V-day & Gabe's Birthday

I think the kids are way more excited about Gabe's birthday than they are Valentine's Day, but they have never said no to the morning chocolate;)

Last weekend we had to say goodbye to the pigs. These pigs were certainly eager to chew, but they seemed to love us and loved to be rubbed everyday.  After our experience last year, we were not looking forward to getting them into the trailer.  We had had another warm stretch and didn't have as much snow as we would like, but we took some extra  precautions and, as it turned out, we didn't need to. The pigs walked right into the trailer together on the first try.  They didn't know what to do when we took down the fence and set them free, but they mostly followed my voice and walked right in.  We welcomed the ease and found ourselves back home with free time in the afternoon.  However, this did make it much harder to say goodbye to them at the slaughter house:(

In other happenings, Audrey has started going down "the Main" at Titcomb AND has started riding the T-bar on her own with Ben. This is really huge for me because it kills my back and legs to ride a t-bar with someone half my height;)  

100s Day... kind of;)

We celebrated 100s day a day early because of our schedule, but no one seemed to mind;)  I actually thought we might be able to skip 100s day this year, but everyone insisted, so we threw something together.  I actually don't even really need to plan anything anymore because they insist on doing the same activities every year... and obviously in Audrey's case an insistence on wearing only some pull-ups she found, but hasn't worn in over a year... I guess this is just one of the reasons we love to homeschool;)   

January Happenings

We have had a busy month, but mostly with daily activities we don't think to take pictures of!  The three boys have all started cross country skiing, Ben & James are taking alpine lessons, James is also doing ski racing lessons on the weekends.  Needless to say, we are spending much of our week at Titcomb Mountain.  This also means that Audrey is getting lots of hours in skiing both nordic and alpine.  She continues to love skiing just as much, if not more, than everyone else.  She is insisting on going down "the main" trail at Titcomb and I have been able to hold her off, but who knows how long that will last;)

Besides all of the skiing, we have been getting some school done.  We have done some human anatomy, some fresco painting, and some Michelangelo ceiling painting too. The kids have also been making some picture books for church retelling different stories from the bible.  

New Year Celebration!

We left Bangor yesterday just in time to arrive home and meet our friends from Vermont for a New Year's Eve celebration.  Despite the cold temperatures, we took a few of the kids over to Titcomb for some nordic skiing.  The kids had a blast visiting, playing AND there may or may not have been cheese fondue and a chocolate fountain... Not surprisingly, no one made it until midnight (adults included), but that's not exactly a goal at this lifestage, mostly because of the price we would have to pay the next day;)  Thanks for visiting Yukica's!

Post Christmas Visit North- 2017

Our annual post Christmas trip up north was so much fun and we packed so much in, but, per usual, we didn't take many pictures. We started our trip at Grammy and Grampy's house where we tried to be outside enjoying snowmobiling and other activities, but it was so cold nothing would start and no one could stay outside for more than a few minutes.  That just meant that we got to spend lots of time playing games, reading books and visiting with everyone!  

Our next stop was going to be Nanny and Harold's, but a stomach bug took over their house, so we improvised.  We ended up spending the night at my brother's house and enjoyed an afternoon snowmobiling and visiting his camp. We spent the evening relaxing and visiting with everyone.  

The next morning we headed back towards Bangor to spend the night in a hotel with Nanny, Harold, Aunt Amy, Uncle Dennis, Trey and Lily. The kids got to jump at the trampoline park, swim in the pool and go bowling.  Thanks everyone for making time to visit with us!

Christmas 2017

We had a lovely Christmas this year, complete with a snowstorm!  We had electricity this year, so it was already off to a better start than last year;)  The kids were all excited by their gifts from Santa- Noah got a rock tumbler, James got a 3-D printing pen, Ben got the last of the Magic Tree House books that were missing from his collection, and Audrey got the Frozen DVD that everyone has wanted since our first copy was left in Seattle.  James was also beyond thrilled when Santa left a sweater for Kitty. After showing all of their gifts to Grandpa's tree and having breakfast we headed to the front room to open the rest of the gifts.  The kids couldn't wait to give Gabe his juggling clubs and they were all thrilled to have their own ski boot bags.  The reality is that this was really a gift for Gabe and I given that now we won't have to haul everyone's boots, helmets, etc. to the ski lodge;)  We   really enjoyed ourselves and took advantage of spending the day together and relaxing.  Merry Christmas!