A car full of trees

Spring is here....which means mama is planting trees!  

We also bought a pear tree and an apple tree, because the kids have been asking to sonthat since last year. Well, I got home, planted them, and THEN read the information cards attached to them.  Apparently, they will only produce "quality fruit" of they have the correct pollinator nearby.  

So....we had to go back and buy a Pink Lady friend for our Mcintosh apple tree, and a Bartlett friend for our Ayers pear tree. Now, we have an "orchard" out behind the barn. Let's hope that the deer down eat my fruit trees to nubs, and that we get some fruit off these suckers!!

Worms

Savannah was very excited that spring has arrived because...worms and slugs abound right now. She's crazy!

Savannah the actor

Savannah has a part in the school play this year. She plays Field Mouse #4 in the Mad Adventures of Mr. Toad. Se has been practicing since January and we've gone from 3 days a week for 1.5 hours to  4 days a week for 3 hours! This is serious.

Last week I saw this on the bulletin board. They took b&w "headshots" of all the actor and had the kids write up a profile about themselves. Here's Savannah...

She wrote than she loves drama and she's been "on the stage for 3 years...but only singing". I couldn't figure out what she was referring to at first. But...then I remembered that her old school had a singing extravaganza once a year - on stage.  

She is taking this acting business very seriously. Can't wait for her play...and...for her practice to end so I can stop running back and forth to her school constantly ;-)

The big day is next week ...wed, Thursday, and Friday!

Doggie baseball fetch

Spring is peeking it's head out. We're getting nice days around here. Gage found a fun game - both for him and Pepper. He puts tennis balls on the baseball T and whacks them for Pep to chase. 

Tired dog

Don't ask why she lays on the ottoman. It's a compromise for her not being able to lay on the couch. Make sense? Probably not ;-)

School Garden

Savananah's teacher led the charge to start a school garden. So, we spent part of Saturday helping out. And crafting. Mostly playing.

After some digging, raking, etc - mostly by the dads ;-) 

This was the end result. 

Dr Seuss week

Last week was Dr Seuss week in honor of the esteemed author's birthday. 

We started with Mustache Monday. Apparently, everyone had green stashed, thanks to the dollar store!

Twin Tuesday was up next. Here's Gage and his buddy Brandon:

Savannah and London paired up as cat in the hats:

They also had crazy sock day, crazy hair day, and wear lots of green Friday. But....mama couldn't get her act together to take pictures in the morning :-/

Kitchen

We're making progress on the kitchen!

The granite and new range were installed, and I decided to top it off with a coat of paint. Cabinets..flooring...lighting and backsplash are all on deck.

Kitchen remodel - step one

Kitchen remodel step one...bye bye countertops!!!  Getting ready for some new granite :-)

Begging dog

Pepper says "Daddy, please....can I please have some of your ice cream?"

Luck of the Irish

Valentine!s day is barely gone...but we're onto St Pattys day already!

Valentines parties

Gage had a valentines party at school. Let's just say his sister is PISSED off that parents are invited to his and not hers!!

This is Gage's best buddy, Matty. Matty is allergic to peanuts and has to sit at a special peanut free table at lunch. That means mommy has to confirm Gage's lunch is peanut free every day so Gage can sit with his buddy. 

They did a craft and then went around delivering valentines to each of their friends' mailboxes.

For some reason, Gage let Savannah craft a mailbox for him. It was not big enough for all his goodies though!!

Savannah made this super cute butterfly bag for her school valentines.

She even had a little contraption on the back so she could make the wings flap!

Finally, a snow man!

Every time it snows, Gage hopes for "snowball snow" so he can build a snowman and test out his snowball launcher. Every snow storm we have had this year has been powder...until this one. 

It rained much of the night, so the snow was SUPER wet at the bottom. Look at the muddy snow on this poor snowman!! So wet, in fact, mommy almost died lifting the snow mans belly section into place. 

Notice, the belly is a bit smaller on the second snowman (on the right)!

His nose didn't last long because...Savannah ate it!

9 years old!!!

It is hard to believe that Savannah is 9!!!

She woke me up at 6am like it was Christmas morning! She came back in 5 minutes later to tell me that there were heart decorations....and begging me to go downstairs. She was so excited about the decoration and kept asking "did you see them?". Just who does she think put these decorations up?!?!

She asked so many times to open her gifts...that we gave in and let her open before breakfast.

You can get quite a score when your birthday is on Valentine's day - double presents!!

Even Gage makes out because he gets Valentin's goodies and "un-birthday" presents.

First sleepover!

Gage was VERY excited to have his first sleepover ever last weekend. He and Brandon had a great time...

Not much has changed...

Last year, Pepper was a 20lb puppy who loved to steal toilet paper.

Fast forward one year later, and she's 94 lbs, and she still loves to steal toilet paper  ;-)

More snow....

Hmm...when we moved here, everyone told us that it doesn't snow much here. Well...here we are with another snow storm!!

Bye bye oak!

Little by little, I have been painting the oak trim throughout the house. The foyer, bathroom, and dining room are all done. The living room is half done. One of these days I need to spend some time on the tall ladder getting the upper Windows, trim, etc.

This week's project involved the cabinets in the living room.  That inspire Adam to hide the tv wires!!! Who hoo!!  That men as the next projects on dck are adding some hardware and painting the fire place.

The kitchen renovation is also happening soon. Granite is selected and being cut over the next week or two. New sink and faucet are here. New stove is on the way. After granite is installed, we move onto painting cabinets and walls, and then (if any flooring guys will ever call us back) installing hardwood floors, new dishwasher, lighting, and hardware. 

Things are coming along!

Skating

Savannah decided to try her hand at ice skating lessons, which they have at the ice arena on campus. 

When she first got on the ice, she hugged the railing the whole way over to her class' station on the ice. 

She spent the next hour falling on her butt. At one point - after a pretty hard fall - I thought it may be the end of ice skating. But, she got off the ice, laughed about falling 100 times, and talked about how next week would go! 

Fast forward to this week....Savannah did  not fall ONCE!!  She also made a new friend. So far, so good on ice skating lessons. 

Birthday party fun

Gage was super excited to have his first
"drop off" birthday party, where mom didn't stay with him! Quite the growing up milestone :-)

Enzo's mom said there were only 8 kids total, so she'd be fine. When I picked him up she looked exhausted ;-)

Gage, however, had a blast, and thought these storm trooper balloons were awesome.