Jumping back to Woodstock for a bit...my mum thought a good snowy-day activity would be to hire the ArtBus for an afternoon.

 The ArtBus comes to your home (or school, or event) complete with a full armory of arts and crafts supplies and several specially-catered projects ready to go.

 Q's first project was to learn watercolor wash techniques while painting a printed image of her own face on watercolor paper.

 Next came dollmaking...

 ...and then decorating linen tote bags with paint and jewels.

Finally, as the afternoon grew late, we  made fairy boxes decorated with butteflies, and milkweed wishes inside ready to release. 

What a great service! Wish we had one of these in Denver!

 Wave after wave of snow has been hitting the East Coast this winter, while Denver has been having one of the mildest winters in recent memory (you'd think we were living in SoCal). And yet, it has been a spectacular (if tumultuous) winter in New York. I think I need to post these pictures from a morning between storms in Woodstock.

 At sunrise, so cold that snowflakes were materializing from mid-air. By 10 am, warm and sunny enough for our little to go outside and play in the snow in boots and bare  legs!

 Living in Colorado, I have for many years had a tendency to malign the East Coast climate, but you really can't beat this!

 LaoLao and her two dogs, Emma and Dash, enjoying the powder snow in the back garden.

 And this is Q making fun of mommy.

I was tilting my head to the side so as to photograph her from eyelevel. Apparently my un-brushed morning hair was doing something extremely bizarre, which Q felt the need to send up. 

Good thing no one else with a camera was around to photograph the photographer, because I must have been quite the fright!

 Making merry out of doors after the snowstorm in Woodstock.

 Daddy braving the frigid Eastern powder snow to make snow angels for his little Q.

 A Q-vs-LaoLao snowball fight, with Emma that Aussie in the middle. Q may be little, but she has a deadly aim and pitcher's arm!

 My husband (who was inside starting a soup stock) shot these photos out the kitchen window while I was photographing the winter scenery.

 One day, while the others napped, my mother and I took a snowy walk through the woods by the Sawkill.

 Always a highpoint of any visit to Woodstock!

 Summer or winter, every turn of the river is gorgeous.

 Breakfast chéz LaoLao.

 Surrounded by her beautiful art...

 It's a magical world for a little one.

 Playing "A Paris, A Paris, sur un petit cheval gris" on the couch. The same game my mother and grandmother used to play with me when I was little.

My mother has been working this year on a series of paintings from last year's trip to Africa for a museum show. Aren't they amazing?

 What to do on a chilly day in January, but go exploring some old haunts from the past!

Here, the famed Maverick concert hall, where my piano-prodigy of an aunt played when I was small, where we spent so many languid summer afternoons listening to classical music in the dappled shade of the forest.

 Interesting to stomp around here in the deep snow, my mother and I, when all the doors are locked and the benches drawn in for the winter, and not a track but our own footsteps in the blanket of white that shrouds the winter woods.

 A visit home is a time for happy rememberings...

Then a winding drive home past the Ashokan reservoir, with the baby falling asleep in her car seat.

p s - thanks to Julia over at the very fabulous Planet Awesome Kids for featuring our Q again today! Big kiss.

 In Woodstock on a chilly morning, with snowflakes materializing out of a cloudless sky outside the windows, and the peace and comfort of my mother's home keeping us cozy inside.

 Opening belated Christmas presents with LaoLao.

 No winter too cold for Q and her intrepid sidekick, Keroppi.

Reading "maps" in the car. She considers herself a master navigator.

PS - Stop by one of my favorite blogs, MaandagDaandag, to wish Elvis a happy birthday! You might see some of my prints among her fabulous birthday photos! Daan is one of the coolest (and most creative) moms in the blogosphere, and her kids are the coolest!