Arriving at our mountain retreat!!

We arrived midday at our mountain rental. The private road to get to the house is 1.5 miles, and with all the twists and turns, we didn't think we'd get there. Then, the driveway is about a 60 degree descent. Must make sure to have good brakes before going (and I would not take a stick shift car under any circumstances!!!) After we toured the house with our jaws hanging open, the kids decided that they wanted to take advantage of one of the best features of the property: a mountain stream with waterfalls!!! It was a sunny, but cool day, but that really didn't deter them. After the initial shock of the water temperature, they were fine. I mean, seriously, they spend a week in Maine water every summer, they are immune!! Other cool features of the house include two ginormous decks, an outside firepit, a spiral staircase to get up to the loft, the loft, a huge garden tub with jets and bubbles, and a laundry chute. I am sure I'll come up with other things, but for now, those are the highlights!

Caleb and Molly climbing the rocks to get to the big waterfall around the bend

All kids on the way to the top of the waterfall

The back of the house, looking at it from down at the creek

Can't get enough playtime, now they head downstream

Beautiful Molly!!

Boys at the big waterfall

Caleb getting drenched at the big waterfall. I stood there for a minute and turned blue!!!

Roasting hot dogs on hand carved sticks

My adorable Caleb!!

Evidence of the carving......

Out at the fire pit, ready to make smores

Second from left, our hero who found this wonderful house!!

Heading to Scaly Mountain, NC!!!

We left Granddad's house, with Granddad in tow, and were on our way to our rental house in Scaly Mountain, NC. Found this house online, and let me just say, it was beyond our wildest dreams, even though we had seen photos online. That will come later. En route to the house, we stopped off at Dry Falls, about 20 minutes from the house. The children had never been to the mountains or seen any falls of note (see previous post) so this was a brand new and exciting experience for them. Since you can actually walk behind Dry Falls, we were all pretty damp once we left!!

Caleb, Potter, Molly on the walk down to Dry Falls

Caleb behind Dry Falls

Potter behind Dry Falls

A family shot, can you believe it?? Dave looks like he is getting the Gatorade treatment after a football game!!

At the top of the walking trail down to Dry Falls

Spring Break - starting at Granddad's house

I have been on a small hiatus from the blog. Countless trips and activities, tutoring and home projects - all these things keeping me from updating since I am never sitting still for very long! We had an amazing spring break this year, despite having one of our spring break days taken away due to going over our allotted snow days for the year. Oh well, our kids just missed that day of school, as did many other kids. Our first stop was at Fearrington, where we spent a couple of nights with Granddad. Biggest attraction for the kids - feeding the goats, playing in the pond, and this year, climbing up the waterfall that feeds aforementioned pond. Not sure if that is really allowed, but we did it anyway. A bit overcast while we were there, but much warmer and trees and flowers in full bloom, a major bonus for us!!

Caleb feeding goats while avoiding the electric fence. Sometimes it is on, sometimes it is off. This time was on, one poor goat really got shocked!!

Playing in the pond with a long stick and trying to get as much nasty algae on the end of the pinecone as possible.

Little did we know at the time, but this waterfall was only a pittance of what the coming waterfalls would be!!

Potter finally climbed all the way up and out!!

Numbers song from Kindergarten performance

I love this video!!!

Kindergarten performance

This isn't all of the kindergarteners, but probably half. They were all SO enthusiastic singing and saying their poems - super cute!!! Molly is on the top riser, third from the left.

Molly's kindergarten performance

Kindergarten had their music performance on Wednesday night at school. This is one of the poems that they recited in between songs.

Potter's science fair project

This year's science fair project was, as you can see, different methods of food preservation. Potter and Dave spent an afternoon preparing a variety of ways to preserve apples. The did hot and cold pack, vinegar and sugar syrup, air dry, and oven dried. Potter tracked the changes over the course of a week. Pretty amazing stuff, and we all enjoyed the dried apple slices!!

Sunday nature walk

This morning, I bravely took out the kids (the easy part) and the dog (the crazy maniacal part) for a walk around our neighborhood. The kids wanted to do a neighborhood search game, one they had done last summer a few times with Granddad. I make a list of about 10 items to find as we walk around. The easier the item, the more of it they have to find, the harder the item, the fewer they have to find. At this point, I thought it would be hard to find snowman (of snow or decoration), but people are lazy and haven't taken down winter and Christmas decorations it seems. We did, oddly, have a hard time finding 15 squirrels. I guess because the squirrels all live in our backyard, harassing our birds!! Towards the end, the kids started to gather pinecones. Once we got back home, we slathered them in peanut butter, rolled them in oats, and hung them out for the birds (and squirrels) to find. We also had a stale bagel, so we gave it the same treatment. So far, in the three hours we've been back, no takers. I'm sure it will all disappear overnight......stupid squirrels!!

Mood lighting craft

Friday while Caleb was at school, Potter and Molly and I went to collect some supplies for the weekend craft project - faux stained glass candle holders!! We tackled this project on Saturday and it was a huge success! Each child got to choose two colors of tissue paper. From left to right - Potter chose red and yellow, Molly chose blue and purple, Caleb chose blue and green. We also bought some glass gems to put in the bottom of each jar to raise up the candle a bit. Very patiently, they each painted a layer of glue on the glass, then carefully put on the tissue paper and smoothed out the wrinkles and tacked down the edges. Once they were dry, they each put in their LED flickering candles (3 for $1 at the Dollar Tree) and voila!! They now each have their own personal mood lighting while they eat dinner at the bar!!

Geese at Grippen

In the afternoon Friday, the kids and I headed down to the river at Grippen Park. The water had finally receded a bit from its flood stage the previous week. You can tell the geese have not been fed as well over the winter, as they pretty much attacked us for food. We found our lame white goose friend, whose leg seems to be so much better than last year, only a limp for him now. But amazingly, he still is guarded and protected by his two brown geese friends. Not only do they swim on either side of him, they will allow him to eat first and they chase away other geese who may get aggressive with him. How cool is Mother Nature?!?!

Caleb was not afraid to let the geese eat right out of his hand!

Where the geese are swimming, there is a road underneath!!

Beans have sprouted

Our beans that we started last weekend have sprouted!! Friday, the kids had off from school, so one of our projects was to take the pots we painted last weekend and fill them with dirt and our seedlings. Now we wait until the plants really start to come up.

Making spring happen!

Attempt to thwart winter. We painted new pots and started sprouting some seeds.

It came just the same......

I wish I were talking about Christmas, my line taken from 'How the Grinch Stole Christmas', but I am not. That wicked winter storm came yesterday with full fury, and they weren't lying about our storm totals either. In 20 hours, we tallied 16 inches of snow at our house. Bummer!! This would have been a wonderful snow if it had come during the holidays, all white and pretty for Christmas. But it is March. Not fun, we are all tired of winter. Sigh.

The backyard, before the kids trample it up

The branches from the trees in the backyard are usually so high up you can't reach them without standing on the picnic table (which you can hardly see). Now, they are best friends with the ground. Notice that Crash is having a blast. He doesn't seem to care about what season the snow falls.

From the front door. Our driveway is under there somewhere.
This was the measurement on the driveway this morning. Luckily, Dave had shoveled 4-5 inches last night. And thank goodness our next door neighbor always helps do the sidewalk and apron of the driveway.

Dave made a pathway to get to the sidewalk.

Caleb atop a pile of snow that is taller than he is.

In the backyard, my same sad, droopy looking trees, but notice the slide??

Crash always wants more!

Before I went up to the deck, a view of the stairs. I had to walk around the side of the house, through snow up to my knees, to get to the deck. There was (not pictured) another 11 inches of snow on the deck and I could not open the back door to get out. In all, I think we spent 2 hours shoveling around our house. This better be the end of winter.

GO. AWAY. WINTER.

Ok. I could see all of the grass in my front yard, save a couple of big piles by the driveway. There was no more ice. Until today. We are now under a winter weather advisory and supposedly getting another 8 - 12 inches total by in the morning. We are out of snow days. It is enough to make me drink. I had found this cute idea for art on a blog I follow and today was the day to implement!!

Each of the kids (and me!) made a cherry blossom picture. We used a variety of media and I was so impressed with how different they all turned out, despite us doing the same project.

Bird's eye view of everyone's pictures in progress

Potter takes time with his tree
Caleb, total master of the glue and the tissue paper
Molly (and Crash) work on branches
Our finished projects!!!

Top: Molly (left), Potter (right)

Bottom: Lin (left), Caleb (right)

These are so awesome!!!

Green eggs and ham

Last week it was pizza, this week, green eggs and ham. Molly's class celebrated Dr. Suess all week long. Thursday, I went to her class and surprised them as that day's mystery reader! I read the classic 'The Cat in the Hat'. Friday afternoon, we mixed up a batch of terrifically yummy green eggs and ham, with each child getting to crack an egg. You could tell which kids had been exposed to cooking and which ones had not! Molly decided to make a goofy face when I took her picture!

Basketball season

Potter is doing basketball again this spring through the town of Union. It is such a great program and this year I really really like his coach. Potter is on the red team; this year the teams only have 6 kids instead of 10 like last year. More playing time, especially since I don't think all 6 kids on Potter's team have ever been there at the same time! Potter is much better this year, scoring more baskets during the games, playing better defense. He is having a great time!

Potter getting ready to take a shot

Trying to block coach!!
Waiting for the ball, he is totally open!!

Molly's gymnastics demo

Aero gymnastics had their spring demo yesterday. Girls in the Level 2 or Stars program, and all the boys (all 3 of them!!), show a routine for each of the 4 events: vault, beam, floor and bars. Sadly, for most of these, Molly is moving so quickly that the still shots I got are blurry!! What you see is 1) warm ups, where she is looking grumpy 2) in line with her group (Stars - an advanced group of girls for her age) getting ready to sing the National Anthem 3) Molly right before her floor routine and 4) Molly with her Stars friends getting their awards and medals. I cannot say enough how talented she is and how much she loves her gymnastics!!

UPK Art Show

The third annual Art Show at the preschool was Friday night. Each child had three pieces of art work of their own either framed and/or matted and then hung on the walls of the school. Families could purchase their child's art work for a donation to the school. We are all in front of Caleb's masterpieces, his blue and red Jackson Pollock imitation and, below that, his Star Wars themed piece. This is such a huge huge turnaround from last year when he WOULD NOT do any art at all. We are all very proud of him!!!

Hat Day

Molly and Potter had hat day at school this past Wednesday. Caleb wanted to join in the fun, and who can resist taking such a cute picture of her kids? Not me!!