Chorus and Orchestra Celebrations, and Some Pottery Too!

We are so fortunate to live in a community with an amazing school music department.  This week we got to see both the district wide orchestra concert (over 300 students!) and the district wide chorus performance.  All of the kids did an amazing job and improve so much from year to year.

We are also making some basement progress.  We moved our entire pantry to the other side of the basement which was no small feat, but we are super happy with the results.  Also this week the kids were invited back to our friend Cherie's house to glaze their pottery pockets they made back in September. They learned so much and were pretty patient waiting for the coats to dry.  Now back to the kiln for one more round!

Noah Turns 12!

Only one more year before this guy becomes a teenager! He is growing into such a thoughtful, kind, and loving young person.  He loves to ski, run, hike, play basketball, and he is willing to try almost anything. He still plays the violin and has started playing the piano too. He is a great older brother who comes with lots of patience and is always willing to pitch in and help.  We love you Noah and can't wait to see what this year brings!

Noah's Birthday Weekend 2019

Once again this year Noah chose to forgo a birthday party and take a trip/adventure instead.  This year took us to Boston to the Museum of Science, Paul Revere's house in the North End, and the kid's first experience at the South Boston St. Patrick's Day parade.

We also took on a St. Patrick's Day science lesson in bridge building and weight distribution:)

Basement Project and Sugarloaf Vacation 2019 (aka even more skiing)

Noah's nordic ski season has (finally) come to an end with his team coming in first in their division. He really loved being on this team and is looking forward to being part of it again next year.  With nordic skiing mostly behind us we are starting to take on the project of transforming and rearranging our basement space to make a room for Noah's room down there and keep things cleaner and create more usable space by partitioning things a bit more.

This year's trip to Sugarloaf was one to remember for sure!  This winter has been full of snow and some colder days, but mother nature saved her three coldest days of the year for our trip to Sugarloaf during the first week of March... no joke.  One of the mornings we woke up to -18 degree temperatures at the base with even colder windchills. We had come prepared though, bundled up and had a great time despite the weather.  Our car, on the other hand, didn't handle the cold as well and after sitting for 3 days it needed a jump from mountain security.

In part because of the amazing snow this year, our kids have discovered the glades and LOVE to ski in the glades... all of them... even Audrey.  Ben and Audrey took lessons on the first day so James and Noah were thrilled to be able to ski the more difficult terrain.  However, it was so cold that we didn't make it up some of the more really challenging stuff on top because it was just too cold and windy. After skiing with them for the day Gabe and I realized that they still had some learning to do that couldn't be done at a smaller mountain so they took lessons the next day.  That left us the day to ski with Ben and Audrey... nice easy relaxing ski day, right?!?!? Ben told us that he had gone down the Skidder Trail the day before and wanted to take us on it again.  We naturally didn't believe him at first because that is definitely a black or double black mogul trail that people have died on and I haven't even dared to go down. As it turns out he did, in fact, go down that trail and did it with relatively few falls.  Kudos to the Sugarloaf ski instructors who push the kids to do more than they think they can. The thing they both couldn't stop talking about was getting to ski in Broccoli Gardens.  We had no idea where/what that was so we let them lead the way... it was glades... lots of glades.  They just flew right down weaving in and out of the trees. Grampy and I definitely got hung up a bit more with longer skis and more fear for hitting a tree than the kids had.  This was they day I realized that just because they did it in a lesson at ages 5 and 7 doesn't mean it will be easy for me to do.  The next day after Noah and James' lessons and learning they spent all day in the west mountain glades we decided to leave that to the professional instructors and ski the "regular" trails with them;)