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There’s a new theater in our neighborhood, converted from a plumbing shop into a really nice space. In addition to plays, they stage a monthly family disco night, with music and a disco ball and lots of little kids dancing. We finally made it to one last night, for St. Patrick’s day.

Ella’s friend Summer came over, they all got dressed up and did a little face painting, and we walked the 2 blocks to the party. We had a fine time, and got a few good pictures of the action.

We’ve definitely turned the corner towards spring here. Most of our snow melted quickly in the 50-60° days of last week, and we’ve even found a few bulbs coming up in the front garden. I’ve also ridden my bike 10 days in a row, a few of them fairly cold, but nothing below about 20°, and no snow or ice.

The warm weather has been frustrating for Autumn as she recovers from a sprained foot, the result of an unfortunate bike crash on the ice 2 weeks ago. On the plus side, she’s having a good time with her new job working at County Cycles (one of our favorite bike shops). It’s a really nice bunch of people up there and she fits right in as a year-round biker, plus they love the old Motobecane singlespeed she rides in the summer.

Malte has been riding his bike on the stationary trainer in the basement for most of the winter, and will be getting out for his first outside training ride of the year this morning (before the rain comes). He’s had a lot of fun playing in the snow this winter, and i’m glad we’ve had a good winter for a change with plenty of snow and cold. He’s done a lot of snowboarding, and had fun snowshoeing too, including a couple of short training runs in snowshoes.

Ella and Fiona (and Malte too) had a couple of days visiting their grandparents in Duluth last week, Fiona’s first time away from home. Fiona has completely mastered her potty training, plus Ella and Malte had a day off of school for a teacher workshop day, so it was good timing. They all had a great time playing in the snow, visiting the aquarium and swimming at the fitness center. While they were up north, Autumn and i had a couple of nice nights out, playing pool and trying out a new (to us) neighborhood restaurant.

We’ve had a string of warm days, today and yesterday near 60°F! It’s enough to melt most of the snow we’ve had, and it’s down to a few patches in the shade and the piles from shoveling and plowing. The alleys and streets are running with snowmelt, and we get a shower from the roof dripping outside the doors. It’s practically spring! Malte even wore shorts and a t-shirt while walking with me and Fi to get Ella from the bus this afternoon.

Here are a couple of shots of the girls roller skating around the block:

Finally, with the second winter storm of the week, the timing was right and schools closed for the day today, giving both Ella and Malte their very first snow day ever! The bulk of the snow fell yesterday (about 8-10″), but the city was still catching up this morning, and it was still snowing though much lighter than yesterday. This was all on top of the 12+” of snow we got last Sunday.

Yesterday i (Bill) stayed home as my office closed for the day, but Ella and Malte were still in school all day. I did a lot of shoveling, but we didn’t play much yesterday because it was really windy and hard to see well. Autumn and i did get out for a short bike ride in the snow before it got too dark.

I was working today, but Autumn and the kids got out to play today, including Malte’s first time snowshoeing.

It was a perfect day for snowshoeing, with a good 2 feet of fresh powdery snow and plenty of snow piles to climb. Here’s a picture of the driveway and back of the house after it was shoveled last. The fence is about 4 feet tall, and the snow pile next to the fence is now over 5 feet tall.

They stopped to visit our friend Sonja, then headed to a local field for some trailblazing. Malte got a good workout by running laps around the field, leaving a spray of snow in his wake. You can see him and the rest of the snowshoe crew in action in the Snow day movie that Autumn just finished.

We have lots more pictures in the picture gallery, including a couple of shots of the dog bite Autumn got while running two weeks ago (big bruise, no puncture), and the Tri-U-Mah indoor triathlon that Autumn and her mom did last month.