Visit to Santa

The local hardware store had a visit from Santa, so I took the littles to see him. I figured it would be less crowded than the mall. Hm. Maybe... not!

The kids had fun coloring, though.

 

And getting their faces painted. 

And writing letters to Santa (and coloring the back!) while they waited.

Until they finally got to see the "big guy."

 

 

I can't believe how big these two are getting! Not so little anymore! *sniff*

Bugmania!

The museum had a cool insect display, so we decided to go.

Giant bugs!

 

 

 

And what was even cooler?

 

 

 

They moved!

 

 

 

The kids also got to go to a bug class. And see lots of different insects in cases.

(Some weren't in cases - I don't want to talk about the wolf spider that bit the handler and got away for a minute! Eek!

 

 

They made crafts too.

 

Totally fun!

 

Pumpkin Carving

Four big pumpkins this year (we love lots and lots of seeds to roast!)

Daddy always opens the pumpkins.

Time for carving, yet?

Nope, first we have to get all the "gunky" out.

And there's lots of "gunky!"

Then we get to make our faces.

Taking turns with the "safety knife."

Our final results!

Daddy's

Mommy's

Zoe's

Dmitri's

The Traditional Easter ATV

We had all the traditional stuff this year for Easter...

The baskets...



The sidewalk chalk...



The hunting for eggs...



The ATVS...



What, you didn't know ATV's were part of the Easter tradition?



Thanks, Grandma! :)

Happy Valentine's Day

The littles had a blast at their school Valentine's Day party. We spent an hour organizing and having them fill out Valentine's for everyone in their class. They were very proud of themselves!

Then they come home to Valentine's Day presents from grandma and mom & dad:

And older sister Autumn made them Valentine's and one for mom, too!

Me, I got organic gardening lessons (woot!) a box of chocolate and a huge bag of M&M's.

The green ones. Just the green ones. Michael handed them over and said, "You remember what they used to say about the green ones?"

I laughed. "Well, I know what you want for Valentine's Day!"

I'm pretty sure the card I gave him came in a solid second... :)

Buried in White Stuff

Twelve inches.


That's right.


It was at LEAST that much.


I honestly think it was more.


Appeared more like a monster fifteen inches to me.


Utterly buried in white stuff.



Snow, of course.

What did you think I was talking about?


And we had to go over the river...

And through the woods to Grandma's again...

Which was an interesting experience, now that we live in a rural area. They don't plow dirt roads.

They barely plow the paved ones.

Even when we got into the closest "major city"...


We saw several cars stuck in the ditch on the way there.

But we, luckily, weren't one of them. Lots of tractors out plowing their driveways. Michael was jealous. He had to use the snowblower. But it was better than a shovel!





We made it to Grandma's and back again without incident.

And it was a truly lovely drive...

Visions of Sugarplums?

Twisted but amusing. Love the "stockings". :o

(Click the picture to see the artist's site.)

Merry Christmas Irony

Amazon assured me that I could buy four books for the price of three. Not only that, I could select Super Saver shipping and still get my items by Christmas! Woot!

Then, they sent me an email. "We're sorry..." I hate emails that start that way. Apparently, my items wouldn't arrive until December 28. So much for all my deals! So I had to cancel the order and get to Borders. No four-for-three deals. Granted, no shipping, but I had to pay for the gas to get there - and back. And since we live out in the middle of nowhere, it wasn't negligible.

Plus the cost of the migraine from driving in holiday traffic.

Then, I got this coupon today.

Sigh. Can you say "irony," boys and girls? I knew you could...

So in the spirit of giving, I thought I'd share it here. In case you have book shopping left to do. Merry Christmas!