Aquarium

Today is another day off for the teacher's "professional development", so we tried out the Maritime Aquarium in Norwalk. The kid's had fun, and it was nice to get out of the house.

They had a little seal exhibit and we made it around feeding time.

The kids were excited to see the meerkats. They've liked them ever since they watched "Meerkat Manor" on tv.

My favorite are the jellyfish.

The Scarlet Pimpernel

On one of the many snow days I checked out the movie "The Scarlet Pimpernel" from the library. It took me a couple viewings to appreciate it for what it's worth. It was my first exposure to the Pimpernel and it would have been nice to have been forewarned that he acts like a fop. He kind of drove me crazy the first time. Also, it was made in the 80's so it's a little cheesy, but once you get past that and understand the characters better it was cute and I liked it. So I decided to try the book. The book is a thousand times better! The story line is very different than the movie. I guess the movie was based on two separate books that Baroness Orczy wrote of the Scarlet Pimpernel saga melded into one movie.
I always thought this book sounded boring...like Tess of the D'Urbervilles (hate that book) or Wuthering Heights (not my favorite). This was full of intrigue! They should put disclaimers on these AP English books. Some are "classics" and some are "good classics". This is a "good classic". I can't believe I haven't read this before! I wonder if the other novels are any good.

Sick Day

As if the snow days weren't enough, now Sawyer is home from school (another late start today by the way) sick and throwing up.

This week on one of our many days off we made some "Mini's" cupcakes from a little kit that my friend mailed to me. They were yummy! The frosting was a little more complicated than I was expecting with egg whites heating over a double boiler, but it was good, and a frosting recipe to keep in the files.

Another storm, another snow day

We got another 12+ inches of snow.

It's beautiful!

The trouble is...we're running out of room to put it.

This is the pathway from the front door to the mailbox flanked on both sides by the now over 4 feet of accumulated snow.

letters...

I have wanted a wax letter seal for years. I put it on my New Year's list because I just never seem to justify buying one, but since it was to fulfill a goal for the year I felt better about it. I also wanted the seal to be the perfect personification of me (I obviously have high expectations of things that don't mean a hoot). While perusing online again to find one, I came across the ideal letter seal! It is a vintage-looking-family-crest-style lion...my last name means "of the Lion". I love it! Another one of my New Year's ideas was to write at least one letter a month. Not an email. Not a facebook message. Not a text (which I don't do anyway). Not a phone call. An honest to goodness letter. Once my inspirational letter seal came in the mail I sat down (on another kid's day off school), turned off the t.v. and wrote letters with McKinley. It was really fun! I am excited to do it again. It felt very Jane Austen-fine lady-letter writing-ish. I only started with a couple letters and used my seal on the back. Apparently this is a learned skill that I need to practice. My first ones did not turn out very well. Sorry first letter receivers. I also wonder if there is a handwriting class out there because I write like a 3rd grader.

lately...

We've been having a lot of together time at home.

• Last Monday was MLK day so we had the day off.
• Tuesday was a snow day (even though the roads were clear and the snow stopped by 9:00).
• Wednesday was a late start day due to weather, so school starts 2-hours later than normal, and kindergarteners stay all day.
• Thursday was a miraculous full day of school.
• Friday was another snow day.
• This week we had school all day on Monday.
• Today is another late start day.
• There is supposed to be another storm of 6-12 inches coming tomorrow evening so I'm anticipating another snow day on Thursday.
• Oh, and next Monday is a teacher's "professional" day so there's no school.

And yes, they've already officially extended the school calendar to end a few days later in the summer. Booooo!

waiting for the bus

catching snowflakes

those poor scratches are courtesy of one angry little brother. I cut his nails this morning.

Another Snow day

I'm starting to wonder about this "snow day" stuff. I hope they've planned accordingly and we don't end up making up for all this in the summer. Today is a snow day not because of the 2-ish inches of snow, but because of the rain that fell afterward and froze into a sheet of ice. So here we are again. Today we get to stay inside because of the rain, and wait around for a plumber because we woke up to this....

It's about 6 feet long and growing. Oh and we get to have no running water because we turned off the water while we're waiting for a plumber to call us back....which they haven't yet.