The Snow is Here!

Life has been pretty busy lately, but I am so happy to finally have the blog up to date!  I will try very hard to not let it get so far behind next time, but there is always something fun to do around here;)  We continue to really love this area and are finding it easy to become active in the community.  Noah and James are taking swimming lessons at the college and doing really well.  Gabe has volunteered himself to be part of the board for the potential new children's museum in the area so that is keeping him pretty busy (besides work that is).  The kids are all having a fun time learning and doing activities around Thanksgiving both at home and school.  We have put up a "thankful tree" in our dining room (a picture to come at some point;)) to which they add things each day.  Their first entries were: birds, corn and helping people (N); cake, bike and Justin's bus (J); pie and shows (B).

Last weekend we all got outside with Gabe to finally explore our property borders.  It was almost impossible to do during summer because of the overgrowth of vines and ferns, but now that everything has died it is a bit easier, once you get through the bog that is;)  The kids were excited to wear their "safety hunting caps" (thanks Grandpa).  We have a ridge of trees all the way back to a rock wall which should be a great area to check out on snow shoes when the real snow comes. The pond is also covered with a skim of ice, so skating is in our future...

Speaking of snow and ice, we had our first "snow" last Sunday.  It had melted by the next day, but it was enough to cause lots of excitement at our house!  These pictures are of the kids right out of bed, still in their jammies.  They all had such a fun time eating the snow, making snow angels and sliding down their slide.  Noah was initially upset because he didn't think they should be able to play outside with their pajamas on before breakfast... Gabe and I had a really enjoyable time making breakfast in the peace and quiet while they were outside... this may not be the last time we convince them to play outside first thing in the morning;)  Later that morning we enjoyed hot chocolate and making carmel apple slices in our fondue pot (way better than whole apples!).  What a great start to winter!