Adam took Sloane skiing for the first time in January. The night before she was nervous about the chairlift (and I was nervous about the driving conditions!). She decided to give it a try and ended up loving the whole experience, especially the chairlift. Sloane had some falls but no injuries even though she managed to lose a ski BOOT and its ski at one point. I think they managed 3 runs total.

While they were skiing, I decided to take Soren to the zoo. He was quite sad about not going skiing so it seemed like a good distraction. I let him watch his kindle on the drive to the zoo. BIG MISTAKE! As we pulled into the parking lot, he let me know his mouth is extra wet and well there went everything he ate that day. Windy roads + kindle + fully belly = no good for Soren. We ended up turning around and driving back home. We spend the afternoon trimming dead flowers and cleaning his car seat, which was less fun than going to a ski mountain.

In March, it was Soren’s turn to go to the mountain. He was less enamored with the chairlift, but loved the skiing part. Soren took to the snow (he has great balance) but not to the instruction! Listening is hard when you are 4 and surrounded by snow while standing on slippery sticks. A big thanks to Papa2 for lift tickets he generously gave us from his hosting volunteer work.

In January, I was walking home with Soren after dropping off Sloane at school. I was planning to cut his hair because there was some drizzle that made his curls pretty tight making them easier to trim.

But as we kept walking and I looked at his hair more, I decided I couldn’t do it. The ends are still so soft and blond. His bangs are finally long enough to keep out of his eyes. And he would just look like such a big kid with shorter hair. Plus once we cut his hair, he won’t be able to wear these cool hairdos!

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Sloane and I flew to NH for a long weekend. It was a long awaited trip now that Sloane is vaccinated. The last time she flew she was just over 4 1/2 years old! And that is the last time Jesse, Cam, and Lida had seen her. Flying with a seven year old was great! She did get a little overwhelmed when we got to security, telling me “I am not use to being around this many people. I am use to being around 18 other people” (that is her class size). We did end up on plane for an extra hour in Seattle while they fixed a mechanical issues. Once we finally got in the air to Boston, Sloane asked me how much longer we would be on the plane and I had to break it to her we had another 4.5 hours!

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We landed pretty late in Boston but G and Pa drove down to pick us up. The arrival pick up area was a bit confusing and my parents parked a bit down from us. My dad called to us and Sloane starting running to him screaming Pa! Pa! and wrapped him in a big hug. Once we were in Wilton (at 2:15 am!), she went right to the toy cupboard to find all the toys she missed. After sleeping in, we had a nice time playing and Pa taught Sloane ‘The Hedgehog Shuffle” which is a homage to his oldest friend Charlie.

We picked Lida up after school on Friday and stole her away for three nights! Lida and Sloane were so happy to see each other. Jesse met us in Wilton after her work day and stayed for two nights as well. We had lots of art projects, card games, photo shots with the Instant camera, and cooking. We even had a tea party with tea cups from G’s grandmother. Lida also found her American Girl Doll, Chloe, with accessories for Sloane to play with during the visit. Sloane made collages with all the Polaroids she took of us and the dolls. Sloane was excited there was a bunch of ice on the back patio and she would ‘ice skate’ on it. Overall, this was fine except one huge bruise on her elbow.

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Oh and it wouldn’t be a true Ouellette experience with unusual objects worn as hats. This time- cabbage leaves!

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On Monday we went over Jesse, Cam, and Lida’s house. Lida has black hair with purple highlights right now. Sloane asked if she could have a strip of purple in her hair. Adam and I agreed it would be fun. Jesse has the technique down so she was the colorist. After waiting the time, we laid Sloane on the counter to rise and wash her hair pretending it was a spa. She was so excited about the color, especially since it matches Lida.

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We are excited for our next visit in August- longer and hopefully visiting with more friends and family.

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