The first big snow.

I don't like change. A few months ago, I lost my photo organizing program in a computer crash. I've been nearly crippled blogging-wise without it, but I couldn't pass up sharing our first snow day. (and some cool owl pictures here)

The hairy cocker spaniel is in heaven.

Hannah woke up, looked out the window and said "SNOW! First I'm going to the bathroom, then I'm getting dressed, then I'm getting in my coat, then I'm going outside and throwing snowballs, then I'm building a snowman, then we're riding in the sled, then I'm going to drink hot chocolate and then we're having pancakes!" And then she breathed.

Gray didn't notice the snow until I opened the door with him beside it. Then he squealed and giggled and squealed again.

We were getting those two dressed to go outside when we heard Ains wake up upstairs. The first thing she said was "YAY!!! SNOW!!!" And all was right in my world.

So out in the snow we went. And snowballs were first.

Gray was trying, but couldn't get the snow to go more than 6 inches, so I had to stand really close to let him hit me with it.

His face when he was hit was hilarious.

Not amused.

Then Ains had had enough of the cold, so she went inside with Bella.

The snow was too dry for a big snowman, so a snowbaby was all that got built.

Hannah talked Ains into coming back out for a sled ride.



Then they made hot chocolate to warm up. You see that jar that says 'Super Family Size' on it?

That translates to "Ainsley Size". Not even kidding.

Hot chocolate with a side of hot chocolate powder. Not much better.

For the next few days, our clear, drifting snow days turned into freezing, blowing snow days, so we've stayed inside and gotten some projects done. It looks like winter is here.

Outdoor Challenge - garden day.

Today was a garden day. Planting while the pirates serenaded me on their harmonicas,

and searched islands for buried treasure.

Some of you have asked how Bella is getting along with the other dogs. Butterfly fell in love with her immediately. Since she is about half the size of his head, it took her a bit longer to warm up to him, but now she has and she rules the roost there. Cygnus has been less friendly and we've had to monitor that relationship, protecting her at times and letting them figure things out at others when we're able to step in.

Today, finally, they hit it off. Cygnus watched that little dog dig for all she was worth to dig out a vole. She wasn't able to kill it. He was. Now they're a team.

Whatever works.

Are you playing the Outdoor Challenge?

It was a science kind of a day - plus we went outdoors.

If I had to classify most of our days around here, I'd say they were artsy kind of days, full of dancing and singing and crafting and pretending. But not yesterday.

Yesterday had a very scientific feel about it. It started out while I was milking the goats and Hannah asked me how the goats make milk and if we fed them chocolate, couldn't that make them make chocolate milk? Makes sense, with the way I explained it to her.

Then we came inside and while I made macaroons, she and Ains made their own special candy using anything that looked like it would be good. Cinnamon sticks, sugar, chocolate chips, salt, candy sprinkles, soy sauce, lemon juice and baking soda.

Lemon juice and baking soda.

That was science right there. Bubbly candy!

Then, as I was doing dishes, I hear 'Let me move it farther your way. Now get on it. We're balanced now!' - on the teepee poles.

Then playing a new game that we just got.

And then again and again. With Ainsley putting lungs on feet and noses on shoulders and kidneys on knees. Lots of giggling.

Gray putting a screwdriver in every screw he could find around the house.

After dinner we opened the big ol' box we got from Home Science Tools.

That was exciting.

Those, my friends, are dissection boards. Dissection boards. I don't dissect. I tell myself I'm morally opposed to it, but it may just not be my thing. I certainly feel morally opposed to it. So the cow eyeball, crayfish, and snake that are sitting in bags on my table? The girl's father can help them with those.

But we got other things too. Things like scales and weights.

And so much more. A portion of our homeschooling budget, well spent.

It was rainy, cold, windy, and snowy. SNOWY. Apart from chores and horse riding we didn't get outside much. But I'm participating in the Outdoor Challenge, so I'll document what we did do. There was dog training to be done,

and pushing around wheelbarrows.

Very important, that.

Outdoor Challenge - Kite flying.

Lisa at 5 Orange Potatoes is doing an Outdoor Challenge this month. Here's ours for today.

You'd think that in an area like ours, with the winds we get, that kite flying would be a common thing. It hasn't been for two reasons. 1) It's *too* windy. If the kids wanted to fly something in most of our winds, I'd have to tie a rope to my kids and end up flying them while they flew their kites. and 2) When the winds are just right, which isn't often, our kites are all torn up from trying to fly them in high winds or dragging them across the ground in no winds.

Yesterday, for the first time in three years, we hit it just. right. Perfect wind, intact kites.

After a little trouble finding the right spot - Ains got her parrot stuck on the one power line -

we hit wind gold when we moved to the goat field.

The hawk kite did well, but the ladybug kite - that one was designed perfectly for the wind we had.

We ended up getting it all the way to the end of the rope. It was exhilarating!

When we were ready to come back in, we pulled the kites down and Hannah's baby goat got curious.

He actually got brave enough to touch it, but never got brave enough to go nose to nose with Bella.

The best part of the day.

This is one of those days where I'm afraid your interest will wane because, well, we went to the park.

How many park pictures do you want to look at?

You're probably there with your kids every other day and if you've seen one park, you've seen them all.

But stay tuned, because this little guy made a break-through today.

First, I want to tell you about this girl - we'll call her Ariel.

We were at a park one day and Ainsley - who is notoriously aloof around new kids - and most kids she's met many times - immediately started playing with her. They ran around that playground giggling, holding hands, and jabbering to each other, not seeming to mind that one was jabbering in Spanish and the other in English. When Ariel and her parents started to leave I ran over and gave them my phone number explaining that my daughter really doesn't take to a lot of kids and I would love it if they could call next time they came to the park.

Luckily, they did, and we've been slowly building a friendship. All of us.

When we go back to the town we used to live in (tonight it was for some lawn work at the old house), we call and meet up to play.

Last time they visited our new house, I gave them some banana bread (I was trying a new recipe from A Homemade Life) and it was so good that Ariel's mom asked for the recipe. Today when I handed her the recipe, she handed me a plate with four pieces of 'Mexican custard' on it. Oh, it was so good. Hannah ate one piece, I ate one, Ainsley tried a bite and didn't like the texture. I gave Grayson a few spoonfuls and he seemed to like it ok. I wanted to talk to Ariel's mom, so I gave him the spoon and he started doing this -

Then I got distracted talking and he dropped the spoon - I think it was slowing him down -and started taking handfuls. By the time I regained control of the plate, there was only a quarter of a piece left and his hands and face were very, very sticky.

Now, about Grayson's breakthrough. Do you remember this? The passive-resistance-I-hate-swinging-and-you-can't-swing-me-if-I-just-hang-here pose?

Oh, yes. That was so last week.

This week, with the discovery of big kid swings, the world's looking very, very different.

What a change. He watched the girls climb onto the swings and tried to climb on one himself, so I put him up there and started swinging him. Fifteen minutes he swung there before I tried to take him off. Then he made a noise that made me stick him right back on for another five minutes until he was ready to go. He was in heaven. Explain that to me.



Of course, it could just have been that his hands were so sticky that he couldn't let go.

So the most exciting part of the day for Ains was getting to play with her friend, the most exciting part for Gray was either discovering Mexican custard or discovering that big kid swings are the best things ever, but the most exciting part of the day for Hannah was discovering a real, no kidding, honest-to-Murgatroyd, ain't no one foolin' here fairy ring.

It was on the lawn and it was very unusual. A complete, perfectly shaped circle with mushrooms (maybe toadstools?) all around the edges with none inside or outside the edge of the circle. Fairies certainly danced here last night.

Oh, yes, Magic entered her life today. This was almost as good as seeing a real fairy. She's a believer, my girl.

So it was just another ordinary day at the park.

If you believe in ordinary days, that is.

I'm glad you let me tell you about it.

Sweet dreams.

Park day.

Well, kind of. For a short time, it was park day. We needed to kill a few hours in town before my hair appointment so we went to a local park called 'Storybook Park'. Most of the playground equipment is themed, from storybooks of course.

There's the (pretty pathetic) climbing wall.

There are the dragon slides,


and the unicorn slide. Oh, the unicorn slide.


Look at the freckles on that girl. Her cuteness will be the death of me.

There's the racing boat,

the dinosaur pit,
and the castles, one of which, from an alternate angle, doubles as a rocket ship. (And neither of which you get to see, because they're taking too long to load.) Then there's the tot area with bugs, a farmyard, and a shark. You'll just have to trust me about how cute those are because I want to go to bed and that won't happen tonight if I try to load the pictures.

The swings weren't themed. My kids love swings. I should say that my girls love swings. Gray's never gotten into them too much. This is pretty much what he thinks of swings.

Have you ever seen a kid protest swings like that before?

Funny story for you. A few years ago, when my sister was living with me, we were both pregnant and suffering from severe short-term memory loss. Our kids loved swings and we would spend hours - hours, I tell you - pushing our two girls on the swings. One day we went to the city park for a town celebration and while we were sitting on the grass I noticed that the swing sets miraculously had two empty swings. I turned to my sister and said "Does Emma like swinging?" Seriously. "Does Emma like swinging." As if I hadn't been pushing Emma on the swings daily for the last month. And the best part is, my sister turned to me and said "I don't know." Then she turned to her husband and asked "Do you think she'd like to swing?" He looked at both of us as if we were crazy and took the girls over to the swing set.

Treasure hunt.

Matt hid candy around the property and then made a treasure map for the girls to follow. They were thrilled - especially Ainsley who constantly carries around a rolled-up 'teasure map' (a bamboo place mat).

It's not often me *not* taking the pictures, so I thought I'd throw this one in. Because.

And they're off.

Around the bunkhouse.

After a long, dangerous trek around trees, through a garden, and past a frisky puppy, we got to Ainsley's candy.

Then off again, past many more obstacles.

Then Hannah's candy. In a tree!

Pretty straightforward from there to Mother's candy. The man knows me.