More snow!

The forecast was 2-4 inches of snow. And snow it did! It's been very very cold today, topping out at 18 degrees. Unfortunately, we still have no sleds, so no sledding for us. But we did get bundled up and took Rez down to the streams for a run. He was full of energy!


Running with his kids. We let him off leash and keep an eye out for other dogs and people that Rez would love to bound over to and play with. His recall is very good and I treat him for checking in with me so he does it frequently. Never leave home without dehydrated liver, it's always in my pockets.


He stays with the kids. Reznor LOVES his kids.


What? You want to throw snow at me and in my face? OK. I'll love it because I love snow!


What? you'll throw a stick in the water and say "Go get it, Rez!" OK. I'll go get it because I love water!


Oh, you'll keep throwing sticks in the water? OK! YAY!





Icy dog with drool slung across his nose.

Since we're on a Rachaelism fest here...

Rachael realized her song was a huge success. So she dabbled in poetry this afternoon. Her poem cracked me up.. it had such a macabre element to it. You'll notice a trend of repeating tunelike sounds, even though this is a poem and not a song. I'll type her own words and translate at the bottom if you cannot read 6 yr old spelling:

I had a far and I livd on theat farm.
lalalalala
her comes the butchr fat and rawd
he cus met for th engglish men
ohohoh
her he comes
ohohohhhhhhh.

"I had a farm and I lived on that farm.
Lalalalala
Here comes the butcher fat and round
he cuts meat for the english men
ohohoh
Here he comes.
Ohohohhhhhhh."

All I can think is that she was inspired by the nursey rhyme concerning the black hen who lays eggs for gentlemen? Otherwise, I have no clue. It sounds vaguely threatening for the farm animals, though.

Rachael's song

Forgive the teeny tiny video. The settings on the camera must have been messed with and it resulted in this tiny thumb nail of a video. Rachael made up this cute little song about a dino egg. She sang it to me and then I recorded it. She's a cutie! And her dog lays and listens to the whole song. heehee.

I can crochet!

I am not a crafty person. I can't sew or knit. But over vacation I decided to give crochet a try.


It all started with this. Rachael's present from her grandma. A crochet kit that taught you how to crochet bracelets. I decided that it would be helpful if *I* could crochet so I could better explain the instructions to her.


It quickly became an obsession.


Then I made this but, as you can see, I had trouble turning the chain and keeping the stitches even. This was just the basic starting stich over and over.


Then I got sick of working on little things and decided to make something big. It would give me the chance to repeat something enough that I would get it. This is single crochet. I can see where I made mistakes at the beginning (it starts wider than it ends up) but I figured out how to turn the chain.


I am quite proud of my uncrafty self! Next up, double crochet and then I want to figure out some of the patterns in the crochet book I borrowed from the library.

Today we took a hike around Bear's Den with some good friends of ours. It was 52 degrees but it looks like it should have been colder, what with all that snow on the ground. I guess they got more snow up there than we got in Reston if there's still snow everywhere.


All my pictures are still backwards. Oh well. We did a short hike around Bear's Den. I think we took the Interpretive Trail. We didn't find anything to interpret. We were expecting to maybe see people speaking in a foreign language or maybe some random interpretive dance. heh.


Kids hiking. Get moving guys! I was always behind everyone so I couldn't get too many face shots of people hiking.


Helping daddy climb the rocks because he was too scared to do it by himself. OK, not really. But it does look like they're helping, doesn't it?


Reznor @ 9 months. He spent his time freaking out. I think he had multiple anxiety attacks today. He wanted to badly to stay with the kids. But then the kids wouldn't stay together! So he would be freaking out and whining at the end of his leash for the girls. Then he would be able to check on them, but the boys were too far away. So he would sniff at the girls and start whining to see the boys. Then he would check on them and it would repeat. Poor Rez and his Nanny Newf tendencies. heh


Down in a dip in the rocks. We wouldn't let them climb up near the top of the rocks where the "give Devon a heart attack" drop is. Too much snow and wetness.


Hiking along. The weather was actually pretty nice. We weren't cold at all.


But Christiane's van got stuck in the snow! So I told Ray to put all that boxing to work and use his strength to get the car out. heehee. Bill and Ray sucessfully had it out in no time.

Arielisms:

Ariel dressed in the clothes Ray brought back from India. She, Rachael and her friend dressed up and danced the other day.

A couple things Ariel said the other day that I think are cute.

We have a "Magic 8 Ball" that is really a big bouncy ball with the 8 ball thing in it. So she's bouncing it and catching it. Then she says "Mommy, the magic 8 ball wrong. It said "Yes definitely" when I asked if our room was clean. Are are room is definitely not clean!" I thought it was funny. She's always asking the magic 8 ball questions and then believing the answers. (Mommy! It said "Yes!" I was 10 years old! Mommy! It said "Yes definitely" that I can get a pony!" heh).

We all do this dumb thing where, usually Trevor, says "Hey mommy, guess what?" and I say "What?" and Trevor says "chicken butt!" We even had a whole routine that went with it, though I can only remember "Guess how? Farting cow!" Ariel came running up and stops in front of me, all breathless, and says "Mommy! Umm... um... CHICKEN BUTT!" I cracked up.

Today we're hoping to take the hairy beast and some friends and hike up to Bear's Den. So maybe I will have pictures to post later.

Daisies, Dogs and Bread...

The days have been busy. I started the year with an afternoon job at Ariel's preschool. It's three afternoons a week (not in her class) and it's a ton of fun. It's also 11ish hours a week I don't have to myself anymore. I also started my one class this semester this past Tuesday. I was supposed to be taking 4 classes (Biology, math, french and psych) but, unfortunately, until I can get student loans I had to drop the others and just keep the one class I had already bought books for (Psychology 211. I think it's called research methodology). But I think the one class will keep me busy enough.


I ordered a bunch of Girl Scout Daisy tunics, petals and girl scout Daisy pins. And they came today! I was so thrilled they came so quickly. Rachael was, too. Emily and I are planning the Investiture Ceremony for our next meeting. This is where the girls are officially welcomed into Daisies, saying their promise and getting their pin. It's a very cute event.


I have also been trying to bake more bread. I used to bake almost all our bread and have gotten out of the habit. Lately I have been baking more so I made a couple loaves the other day and a couple more today. The smaller loaf is cinnamon sugar swirl and the other one is just a loaf of white bread for sandwiches. I love homemade bread.


You know your puppy is too big when this is how he can reach things on the counter... but not reaching. Ray and I had miscalculated Reznor's age. We both thought he was 11 months. But no. I found his AKC paperwork the other day and he is 9 months! Right now he's 125lbs and we have nicknamed him our house pony. He's like a bull in a china shop. He sniffs at the counters but isn't a counter surfer.

First day back at school.

Today was Trevor and Rachael's first day back at school. Ariel doesn't have to go back until tomorrow. It was quite the bittersweet day- Rachael coming into the bedroom, crying that she didn't want to go to school, the usual rush to get out the door. But Ariel and I passed a pleasant morning.

Ariel loves board games and puzzles. We spent the morning doing puzzles. Here's the horse puzzle book she got from her Grandma Boatwright for Christmas.


The poor, tortured Newfie was actually really happy to see his kids. I think he got used to them being around during break.


He really did miss them today.


Rachael is reading chapter books now and has to read for 30 minutes everyday. She's getting ready to read the Rainbow Fairies series "Amber the Orange Fairy". She reads them aloud to me and I help with any words she doesn't know.