He ate breakfast, went to morning track practice, and came back for second breakfast. I couldn’t help but snap a picture of the spread.

This is normal calorie consumption for our active 6’5″ boy, folks.

It didn’t matter that the thermometer read a bone-chilling 8 degrees.

These are determined kids.

Who have been going stir crazy in the house.

Climbing the walls.

Fresh air and flips at the expense of frostbitten toes?

After enough below freezing days, they have counted the cost and determined it’s worth it.

Thanks to Groupon, we found a great deal on Four Lakes lift tickets. Given the unpredictable nature of weather in the Chicago area, we seized the snowy day on President’s Day last Monday. Judging by the crowds of people, we weren’t the only ones with that idea. It was near anarchy at times on the tow ropes, but we were still excited to be able to ski one more time this season.

Inspired by the Olympic snowboard cross, Derek rented a snowboard for the day. He spent much of the time on his kiester, but after watching him work at it until he mastered it (always with a smile on his face), I decided that D stands for Derek and determined!

The other boys spent their time on the terrain park, again inspired by the Olympics, racing down and jumping the jumps. I wouldn’t be surprised if they wanted to try flips next season.

Ruthie hit a milestone this day as well. Not only did she look cute as a button on the bunny hill, but she ended the day skiing down the incline by herself.

When we first arrived, she was clinging onto my pole for dear life as we descended the hill. I decided to chuck the pole and try holding hands instead. Well, this led to letting go for short spurts and before I knew it, she was skiing with no help.

She became so confident that when we got off the tow rope, she exclaimed, “Alright, Mom, this is my hill!” And lest I cramp her style in any way, we would get going down the hill and she would yell out, “I’ll meet you at the bottom!”

Here she drew a picture of Mommy and Ruth skiing with cool goggles. That would be the steep incline of the bunny hill next to us.

The day began with Ruthie bringing up two paint colors with which to create a pretty picture.

She of course had on a pretty dress for the occasion. (Tempera is washable)

Once her brothers caught on to what she was doing, all I saw was a blur of activity up and down the basement stairs as they made trips down to retrieve more and more and more paint colors.

Jeremy was the mixer.

He had more fun mixing paints to create new colors than actually painting the pictures. He named one color ‘hot chocolate’. That one was my favorite.

He then gave Peter some pointers on color mixing.

Peter’s paintings were inspired by the Olympics.

While Ruthie’s paintings were inspired by…little people without torsos.

Most weekday mornings, Peter sets his alarm early so he can get up and make breakfast for the family.

This particular morning, he–the executive chef–made waffles.

With the help of his sous-chef:

And the (hairy) station chef, who also takes care of sub-counter cleanup:

We spent the day as a family at the Chicago Auto Show. It was a first for the kids, who all had fun sitting in new cars.

We sat in practical cars…

…and admired the not-so-practical cars from a distance.

At one point I wondered how many random pictures I ended up in that day, as everyone (including me) and their uncle had their phones out snapping photos.

Jim got to sit in a Jeep Wrangler.

While Jeremy held down the fort in the back.

Some booths had activities for the kids–the paper airplanes were right up the boys’ alley.

Ruthie continued to show similarities to her grandma when she ran up to the Nissan Z and hopped in the drivers seat.

The highlight of her day was meeting Dora. After meeting her, Ruthie commented on how big Dora is. Then she mused on how big Dora’s parents must be.

I must say, though, that the highlight of the day for all of us was watching Jeremy hop into his favorite car, the Kia Soul. Ever since the Kia hamster commercial, he has loved this car.

Inspired by the Olympic short track speed skating, the boys took to the ice today and raced their own short track.

Jim introduced the boys to a new sport last weekend…yet another way to redeem the cold:

broom ball!

We headed to Menards last week and picked up a bunch of straw brooms.

The boys immediately took to the ice and began whacking the ball.

Unfortunately, you get what you pay for with straw brooms. One by one, the metal handles began to snap in half. In a family full of bam-bams, I don’t know why this surprised me.

So we resorted to making snowballs

and taking the dog for a walk.

Meanwhile, I learned that Menards sells broom handles–wooden ones. Hopefully these will prove to be more durable!

Peter’s newest act of hospitality is serving up specialty coffee drinks.

Over the past couple days, he has made hot chocolate with steamed milk (no coffee for the younger ones, please)

as well as lattes and mochas.

It is quickly becoming my late afternoon treat!

Jim brought the kids and me to his high school for a wrestling alumni event. We found his name on the wall showing the number of pins he had during his high school tenure.

We got to meet some of his coaches and former teammates, then they had all the wrestlers gather on the mat.

There were guys spanning graduating years 1969 to 2013–it was quite a sight!