Walking down the street this morning.
Looking back at our house - those are our cars in the driveway.

Heating up in front of the fireplace, watching the inauguration.

Ben watching the inauguration.

Alek watching the inauguration.

Snow!

We have 6 inches so far ... it's been snowing since 5am. School's closed of course! Will post pictures soon.

Snow?

The forecast is calling for 2-6 inches of snow tonight ... oh how exciting that would be! It's been a couple years since we've gotten any snow. Last year, there was a 100% chance of 6-8 inches of snow, so we went out an bought sleds, and of course we got no snow. So, we're ready with the sleds if the snow should come!

3rd Grade Projects

It's been so long since I've written ... the gym and the 3rd grade projects have taken up a lot of our time. Below are the completed projects which were turned in on Monday! They each included a written paper (at least 3 paragraphs, and a paragraph has 4-6 sentences) and a presentation. This was a real challenge for Ben who hates to write. But, he wanted a good grade on the paper, so he decided to do extra work and interview our neighbor, Ms Rhonda, who donated a kidney three years ago to help her friend. Ben made up five questions to ask her, and one Sunday afternoon we went over and he interviewed her. I recorded it, and it's wonderful. I can't post it because it's too long, but Ben watched it over and over and then wrote his additional paper. It turned out to be about 6 more paragraphs long, so I was really proud of him.

Alek's project is on Orion, the constallation. This is the drawing he did of Orion the Hunter, and it has the major stars poked out. The picture is set on top of a light box that he and Gary built, so the major stars shine through the picture.

Underneath the picture is a black poster with the major stars poked out and the other stars poked out. It looks really awesome in a dark room when it's lit up! I hope it showed up well enough in class today ... of course it's a bright shiny day today!

Ben's project is on the kidneys, and his poster has an illustration of how the blood flows through the kidneys and how the urine flows to the bladder. He was really excited to get to say 'urine' and 'pee' in his presentation.

Here he's demonstrating how the poster illustrates the correct size and position of the body .. ha ha.

In other news, Ben made the rock climbing team at the gym, so he'll be a rock climbing practice each Saturday morning for two hours. HURRAY! He's got a sport he's passionate about! He's really good at it too ... it takes a lot of thought and planning as you climb, and he's lightweight with long arms and legs. Perfect body for it. And, you can't be afraid of heights!

Pictures

Some more changes around the house ...

These are my new drawer knobs in the kitchen.

This is the new refridgerator
Inside the new refridgerator

Chase is so cute, sleeping on the couch.
Chloe can't stand anyone else getting the attention - she had to come sit in the picture!

The puzzle the boys finished over Christmas break.
You may wonder why there are so many pictures of the dog and so few of the boys? Well ... this is what happens when I try to take their picture!

First Days back at Work and School

Our first days back have gone fairly well. Gary and I have been able to contain our working hours so far (ha! 3 days in ...). Alek has had wonderful reports from school. Ben had trouble the first day, didn't want to do any work (me too, though), but he's done great the last two days.

Both boys have a project due next Monday. Ben's is on the kidneys, and Alek's is on the Hubble Telescope. Gary is helping Alek, and I'm helping Ben. Ben's made kidneys out of sculpty, and will be putting them on a poster and labeling all the parts, and the veins, arteries, and ureter going to the bladder. I think it will be neat.

Chloe and Chase are doing great ... just wish it would stop raining here so we could send them out to play in the back yard again. It's so muddy out there they come back dripping in mud. I'm doing 'dog towel' laundry almost every day now!

Three days in, and we're going to the gym! I went Monday to Team Fitness, and Tuesday morning to water aerobics. Gary went Tuesday night and worked out on the eliptical, and I took Ben & Alek to the rock climbing wall. Ben's got to build up his endurance again after 2 weeks off. Try-outs are this Saturday for the rock climbing club, and he really wants to do it. I think he'll make it. He's also signed up for a rock climbing competition on January 24th at the club. I'm glad he's found a sport he can be passionate about.

Alek's not doing any sport right now, but baseball signups will be coming next month, but the practices don't start until April. He loves walking the dogs and playing football with his friends in the yard though (he can play in the front yard where it's not so muddy!).

Well, I don't have any new pictures or videos to share ... maybe soon I'll have 3rd grade projects to post!

Alek's New Shelves