Into the cold

Lately it's been colder than we can remember. Hunker down!
It got cold.  And we mean <i>cold</i>.  Like, -12 degrees cold.  But at least there was a snow plow in the parking lot at Chris's office that was pretty cool
How (or why) he was able to play outside for half an hour in such bitter cold and horizontal driving snow, we're not sure.  The sacrifices a parent will make for their child's enjoyment...
Temps in the negative degrees?  Driving snow?  Why, that's hilarious!
He came in with a set of really impressive rosy cheeks
Experimenting with the flowering tea set that Paul and Alice gave Emily for her birthday.  This was "before"
Lovely birthday flowers from Karen and Alan
I'm not sure if I did this right, but it was warm and cozy, at least.  It <i>did</i> look pretty cool
Can you see the dials spinning?  Chris figured out that in one day, we spent $15 just to heat our house.  The real irony?  The heat was set to 60 degrees and we were still cold.  Of course, we whine and complain and shiver, but we never forget to be grateful that we have a) a house and b) heat.
Emily clocked in that morning at -12 around 6am on her way back from the gym.  Between the front door of the YMCA and the car, her hair froze.
David "shows us his muscles".  It looks like it hurts, but he's almost always willing to give us free tickets to the gun show
Kid, you'd better get out of David's way.  Dude shows no mercy if you try to prevent construction from happening
While Emily did some contract work at the Children's Museum last Saturday, Chris and David actually got to play.  He spent a good deal of time doing construction, making new friends (with the other kids who also wanted to play in the bulldozer)
What the heck is <i>this</i> thing?  Where are the cool buttons?  What is this cord doing here?  And you mean to tell me it doesn't even take pictures?  Can you hear me now?  Man, what a piece of junk
You know how you always see those hilarious pictures on the Internet of people who get their cubicles filled with stuff by their practical joker co-workers?  Yeah, Happy Birthday to Emily.  Tuesday morning I arrived (after a lovely breakfast with Sarah) to see my colleagues conspicuously huddled near my area, which had been filled with over 300+ balloons.
I walked in and saw that the doorway was papered over, and got very, very nervous.  Popcorn?  Styrofoam peanuts?  Phew...at least balloons are large enough to grab and don't have to be removed with a vacuum...because I don't honestly know where in our office there even is a vacuum
I don't know how well they thought out what would happen to the balloons <i>after</i> this whole thing played out, but it was fun and happy while it lasted
In one of these balloons is my computer mouse.  In the other is something like my Wite-out or a pencil or something else that probably should not be able to fit in a balloon
Floor to...ceiling...or at least floor to top of the fake 3/4 wall.  Good work, folks.  Whoever has the next birthday better be on alert.  <i>I</i> have ideas, too