Cooking Club, Fox

So schools in and after-school Cooking Club is up and running. M got to make fruit treats and smoothies - we all got to taste. She was beyond happy under the guidance of Head Chef - Mrs M.

Snow School II, Sponge HQ

Surfing RVA... with sharks and sea snakes for scenic drama.

Snow Day No.6

Rainbows and mickey mouse mollies (fish!) inspired the eldest child, along with mass icicle hunting en route to the Sponge HQ. 'Check the car has no driver!,' I yelped as they foraged under wheel arches all the way through the Fan. J sucked all her frozen finds ugh...

Art on the next Block...

We dropped in on the neighbouring Vis Arts Centre, on our YETI style block-trek and found the rather lovely, glowing work of Tom Condon.

Having scolded this light box investigation I spotted an adult doing exactly the same thing moments later... Tom uses Q-tips aka cotton buds for the ones I wanted to take home.

Snow Day No. 5, Floyd & Byrd

This time powdery, real snow and the sun was out, so the chill factor was less challenging. Sledging towards a  half frozen lake added some excitement!

New signs had just been screwed up, 'DANGER Thin Ice', though a foolhardy soul seemed to have walked out already...

NB: This is what happens to a balloon filled with water and left outdoors over night - a giant crystal is born!

Mozart's Birthday, Carytown

Papagena and Papageno round off the Magic Flute performance at Cartwheels and Coffee, with all the kids flapping their wings and using their beak masks. It was a great afternoon of instrument try-outs and opera all in the name of, a now 257 year old Mozart. Happy Birthday to you! (tomorrow)

Moo Moo returns to Floyd

He had a morning skype with a UK guinea pig, had his portrait painted - as a super hero - met the little girl down the road, but sub-zero conditions meant his pram strolls were all indoors...

We love him and found a play mobile guinea pig set to keep us going until next time and then we went out for ice cream!

Snow School, Sponge HQ

So we wrapped up warm to survive the -9C conditions and slid down to VCU's Sponge HQ for a bit of culture time-out.

Investigations revealed a note that read, 'Every production of genius must be the production of enthusiasm'. For one that was harder than the others but buck heads left over from a performance night, neon tertras and jars of brackish dyes got everyone interested eventually. Drawings were made, snacks taken below stairs, a group-story composed and a mini movie shot... then the long walk home for hot soup.

Snow Day No. II

We have reverted to winter and got two consecutive snow days, the first was premature, though temperatures got down to -12C. We headed to the store for eggs and since, milk. It is so quiet out there.

P upstairs remote-working.

Savage Neck Dunes Natural Area Preserve, Eastern Shore

An idyll on the Eastern Shore. We crossed a 7 mile sea bridge with tunnels to reach the epicentre of the Chesapeake Crater, lunched in the shut seaside town of Cape Charles and thanks to GPS found the nearby 10,000 year old sand dunes of Savage Neck.

Beyond the flat, utter blandness of the highway, with its motels, their amazing 50's signs, and the Hams, Peanut & Firework merchants, a single track road led to a 4-car lot and a path through the pines, past a dune lake and then out onto the most amazing untouched shoreline. Above the boardwalk 50 foot dunes covered in Loblolly pines and the odd shed snake-skin...

Deep in a tunnel beneath the Chesapeake our car crossed it's 200,000 mile mark - an epic road trip all round, especially for the hung-over, conjunctivitis-suffering, evening driver.

Date Night, Gallery 5

We loved the positive force of Rodney the Soul Singer, the melancholic tunes of The Low Branches and the Phil Collins' cover that had P guffawing a little too loudly at the start.

Belle Isle Family Hike

Heading out across the high river for a wild church hike - canoeist bobbed by as branches and ice shards were hurled into the churning rapids...

A survivor's s'mores fire-pit back at base - marshmallows and Hershey's chocolate squashed between Graham (pronounce Gram) Crackers, for the uninitiated.

No McVities chocolate digestives here.

Yorktown in January

After a polar vortex - a day at the beach... first footprints on the sand and first teepee of the day, then a shell and sloppy seaweed garden. Cold toes for the gathering but enough warmth to dry on the crunchy sand - amazing and so quiet.

The Ballet, Glen Allen Cultural Center

The Legend of the Poinsettia - thanks to the Latin Ballet of Virginia and M's lovely teacher, Miss Anna (pic) - the most joyous and inclusive and colourful ballet I've ever been too.

Menu planning

Sometimes lunch can take up to an hour and a half to deliver. The menu has to be drawn, spelt (first letter), gathered, arranged and then eaten in sequence.

Here we have o-olives; s - sandwich, b-bacon and e - egg.

Polar Vortex, Virginia

I love a good meteorological term and a polar vortex almost beats a microburst... So -13C and sunshine and icicles like tassels on logs across the river or donut-shaped droplets from twigs or these bulbous beauties.

Alone along the river was stunningly peaceful and sparkly, until I realised I'd locked my keys in the car! Then I had to wait to be rescued and mildly mocked before my rescuer wisely relocated to Paradise Diner and I followed.

Los Molinos, Brook Green

We love this place. The tapas highlights were the freshly squeezed orange juice, crispy whitebait, stuffed mushrooms and the friendly staff lunch at the back.

Victoria Park, Malvern Link

Even without the sun the park was fun and so under grey skies M did the obstacle course and J is caught as she falls down through the unofficial climbing tree.

There were other play locations - Parliament Hill - where the joy for us was hampered by the torrential rain but never the girls. We got to see a crazy fitness movie being made though, by a man the rain drops seemed to miss.

The house, Kinoulton

Going, going... not quite gone. The world of UK house selling trips us up. Curtains returning shortly.