Miscellaneous March

Another day feeding the cows.

 Lego Robot by Clyde.

Riding in the tractor.

At the zoo with our Overall cousins.

Clyde's new room and Lego space.  He got to move to the big room by Alice's.  Mommy got the little room for a guest/sewing space.  All the school stuff got moved in with the art stuff in the front room.  Mommy feels a little better for reorganizing, but could still use some storage space!

Candy experiment from a library book.  We've been going to the library once a week or so.  The kids really like it.  They pick out so many different interesting books.

February 2014

Blah..... that's how I feel about February generally.  It's cold.  We're calving.  We're feeding.  This February we had some record setting rain falling on top of the frozen ground.  So we spent a lot of time shoveling snow and then diverting floodwaters.  It was a hard month for homeschool.  Too much time inside and just sort of hit a wall.

 But, on the bright side, the kids did really well in their weekly swim lessons with Mickey - thank you Mumsy!  And, they started piano lessons and they really took to it!

The month started off with bare ground and cold temperatures... one night the sky looked like it was on fire.  We love our sunsets here in Eagle.

 We got to spend time with our Hanson and Jones cousins.  Cassidy and Coltin joined us for STEM Day at BSU which was awesome.  My kids were excited to get to "go to college" for the day.

We got some pretty good snow.

We tested out some building techniques we learned at STEM Day on our cousin Ellie. 

 Ta-da!!

We met our friend Heather for lunch and headed to the "Pop Up Park" at Edwards Greenhouse.  It was warm and bright with wonderful grass and flowers - a great contrast to the mucky February outside.

For Valentine's Day we had a special breakfast, lunch with Mumsy and Aunt Shelley and triple fondue for dinner, two cheeses and chocolate.  We did some Valentime's crafts along with our Olympics crafts.  The kids loved learning about the Greek Gods and the Olympics.

We went to zoo and got to see a baby anteater!

Here's Alice waiting for Clyde's piano lesson to finish so she can have her turn.  She's reading a "Jack and Annie" book (officially known as Magic Tree House books).  She'll sometimes read two of these in a day.  The piano teacher is Mrs. McKee at Harmony Ranch in Eagle.  She actually knows some of Ben's relatives just by coincidence.  She's very good, formal and strict which we needed since I'm such a loosey-goosey homeschool teacher.

Well, I started this off an a kind of negative note, but looking at the photos, it looks like a pretty good life all the same.  

A Real Vacation - 2nd installation

Day 4 - San Diego Zoo

Our first day in San Diego, Tyson's friend Kyle, from Moscow, ID, took us around the San Diego Zoo where he is an education guide.  We got to meet a parrot and an armadillo up close.  

Then he took us to the nursery where we saw baby snow leopards.  

Next we got to meet the giraffes.  Up close you get a true idea of just how big they are.  Their heads don't look that big perched up at the top of their necks, but when they lean down for a bite, they are giant!

It was great getting to be behind the scenes.  I didn't get a photo, but they had a spot where they put all the animals' poop from these areas, so we got to compare giraffe and rhino poop.  They really watch what goes in and what comes out.

After Kyle left us, we made a whirlwind trek around pretty much the entire zoo.  There were some wonderful exhibits.

The panda exhibit was so crowded with folks it was hard to get a photo and I let Clyde get up high to see over everyone.  I carried a kid on my shoulders a lot of this day and I sure felt my age!

It was fun to see the cousins bonding, telling secrets and hanging out.

Ben alerted me to the "chaka chaka".  And lastly, a cute little seal popped up in the polar bear play area:

The first evening, we got a little time in on the beach too.  La Jolla is a fabulous beach and I loved the vintage feel of the Club.  Not all new and sparkly, but very nice. 

Winter Zoo Trip

The tigers are one of the best things at the Boise Zoo.  It's always fun to go in the winter when there aren't as many people and the animals are out and about. 

February Fun...

Well, it's winter and we've got cabin fever pretty bad. It's been a little nicer this week and we've been trying to spend as much time outside as possible, at the park, the zoo, and the ranch. Alice and Clyde seem to have unlimited energy and it's hard to get them tired out.

This is Alice in a "hay cave". She loves eating dirt, playing in toilets, jumping in mud puddles, and dollies.

Clyde doesn't want to go anywhere without a rope. He turns every piece of string or cord in our house into a rope...

Josh and Tiffany, Mason, Hydee and Hanna came to visit us (along with about 25 other people) at the ranch to go for pony rides. It was good to get to see them and we miss them when they're in California.

It's not always fun at the ranch.... Alice is getting her eye teeth and these few weeks have been pretty difficult. She's very independent, determined and vocal.

Here we are at the zoo with our friends from Seattle.