monday at the madhouse ~ a wonderful, snowy week

Oh, you know, just enjoying his seventh bowl of blueberries in the last hour while sitting on the step. How adorable is he? Man, I am smitten.This was such a fun, full week. We had Ezra's first time sledding, the beautiful snowfall, lots of Magda time playing in the snow, a successful professional haircut (more on that later) and a daytrip to Northfield, MN, which was lovely. Oh! And dinners and brunches with friends and lots and lots of sleep.We are living large over here, and I am trying to soak it all in before the next illness arrives...This was Ezra being pulled in his "transportation sled" that Nyberg graciously gifted him. Oh, how he loves riding in that!And this is the boy on one of his first sledding trips down the (small) hill on a saucer. What fun!Kinda happy, eh?And here is a shot of him riding down the hill with me.I shot this on our walk back home. So much snow that day!After we got back, we played with Magda in the back yard. She has such mad hops!And Ezra just cracks up watching her play. He is so entertained by dogs ... it melts my heart.Then on Saturday, we ventured to Burnsville for another try at a professional haircut. You guys! We found the best kids barber in the city! His name is Barber Bob and he's at Cole's Salon in Burnsville. We had heard great things about his work with kids, and I booked a session right away. Ezra came into the salon crying, and within 1 minute, he was calm and quiet and eventually smiling and feeling the clippers and checking out his reflection in the mirror. It was a MIRACLE.That photo up there was shot right at the beginning. You can still see the tears and his distrust is evident.This is Ezra saying goodbye to Bob (who we now call "The Child Whisperer") when he was all done. AMAZING. I'm actually excited to return.After the haircut, we traveled down to Northfield, where I was stunned by the beauty of St. Olaf's campus. It's located in heavily wooded hills, and the architecture is lovely. This was the first building built at the college (Old Main), and it is so gorgeous. Interestingly, near the campus is one of those huge wind turbines. It supplies 1/3 of all the power used on campus, which I think is fascinating.Yup.The rest of the campus features... "this kind" of architecture (forgive me! I don't know what it is called!), and it is so, so pretty. I think this campus should be in any movie or TV show about university life. Just so lovely.I shot this from the car on the way home. With all the snow, it's kindof bleak outside, but I mean that in the best way possible. The whiteness and lack of color is just breathtaking to me. And yes, that photo up there is in color.Magda had lots of naps this week because due to my heavy shoot schedule, she was in daycare for 3 days straight. Poor girl was exhausted.And a final shot of the boy and his new haircut. And you can barely see his newest (and sixth) tooth just to the left of his top two.