Skating, Teeth and Butterflies

 It has been way too long since I last posted.  So much has happened to our family in the past 6 months.  Here are a couple of fun things that has happened to us this past month.

Jen bought some rollerblades and has been skating with the kids.

D. lost his first tooth (bottom left) which is hard to see because there was a huge tooth right behind it.

D. was so happy that he finally got to use his birthday present from last year.  It was a butterfly kit and we were not able to order the butterflies because we were right in the middle of the move from WV.  We ordered his butterflies, he 'raised' 5 caterpillars and was able to release them after they morphed into butterflies. 

SNOW!!!

We had an awesome snow storm this past Monday. Finally enough to get in the yard and play. I shoveled the entire drive into a pile so the kids could have a nice pile to play with.

S made a fort until they started playing King of the Hill and M collapsed it in on him. After that they decided to make a small sledding hill and had a blast.

We love snow!

Happy Valentines Day!

Jen and I had the pleasure of having a wonderful Valentines Day dinner cooked and served by our wonderful children. Jen and I had a blast as well as the kids. They dressed up 'fancy', M even made a mustache out of masking tape and marker. They named their restaurant 'The Love Bucket'.





The menu consisted of:

Peach Sparkling Juice

Appetizer
Mozzarella Sticks

Soup
Crab and Corn Chowder

Salad
Southwestern Chipotle Salmon Salad w/Berry Vinaigrette

Entree
Chicken Piccata with Fettuccine with Artichokes and Portabella Mushrooms
Asparagus with Hollandaise Sauce
Garlic Bread Sticks

Dessert
German Chocolate Cake





What a great night! I love my kids!

Gingerbread Houses and Skating

This past week Jen and I went to school to help D with making his gingerbread house in class. We had a blast helping and watching all of the kids with their parents making masterpieces.


Today we woke up to our first snow, only a dusting but still snow :) We took the kids skating for the first time. It was S and D's first time skating. M and B have been one other time. They did great and had a blast. Everyone fell down at least once.

New Car

Bought a new (used) car for Jen today. She really wanted a Subaru Outback so we found one that should work great for her. It is perfect for the ND winters. It has heated seats, mirrors and heated windshield where the wipers rest so they don't freeze up. Very nice.

Glow-in-the-dark, carrots, pumpkins, family, and new skates.

Wanted to install a new ceiling light/fan into S's room and couldn't find a cool one. Then the light bulb went off and we bought a regular ceiling fan and some glow-in-the-dark paint and the rest is history.



It looks wicked cool when it spins.


Neighbor down the street gave us a bag of carrots from their garden this past week. Wow, I was shocked to see how stout they are. Clear indicator that our clay soil is very dense and impacts root crop morphology.


Getting close to Halloween so we carved our pumpkins last night. The kids really enjoyed getting all slimy. They did a great job. We have two faces, one ghost and one flying bat.



We had a great weekend. My parents came to visit Fargo for the 1st time to see the grandkids and our new house. It was nice to see them. The kids already miss their grandparents.



Grandma thought it was a good idea to get them an early Christmas present. This is one present that they will use quite a bit this winter. We have 3 outdoor rinks within a couple blocks of our house in 3 different directions. Maybe Santa will bring hockey sticks.

Greenhouse Update

Not much news here this week. Jen and I made progress on the greenhouse. I hope to be planting this week and maybe covering by the weekend. It will be nice to have an extended gardening season next year.