A winter afternoon

You just know it was a good afternoon if it involved Zingerman's and someone getting covered in lots of flour.

It didn't start out quite so promising, though. It was a freezing cold winter afternoon, and I was starting to go stir-crazy. After Jameson was down for a nap, I declared that I was going to go out to a pottery sale. Unexpectedly, I heard this out of Alex:

"Mama, I want to come too!"

Alex, are you sure? There will be lots of fragile things and you will have to be really careful!

But he must have been stir-crazy too, because he really wanted to go. And what a nice little shopping partner he was. He was careful and polite and yet enthusiastic about each set of pottery we looked at. This kiddo keeps getting more and more mature when I'm not looking. (That, and growing a few inches every two or three weeks, requiring yet another set of pants...)

We did great in finding items for ourselves--we both came away with something--but not so good on finding things for those on our Christmas list. But, I was so pleased with the trip that we decided to splurge a little and go to Zingerman's for some treats. Here's Alex, taken with my new IPhone:

Really, in my book, it doesn't get much better than sharing Zingerman's treats with a boy of mine.

By the time we came home, Jameson was waking up and the boys decided that there was just too much snow on the grass. They are so helpful, aren't they?

We soon came inside--even these Michigan kids couldn't handle 20 degree weather for very long--and they begged for a "recipe". Since we had already played playdough and watched TV and wrestled and played Legos that day, it seemed like a good choice.

Jameson, always one for experimental cooking, not only tasted every ingredient, but decided to see how flour worked as a hair conditioner. Later, I found some in his ears.

Pottery, Zingerman's, shoveling and baking... a good afternoon!