Will Spring Ever Come?

Yesterday, the weather got up to a gorgeous 53 degrees!  The boys and I took complete advantage of it and took a walk near our house.  It was so warm, we didn't even bother to grab jackets or put on socks and boots!  In retrospect, the boots might have been a good idea, since the boys also wanted to run on the snow some.  But it was so pleasant not to worry about bundling up!

One of our neighbors is having someone come and cut branches off a tree in their yard.  Don't know if they're pruning or taking out the whole tree, but they're out there again today, sawing away.  It was fun to watch the boys locate the source of the noise, then be entranced watching branches fall every few minutes.

I caught sight of a bird of prey - really not sure if it was a hawk or a falcon - come to land in this birch down the street.  We walked until we were under it, and it just sat there looking back at us.  I thought it was pretty cool, though the boys didn't seem to get why I wanted to stare at the tree.

The boys had to turn around and watch a train rumble by.

We found a hill where melting snow-water was trickling to the bottom and watched it for a while.

The sawing workmen got Cole's attention some more, even when I thought he'd moved on.

Cole kept watching our shadows while we walked.  He wasn't afraid, like many toddlers are shown to be, it was just like he found it interesting.

We found some evidence that spring might come eventually - melting snow and grass!

The sky was so big and so blue.  I'm grateful for the beauty of the world around us and for the amazing things that can be seen in the changing seasons!

The boys beat me back to the front door and were frustrated that they're both too short to open the door from the outside.  It was fun to watch them try.

More Sledding AND Garden Prep!

We got to go over to Grandma and Grandpa B's house again!  We wanted to make sure the kids got to go sledding again before spring.  Cole was awake this time and he really enjoyed himself!

Evie and Lizzie wanted to go down the big hill a lot.  Sadly, they really don't get either 'steering' or 'bailing' so after 3-4 tree crashes, we relegated them to the little mound.

Just after this picture was taken, Lizzie sheered off a tree near the bottom and took out Jess, in the white hat before tipping completely over.  That's why we had to stop.

Just for reference, this is what that same hill/pond looked like just two weeks ago.  It's been slow, but spring really MUST be coming!

Evie took Cole down once - after that, Cole was far more content to wander around.  I've noticed before that he's not really fond of fast things/falling but this definitely made it more clear.

Evelyn demonstrated that we didn't even need the sleds!

Carson was off by himself, so I found him and asked what he was up to.  He said the was drawing in the snow.

Evie's last run was super long!

She even made it off the extra long snow run Grandpa made!

After sledding was done, we all headed inside.  We made cocoa and had a snack and let the kids run wild then got ready to plant some seeds.  Jess was very interested and so excited to help her daddy plant!  Judging by what they planted, they're going to have a great salsa garden - tomatoes, cilantro, sweet and jalapeno peppers.

Each of my kids gets to have their own 'plot' this year.  I'm not sure if they will be putting their things in the planters or in the ground with my tomatoes and other vegetables, but they will have their own responsibilities in the garden.  I let them pick what they wanted to plant, even if it's not going to be a super-successful plant.  Evelyn planted carrots, Lizzie planted pumpkins, Carson planted cantaloupe, and Cole planted watermelon.  I planted lots of tomatoes, some sweet and jalapeno peppers, broccoli and a few flowers.  I also have peas and green beans for after the weather warms up.  So excited!!

Activity Days with Evelyn

Last night was Evelyn's second time going to Activity Days, which is a bi-monthly activity held by our church for girls aged 8-9.  (There is also another older group for 10-11 year olds, and then they start going to Young Women for 12-18.)  Evelyn already loves to go!  I was recently asked to help the woman in charge of Evie's age group, so I get to go along with her for a while!

Last night a brother in our ward - my Activity Days partner's husband - taught the girls about Japan, since he served his mission there.  He had a lot of pictures to show them.  Japan is a beautiful place!

We also did a little geography and math lesson, showing where Japan is in relation to Wisconsin (the mitten shape) and how old America's government is in comparison to oldest dated things in Japan. 

We learned a couple of words in Japanese symbols - like this 'ki', pronounced kee, symbol means 'tree'.

This second symbol ***I'm waiting for confirmation on what it means; I want to be recording correctly.***

He brought some sushi - nothing too adventurous, just some rice with carrots, cucumber and avocado.  It was funny that the couple of the girls who 'tried' it were already familiar with it.  Most of the rest - my daughter included - heard 'sushi' and said 'no thanks'.  Bummer.

They were all too willing, though, to try the treats!  These are 'pocky' sticks, which is basically a cookie/cracker stick dipped in something.  He had three options here: chocolate, chocolate and nuts, and a strawberry yogurt.  It reminded me of chocolate covered pretzels.

I have three pictures of the next one because they're so darn cute!  They're little pandas in various activities, like archery, running, and playing soccer.  Inside these little cookies was a chocolate or vanilla cream.

Bro. H also talked about how everything is so lit up and fluorescent in Japan.  He brought glow sticks to demonstrate that.  The girls all had a blast with them!

Evie put two - a purple and a green - together and swung it around and wanted to know what it looked like.  On a slow shutter, it actually looks kind of cool!

Elementary Art Show

The girls' school held their annual art show last night!

My sweet kindergarten Lizzie with her two displayed works of art - a self portrait and a giraffe!

Evelyn's second grade art seemed so advanced to me!  I'm glad she really gets into art!  Both pieces are of owls - just different styles.

The school also uses this time as a fundraiser, so there were some things being sold, like works of art that entire classes had worked on (imagine - 30 parents wanting their child's art and it's a silent bid, so they actually do fairly well).  Kindergarten classes did crayon melting into flower bouquets.  Lizzie is standing by the one she helped with.

Evelyn's 2nd grade class is harder to tell, but they all got into groups of five and used one hand to make a 'peace' sign or wide 2 sign, then brought their hands together with the other kids' to make their 5 personal v's into a single star.  Then they made a photo collage of the groups of stars.

We admired another grade's mosaics.  I'm not sure if this was 4th or 5th grade, but they did a lovely job.

At the end, there was a craft section where the girls could make a picture.  The objective was to make a self portrait in a particular style - I think we were mimicking Craig Redman?  The girls just wanted to make rainbows, though, so that's what they did.

Sledding with Grandma and Grandpa

Grandma and Grandpa B invited the kids over for a few hours to go sledding and play in the snow!  We looked at options like sledding down the long hill to the pond or on the small hill by the vineyard, and finally decided to go ahead and make a sled hill from Grandpa's snow plow dumping - he used a big machine and made a grand slope and Grandma took the shovel and made a set of snow stairs up the side.  It was really a great setup!

While we waited for Grandpa to finish working out the man-made hill, the kids played on the play set with less-than-awesome results.  Lizzie was very frustrated because she couldn't get the swing to move through the high snow.

Evie made the best of the slide.

Carson used the play house at the top to play peek-a-boo with me.

Finally, the hill was ready to be used!

We had lots of fun, and were so excited when Uncle Brian and Jessica came to join the fun!

Evie, Aaron and I had fun finding that the ice on the pond was really thick and slid around some.  It was hard, though, because the ice wasn't smooth and flat, it was bubbly and rippled - hard on the knees when we tried.

Evie's bright pink outfit stands out pretty much anywhere, but in all this white and light, it was a beacon!

Evie tried sliding across the ice like a penguin.  I guess penguins are made for it or something, because she barely made it two feet!

I handed the camera off to Evelyn for a few pictures of me with my honey.

Jess was super helpful - she wanted to pull Carson back to the top of the hill but hit a spot she couldn't get over and deserted her endeavor.

It was warm enough that we started getting a puddle at the bottom of the hill, on the driveway.  Lizzie loved splashing through it and then Grandpa and Uncle Brian brought extra snow and filled it in.

Aaron and Grandpa also spent a little time making a mini snow cave.  It was barely big enough for the kids to squirm into one at a time, but they thought it was pretty cool.

Another sweet Jess moment - she wanted to check on Grandpa and make sure he was okay at the bottom of the hill.

It should be noted that there are no pictures of Cole in this fun - because he SLEPT through it all!  He fell asleep on the way over and stayed that way two more hours!

In a winter that seems to be endless like this one, it's been great to take advantage of family time and the fun that can be had in the snow.  It may be the end of February, but the snow shows no signs of melting away and giving over to spring - curse that groundhog...