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.

Christmas vacation

I woke up this morning and it was dreary and sn-icey (as a fb friend put it) out. And no one has to go to school so we stayed in bed and cuddled until 8ish. Hey. That's late for me. Does vacation HAVE to end? It's so relaxing right now! I'm teaching myself to crochet, the kids and I have been playing games and reading. The kids have been getting along wonderfully and playing together and it's all been just SO RELAXING.

Right now it is almost 9 and I have my cup of coffee, the kids are at the laptop at the kitchen table and are still in their PJs watching "Martha Speaks".

We had a fabulous Christmas. I will share a few pics and hope my inlaws and parents have more as our camera died before the day was done.











My New Years Resolution this year is to continue to update this blog regularly. I love Kate's idea of making a book at the end of the year and so I need to make sure I update! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Oh so many things going on!

I always think "Oh, I should update the blog!" Then I think "Why am I updating a blog? It's not like people besides me and family read it and, even then, they have already heard all this stuff on facebook." If you for real actually look at this blog, drop me line and that might keep me motivated to keep updating it.

Let's see... what has happened since I last updated...

We've had Halloween. Ariel was a pumpkin, Rachael was a witch, and Trevor was some hideous zombie. We also took a neighbor-friend who was Bumblebee from Transformers. At every house he would tell people that Trevor was a zombie... but not a REAL zombie. And he would make Trevor take off his mask and show them that he was really just Trevor under there. It was hilarious. Then Ariel collected so much candy her bag broke. So we had to knock on a door again and ask for a plastic shopping bag to hold all of Ariel's candy. It was a great night for the kids. They had a blast.


We also went to Ariel's preschool fun night where Trevor and Rachael had an indepth conversation about politics and health care reform. Not really. But it sure looks like they are having a serious discussion, doesn't it? I actually think they are really talking about zombies in the dark and farting.


Ariel got all dressed cute as a pumpkin. She looked adorable. That night, after she had gone to bed, Rez found the little hair thing and chewed it up. I'm glad she got to wear it for one night at least.


Ariel was so super excited to show daddy her preschool room!

We've been doing many other things. I don't have pictures for them, though. Today was Rachael's first Daisy field trip. I've been having fun with Emily starting the troop. This was our first excursion requiring a permission slip and it was quite exciting for all of us. We met at the school playground and did a scavenger hunt. We had the girls pair up and each girl had a clipboard with the things they needed to find. We found leaves, pine needles, a treasure (Rachael found moss!), etc etc. Then, when we got back to the playground, each girl interviewed her partner and found out things like if she had any pets, sisters/brothers, fav colors, etc. The girls had lots of fun. Then they spent the rest of the time playing on the playground. I was really nervous about our first field trip and I don't know why, it turned out fantastic and the girls had a blast!

I know more has been happening, among them, a trip to the Museum of American History, Cox Farms, our first Daisy meeting, I taught GRACE Art to Trevor's class and liked the project so much we did it at home, I studied for and passed my math placement test and signed up for spring 2010 semester (3 more semesters and I think I will have my AA!). We also have been walking and taking care of Rez and he's getting so big. In fact, I will go ahead and post that video I posted to fb of him playing. He is HUGE now and I can't believe he has more to grow!



This is Ariel putting on a show for me. Ariel mainly danced around. Rez was being very very very good in this video. He has a ball in his mouth, that's the squeaking noise. Normally he is really mouthy and, if he wasn't holding the ball, he would end up having to sit by me because he would chase Ariel and gnaw on her arm and be generally obnoxious. Puppies seem to be cursed with obnoxiousness. heh. But he is REALLY good in his video and you can see how big he is! For the record, Rez will be 9 months at the end of the month. I might have to double check that, though. I thought he was only 8 months. Time sure is flying!

Ariel's version of art

Sometimes I realize that my facebook status updates will eventually meander their way down my facebook page and end up eaten by the vast internet abyss. So I should probably jot down those odd comments my children make sometimes.

Ariel hates sandwiches. OK, maybe she doesn't. Maybe she loves sandwiches. But she dissects them- eat the meat first, then the cheese, then a bread. So I hardly ever give her a sandwich- choosing instead to give her a plate of lunch meat, a cheese stick and some fruit or veggie or yogurt tube or whatever. Usually our lunch meat is balogna from the farm- it comes like regular balogna from the store- in round circles. But the similarity ends there- it's a VERY different product. But right now we have thin sliced turkey from the grocery store. Ariel loves it, but she eats it into these long strips as she hums and talks to herself. And with these long strips she pretends. She hangs them from her mouth as fangs, or slithers them across the table as snakes. I don't buy my children toys... I just give them a hunk of lunch meat and say "Here, go to town." OK, not really.

So today Ariel is playing with her lunch meat and I suggest in a most helpful way, "Ariel, I sure wish you would eat the lunchmeat..."

"Instead of making art with it...." she replies absentmindedly as she wraps a big strip of lunch meat around her bitty arm in some sort of ancient Egyptian arm band.

I never really thought of her lunch meat toy as art. But, in an odd way, I suppose it is. Maybe one day I'll see her in some modern art museum meat jewelery exhibit. Anyway, I thought it was a comment I would like to remember.

Ariel funny and Hidden Oaks.

The kids always steal our mail. Rachael had a coupon pack and discovered a Red Robin ad detailing a contest where kids can design a burger that could go on the menu as a gourmet burger. So my pajama clad children and I were lounging on the bed, I had "Journey to the Center of the Earth" all open and we're ready to read our chapter. But, this ad is so glossy and thrilling that we simply MUST first discuss the fine art of burger making. So Rachael has the floor and she's designing her burger. We listen raptly as she tops her ground beef with lettuce, tomatoes, onions, ketchup, mayonaise (which she hates), mustard, cheese and meat. There is a moment of silence as we contemplate this masterpiece. Then Ariel adds a topping in her teeny tiny voice: "And pants." It was so out of the blue, such a serious comment- this adding of pants to the gourmet burger- that I thought I misunderstood her at first. "Pants, Ariel?" I queried. "Yes, pants!" No explanation why. And we all cracked up. And we couldn't read our book, which is way too full of silly words like "stupified" and "indignant" and "manometer" and men speaking very formally to each other about the formation of rocks and whether or not they are still 80 leagues under Iceland. So I sent their silly giggly selves to bed for Trevor to read them a story, which he is upstairs at this very moment doing. I think pants on a burger will be a joke for a while, though.

AND-- on a MUCH more serious note, we went to Hidden Oaks Nature Center today. We haven't been in a while so this was a fun excursion. All pics are from my iphone so they are not the best quality.

Smelling a huge pretty flower.


Sitting on the butterfly bench.


Inside the nature center is all kinds of cool stuff to do- this is a leg thing that shows (I typed shoes! lol!) all kinds of bugs and how many legs they have.


There are also lots of costumes to dress up with. The girlies dressed as snakes and then jumped on Trevor the bird. heh.


There was this shelter thing behind the nature center. It wasn't there last time we were there and there was nothing around it. It was cool. Trevor is holding a magnifying glass the kids got from their coupon book through the library's summer reading program.


After being inside the Nature Center for a while, we head out to the many trails outside. We once hiked back there and I got completely lost. Thankfully, this time we didn't get lost. But I wore completely impractical hiking shoes.


I guess they knew their favorite color. or the air speed velocity of a swallow. heh... AURGHHHH!



NOW which way should we go guys? We ended up trekking back up to the playground and played for a while. But the wasps kept bugging me. I was wearing a black shirt and all I could think of was that time we were geocaching and Ray disturbed the wasp nest and they chased him forever until he ripped his shirt off. Turns out wasps like black shirts. So I was all super paranoid and twitchy because the wasps kept freakin LANDING on me and crawling around on me. Normally wasps don't scare me. But landing all over me does kind of make me nervous. So after wasp filled minutes in the woods, and wasp filled minutes at the park, I was ready to head out. So we went to the ever exciting grocery store.


This is Cooneyisle's Chaos Magickian. He regularly sits like this on couch arms, chairs, the table. Chaos runs the house.


THere's Reznor under the table. Rez is the laziest puppy I have ever seen. He literally spends most of the day sleeping. He gets up to eat food off the floor as I cook. Honestly, I think I need another cat and perhaps another dog. ;) Shadow doesn't come downstairs until later.