This is Winter?!

A little science refresher for everyone. The "winter" season begins the day of the winter solstice and ends on the vernal equinox, a day that, for this year at least, happens to fall tomorrow. All that jazz has to do with revolution of the Earth around the Sun and the tilt of the axis relative to it's plane of revolution, et cetera, et cetera. (Thank you, Wikipedia!) Because of the whole Earth-Sun-axial goodness, winter in Minnesota is typically regarded as the coldest season of the year, full of snow and short days and the best time for a cup of hot cocoa.

I don't know what happened to the tilt of the Earth's axis this year, but something had to have happened, because Minne-Snow-Ta missed winter.

On this the last official day of winter, while Uncle Ben and friends woke to snow in Seattle, us Minneapolis folk were enjoying our 7th day in a row of 60+ degree weather (5 of which hit above 70 degrees). It is heavenly...and weird. Really weird.

As such, the past few days have involved a slew of unseasonable activities. Our bike and tricycle (and yes Holly, our matching bike helmets) left the confines of the garage for a trip around the block, followed by a front yard picnic. A trip to French Park, where our shorts and tank tops looked oddly out of place beside the ice-covered Medicine Lake. That night we grilled out, enjoying the warmth of the sun while our food cooked. Bubbles are blown on a daily basis and today, the chalk came out to play.

Perhaps the weirdest development, flip flops were worn to the WCHA Final Five College Hockey Championship. Now anybody from Minnesota knows, you don't wear FLIP FLOPS to a hockey game...it's too cold outside during hockey season! Except well this year, it wasn't. Nary a winter coat or scarf or mittens ventured with us to the hockey games.

This lil' leprechaun did though.

Yes, her hair is green. After all, the Fighting Sioux were playing in St. Paul on St. Patrick's Day, and she is the only Bruns in our immediate family to have an Irish in her at all. How green you ask?

Like,  this green! And she loved it! (In fact, she loved her green hair and her "tattoos" so much, it has this mama a tad bit worried about her teenage years.) That little girl and her green hair cheered the University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux on to their THIRD straight WCHA league championship...a first for any school in the league. It was pretty awesome.

That is all for now. All of the fresh air we've been able to enjoy makes for tired little ones and equally tired mama's. This one is going to go read in bed and listen to the rainfall, the after-effects of this years first thunderstorm! (Can you believe it? A thunderstorm...in March?!)

love always, Kendra