Snowman Day

By Amanda

Now you are probably wondering what snowman day is.  That is an excellent question.  So I shall explain.  Snowman day is a Nisly holiday, the day we all dress up as snowman and eat snowman food and be generally snowmanny.  Reference pictures for what snowman food looks like and how to dress as a snowman.

Amanda's snowman pancake



Ben's snowman pancake



Megan in costume, making pancakes

Amanda and her dinner snowman

Megan's snowlady

Invasion!

The Great Animal Invasion began on Tuesday when friends dropped their dog and 2 cats off for us to watch over Thanksgiving.  So now the total score is 8 humans to 6 animals, 5 cats and 1 dog.  Humans in the lead. 

The next day Mommy brought Daddy to work and then ran some errands.  Us children back home had a pretty typical day, until Mommy calls and tells us to open the garage door because she has a large stray dog in the car that she wants to put in the basement.  We all looked at each other and made a mad dash for the door, schoolwork forgotten.  Sure enough sitting in the car is a large dog who looked part english pointer part beagle.  Score 7 humans (Daddy being at work) to 7 animals, 2 dogs 5 cats.  Tied! 

The stray dog had a collar on so we called the number, but no one answered.  Since it was the middle of the afternoon the owner was probably at work, so we left a message.  Then we looked at the address.  The dog was from the far side of a neighboring town, 14 miles away!  This unfortunately leaving us with alot more questions than answers we settled down to wait for the owner to call back.  That night the owner did call back and explained the dogs presence.  The dog, who's name was Buck, was being trained by the mans son who lives right around the corner from us and had escaped while the son was at work.  The son was already looking for him.  So we gave him our address and he came and picked up Buck.  Score 7 humans to 6 animals.  Humans in the lead once again.

Amanda

Scouting News

By Nathan

Last weekend, my Boy Scout troop and I went backpacking at the Durland Scout Reservation in NY.  It was only two miles in to our campsite, which was right on the lake.  We hiked up to a nearby peak where you could see all the way to New York City.  After that we went on another hike. 
My Scoutmaster is obsessed with group pictures.  Whatever peak we come to, or whenever there's a nice view of the lake, he always makes us stand there and he always takes a group picture.
After every trip my Scoutmaster gives a long speech about how well we did and what we could improve on.  Sometimes he doesn't even talk about the trip, he just gives an inspirational talk on life.
We made two fires at camp and had a great time despite the cold.  We hiked up to the peak again that night to see New York City all lit up.
The next morning the wind was very strong.  We packed up and hiked out quickly.  Nobody wanted to hang around in the cold.

Also, yesterday  I earned the rank of Tenderfoot.  For the last requirement you have to attend a Board of Review.  A Board of Review is where the adults review the requirments with you to make sure you met them.  I went into a side room with three adults and my patrol leader introduced me.  Then they analyzed my uniform to make sure I was wearing it correctly.  Then I sat down and they asked me questions to make sure I had met the requirments and since this is my first Board of Review they explained how it all works.  I passed and achieved the rank of Tenderfoot!

May the Force be with you

  

Han Solo

  

Daddy







 



   

Mommy



Shmi Skywalker











Megan

   

Leia Skywalker








Amanda



 

 

Emperor Sidious







Luke Skywalker




Nathan



      









Darth Vader

Joshua



Obi-Wan Kenobi



 

Ben









Hannah



Ewok



Sorry about the small pictures.  I had to shrink them to get them all to fit next to each other.  You can click on any picture to see it larger.  











Baby's First Haircut

I'll let her tell you about it:

Cleaning House? Bake Cookies!

by Megan

Mommy and Daddy were gone on Friday night, so the kids were keeping house.  I wanted to have the house clean and surprise Mommy when she came home, so I got up on Saturday morning and baked chocolate chocolate chip cookies.  I told everyone that they could have one cookie for every cleaning task they completed.  It worked like a charm!

An hour later, dishes had been washed and the trash was empty.  Toys were put away.  Mirrors, toilets, toasters, sinks, a shower, and the kitchen counters had been cleaned.  Floors and stairs had been swept or vacuumed.  (Ben and Hannah were actually fighting over the vacuum!)  Ben was in tears when he could think of any tasks he could do, and I had to think fast to come up with something.  When they were done, everyone had earned around 5 cookies.  (It's sadly indicative of the state of our house that there was still a lot of work left to be done.)

Just so no one thinks I was being a lazy tyrant, I'll explain myself.  I didn't force anyone to do anything; they could earn as few or as many cookies as they wanted, or they could do absolutely nothing.  It was up to them.  I wasn't doing nothing this whole time.  In fact, I was chaotically busy.  I had to mix up cookies, scoop them, and bake them, while coming up with age-appropriate chores, checking the kids' work, answering their questions, and instructing them on how to clean mirrors and floors.  After that, I had to do a few chores myself, since I wanted some of my own cookies.  I wasn't making others do my work, I was providing positive and effective motivation.  :)

Beware the Loch Russell Monster!

I just realized that we haven't posted anything on our blog in weeks, though we promised to.  I offer sincere apologies for this lapse and shall attempt to make it up to you by posting about our camping trip to New Hampshire.  I love the roads in NH, especially the Kancamagus highway.  You can tell you're close when you look out the window and rather than the tunnel of trees that you see in CT, you are driving along the side of a mountain, overlooking the valley below you.  It is a gorgeous view. 

This year, it was a bit warmer, so we could enjoy the Russell pond to it's fullest, even though we were worried about the Loch Russell Monster, affectionately known as Russie.  I think the videos and pictures will explain better than I can.

 Amanda