inventions!

One very cute snowshoe-clad explorer

I write to you today from the other side of a week of solo parenting. This is small fry for lots of people, I'm sure, but it always seems like such a monumental feat from my perspective.  I emerge tired, slightly strung out, and maybe a little grumpy.  This is all despite the fact that, truly, everything went pretty tickety-boo.  But I won't complain, or even really regale you with stories or anecdotes.  Instead, I'll show a few snapshots, including some inventions that have been happening around here lately.

Juniper thought she looked so glamorous in this outfit that she wore it two days in a row (despite my best efforts to dissuade her)

We put in a lovely afternoon at Judith and Simon's on the weekend (Clark got home later that night)

It was very good sliiiiiddddding!

Inventions:
These days, any box deemed of appropriately large size will mysteriously disappear from the  recycling, and rematerialize in some new and improved form.  It all began with a kayak box that Clark snagged from work.  It was reconstructed using zip ties and imagination, and has become any number of different things since then. Currently, it is most often a tree fort/time machine:

Door closed...

... Door opened

There is also a "monster machine", used to lure and trap monsters before they can enter anyone's room.  They can then be shrunk down to a size considered acceptable by the inventors:

Annoyingly, monsters like to eat teeny tine pieces of cut up paper, and this must be kept at all times on the upstairs landing.

Finally, both Juniper and Linden have their own custom-built dream machines, meant to filter out bad dreams, and catch good ones.  They have buttons and levers, various different settings and instructions, and heaven knows Juniper and Linden are the only ones who actually properly understand how to work them:

Linden's dream machine

Juniper's dream machine

And that is all for now! I suppose next week we will see what March has in store for us.  From the sound of things, it will involve some more treacherous weather.  But at least now I am not the only one needing to deal with all the shovelling and frozen pipes and treacherous driving. See you then!