more winter

As I look through our photos for January and February, I realized how very few outdoor photos I took. I know why. The construction outback along the river totally hampered my usual winter treks to check on the river, the ice and the wildlife. And when we had a bit of thaw last week, the mud that appeared in the work area was overwhelming to someone hoping for green.  And now winter is reminding us what season it still is, so ice and snow flurries have covered over the hopeful grassy areas. But a trip to my parents in Pennsylvania last month gave me some foliage therapy. I will post photos from that trip as I wandered around their property and neighborhood absorbing all the goodness of a mild, mostly green winter.

But before that, we took Seth and Laura with us to a Reliant K and  Switchfoot concert held on a campus theater of a local college.  We brought ear plugs for Laura, but she seemed to prefer wearing her winter hat and even had a short and unlikely nap during one of the songs. But she recovered and joined in the clapping and cheering and has talked about the concert and the songs we heard repeatedly. I have posted some of the videos I took at the concert and some lyric content in another post if you are interested. This was her second music show and Seth's third.

Our swallowtail caterpillar cocoon hatched into a butterfly last month and it was our next-door neighbor girl visiting on a snow day who noticed. It must have happened over night and during the morning while we worked on our lessons, because she came inside to play after lunch and said, "Wow, your butterfly looks cool." And we were like, 'what'? We all laughed over how she was only in the house five minutes and noticed something that we all had missed for hours. I'm guessing our warm house made the butterfly think it was good to go, but alas, he/she remains in captivity being fed sugar water while we wait for warmer weather to come our way.

We celebrated Valentine's Day with a few homemade cards, some chocolate, video game coupons from 'Mom', a new laser printer(it was my idea) and three awesome hand drawn cards from my in-laws for each of the kids. Aren't they amazing? The guinea pig is in the likeness of a beloved stuffed animal who has developed a strong persona over the years and is the source of much entertainment in our house. The cards were a hit and my father-in-law definitely needs to keep drawing and sharing his talent.