Happy 4th Birthday Leah!


Leah turned 4 on Saturday, and she had a wonderful birthday. She has been looking forward to the day, and counting down for quite some time now-as to be expected!

She had a couple of requests for her special day...the first was cereal for breakfast. Corn pops and chocolate krispies. You must understand that we are not big cereal eaters at our house, not that my family doesn't like cereal, but I have found that we stay healthier if we eat less cereal which means drinking less milk. Also, it sure does help out the weekly grocery bill not buying all that cereal. So you can understand why she thought cereal was a very special breakfast!!!

Her other request was a Care Bear birthday cake-specifically "bedtime bear". Although she really wanted this, as soon as it was decided, she is already scheming her theme for next year's birthday.

She got two presents from us this year...her big girl car seat...in pink of course. Also, the only other thing she asked for was a "baby my little pony". I think it's name is starwishes??? What is so funny about this is that she got this for Christmas 2 years ago, and never played with it, so we put it up. Evidently she forgot, so we re-gifted and she was thrilled!!!

Here is the party girl in her new party dress (compliments of Granni) sitting next to her presents!

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I have added some more pictures below of the big day...transferred from another camera today!

Eric in Recital

This morning, Eric participated in our local piano Spring Music Festival. Essentially it is a recital with children his age, being adjudicated. The pieces he played were "Sonatina in C" by Gurlitt, and "Night of the Tarantella " by Faber. As always, we thought he did a wonderful job.

After a very hectic week, we are looking forward to the rest of the weekend being relaxed and productive at home.

New Hairstylist

Recently while doing school one morning, Eric and I were really into his math lesson, and Bay and Leah were happily playing in her room. It was quiet. Eric and I were getting lots done. It was too quiet. If you are a parent, you know where this is going.

Evidently, Bay was practicing being a hairstylist. First he cut the manes and tails off most of Leah's ponies and horses. Then he trimmed the fur off many of her stuffed animals. I guess he felt he had enough practice, it was time for the real stuff. So he tried cutting a bit of his own hair, but it hurt (those darn paper scissors aren't worth anything) so he quit doing that. Then he decided to cut Leah's hair. In the back. Right in the middle. It was finally long enough to pull back into a pony tail, or two, or even begin to braid.

Here is the chunk of hair missing from the back. There is also a chunk gone from the side that is not quite so visible, but just as drastic. I am usually confident about cutting our children's hair, but this was more than I felt comfortable doing. So I took her to my hair lady, and she fixed it. She laughed the whole time, and told Bay he'd better find a different profession to go into, but she gave Leah a cute little wedge cut.

It's cute, but oh dear I am so sad. All year (at least 10 months) we have been trying to grow her hair out and now it is all gone. So short. Well, she has now been instructed that if Bay comes near her with a pair of scissors, to RUN AWAY! RUN AWAY!

I guess it could have been worse-he didn't get a hold of Dennis' clippers!

We finally got some real snow...it just took awhile...March 1st to be exact! I think we got between 10 and 12 inches, and the way the wind blew, it was up to my knees in some drifts! Our power has been out since the snow started (that was Sunday night) and it just came back on this afternoon (Tuesday) so we have had no internet either. That's okay by me though, I am perfectly content to be snowed in and powered out for a couple of days. We do have a generator that we use to keep the refrigerators running and a few lights on at night, so we're not technically "roughing it", but there was no tv and no computer, so for the kids, that is roughing it!!!

As for the kids, they still did their schoolwork. Yes, I make them do school when it snows. We're already home, so why not do a little school and then have the reward to go out and play? It works for me and they were happy to move to the dining room to do their schoolwork so they could watch the view outside at the same time.

The view outside from the dining room...the wind was very fierce at first, so we stayed in till it calmed down.

The winter wonderland outside!

The front of our house, snow piled up to the front door!

The cedar tress look like they are taking the brunt of it all

Leah up to her knees in it. It was amazing how much stamina she had to trudge through the snow. How long would I last if the snow was up to my thighs? Not as long as she did!

Bay having a ball sledding.

Leah would have nothing to do with any sled, with anyone, even on a tiny hill. All she would do is slide down on her back side, and climb back up. She, I think, is going to be a control freak like her mother.

Eric, stayed out the longest each day. Up and down, up and down, on every different sled he could find.

Leah watching her brothers sled.

This afternoon we went for a walk once the power came on. The power line had been down across the driveway of one of our neighbors. Also, the roads are plowed here, but they don't actually come plow our back road until very late, I think not until Monday night did they get to them.

So the snow is still on the ground and we have had our fun. If it is still around tomorrow, I'm sure we'll go out until it is all gone and muddy.