and has now jumped into gymnastics. She would have liked to do both gymnastics and swimming, but it would’ve been a bit crazy to have two sports and religion class during the week along with homework. I don’t have any pictures to share of her gymnastics class, but did snap a few pictures of her new hat last night. We found the hat during a quick trip to Walgreen’s during the holiday break. A big display of several of these plush hats were positioned right inside the door. Of course once Sophia had it on her head, it was hard to say no. I did actually say no..at first. By the end of our mini shopping spree, Sebastian had found a cool sock monkey and Sophia had an adorable Angry Bird hat.

January 5, 2012 M. Sullivan Photography Landscapes, Photos

Fire And Ice

It was another colorful sunrise this morning. Not quite as spectacular as yesterday, but certainly worth taking a moment to enjoy the beautiful winter morning. The ice in the harbor was shifting creating groaning and cracking noises. It was an eerie sound, but the sun reflecting off the ice made it quite picturesque. I’m glad I grabbed my camera before I left for work.