Warm and wet

For the past couple of days we have received robo-calls from Thomas's school in the wee small hours announcing that they're total wimps and they've closed the school because the roads are "bad". Today it was because it rained really hard on frozen ground. Here's what our "back yard" looked like this morning:

Wellies were needed:

Two days ago you could have walked across the Flint River. Tomorrow it's supposed to be in the 60s (Fahrenheit):

The last little monkey

We went sledding but the snow was already worn thin on our fave slope, so Frederick suggested we decamp to the adjacent playground where there is a tree with a great long sloping branch, perfect for a game of "five little monkeys sitting in the tree". I was Mr. Crocodile. Here is my prey:

Before the snow melts

It is predicted to warm up this week (before it gets impossibly cold again) so Simon and Frederick head out for their usual walkies. (Thomas, meanwhile, was NOT in bed as usual but was assisting his percussion teacher in running a Beginning Percussion students concert actually making himself useful for a change.)

Frederick was thrilled to be in the snow and darted ahead at top speed.

Minutes later, completely exhausted, he collapsed, face down, and helped himself to a quick snack of a few mouthfuls of snow.

Needing a bit more rest, he considered the clouds for a while.

Time for another snow break.

Brass Monkeys

Flint Community Schools were closed today - not because it snowed or the roads were bad, but just because it was TOO DAMN COLD. Fortunately, Frederick's school was open. Here were are at the drop off.

Strange Ice Phenomenon

Somebody explain please...

Martha is ready for her closeup

I noticed today that my camera was missing. Then I recalled a great deal of "sit still Martha!" "Who's a cutie pie them!" "Oh come on, Martha - one more pose!" the night before and Jami told me that Thomas had borrowed it for a photography assignment on Martha. Here is just a small sampling of the results:

Hijacked!

When I wanted to use my laptop earlier, I saw it in the hands of a strange uncouth teenager, with a maniacal expression. I trust I recovered it before any harm was done...

Buick Museum

Hey, it's Thomas again, now that I've hijacked this blog.  You can now expect blog posts to  be a lot more truthful and enjoyable, so look forward to a great 2013.  Anyway, here's some pictures of the Cushing boys in the Buick Museum.  Here's Freddy attempting to operate the ambulance on display there.  God help whoever the patient is...

Here's a view of the ambulance from the outside.  In case you can't tell, that's me in the back seat.  Nice camera angle there, Simon. (We need to get a new photographer...)

Here's a vintage red car, with a nice glass roof.  Apparently it was so interesting it needed to have two separate pictures taken of it to take up more blog space.  More stellar photography, Simon

Oooh, shiny.

Oh and here's some old black car.  I don't see what's so special about it, but apparently it was photo-worthy.  Personally, I would have taken a picture of the giant TANK in the room, but for Simon I guess this boring black car is WAY more interesting.  Whatever...

IKEA!

Since Simon and Jami are so lazy, they decided to leave this blog post captions to be written by me, Thomas!  I'll  be narrating our journey to pick up some new shelves.  Anyway, here's some pictures of us entering the labyrinthine Swedish superstore known as Ikea.  Check out that handsome devil in the front with the long hair.

After slowly descending into the depths of the stronghold to escape the overpowering scent of Swedish Meatballs wafting from the cafe, we courageously adventure the stacks of underpriced goods in hopes of discovering what we are searching for.  Our adventure is depicted below.

 

Many hours later, we finally escape the store with our desired loot.  Here's the spoils shown below; some chocolate and treats for Simon.

As well as some weird finger puppets demanded by my obnoxious little brother.  Oh, and a bathmat and some shelves.

Anyway, that's all for today.  Stay tuned for later great installments in the saga of the Family Flint!