Thursday, December 31, 2009

more snow!


snow, originally uploaded by hobbitsmama.

sledding


sledding, originally uploaded by hobbitsmama.
Oh and the sledding. How could I forget about that? Thanks to our neighbor who has the perfect sledding hill. The kids had a blast as evidenced by their expressions in this photo.

making a snowman


making a snowman, originally uploaded by hobbitsmama.
Ah .. this time a bigger snowman .. perfect snowball snow. We even met the recycling man who told us he feels like a snowman too.
Back inside for some hot chocolate and some of the craft projects that we received as christmas presents.

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

teeny snowman


teeny snowman, originally uploaded by hobbitsmama.
It rained and rained almost all of our snow away. But we managed to find enough to make this tiny icy one. We took a long cold walk and discovered a huge pile of snow. The neighbors laughed as we climbed all over it in front of their house. We were able to collect more pinecones though now that we can see the ground. Nice to have a slow day after the busy busy of the holidays.

Monday, December 28, 2009

at the library


at the library, originally uploaded by hobbitsmama.
Met friends at the library. We love the library .. where everyone knows us and no one (to their enormous credit) ever rolls their eyes or acts displeased when we come up to the check-out desk staggering under the weight of our 650 books.

Friday, December 25, 2009

Christmas morning


Christmas morning, originally uploaded by hobbitsmama.
The kids got up (e forgot it was Christmas!) and opened stockings. This is them with a puzzle I made for them .. fairies! We did most of our gift exchanges earlier in the week so it was a quiet morning. Then (since J was sick) I took the kids sledding at Lyman Allyn. We were there for 5 minutes before L had a new best friend. And I ended up sledding a lot more than I should have with e .. and did a number on my healing ankle. We rushed home (after sad goodbyes to our new friends) and headed to grampa and grandma's. We opened presents, had yummy food and visited with family. The next day we were back over .. this time to see my sis and her fam too. Loved spending some time with my adorable nephews! Would have only been better had J been able to join us. Will post some pics of the family time.

Christmas Day


Christmas Day, originally uploaded by hobbitsmama.

Christmas Day sledding


Christmas Day, originally uploaded by hobbitsmama.

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

art project too


art project, originally uploaded by hobbitsmama.

art project


art project, originally uploaded by hobbitsmama.

even the dollhouse is decorated


dollhouse decorations too, originally uploaded by hobbitsmama.

merry merry .. our tree


our tree, originally uploaded by hobbitsmama.

blowing out the candles


blowing out the candles, originally uploaded by hobbitsmama.
So dark, but as solstice is past .. the days are getting longer. Slowly but surely and thank goodness. I always find that my energy and motivation run short at this time of year. Perhaps my body is feeling that they day is over when the sun goes down and we just don't seem to get much done. So I am trying to go with that and relax but alas, this also coincides with all the holidays and there is lots of preparation to be done. As soon as Christmas is over though ... I am back to the hibernating.

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

"winter solstice" painting by Grannie

kids coupons for each other


kids coupons for each other, originally uploaded by hobbitsmama.

solstice dinner


solstice dinner, originally uploaded by hobbitsmama.

Winter Solstice sun


solstice sun, originally uploaded by hobbitsmama.
Solstice is here and the solstice fairies came .. bringing a pile of exciting books. We made sun drawings and I (finally!) painted my clay sun. We exchanged presents. e has already filled up his camera card and used up a set of batteries! L has been enjoying her very own music and speakers. They made coupons for each other. My favorites are e invited L to come to his secret pretend world and L said e can play whatever he wants in her room. :) We took a walk on the beach and found lots of sea glass and sea pottery. We had a delicious dinner of pecan honey and mustard encrusted salmon, garlic mashed potatoes, salad and apple cupcakes with cider cream cheese frosting. YUM. (The day before we had delicious corn bread and jerusalem artichoke cheddar soup!) It was so wonderful to have 2 family days .. mostly snowed in and quiet and calm (as much as is possible with kids ;)

icy beach


icy beach, originally uploaded by hobbitsmama.

Monday, December 21, 2009

hot chocolate for all


hot chocolate for all, originally uploaded by hobbitsmama.

double piggy back


double piggy back, originally uploaded by hobbitsmama.



last night of channukah


last night of channukah, originally uploaded by hobbitsmama.

visiting with the animals


visiting with the animals, originally uploaded by hobbitsmama.

llama


llama, originally uploaded by hobbitsmama.

learning cordage


learning cordage, originally uploaded by hobbitsmama.

Bushy Hill class .. cordage and beading. The kids learned how to weave and how to debark and polish wooden beads. L got a bit frustrated at first but then once she got the hang of it she was totally focused and into it. e even did a little but was more taken with the exhibits in the nature center. He did get into the sanding of the beads on the rocks though. We also visited with the farm animals. Both kids got to feed the llamas and goats some hay and L got to hold a duck for a minute. It was soooo cold out .. that we stayed as long as we could manage and then headed home. We decided to skip caroling and had a nice quiet last night of Channukah at home where it was relatively warm.

Friday, December 18, 2009

trees in the snow


florence griswold class, originally uploaded by hobbitsmama.

E's on top, L's on the bottom. Very festive. :)

This is a sample of the magic of Christmas. Going to try to link.

http://www.florencegriswoldmuseum.org/exhibitions/2006/christmaspalettes2006.html

working on snow paintings


florence griswold class, originally uploaded by hobbitsmama.

Dance class .. the kids LOVE their teacher. Then off to Florence Griswold for class. We explored the art galleries and took in the holiday trees each with a theme. My favorite was the easel tree. I am going to see if I can find a picture of it since we could not take photographs. Then we learned how to make snow pictures by layering colors and using the toothbrush trick.

"I'm a gonna drive my car"


dance class, originally uploaded by hobbitsmama.

dance class


dance class, originally uploaded by hobbitsmama.

pines


hike at arboretum, originally uploaded by hobbitsmama.

hike at arboretum


hike at arboretum, originally uploaded by hobbitsmama.

We took a hike at the arboretum .. J had the day off so it felt like a Saturday. It was so cold that the kids did not last long. We saw a flock of robins. I believe e actually scared them by screaming about being cold. Sigh. But then we later saw a bunch of titmice, nuthatches and chickadees. I can't remember the last time we went hiking and did not see chickadees. They are the most curious birds. When we don't see them we hear them coming to check us out.

poison ivy


hike at arboretum, originally uploaded by hobbitsmama.

191 days till summer


light parade, originally uploaded by hobbitsmama.

light parade


light parade, originally uploaded by hobbitsmama.

light parade in motion


light parade, originally uploaded by hobbitsmama.

light parade oxen


light parade, originally uploaded by hobbitsmama.

"Polar Express"


light parade, originally uploaded by hobbitsmama.

light parade


light parade, originally uploaded by hobbitsmama.

Grampa and Grandma came over for dinner (after all our friends had gone home .. thanks to everyone for being flexible with plans and coming our way since we did not have a car for the day! It was so nice to have some friend time .. for me and the kids!)
After dinner, we headed to the light parade. We had a great time and kept relatively warm .. there were some long waits and some annoying people around us BUT we loved the polar express and the firetrucks and the oxen (!?) and just seeing all the lights with g&g. (Thank you g&g for the ride!) Highlight was the firefighter who ran up the kids with his last 2 candy canes. He made a big impression. :) And we took a small detour on the way home to see some light displays.

hunting for the perfect tree


hunting for the perfect tree, originally uploaded by hobbitsmama.
Started the day at the pediatricians and now we have our arms full of vitamins and such to strengthen up the kiddos. Then we ran some errands and picked up grandpa B for our 2nd annual tree hunt. It was cold but oh so sunny! This year we got a white pine to try something different. It smells wonderful! Last year we poked all over and took forever to reach a consensus on the perfect tree .. this year it took us all of 2 minutes. Everyone was in agreement. We headed home and started the decorating. Then we lit our Channukah candles for the 2nd night. Sunday we went to church for the solstice service. This is one of my favorite services ... lots of singing and of course, the marvelous drums. Lots of gorgeous candles. We are really celebrating all around here. Give us a holiday and we will celebrate!
Birdfeeded is finally back up. We discovered that a few house finches had conjunctivitis so to keep the other birds from catching it ... we took our feeders in for a week and bleached them out. Actually we also got a nice new feeder. It has been a slow start but we have now seen some juncos (yay, we didn't lose them!), cardinals, downy woodpecker, chickadees, and titmice. I have noticed a merlin around our house and even swooping though our yard recently so that may have more to do with our slow feeder than the fact that it was in for a while. We used to have about 12 mourning doves in our maple tree each afternoon and I think I have seen one recently. Merlin meals?