"House Sitting"

Today Mom really wanted to watch the Olympic men's hockey gold medal game (Canada vs. Team USA), but without a TV the options were somewhat limited. Finally we remembered that we are house-sitting (okay, just watering plants) for Grandma and Pop Pop while they are on vacation, and they have a real nice TV...

They also have a great playroom for the girls and (as we happily discovered) two light beers left in the fridge!The game was a great one even though Team USA lost (they still got the silver medal), and we had a good time "house sitting" as well. Thanks for the beer Grandma and Pop Pop, and we hope your vacation is going well!

Sugar Shack

Maple sugaring season has officially begun (okay, it's a little early but the sap is starting to run because of the warm temperatures). Mama has already tapped the trees at Grandpa N.'s house, and plans to tap the ones at Nana's in a week or so.

Today we stopped by Grandpa N.'s to check the buckets and do some collecting.The girls, as always, were a big help. Okay, their "help" consists of staying away from the road and throwing sticks down the hill, but they also cheered Mama on as she did the work. Every little contribution helps, after all.Mama has a new setup for boiling down the sap this year. We moved the lawnmower out of the shed and set up the propane burner in there, in order to keep the operation out of the wind.So far it's working great! We can't wait to taste this year's first batch of delicious maple syrup.

Goodbye to the Snow (Hopefully)

We have had a little warm spell--with lots of rain--and now most of our snow is gone. This is fine with us, since we are more than ready for winter to be over. Today we did some outside work to celebrate the receding snow.

First we did some final splashing in the Rink of Dreams, before dismantling it for the season.

Then we took down the Christmas lights from the little maple tree out front (no, they have not been turned on since the holidays, but they have been impossible to remove because of the snow and ice).

Then the girls celebrated the warm weather by playing some soccer hockey in the driveway!

It's so great to finally see green grass outside!

Gymnastics without Grandma

Grandma and Pop Pop have headed south to spend the month of March in Florida (have a great time guys!), so Mom can no longer drop Kate off with them during Emily's gymnastics class. Today Mom took both girls to class, even though she knew Kate would be jealous at not being allowed to join in.

Kate joyfully took part in the usual pre-class shenanigans......and then she tried to join the line when the kids got ready to start, but Emily was quick to remind her that she's not quite old enough yet.Sometimes it's hard to be the youngest.Kate quickly got bored watching Emily do her thing, which today included the zip line(!)......and the pommel horse.Then things took a turn for the better with Kate--she made friends with this little boy, whose older sister was also in the class.They entertained each other for awhile.......and then coloring books filled up the rest of the time.It's definitely easier to just drop Kate off at Gram's, but we got through it pretty well today. Thankfully, Emily has just one more week of gymnastics!

Bring Your Parents to School Night

Tonight we got a special treat--it was Bring Your Parents to School night at the kids' preschool! The girls were very excited to show their moms around.

It was a potluck, so there was lots of yummy food to choose from.

Emily couldn't settle down enough to eat--the excitement was too much for her. Kate, of course, did not have that problem.

After dinner we got to spend some time in the girls' classrooms, along with the other families. It was kind of funny to see all the adults trying to sit in those tiny little chairs.Kate demonstrated some of her school activities for us, including drawing........"sewing"....

....and this cool pegboard.

We also spent some time in Emily's classroom (the girls are in separate classes).

Emily put together a puzzle (then chastised Mom for not rolling up the mat correctly)........and we spent some time chatting with her teacher Maureen.It was nice to see the kids' friends (and our friends), and to chat with some of the other parents who we don't know so well yet.We had a great time at Parents Night!

Junior Olympians

We have been letting the girls watch some of the Olympic highlights on the laptop, and now they have become obsessed with figure skating (especially Emily).

Tonight she wanted to put on a skating costume and do her hair just like the South Korean skater Kim Yu-Na (pigtails is as close as we could get).And then she performed her routine, complete with lots of jumps and spins.A couple nights ago the girls were both "skating" around the living room, sometimes even holding hands.Or, more often, crashing into each other.Here is a little video of the skating party...

Treehouse Painting

We have been busy working on the treehouse again. We put together the walls that we had framed up, and Mom cut the plywood for them too. It's really starting to look like a house now!

The kids are thrilled with the windows, although Kate keeps asking where the door will be. Mom's answer: "Pretend the door is wherever you want it." (There is no door planned).

They are already busy planning out where things will go on the outside...

...and on the inside.Today Mom laid all the walls out on the floor so we could paint them.We went to Home Depot this morning to get the paint, and picked out a nice forest green color for the walls. This isn't our usual washable paint, so we were wearing our "painting clothes" just in case things got messy.Which (of course) they did.The kids actually did a pretty good job of painting. It was definitely easier with the walls laying flat--painting them vertical would probably have been a disaster.In the end we got two of the walls painted before the kids were over it. Looks like Mom will have to finish the third wall after they go to bed tonight.We're one step closer to having our treehouse done!

Dinner at Nana's

After our exciting morning looking at trains and dollhouses, we headed out to Nana's in the afternoon to visit with her and Uncle David, who had driven up from New Hampshire for the weekend.

Nana's gas stove was on so it was nice and cozy at her house. So cozy, in fact, that the girls felt compelled to remove most of their clothes and run around like crazy (this is known as cabin fever).Later on Uncle Seth, Aunt Sara, and Sebastian showed up, and we had the kids put their clothes back on and settle down."Settling down" is kind of a relative term with our kids.Finally we set them up in the playroom to watch a video, where they ended up spending most of the time climbing all over Nana's treadmill.Finally it was time for dinner--both Emily and Kate wanted to sit next to their cousin Sebastian--he was quite the popular guy!Nana put together a delicious dinner of chicken and spinach ravioli--Yum!Dinner was great, and we had a nice time visiting with the family too.