Happy 2016!

We spent the last days of 2015 outside in the snow again.

On Wednesday, Heather and I went for a snowshoe walk.

Then, on New Year's Eve day...

Cole works on a snowman.

 Meanwhile, Heather and I finished this lovely lady.

 And in the end, this is the disturbing scene Cole created. Very creative.

 Then Heather and I went for a walk in the woods. We made a few mini snow people along the way.

(Wayne was not home to make snowmen with us - he was at his friend, Asom's, birthday)

 We saw lost of rabbit tracks in the snow.

 The deer that eluded hunters all season are now wandering everywhere, safely, in the woods.

Later in the afternoon, we also went for a snowshoe with Joanie.

 Studying some animal tracks.

 And a history lesson about the fence and gate in the middle of nowhere.

 Another mini snow person guarding the site (until Spike plucked its head off and we had to make another)

Here's hoping 2016 is filled with special moments, big and small, for all of us.

Enjoying Our Sudden Winter

We got our first real snowfall of the season today and the kids made the best of it.

There was a lot of sledding.

Here is a trio of very short videos.

Heathe, Spike, and I took a night walk in the woods. The snow was not deep enough to require snowshoes.

The rectangular shadow in each photo is my camera casting a shadow in the light of my headlamp. 

Heather wanted to take a rest.

Coming back home the house looked cozy.

Lately (Including Christmas)

Heather is too young to play basketball on the school team, but she is on the Lake Region Junior Hoops Glover team. It's for grades 3 thru 6. Boys and girls are on separate teams. Glover had so many girls who wanted to play basketball this year that they had to make 2 girls teams! (Cole is on the boys' team, and as a 6th grader, he is also eligible to play for the school, so he is on TWO basketball teams.) Below, Heather manages to sink 2 foul shots like an old pro (3rd graders are allowed to stand a little closer to the net) in a nail biter game against Irasburg. The tie game went into overtime, when Glover scored and then Irasburg scored again. This was a late evening game so rather than do a 2nd overtime, the game ended in a tie.

 We have no snow.

 December 23rd, already on school break. Cole and I went for a walk in the woods, enjoying the 59 degree weather. Thank you El Nino, whatever you are.

 The beaver pond.

 Our tradition of making a gingerbread house continues.

 This one may not be our best work, but it was fun.

 Heather dressed for Christmas Eve Mass.

 A Christmas full moon.

 Christmas Eve we crashed Joanie's evening with friends Cindy and Jerry for some Christmas music. You can't really see in the photo, but Cole is playing a drum and Heather has a tambourine.

 Christmas day, after all the gifts were opened, Heather and I went for a walk in the woods. No snowshoes required.

 Peter, Jeanne, Katie, Lizzy, Joanie, and Martha came over for dinner. Joanie shared these cute little wooden spinning toys.

Heather is wearing a birthday outfit from Julie. Very cute and festive.

 Lizzy demonstrates.

Dinner

I didn't get a photo of dessert, but Jeanne brought cookies and Wayne had made a maple walnut pie. 

More singing. Heather has changed into another outfit, this one from Jeanne.

Headed to see my mom in Maine tomorrow morning with Cole.

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday with their loved ones.

One Early Present by Wesley

At church tonight I heard it was OK to open a present on Christmas Eve. Thank you Mr. Rothman for this sweet LLBean parka, delivered by Sara and Colby. I will appreciate it even more when it's not 65 degrees outside. Or 95 inside (wood furnace hard to control). 

Happy December 24th to all!

Happy Birthday Heather!

To celebrate her 9th birthday, Heather wanted to try a fondant covered cake. She had brought home a cake decorating book from the school library and picked out one that called for plain  white fondant, decorated with food color markers.

We baked a chocolate and vanilla marble cake and covered it with buttercream which acts as a "glue" for the fondant icing.

Finally some snow, especially for Heather's birthday. Until now it has been warm and the ground has been bare, quite a contrast to Heather's birthday last year which was a sledding and skating party.

 It was a heavy, wet snow and made the roads tricky. Lots of cars off the road - seems people forget how to drive in bad weather when we haven't had any in a while.

 We decided not to deal with a full fledged kids party this year and instead let her invite a couple of friends, Harper and Kelby, over for the afternoon. We went to the movies to see the new Chipmunks movie, and then they played outside in the 4 inches of snow before enjoying cake and ice cream with all of us, plus Grammie and Joanie.

We all decided that we are not crazy about fondant, but it looks nice and was fun to try!

Happy Birthday Heather! We love you and are so proud of you!