Falling is nearly as much fun as skating

Go Emily go

Emily ice skates

Silliness in the snow

Climbing the mountain in our driveway

Playing in the snow

Belle bakes cookies

Belle's take on The Little Mermaid

I took Belle and Emily to see a local youth theatre production of The Little Mermaid. The girls were fully engaged and behaved appropriately. Emily stood captivated the whole time, and then fell asleep five minutes into our car ride home.
Near the end of the show, when King Titan, a male mermaid, gives his daughter Princess Ariel away to a human Prince Eric, Belle turned to me and said, "I wish Daddy was here." "Why?" I asked. Then Belle revealed her perspective on the story of The Little Mermaid: "Because this play is about a girl and her daddy."
Beautiful.

Snow day lunch date

Emily says, "Mina, you're my best friend ever! "

Snow day!

Belle bundled. Then Mina and Emily take a chocolate milk break after playing in the snow for over an hour.

Reading buddies

Emily and Mina read in dress-up clothes.

At the arcade at GWL

Happy early birthday, Richard!

Celebrating Grandpa Richard's birthday (early)

14 Ceplers play in the pool

Coming down

Silly singing

Morning Silliness

The Family

My parents with all their descendants. All 14 of us in the Poconos.

Entertaining four kids during dinner

Four kids heading to dinner

Raccoon-ear selfies

With Belle, Emily & Scarlett 

Bowling and bears with Belle

Flashback: Emily and Grammy

Emily, Seren, Scarlett

Raccoons and crafts

Early morning checkers

Belle and Noah play checkers in their PJs. Emily wants her picture taken,  too. 

Nighty-night

They were so excited to share the pull-out couch bed.

Mommy daughter sneakers

Wearing our raccoon ears

At Great Wolf Lodge : )

Emily at kitchen in library

Emily swims

Faces of Hot Chocolate

Snuggling sisters

"Can I please tell you a story?"

Emily frequently offers, "May I please tell you a story?"  All of her stories begin, "Once upon a time," and tend to go on and on, ending, of course, with "then end."  I could listen to her stories all day.

Emily also often offers, "Can I please tell you a joke?"  Based loosely on the old "why did the chicken cross the road joke," Emily's jokes rarely make sense.  Her jokes go something like, "Why did the moon cross the cow?  Because 'Mooooo!'"  Her beaming smile makes each ridiculously nonsensical joke a treat.

Hot chocolate

Tomorrow won't be easy

We've had a lovely vacation, but it's back to reality tomorrow. This morning, Belle woke up after 9am. I fear that when her alarm clock chimes at 6:30am tomorrow, it won't be an easy wake up.
It's been fun, vacation! So long.

An intense chess game