Merry Christmas!

And...there's a Christmas letter too!

Konrad is Seven!

What a beautiful day to celebrate seven years of Konrad's life!  Konrad told practically everyone at church that it was his birthday...I think this is a big step for him.  We are so proud of how much he is learning and growing!

His birthday celebration started with an afternoon at an 80s arcade with a friend.  On the way home, they saw a fabulous rainbow and Tom took them to visit the local ski/snowboard trick hill (you can tell how crazy warm it's been the past few weeks!)  They didn't ski that day, but there may be skiing in their future!

Then on his actual birthday, he opened presents...a nerf gun from Lukas...

...a new helmet, and his favorite gift, racetrack for matchbox cars.

We celebrated with dinner at Fuddruckers...

...and chocolate cake!

His siblings are so happy to celebrate with him!

Happy birthday Konrad!

Natalie is Nine!

How times flies...Natalie is already nine years old!  This year has been full of great accomplishments for Natalie, and we know she will build on those and bring new ones to the table in the coming year.  But let's celebrate this birthday quick (because, you know, there is another one in our family tomorrow!)

Here's a self-portrait Natalie took on her birthday.

Her birthday was still a school day, so she opened one present before school so she could wear it to school on her birthday.

She's toasty warm in that coat!

Then we had a little party after school with candles on her chocolate pie.  She was quite mesmerized by the candles.

I thought I had a sure winner with chocolate pie, but all Natalie really wanted to eat was the whipped cream. She kept asking for more whipped cream after she scraped it off the pie...three times!

Then she opened her presents.  Her favorite present was a Frozen book that included Natalie's name in the book (as well as those of her brothers).  You may have noticed that the color of her new coat is like Anna's cape in Frozen.

Then we went to a special event and dinner at the botanical gardens and enjoyed the beauty of all the light displays.  Natalie loved watching the Christmas model trains!

And here she is the next day, still VERY happy with her Frozen book!  Yeah Natalie!

Fun in the Snow

Now that the snow has finally melted (!) I'm getting around to posting more snow pictures.  There is still some snow, but it reminds me of spring with how cold it was for two weeks, then how warm it has been the past few days.  I hope the trees don't start budding!

The official mark at our home:  9 inches in about 36 hours.

Tom went under the house to put in some insulation where there was none (and found a gaping hole to the outside about 2 inches wide!  How was that there for 20 years?)  The boys thought it was great fun to explore under the house.

It was a dusty job so Tom resorted to a filter.

Then it started to melt (and freeze) so icicles formed...I love these on the trees!

We used our recess to look for animal tracks and try to determine which animal made them.  We found deer, fox and mouse.  And people and dogs.

Natalie's teacher said when a paper is stamped with "evidence", she uses that for a grade.  I'm not sure I agree with not using (nearly) every test for a grade, but it worked out well for Natalie!  She actually does do very well in spelling.

The heavy frost one morning coated the chicken fence.

We took advantage of a homeschool day at Birds of Prey...that's a REAL peregrine falcon on the perch that the kids got to use as a model to draw and paint. 

One of our cats is watching the bird on the bird feeder.  We used the recipe from our science book (we're studying birds this year) and at least one kind of bird is making good use of it.  Thankfully, the bird is too quick, but the cats caught at least one vole recently after the snow started to melt.

The field behind our property was filled with Canada geese.  This was an early photo...there had to be more than 500 eventually, then when the weather warmed up they all flew away.

Sledding time!  We dropped Natalie off at therapy and enjoyed a hill for sledding (Natalie's not missing anything because snow is not her favorite thing).

The boys found they went faster when there were two on the sled.

Geese on the wing over our home.

We celebrated our one-year-here anniversary with a trip to the same restaurant we ate the first night in town.

Here's another stellar spelling test from Natalie.  I don't know if I'm more proud of her spelling or her writing...it gets wrapped up all in to one here.  You know she is a great speller!

First Snow

We've had a milder than normal autumn, but that all changed two days ago!  It's snow time! The forecast was for 1 to 2 inches on Thursday, 2 to 4 inches Thursday night, 1 to 2 inches on Friday.  HA!

Natalie enjoyed a few flakes before she met the bus yesterday.

Really, she doesn't like the snow, but I made her pose.

Dominik usually goes out with Natalie to meet the bus, so they slipped and slid on the new snow a bit.

It continued to snow steadily, so during homeschool recess we did a little sledding on the driveway...

...and a few snow angels...

...and a snowball fight.

The youngest always gets picked on, right?

After lunch, I thought it might be a good idea to clear the driveway, so I activated the snow removal team.

But it was more fun to just make paths in the snow.

Then it snowed a lot more.  This is after clearing the driveway this afternoon, Friday, for the third time since yesterday.  The snow has finally stopped, and I think we got 8-10 inches total.  At least...maybe 12.  Like how the hat on the mail box is leaning?

Scraped the sidewalk, more snow accumulated...then little bird visited!

That backyard tree that still hasn't lost its leaves...

...and what it looked like a few days ago when Tom was vacuuming up leaves.  Too bad it snowed and will stay frozen for a while...the leaves might not get picked up until spring.