Here We Go Again...

Observing MLK Day

We enjoyed having today off school for MLK Day. We decided to visit the zoo since it's been awhile since we've been there. The temperatures today were the highest they will be for probably a week, so it was good timing, too. It was nice to get out together.

The brown bear brothers were quite entertaining today. Just prior to this picture, they had been standing on their back feet, slapping each other in the head. Then they rolled around for a little bit before pausing to catch their breath.

The crane just dropped this bear in. Ok, maybe not. I usually try to avoid taking pictures like this and recompose the shot when I can, but my 2 human subjects don't always have much patience for that kind of thing. And sometimes it just makes for a funny photo.

The beaver was fun to watch.

I was actually going to leave my camera at home today, but both kids decided they wanted to take pictures, so I grabbed mine, too. I like it when they do that. It's fun to see their perspective & creativity. I think they took a lot of video today.

Good Times

Took the kids shopping this afternoon. Both needed new shoes and Danielle needed a new bathing suit. We finished up with a little ice cream. You never really know how it's going to play out when you have to take both kids shopping, but, surprisingly, we had a really good time. Wish you could hear all the giggles associated with this picture.

My New Dishwasher

Do you hear that?

 

It's hardly more than a whisper! I was not crazy about spending money on a new dishwasher, but I love this one!

Today's Pic

He volunteered. Had nothing to do with the fact that it's grade card day. Really.

Another Win!

Today we got to enjoy watching Danielle receive an award for being a finalist in the annual handwriting contest. This is the 3rd year in a row she's won. She was genuinely caught off guard this year. I think she forgot about it. We are really proud of the effort she put into doing her best. She always gives her all, and it's nice to occasionally be rewarded publicly for doing so.


The 1st place girl wasn't up here yet, but I like the smile on Danielle's face in this pic.



4th grade

Here are some pictures from our other wins:

3rd grade

2nd grade

2nd grade

TXT W/MY KIDZ

Typical text between me and Danielle:

(The email included a picture of a baby polar bear. It was really cute.)


Typical - and daily - text between me and Tyler:

(You can't see the time stamp of the actual text but it was 6:10am.)

I heart my kids :)

Today's Pic

Today's Pic

The drawer on Danielle's nightstand.

I love the way she looks at the world. :)

Today's Pic

Smalltown, USA

 

 

This was actually in our paper today. No joke.

Today's Pic

Today's Pic

Our colored ice balls.

Today's Pic

Doesn't everyone take their cat to the grocery store?

 

 

Jack Frost

Brrr!

It's cold! We didn't get much more than a dusting as far as snow goes, but that arctic air made up for the lack of snow fall. No school today or tomorrow due to dangerously low temperatures. How low?

Shortly after I downloaded this picture, the "feels like" temp dropped to -39*. Yep, it's cold!

A couple years ago I bought a heater for my bird bath. It doesn't really "heat" the water but it keeps the water temperature above freezing. That little thing worked like a champ today. It has never had such a challenge but it kept a nice little circle of water ice free for the poor, frozen birds

When I heard a couple days ago that our temperature was supposed to drop so low, I looked for experiments to do in the cold weather. I figured it would probably never get this cold again, at least not while my kids are living at home, so we should make the most of it. I found several, including timing how long it takes for a wet item to freeze, blowing bubbles & watching them freeze, hammering a nail with a frozen banana, throwing boiling water into the air, etc. We decided to try the boiling water experiment and the frozen bubbles. It was entirely too windy to do the bubble experiment well. The wind kept whipping away the bubbles before I could catch them. We did manage to freeze one, but the wind whisked it away quickly, too. It doesn't have to be super cold for that one to work, so we will have to retry it on another winter day. We really enjoyed the boiling water experiment and did it multiple times. And when I say "we", I mean I went outside while everyone else observed from the window or open door. I was bundled up with gloves on and within 5 minutes my fingers hurt from the cold.

As I was closing the curtains around dinner time, I noticed a lone ice crystal on one of the windows. It was so pretty. The sun was going down fast, so I could only get a couple pictures & I had to take them from inside, so they aren't as good as I had hoped. But, they are still pretty.

Today's Pic

Snow's a Comin'

 

 

Game Time

Danielle played another great game today.

Yep, it was good.

I think her favorite part of playing is stealing the ball. She had a couple great steals today.



Got to shoot a foul shot. She made the basket she got fouled on, but her foul shot hit the back of the rim and bounced out.

 

 

Her team won by quite a bit today, but their games have been all over the board score wise. Regardless of the score, I always enjoy watching Danielle do her best. It's been fun to watch her improve over the course of the season. I'm looking forward to tomorrow's game!

Snow Day(s)!

A couple years ago we were praying for a snow day, or at a minimum, a 2 hour delay. Just something! We had snow days yesterday and today, so we have now used 4 of our 5 calamity days. I have a feeling we're going to be adding some days on to the end of our school year.

Danielle played outside with her friends for a little while yesterday afternoon. It was just too cold to stay out for long, and today was even worse. Tyler opted out of the snowy fun this time. I posted Clara's snow day picture yesterday.

Shooting hoops, snow day style.

The birds were in a feeding frenzy while the snow was coming down - I had 16 different species of birds visit my feeders just yesterday.

My seed raccoon took quite a beating yesterday. My favorite visitor was this cute little Carolina wren. He couldn't decide if he wanted the raccoon or the seed in the window feeder, which is what he was looking at in the last picture.

I took advantage of today's snow day and visited the park for an hour. I caught this guy coming in for a landing. It's a male golden crowned kinglet, and he did not sit still for very long!! I don't blame him. The temps didn't get above 10 degrees today. I didn't stand still for very long either!

They are calling for more snow and below zero temperatures next week, so we'll see how many more snow days we end up using.

Today's Pic

Today's Pic

Today's Pic

One of my "goals" for this new year is to take more pictures. So, in that effort, I've decided to try to take and post at least one picture a day. Realistically I know I won't do it. I will miss days, but that's ok. My overall goal is just to take more pictures, and ultimately I think I can do that. So, let's get started...

The kids and I learned how to play Risk tonight. Don't play with Ron. He's quite the strategist. (But ultimately Danielle won.)