The Upstairs, Snow, Tree Climbing, Gardening and a Really Nice Day

We started working on the upstairs. I got all of the rafter vents hung last weekend. It was fun. Who knew I'd enjoy doing this kind of work? Like father, like brother, like daughter, I guess! 

Next up is the insulation. Because of thickness issues, we had to go with a product called Rockwool. It's not made from fiberglass but from stone. It's actually kind of cool. You just push it up and it stays in place. We are slowly buying more and installing that. This upstairs will be a long process, but it's fun to see little strides being made.

We got a little snow the other day. And by little, I mean little. When Lee took the kids to school it was slightly flaking. Before he got the kids there, a message came that they were cancelling. So he brought them back. It came down fierce for about an hour and then melted completely away by noon. (It was snowing harder in the northern part of the county and they were worried about it freezing over during the day- since that's what the forecast was. It obviously did the opposite.)It was really pretty while it lasted!

During the snow day we pulled out the small cotton candy machine. I think I'm going to need a bigger one of these!

The day after the snow day, the kids had a scheduled 3 hour day (it's really a resource day for the teachers.) To pass the time she made paper claws.  Seems worthwhile right?

Will has a breakdown every so often. I think so much emotion gets built up that it all comes out at once. We just try to listen and let him get it all out.

While we were putting the mesh around the a/c the kids were taking pictures of themselves climbing trees.

That's Amy up there:

Tyler:

Amy again, different tree:

Tyler:

And Will:

Amy helped me with a gardening task. I wanted to try this method of winter sowing this year. The basic concept is the milk jug become a mini greenhouse. You plant the seeds and let it sit out until planting time. We shall see if it works! (Someone at church gave me a garbage bag full of milk jugs!)  

Yesterday was gorgeous. It really was such a beautiful day. Will needed to go on a 1 mile hike to pass off something for Cub Scouts so we decided we'd better do it now before it got cold again.

Will "hiking" is a true test of patience. About 10 feet in he declared he needed to rest and have a snack.

And every 10 feet past that we had to stop again. We were only walking a 1/2 mile to an overlook and then the same distance back to the car.

The overlook looks over the river. Sometimes this area is completely dry and you can walk all over it. We've had a lot of rain so it was full of water this time. Tyler enjoyed throwing rocks.

On the way back, we were getting tired of our slower than a snails pace and Tyler was mad he couldn't keep climbing all over the rocks. There are a lot of holes that pop up (think mini-sink holes) so we didn't feel comfortable with him running all over. This was him being mad.

With that we finished our lengthy mile walk and headed back home to watch Groundhogs Day. :)

Tyler doesn't take lessons yet, but he loves to play the piano. Maybe he'll be the pianist of the family??

Amy too, when she practices. :) (Although she's better at practicing than Will)

The boys have been fighting a lot lately and it's driving us all crazy. They do have moments when they enjoy each other though.

Amy can usually be found painting. She got a nice watercolor set for Christmas and she uses it all the time.  This time, inspired on the garden day we had, she painted root vegetables.

And I think all of that catches us up! Whew!