Spirit Week at Beau's School

This week was "Spirit Week" at Beau's school, and each day was a dress up day. Beau was an enthusiastic participant.

Monday was Dress Your Best Day:

Tuesday was Dress As Your Favorite Book Character Day:

(He's Gandolf the White.)

Wednesday was Crazy-Mixed-Up-Clothes Day:

Thursday was Crazy Hat Day:

(Beau embellished a silly foam fish cap with switches to make it light up, buzz, and spin a fan.)

Friday was School Pride Day:

He deserves an award for most-spirited family member...

SPRING!

Spring has arrived.

On Saturday it finally warmed up here, and the trees burst into bloom. Seriously. On Friday, the cherry tree had bare branches. By Sunday morning the view out our bedroom window was this:

While working in the yard this weekend, the neighbor's cat found a snake, which we rescued. Usually, we find brown snakes. This snake is a garter snake.


It actually bit Casey, so Casey prudently put on gloves when it was time to release the snake (back into the ivy where the cat probably found it again...)


Later in the weekend, the kids had their last pre-season baseball practice before the opening game on Monday (which they won).


And on Saturday, we celebrated our 17th wedding anniversary. I cadged a last-minute reservation, and we had dinner at a new-ish restaurant in Cambridge.

Poetrees

Today, a sunny spring day, Beau and I arrived at this school to discover "poetrees" on the front lawn. Each student had written a poem, which was then mounted on colorful oak tag and hung from one of the just-blooming trees. A fun celebration of the long-awaited season.

Meet the New Addition

Arnold is a 9-year-old Australian Terrier. He joined the family on Friday. He has a sweet disposition and an outgoing personality, the only command he knows is "speak," he loves to go for walks, and he's always underfoot hoping to be fed.

Winter Fun

It's been a snowy winter this year.



Lovely, pristine, newly fallen snow:

Snow-covered trees:

Snow-covered buildings:

Snow forts:

Digging out the neighbor's car (for extra income):

Sledding:

Skiing:

Pond hockey:

Cat finding a cat-sized duvet (camping out inside a pillowcase with a down pillow):

Cozy plaid wool couch cushions:

Photos from the Winter Camping Trip

Well, the winter camping trip, snowshoeing into the AMC hut at Zeeland Falls, was a great success. The weather was great, and Britt and Beau had a great time.

Here's Beau dressed for snowshoeing on Sat. morning

The group:

View along the way:

Group shot:

Finally at the night's destination:

View from the hut:

Kitchen and dining accommodations:

Sleeping accommodations:

Look carefully and you can see the ice on the interior wall of the bunk room the next morning:

The hike out on Sunday morning (it was snowing):

Frozen waterfall:

Preparing for Winter Camping

Britt and Beau are going with the Boy Scouts this weekend to shoeshoe into an AMC hut in NH and spend the night. So last night, found us in a flurry of activity to get ready for the trip.

Mixing gorp:

Making water bottle insulators:

(Yes, it'll be so cold on the trip that there's a chance the water will freeze...)

And

Baking shoes:

(Actually, the shoes are in the oven in an attempt to warm the leather so it'll soak up the waterproofing wax, but still... it's pretty funny.)