Our First Winter in PA

Here's a glimpse of our first winter here in PA. The winter was long and COLD! We had a couple ice storms. They are really beautiful although dangerous. One morning I went out before it was really icy. By the time I got back, I was lucky to make it home. I made the mistake of going to the sidewalk to get the newspaper. I mostly slid down the driveway to reach the paper and then couldn't get back up the driveway to the house. I kept trying to move and would just slide further into the street. I finally fell on my hands and knees at one point. After several frantic minutes and numerous futile attempts, I had a stroke of genius and I removed my shoes. My socks stuck to the ice enough for me to get inside.

These next pictures are after a huge storm. The third picture is my leg giving you an idea of how deep the snow was. It was almost to my knee!

This picture is of the field in our backyard after the snow and ice. It looked like a frozen lake. It stayed that way for weeks. You couldn't walk out there because it was just slick ice on top of all the snow.

I have to laugh when I talk about the weather with people who have lived here awhile. When we moved in during the summer, we were told "this is an unusual summer - it's really hot." During the winter I kept hearing "this is an unusual winter - it's really cold and snowy." At the end of winter/beginning of spring, it was still really cold and once again I was told "this is an unusual spring." Hmmm...I wonder what usual is all year long. I guess it'll take some time to figure out. Now the spring has been very wet, but we've had a few beautiful days. The grass is amazingly green and flowers are blooming everywhere. It is beautiful.

"Where is Jacquo"

Derek loves to listen to "Silly Songs" every time we are in the car. We listen to it a lot. It's fun to hear Derek sing along with many of the songs. The other day I was impressed when he started singing "Frere Jacques" on his own. Then I listened closely to what he was saying - the third line is what really got me. Too funny.

"Where is Jacquo? Where is Jacquo?
Dor ne nu. Dor ne nu.
Someone's on the tina. Someone's on the tina.
Din din don. Din din don."

Baptism blues

Today there was a baptism for a 9 year old right after church, so we stayed to attend. Right after the girl was baptized, we went back into the Relief Society room to wait and Derek started screaming. I don't want to go in the water! I don't want to be baptized! over and over. That got everyone laughing. Poor kid. He was traumatized by seeing the girl go under the water. Good thing he has a few years to change his mind.

Yellow Belt

Last Friday, Elliott earned his Yellow Belt in karate. Congratulations! He tested along with one other kid from his class. There were 19 other kids testing for various belts, but they were all kung fu students. He is having a blast taking karate. We got him a stand up punching bag for his birthday, so now he can punch and kick all he wants.

(maybe one day his name will be spelled correctly...ok probably not)

Snow Day

We finally had a "big" storm last Tuesday/Wednesday. School was cancelled. There was about 6 inches of snow. The boys played outside for a long time, even though it was freezing! The snow was very powdery, so we couldn't build snowmen or snowballs, but it was still fun. Derek did better maneuvering through the snow. School was cancelled the previous Friday as well when there was only about an inch of snow. Pathetic.

Happy Birthday, Elliott!

Wow! Elliott turned 7 a couple weeks ago! He's growing up so fast! He had a Ninja Party. He invited a bunch of friends from school and a couple from church. He had a good group for his party. The kids had fun. Most of the party turned into wrestling, but no one got hurt and they had a good time. It was fun to meet Elliott's school friends and their parents.

My creative side came out for this party. I found this great idea for karate invitations online (http://www.ehow.com/how_5019481_make-martial-arts-birthday-invitations.html). Elliott came up with the idea of playing Pin the Sword on the Ninja, so I had to come up with a ninja, so I found a tutorial online for that as well (http://drawtoons.blogspot.com/2009/11/how-to-draw-cartoon-ninja.html). Thank goodness for good ideas people post online. Elliott wanted a ninja cake, so I just printed a ninja online, cut it out, and used it as a stencil. That was tricky, but it turned out pretty well. I made all the kids Ninja headbands. I didn't get a picture of them alone, but the kids are all wearing them in the pictures. I thought they looked great. In keeping with the theme, I made the thank you bags for the kids. I was impressed with all my creativity. That is a rare thing.



We went to dinner at Red Robin that night. The bottom picture shows Elliott's embarrassment at being sung to. :)

DaVinci (again)

I took the boys to the science center separately. It was nice for them to be able to do whatever they wanted at their own pace and for me to not be worried about keeping track of both of them. Over Christmas break, they had a Candyland exhibit, so I took Elliott to see that. They did a marshmallow demonstration where they heated a marshmallow in the microwave and then froze another one with liquid nitrogen. They could also make "candy glass" and creations out of toothpicks and gumdrops. They also had a new exhibit called Oh I See with a lot of stations about sight and perception. It was fun to do some new things. The following week when Elliott was back in school, I took Derek. We drove by the center one day and Derek talked about it nonstop, so we went the next day. He had fun exploring.