Husky Heroes

Care of the Morton Arboretum.


The weekend BEFORE our ice sculpture excursion we trekked out in the winter chill yet again to visit the Husky Heroes.


In a ploy designed to pressure parents into adopting a husky, many good natured volunteers brought in these beautiful dogs to stand in the cold as a great temptation to child after child who would ooo and aah and plead, "Please Mommy can we take him home?!?"


I made it VERY clear that we were not a good match for a husky before we left. And although the Actress has been wanting a husky for a good while now, she sadly understands that huskies are working dogs who need lots of exercise, and that we are the wrong family to provide that. Although if we lived in Alaska on a large plot of land...


The children were able to pretend to drive a sleigh, learn about these gorgeous creatures, and even watch them in action. The younger ones were actually more interested in the snowy terrain than the dogs.

This may be due in large measure to the fact that contrary to the evidence of this post and the previous one, I am NOT a fun winter Mom, and Mr. Bloomers is often missing and therefore unable to provide our children with a proper winter experience. In the summer I schlep the kids off to one pool outing after another, interspersed with visits to parks, museums, and wildlife preserves. I am SuperMom of summer fun.


However, in the winter we hibernate. My response to requests to play in the snow is often, "Maybe Dad can take you this weekend. Now let's read a book, or go play with your toys, or play games, or draw, or take a nap, or bake, [etc] but let's not hang outside in the frigid air."


So here Princess was completely enamored with the opportunity to be one with the snow rather than to simply watch it from the window.


She rolled and rolled and rolled for like 20 minutes. The crowds were big enough that I had to continually redirect her, but everyone who saw her just laughed out loud. Ah the joy!


As fun as it may have been (especially the loooooong walk to the car when the kids were past their limit and so was I), I can hardly wait for spring.