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.

Skiing Post #2

This post is going to be pretty much boring for you unless you decide to follow the link to my webshots album and take a look at all of the skiing pictures I finally posted. There are way too many to put in a post, so you will have to do at least one more click to see them. I always have the link on my sidebar, but just to make it easy for you, I will put a link right HERE.

Ski Post #1

We got back from 7 days of heavenly bliss is snowy Hidden Valley, PA (no that is not the birthplace of the salad dressing...it is a ski resort!). We have tons of pictures and videos, and I will have to do several smaller posts because there are just too many aspects of our trip to capture in one post. Needless to say, it was by far, the best east coast skiing we have ever had in my lifetime of skiing, which is pretty much, my lifetime!

The kids thoroughly enjoyed themselves, and we found ourselves laughing at many of their comments throughout the week. I am going to share with you something from each one. Our favorite I will save for last, and hopefully by writing it down, it will not be lost in our memory.

Leah was the ultimate snow-bunny this year. We really expected a little more skiing out of her this year (she actually skiied more last year by herself) but she has also developed more of her individual personality over the past year and has some definite ideas about what she does and doesn't want to do. I think she was more concerned about the pink color of her skis, her bibs, her jacket, her mittens, and finally, her goggles. While in the lodge warming up one day, she put on her new pink goggles and looked at her daddy and said, "daddy, do my goggles make me look pretty?" seriously, where did this girl come from!!!!
Bay was pretty much a blur this year. He was non-stop motion. He took a lesson the first day and just took off from there. Any of us who skiied with him had to ski top speed to keep up with him, literally. He would start going down the slope and never stop till he got to the bottom. If he fell, he'd get right back up and keep going-it did not phase him in the least. Very funny. So I captured this picture of him jumping in the air one day when we went outside and made snowmen. He steered clear of the organized activity of making snowmen, and pretty much jumped up in the air and fell down in the snow the whole time. Though he isn't a boy of too many words, he did express several times to me, "mommy, i really don't want to grow up". what can i say to that?

Eric tried out snowboarding for the second time (he took a lesson 2 years ago and pretty much had a bad experience). He decided to give it another go this year and hit it off with the board pretty well. It took awhile to figure out if he was goofy footed or not, and finally decided on normal stance. He ended up taking 2 lessons...since he did so well after his beginner lesson, and he had the instructor to himself, it was a good chance to learn lots of things.

The place where we stayed had 3 levels. Our family got the top floor, which included 2 bedrooms, a bathroom and a loft area with a day-bed a desk and a couple of chairs. We put Bay and Leah in a room together and gave Eric his own space in the loft. At first I think he wasn't sure what to think of that, but it didn't take him long to appreciate his own space (he currently shares a room with his brother at home). We took this shot looking up at him and asked him how he liked having his own space for the week. To which he replied, "When I grow up and get married, I am NOT sharing a room with my wife! I will have spent my whole childhood sharing a room with my brother and am going to want to have a room finally to myself."

We are saving that one for the wedding reception toast for sure!

So grown-up...

Doesn't my little boy look so grown-up? What can I say, I am proud of him and the great job he did at the science fair. While we were away on our ski vacation (I will post about that later) this paper was delivered and Bay's picture was in it.

I am reminded to be grateful for the priveledge of being able to home school our children. Moments like this where I can see the look on his face at age 5 and know that he is so thrilled about learning and sharing what he learned, and know that the love of learning will never be squelched by having to teach to some ridiculous test.

And do you see the proud face of his daddy in the background?

Happy 10th Birthday Eric!

***Warning***

*****Mother is reminiscing about her oldest child reaching his first decade of life, possible sappy content to follow*****

Today, January 27th, our oldest son, Eric turns 10. I just am having a hard time wrapping my brain around the fact that he is 10 years old...I know millions of mothers around the world have watched their children turn 10 without more than a blink, but it seems quite monumental to me. He is more than halfway to becoming 18...that magical age, after this he won't be able to count his age on his fingers, and he is into the double digits. It just doesn't seem possible that I gave birth to him 10 years ago...then, I look at the picture of me and Dennis with him in the hospital, and I realize it really has been 10 years! Yikes, I look like I'm 13 in that picture!!!

Back then, (like it was the middle ages or something) we didn't even own a digital camera! So I had to scan a couple of pictures from his baby book! I apologize for the grainy texture in the photos. He sure was a happy baby...and it seems like he just grew up so fast. After looking through his baby book, I thought I would share a few little-known facts about Eric and his childhood.

1. He lost his first tooth at 5 years old while biting apart lego pieces.

2. He started talking in sentences when he was about 15 months old and still can out-talk any of us-especially on long car rides!

3. His hair was so light-colored and so sparse he didn't need a haircut till he was 22 months old!

4. The year he was born (1999) gasoline was $1.03 a gallon where we lived in NC.

5. I had Eric in cloth diapers...all that rinsing, soaking, washing, line-drying...was I crazy???

6. At age 2 1/2 would eat anything as long as it was dipped in ketchup---yuk!

7. Slept best as a baby when we were camping...and it was tent camping back then too :)

8. Favorite past time is by far....reading.

9. Right now he has 7 baby teeth out of his mouth, and he is looking rather horsey!!!

10. His best quality is always being willing to help out others.

Here is a little video of the gift opening. We celebrated his birthday with family on Saturday, since everyone was around. Today, on his birthday...it is snowing! Finally! Real snow, covering the ground. What a cool birthday present from our maker!