Snow Day Activities

Beautiful sunny, cold, windy afternoon

Boys playing

"Snow Baby"

Our tracks down the driveway to the mailbox....Tom's got some plowing to do :)

Keeping watch

Icicles

In between the "snow sessions" we have some blue sky and sunshine...

This is looking out my kitchen window....at these beautiful icicles

Caught it dripping ;)



A few hours later it isn't dripping anymore...and has grown with a curve.

So even with no school...we are having a bit of a science lesson ;)

SNOW DAY

We watched the list run by a few times on the news...and Troy wasn't on it....so we kept on getting ready like normal....and then the call came from our bus driver 15 min before the bus usually comes...and he said there was No School today....so it was official....no school.

Getting some t.v. time in ;)

 Some relaxing T.V. time is fine...but we also have to keep up with the shoveling!  Thank goodness there is no school cause my main shovel helper is around.  Thanks Kolby ;)

 

"Mom, I can't get up"  is what I heard from the other side of the patio.



Cool treats...in the summer you have to eat them fast...but wintertime...they last a bit longer ;)

Clara helping Dad and Grandpa with the kindling



Birds

After all that snow...our bird feeder was like a little airport for all the house finches

Snow day

Tuesday the 15th we got a call at 6:40 from our bus driver telling us that there was no school ...well since the kids catch the bus at 7...there was no sleeping in...they were already for the day :)  There was no school mind you not because of the 4 inches of snow we got overnight but because of a power outage.  So the kids had a fun day all the new snow!

Why shovel the patio when you can shovel the yard??

Even Smokey likes eating snow ;)

Chamberlin Valentine's

Happy Valentine's Day from the Chamberlin House

Valentine Sunrise reflecting behind Moscow Mountain

Valentine kisses for her babies :)

DJ working hard on decorating cupcakes

Surprise Sunday Drive

We had some Christmas "fun money" to spend and so Saturday night Tom and I made a fast plan to surprise the kids after church on Sunday and go to Chuck E Cheese. (this is a place they see advertised on PBSkids and have been wanting to go to forever!)  So after church we said we were going on a drive and so sit back and relax.  We didn't tell them where we going...it's a 2 hour trip to Spokane where Chuck E Cheese is...so we had lots of questions of where we were going and lots of guesses.  This is a road we've traveled enough to see family that they were recognizing it....and we got close to Plummer(where my dad works) and they all thought we were going there...nope....we got closer to Spokane and they thought for sure we were going to see Uncle Dan and Aunt Lindsey(my brother and sister live in Spokane)...we said Nope again...so they were really starting to wonder when we got to Spokane and headed down a different road. 

I was looking on the left side of the road and Tom saw it on the right side...so luckily there was no traffic cause he cut across 3 lanes of traffic to make it into the entrance...I'm sure we startled the people in the car that was trying to exit!  But as soon as we got into the parking lot...all the kids started saying OH MY WE ARE GOING TO CHUCK E CHEESE!!!  REALLY..WE ARE GOING HERE!!  OH WOW....

It was great...they were SO excited!  Here are some pictures of them having some fun ;)



Clara and her princess wave...so cute!



DJ doing his best at driving a snowmobile

Kolby pedaling fast to fly the helicopter 

Kassidy taking a drive

They stamp your hand when you enter so your family all leaves together right- so this guy stamped all of our arms....well here's another weekend funny.  We went to leave and the girl is checking our numbers and well...Kassidy's number can be found nowhere --they checked both hands up and down all the arms....by now there were people starting to line up behind us.  The girl said, you'll have to wait so I can get the manager....so we joked with the people behind us...that they thought we were taking a kid....They said..yeah casue you know she doesn't look anything like you guys....ha such a funny, odd, but I guess good situation...I think Kassidy was oblivious to it all..cause they were all intrigued with their little trinkets they had won ;)  So the guy who stamped us when we came in and the manager(who happened to be the same lady who helped us get the trinkets) came over and asked Kassidy "Is this your mommy?" Of course Kassidy said yes...and off we went.  So funny...but I guess they are doing their job!  We joked again with the people outsided saying --well they let us take her ;) They laughed ;)

All in all it was a great time and a very fun surprise for the kids!!  And they all want to go again!

The Weekend Funnies

Tom was so kind Saturday morning to take the kids to breakfast and run a few errands so that I could get some "alone time" to do some much needed cleaning around the house.  The stipulation, was that the kids had to clean their rooms up before they could go....and they did a nice job...so off they went.

Tom called on his way home to inform me that the kids were letting people know that I didn't get to come to breakfast because my room didn't get cleaned-- HA HA....Tom did tell people that I was just enjoying some alone time..but the kids totally thought I was having a consequence ;)  Oh the examples we are as parents :)

So remember to get your roomed cleaned !!

Here's some proof that my room got cleaned...just waiting for the kids to come home and put away their clothes!!

Sunday morning breakfast

I made biscuits(which were square) and scrambled eggs...with Valentine's day approaching I used my new heart bowl (thanks Shelly)...and this is the comment I got from my husband ..."It's finally nice to have a square meal from the heart." We chuckled over that...If you know Tom....he was having fun with that ;)  So I told him this has to go on the blog...he again laughed ;)  silly guy



Fun Friday

After getting home on Friday night, Tom laid on the floor for just a moment...but that's all it took for the stampede to come, "Dad, can we have a horsey ride?" 

So-  yep he was a good sport and gave them all a SHORT ride across the floor...

cause - well 4 riders is a lot!

 Friday morning....Derrick must have been hot from all his truck driving...so off came his shirt...and then soon Clara had to do the same ;)  They raced around the house most of the morning!

Ready..Set..

 GO!

 Zoom Zoom they are fast...the dog and I had to watch our feet so they didn't get ran over ;)

Cozy Cats
The Gray cat "Cloudy" was missing for about 2 days...we were beginning to wonder ...but yeah Cloudy came back and so Yeah--Daisy quit the sad yeowling noise.

The boys are getting more and more high-tech with their railroad building.  Very creative

I told Derrick that it's still a bit early for our birds to start living in his house....since they are still where ever it is warm....but he still insisted his bird house be outside and he kept checking it the other day and would come inside and say "No birds yet mom" Silly boy!

Girl Scout Cookie Time!!

Well this is Kassidy's first year as a Girl Scout and being in the first grade ..

she's a "Daisy Scout"  She is learning how to take orders from family and friends over the phone.  It's pretty fun to watch.  She set her goal as 60 boxes...we'll see how she does ;)

Bird House

 "Dad can we build a bird house?  Dad, when are we going to build a bird house?" 
These have been the questions of Derrick for the past month....no past about 6 months!  And guess what-Sunday was the day!

Derrick was so excited, so were Kolby and Kassidy and Clara..she was just excited to be going outside with everyone ;)

Tom and Kolby cutting the pieces.

Derrick who was so excited for this project...did not last long outside.  He came inside...I think his hungry tummy distracted him.  They each had a plan:  Kolby was making a bird feeder and Kassidy and Derrick were making bird houses.  Tom ran into some tool issues...so the project got put on hold, but--He was able to finish Derrick's bird house!  Derrick was very happy...we are thinking his idea of "building a bird house" was actually the painting part...he wanted so badly to paint it last night.  We made it a special project for today(while Clara was sleeping).  Here he is working on it.

He worked hard at painting every part of it!

Here is the finished product that he is very proud of!!



I'm o.k. with Derrick loving the color orange....but when he mixes it with too much blue....umm...well I'll just have to say that it will be o.k. since the little birdies won't care they are living in a BSU colored house here in VANDAL territory ;)



All smiles about his bird house!!  He was so cute..saying,"Mom, did you get a picture of this side yet?" And yes, though I didn't post them all.....I took a picture of each side! ;)

Bye-Bye Crib



Clara ...it's time to move out of the Crib....are you ready ?



More like Mom and Dad are you ready for her to be "free".  Tom was so ready for the crib to be gone, I on the other hand- I really didn't mind it and my full nights of sleep, knowing that she was safe in her cozy crib!  But we took out the crib and skipped the whole toddler bed faze that all the other kids had...and went right to a "big girl" bed!  For the size of the girl's room it was necessary- but still a little sad. 

The BEFORE picture of the girl's room.

After searching, second hand stores, and watching craigslist like a hawk....we finally decided that we could buy a new Bunk bed for pretty much the price people were wanting to sell the used ones.  So we did ;)  Here is their room now.

Such a BIG girl now...sharing a bunk bed with her big sister....the bottom bunk of course!!

She really has been doing so good with the transition!!  The first night she lasted until about 1am....but then was able to be put back and slept until morning.  She's had a few episodes here and there...but over all she is adjusting well to her new bed and all the space it has for all her babies!!!  Hopefully all her other "big girl" transitions (the potty training and no pacifier) will go as well.....