Lydia helping to make cookies. She like to sit on the counter now to watch the mixer go and drop in a few ingredients.
Notice her outstretched hands. She's been doing this for a lot of photos.
Getting ready for our trip to DC. Five quillows folded up for the road.

So, at the end of a lovely Sunday afternoon outdoors, Daddy took the boys for a quick bike ride while I got Lydia ready for bed. They went up the road, then back again. Notice the mailbox turned parallel with the house. Joshua was following Caleb and was prepared to turn into the driveway when he notice Caleb continue on. He turned his head over his left shoulder to see what Daddy was going to do. WHACK! He ran into our mailbox with the back of his helmet. Lydia and I had just come out of the bathroom, and we were on our way to the door to watch them go by. When I saw him hit I plopped Lydia on the ground and ran. I made it to Josh before Scott even got there. He was in shock at what he had seen.

So, this sad guy was overwhelmed by the piece of gravel lodged in his hand - his one and only injury from the incident. Scott wanted to take pictures and marvel in the protection Josh received, but Josh wanted to go in to tend to his owie. All I had to do was tell him to turn around and look what he did to the mailbox, and his tears turned to laughter.
We know that Josh was protected during this accident. I don't know what would have happened to his head if he hadn't had his helmet on, and we can just imagine the other injuries that could have come from speeding down a hill and running into a stationery object!

A visit to the farm. The boys are standing atop a large water tank that is put on a trailer to take out to the fields where the cows graze. Still waiting for the grass to grow!
Lydia has been wanting to buckle herself all the time. She is getting faster, and I am practicing my patience. I just have to schedule a few extra minutes of leave time for the process.
Joshua, sight seeing from the living room.
Lydia, the movie star! We had a lovely spring Sunday afternoon outdoors - Daddy, too.

I had the opportunity to play in the pit orchestra for the High School's production of Sound of Music. I was so excited and so nervous at the same time. I haven't really played the violin since my freshman year in High School - that was 1991. Well, I took on the challenge, and challenging it was. I had never really tackled learning 2nd and 3rd positions (0r anything but 1st for that matter), and I am still working on vibrato, but through practice and the blessing of the familiarity of this score I made it through. Now I hope I have more opportunities to do it again. There is no string program in our school district, so it's community amateurs like us or hiring professionals. Many, many thanks to my friend Cathy Weinell (on my left - her daughter Megan is on my right) who has encouraged and taught me so much! Thanks for getting me going with violin again almost two years ago.
Lydia enjoying the outdoors. Can't get her out of those boots lately!

It's tough keeping these guys away from the exposed plastic of the skating rink and the fun mud puddle next to it. The plastic isn't flawless, but it ought to give us at least another year of ice skating next year. Next time it will be on the lawn, not the drive.
Look at this girl. She's been tied to the railing. She's really not complaining. She's having fun.
Here's the culprit. What a goofball.
Joshua's busy tying up and towing tractors. Oh, the mud! Gotta love it!
The kids are into "picnics". After school Joshua puts bananas, yogurt, leftovers... into Daddy's lunchbox and invites the kids to join him on the driveway. Funny kids.

So, at the end of the big snow it's time to take the snowblower off the tractor. The boys are helping.
Everything is melting quickly.
Joshua and his silly faces.
Time to clean up the skating rink, too. Daddy is anxious to have his "parking lot" back. He didn't want to let the 2,000 gallons go on the driveway so he pumped it across to the lawn. Josh brought him some water to prime the pump.

Sometimes you just want some beans.
Caleb's classroom. Lydia and I brought ice cream to their monthly rewards ice cream social. Of course, we stayed for a treat!
Caleb's reading his favorite series so far - Dragon in the Sock Drawer. He anxiously awaits #3 to be released in May. The library already ordered it because he liked the first two so well.

Josh takes a turn on the snowblower while Daddy is clearing the big snow.
Still snowing while the clearing is happening, but the weather is so warm we won't need to blow too much more.
Lydia watches from the porch. She loves that she can open the door herself.

Tunnels everywhere! The boys dug out every pile of snow they could find! We had tunnels all over the yard! They even dug out from the snow I pushed off the car!
So warm later in the day that they switched to jackets and no hats. They came in only for brief snacks, a "snow day" well spent outdoors! From 8:30am way into the afternoon!
Lydia's outdoor play was cut into smaller pieces. That was just as well for me, though, because I didn't need to spend MY whole day out there.

This is the most snow we had all winter.

This is the railing of the back steps. It's probably 18-20 inches.

This is our surprise snowfall at the very end of February. The snow fell heavy all day, but the temperatures were warm enough that after a little bit of outdoor play the kids were shedding their hats and coming in for dry gloves.

This is toward the end of February.
Joshua taught Lydia to eat the snow. Crazy kids.