No Electricity

We made it through the storm WITH power, and we were SO pleased. Then at 11am, it was gone. The crockpot full of baked beans never finished cooking :( We snuggled on the couch under a comforter for several hours and read books. I put all the ice from our ice maker into two Rubbermaid totes, and tossed most of our fridge and freezer contents into them and put everything in the garage. That 'ice chest' is working nicely, and we shouldn't lose too much food. We decided to run to Dominos for a pizza for dinner. After eating that in the near dark, we decided to head to our friend, Vanessa's, house because THEY have a generator. We took the remainder of the pizza and camped out on their living room floor. It was fun! This morning, we went home for hot showers (at least that works!) then headed to Pete's office for a little recreation. The kids are currently coloring in the conference room, while I spend a little time on the internet. The power company called and said we should "make alternate plans" because power would be out for several more days...

More snow!!

After a layer of ice and a small layer of snow, we had 16 hours of freezing rain followed by 6 inches of snow! Thankfully, our power stayed on!!! We do have some MAJOR damage to our trees though. It's a good thing we had our trees trimmed this summer or it would have been a whole lot worse.


When I took these, I had no idea that we had 6 inches of snow ON TOP of however much ice (2 inches??)


You can see the trees bent over, and not doing so well.




Our littel sugar maple is doing well, but I think it's the only tree on our property that is!!


Out the side door... that pink thing is an Easter basket bucket that Hannah left out to collect snow...


Out the back door. The shrubs are practically laying on their sides, but I think they may perk back up when they thaw.


Our poor crab apple tree!! I had a feeling it wasn't going to fair well...


More crab apple damage. Our dogwood (not pictured) doesn't look great either, but it's smallish so hopefully will recover.


Our crab apple "fort". Too bad it isn't safe to play in!!

Teacher Hannah

Hannah's class has a few new students who started Montessori this month. Since Hannah is a kindergartener and works well with the younger students she often gets to help them.

Hannah is helping a younger student get his shoes on after using the balance beam. I'm not sure she was terribly thrilled with this duty.


This is a new work called the mystery bag. The shapes are put in one bag and you identify them by feel and try to find their match.


Hannah is giving a lesson on the brown stair to a new student.


The lesson continues...


Now she's giving a lesson on the pink tower. Hmm... I wonder if I can get a discount on her tuition since she's doing so much teaching.

Snow & Ice Day

This was from the other night, but I thought it was funny. Leah looks like she's preparing to go wading. I think she was trying to show me her knees for some reason.

Today, school was cancelled due to a nasty winter storm that blew through. I was hoping we'd get the 4-8 inches of SNOW they were predicting without any ice, but that's not what happend. Last night we had freezing rain for several hours, then sometime overnight we got a couple of inches of snow. The freezing rain started back up again around lunch time and is supposed to continue until late evening, then we are supposed to get a few more inches of snow on top of that. There is no way there will be school tomorrow either... Today, I read the book "Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing" by Judy Blume to Hannah and we were both cracking up. It had been many, many years since I read it, but it was still very funny. Hannah's class just finished listening to "Super Fudge" (the sequal) last week and she was interested to hear the first book. We also checked out "Double Fudge" (the 3rd installment) from the library, and it may be on the schedule for tomorrow! I read that one a few years back , but I don't remember much about it.

My kids have just discovered knock-knock jokes! Here are their current favorites.
knock knock
who's there?
cows say
cows say who?
no silly, cows say MOO!!

knock knock
who's there?
interrupting cow
interrupt...
MOOOOO!!!!

knock knock
who's there?
banana
banana who?
knock knock
who's there?
banana
banana who?
knock knock
who's there?
orange
orange who?
orange you glad I didn't say banana?

All jokes are followed by side splitting squeals of laughter :)


Yesterday, Pete brought home some large pieces of paper, and today the kids colored on some of them.


Leah at work


Grrr... I shall fight you with my trusty marker!


This was before Elijah got mad that he colored too hard and made a hole in the paper...


Hannah starting her rainbow

Blue

My friend, Venita, sent Leah this Blue's Clues for Christmas, so here are a few pictures to share with her.

Leah is 18 months old (a couple of days ago!)

Leah had her 18 month shot-only and weigh-in visit to the doctor's office. The last time we saw the doctor he asked that when we came in for this shot that I ask the nurse to weigh her as well because she's been gaining weight V-E-R-Y slowly. Leah weighed a whopping 20.6 lbs, up from 19.75 lbs 3 months ago. She'd only gained a couple of ounces between 12 and 15 months, so this is a considerable jump for her. She's our tiniest kid so far!! I like to spread out the shots, so Leah only got one shot today. She got her first dose of the polio vaccine.

Leah is amazingly smart! Pete and I think she's smarter than the other two, and if you've met either of them, you know that's pretty impressive.

Leah is teething her canines right now, and all 4 of them are just below the surface... and are making her miserable! Her molars just finished coming in so that's been a bit rough. Thankfully, we should be done with teething for a few months at least, then we have to get through those 2 year molars :(

Snow!

We had our first snow of the season, and the kids were out of school for MLK day, so they played outside for a bit. Hannah LOVES the snow, Elijah doesn't. Leah would probably like it better if she had boots that actually FIT her instead of 2-3 sizes too big.


Hannah making a snow angel.


Elijah's attempt at a snow angel.


Leah was stuck here until I walked her around.


Elijah was unimpressed that his mittens were "dirty" with snow.


Hannah attempting to make a snowman... We've lived here for 3 1/2 years and only had enough snow for a snowman one time! I don't think we get any more snow than Oklahoma does...


Hannah's snow angel.

It's Official!

I've known since last Wednesday, but wasn't suposed to say anything until we got the official letter. Hannah was accepted into Montessori elementary!!!! Yay!!!! None of the kids that I expected (politically) to be in first grade are among the seven who were chosen.

I can't wait to tell Hannah this afternoon! Though, I have a feeling that Pete and I are more excited than she will be. She's kind of afraid of the elementary classroom right now... those towering 3rd graders really intimidate her! I expect that she won't really realize what a great opportunity this is until she is much older, or has at least been in a traditional (boring, lol) classroom.

Update on Elijah

He is doing much, MUCH better! Yesterday was nightmarish with all the whining that was going on. Elijah stayed home from school and went to playgroup with Leah and me... he whined and complained the whole time. Right before dinner he was just being awful, and I made him take some Tylenol. By the time dinner was over he was his normal, chipper self and he and Hannah ran around the house being crazy until bedtime. This morning, he woke up HAPPY! I gave him some Tylenol and took him to school. I called the school at 10:30 to see how he was doing. He was fine, but he'd requested that I come pick him up early. So, I did. Tomorrow, we'll try for a full half day. He does seem pretty tired this afternoon, and I expect he'll fall asleep when we pick Hannah up from school. I'm glad he seems to finally be over the hump!