Friends

So nice to be getting outdoors again!!!

Today was a little chilly, but not too chilly to go to the park and build stick and log forts.  These three were VERY proud of their work.  Owen and his other friend (not pictured) are getting old enough that they prefer to sit on the swings and talk about their common favorite video game.  Still some interest in the fort-building, but mostly jumping over it or annoying the younger kids.  It's both hard and wonderful to see him growing up! (well, annoying the others is distinctly NOT growing up...but somehow associated with it!)

Easter 2017

Last storm of the winter gave way to...

Easter!

At 8am after getting ready for Easter worship service, the kids snatch up some eggs from the yard. 

 Ready, set....go!

 Eden:  Mom, can I please wear sneakers for the egg finding and then wear my pretty shoes later?  They are not good for fast running.

Did we get them all???

It seems to not be loaded yet, but eventually the glorious Easter morning service we attended with full orchestra, choir and exultant singing is still available here for a short time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4Q-3kCXF_0&t=1463s  Highly recommend!

School news

Asher was working on a math problem today.  He ended up needing the product of 9 x 16.  Since I suspected he didn't know that one rapidly, I reminded him of doing 9 x (10+6).  "Remember, Ash?  Distribute the 9???'   I went on to remind him of what he'd seemed to understand seamlessly just a few weeks ago, and he became SO frustrated with me.  "I JUST DON'T GET THAT!!!"  So of course, mom goes to get something like pennies or beads to show how the distributive property works.  He is having none of this and has gotten quite impatient with me.  [I am a slow learner.  It pays to back off before this point!  This I have learned before!  Sigh.  Sometimes I get it right.]

Finally, he said, "Please SHUSH!" and I had by that time done so.  He sat quiet for a second and then says...

I know from [iphone game] that two 16's makes 32, so four 16's would make 64, so eight 16's would make 128.  Then I just add one more so the answer is 144.

Who needs the distributive property?  I will have to convince him with a harder problem :}

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Eden is moving on to level 2 of her reading program.  While she is not eager to read picture books to herself or anyone outside of our work-together time, watch out if she catches you while holding one of her three favorite National Geographic joke books!  I cannot believe what she manages to sound out when motivated to get a laugh from her victim!  I think this morning's shower was time enough to fit in at about 10 slow knock-knock jokes.  She's a hoot!  Now she makes up her own jokes too...quality may vary.

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Owen read Harry Potter vol. 5!  600+ pages.  This coming from our less-than-thrilled-to-read in general oldest is quite a feat.  Mom's sneaky plan to start with audio Cd's in the car and then stop them when they get too scary for the littler sibs had nothing to do with it, mwah, ha, ha!  Reuel and I were less than good parents for about a week while we polished off vol.'s 5-7 as well.  Now there are a whole lot of latin incantations floating around at any one time.  Chopsticks make great magic wands!  When we travel to England in May we're staying mere steps from the magical train platform at King's Cross so we'll have to stop for a picture :)

Making things

The 3rd child gets a lot less special involvements from Mom than the 1st and even the 2nd did.  So, Eden got special homemade polymer clay kitties for her preschool valentines this year.  Note to self: start before 8:30pm!  Valentine message:  You're a Purr-fect friend!

Our family ministry team at church organized an arts festival.  It was wonderful!  Randall Goodgame of Slugs and Bugs also traveled up from Nashville to sing concerts for the opening and closing of the festival, and Asher got to take a songwriting workshop with him.  That was right up Asher's alley.  Randall gave bits of guidance while Asher and a handful of friends made up a very cute song and attempted to perform it for the audience.  Ready for this?

There were 20 million frogs but only one had a banana mobile.
They were chased by a lion so they all jumped in the banana mobile.
They had to hug, hug, hug, hug, hug to make it go,
Hug, hug, hug, hug, hug to make it go,
Hug, hug, hug, hug, hug to make it goooo.

They drove through the candy rainforest and got lost.
They ate their way home and then they had to floss.
They had to hug, hug, hug, hug, hug to make it go...
And so on.

Asher has a decidedly silly sense of humor and you can bet he was a prime contributor to this little ditty.

Eden took a flower arranging class with a Boston area florist who attends our church and does the sanctuary flowers each week.  I think she did a downright nice job!  She loved it and we enjoyed her bouquet for a long time!

It's that time!

It's that time!  The maple sap is running already during this warm February week.  2 taps filled 2 gallon jugs today.  We have at least 5 sugar maples in the back yard, some quite big, so we really could get some more taps.  Problem is...no outdoor sugarhouse means a very foggy kitchen to make much at all :)  I suppose we could rig up some sort of outdoor boiling system...but then again, it's so very easy to buy a little jug...and my dear hubbie prefers artificially flavored corn syrup anyway :P   So we just boil a pot every year for the fun of it!  Owen loves to drink the cold sap right out of the tree.  It tastes like water to me, but he says he can taste the flavor of it and it's way better than water!

And many hours later, here is the essence of all that sap!

The spoon-licking team notes that it is very tasty indeed!

et cetera

And now we have a full 24 hrs of steady snow :}  Boy oh boy, winter seemed like it wasn't coming and is now making up for lost time.  Possibly another 16"!  Looks like Reuel might be home again on Monday (he had a snow day last Thursday).  We missed church this morning too, it had already started up at 8am.

We just discovered this relevant recording of Owen from probably 1st grade.  Ha!  Wasn't he a cutie?  He would not be caught singing so sincerely any more.  :}

Owen Sings 'Do you want to build a snowman?'

Susie Snowflake

Well, it's that time of year!  Today is a whiteout...snow from 8am to 8pm, 12-18" predicted.  And I had just cleared the driveway of built-up ice yesterday :}  Reuel is home and he and the kids are out in it in full gear...balaclavas and ski goggles included!

And some from earlier weeks...we've only had a little snow before this big one...and a whole lot of cold rain.  Ugh!