Happy, happy, joy, joy!

All I can say is that it's a good thing we had a lot of rain !

Yes, there was a birthday

I know it's been almost a month since the boys had a birthday, and we really did celebrate! This year Scotty wanted to do a big steam-up, so Chris' dad agreed to steam up the big tractor. Scotty was so excited and really enthusiastic about helping to get the engine clean and ready. When the big day came the first thing was getting his presents. Scotty got a rechargeable electric motorbike and Chris was so thoughtful that he picked up some paint for Eli so she wouldn't feel left out.




Scotty selected the guests for the party and he invited everyone he thought would love to see the steam engine. Most everyone came, but he did miss his Nino, who was home with a bad knee.



Papa Scott operated the steam hoist which is used to hoist a real mine bucket into a 1:1 scale model of a mine shaft head frame which he built several years ago as a demonstration model. Several guests took a ride down the "mine shaft" which is really only an 8 foot deep hole because we'd hit water if we dug it any deeper.




And of course there would be no birthday celebration without firing off the potato cannon, which was built for last year's Mythbusters party. It's always a hit with the crowd!




Several of the kids and the kids-at-heart went out to the landing zone to look for the spuds after they were launched.



We all had a great time and we thank everyone who came so much for helping to make it such a fun day.

Mom's paint by numbers

Chris' mom celebrated her birthday and Mother's Day with a fun party. She is having her solar panels painted (on the backs of course) because she can see them from her back porch and would like to look at something other than a big white rectangle. So she came up with a fun idea! She had an artist draw a mural on the back and set it up to be painted by the party goers. Eliza was one of the most enthusiastic painters. Scotty offered to be the photographer and he got several nice shots!

Here they are mixing the paint.





Some of Scotty's photos.





Here's what it will look like when it's done.

Christmas day

Just finally uploaded my photos from Christmas day. What a great time we had at my mom's house!




The best part was that her driveway was covered with frozen snow and made for perfect, fast, and scenic sledding!

Thanks!

Every year we look forward to Marilyn's annual Thanksgiving feast. Marilyn is Chris' mom, and she's also the best cook I have ever known. She is an inspiration because she creates the most amazing food and seems to really love doing it too.

With Barry's very qualified help, they please the eye as well as the palate.




No wonder we all come back every year!

Thank you!

Thank you so much to everyone who helped to make our Christmas a great one. We have been putting your gifts to good use around the house this week. It's also been fun for the kids to receive the packages that are straggling in because of the shipping delays due to all the freaky weather.

A selection of Christmas fun:

New Year's Day

The homeschooling tribe spent New Year's Day at Crystal, Dave, and Sorscha's beautiful home. It was our first time making the 45 minute trek out there and the kids really loved seeing Sorscha's place and all her toys and pets. It was a challenge getting the Golf out of our 1000 foot snowed-in driveway but we made it!



Sorscha and Eliza had their ups and downs but overall got along well. Sorscha was amazingly generous with her toys and for the most part patient with Eliza (who really thinks Sorscha is way cool).





Scotty had fun "training" little Abalis.



The kids all braved the cold while we adults cowered indoors.



Gary helping Eliza and Dan with one of Sorscha's ferrets.



By the end of the evening everyone was getting a little wound up and much crazy dancing ensued.



Thanks Crystal and family for a great time!

Solstice celebration

To celebrate the return of the Sun and the longer days to come our homeschooling group gathered at my house Thursday. The kids made sun ornaments while the moms made gingerbread, pomander balls, popcorn and cranberry garlands, stew, wassail, and bread.



Susan made a little mother and child out of pipe cleaners to put in our solstice cave. The Sun Baby was made of a sparkly golden pipe cleaner that Crystal had given us.


We built a little cave out of building scraps and decorated it with some pine boughs and the garland. Then we put the figures inside and at the moment of Solstice (5:22PM here) we filled the cave with candles and sang a little song to welcome the return of the sun.




Afterwards we came inside and watched the candles burning out in the cave from the warmth of the house. We played music and made a lot of noise in the tradition of Yule.

Our Halloween

This year was great fun. After much deliberation and negotiation with Scotty over his costume (he originally wanted a highly mechanized helicopter with lots of motors, belts, and switches which were simply beyond my capabilities and our time available) he finally got the idea to use a box and his pedal race car to make himself into a car for halloween. We painted windows and other details onto a box and mounted it atop his pedal car. Here he is painting the box (with my help).



He was thrilled and proud to wear his costume to our weekly homeschool park day, where several kids and some moms came in costume.

Here he is riding towards the park in costume:


Eliza, already a little bird most days, simply wanted some feathers to complete her look. This I easily achieved with two feather boas purchased for half price at the fabric store and an old shirt. Here she is at the park:



Here's one of our tribe, Beth, involved in a serious conversation:


On Halloween night several of us from the homeschooling group met at Susan's house to go trick or treating in her neighborhood. After a mishap that involved me locking the keys AND Scotty's costume in the car was resolved, the kids headed out with Sylvia and Gary and Chris and Dan. I stayed behind to answer Susan's door since everyone else was also already out and about. Here they are ready to go:



Scotty ready for action. Note the real working headlights and the candy bucket attached to the front.



Eliza was very pleased with her stash. Apparently she had a great time too. Reports are that she started just walking in to people's houses when they answered the door! Sylvia said that it was a good thing that there were three adults because my two kids required them. Scotty needed the help of both Gary and Chris to get up and down curbs and Sylvia had to keep a close eye on Eliza as she "flew" into homes.


Andy, Dan, Scotty and Spencer trading candy and hamming it up for the camera.


After trick or treating we paid a visit to Nonna so she could see their costumes and offer a treat. The kids stayed with her for a bit while Chris and I went to pick up a minvan that we rented for our short trip to Colorado, which was to begin bright and early the next morning.

The kids love it when Nonna reads to them (but neither Nonna nor Scotty like having their picture taken).


Pooped out Little Bird after a great evening. It's a good thing too, because Mommy Bird needs to pack!