Geese are honking

I heard some geese flying back north yesterday, and I saw crocuses pushing their way up through the dirt on our walk today. So spring is quietly "honking" its way back to Niskayuna. As I write, Thomas is in bed after a long day at school and then a play date with his old friend Leo. Well, old for a 6 year old. Nolan is at baseball tryouts right now. He is trying to make a higher level team that is mainly 10-11 year olds. They only let a few 9 year olds play, so there's a good chance he won't make it. And he's okay with that. He will just play the same level as last year again if he doesn't make it, and he would have a lot of friends doing that too. So baseball is slowly starting too!

We had our parent-teacher conferences this week which went pretty well. Nolan is one of her stronger students, I'm told. He is also doing great on his violin too. He is hanging in there with the advanced math class, but might need to step it up a little more. Thomas is also doing really well. His reading level is very high...at a third grade level! He is also needing to get a little stronger in math and his speech too. But his teacher loves him in his class...the class clown she says! Thomas will have her again in second grade. They are doing this thing in their school called looping, where they have the same teacher for 2 years. But we are choosing to opt out of looping for Nolan's teacher. We really want him to experience different teachers before he moves up to middle school where there are lots of different teachers. I can't believe he's going to be a 5th grader.

So Thomas is doing better at swim lessons. The weekday class is better than the Sunday class. I still want him to be a little stronger at it, so I think I'm going to sign him up for another session. Between baseball, swim lessons and an art class, we will have a busy spring. It will be great when we can go to Florida to get away from it all...26 more days!

Thomas also had a fun night this week at our neighbor's house. Our neighbors across the street have no grandchildren, so they've adopted ours. Thomas wrote her a note to say that she missed her and her dog Murphy. He got to cross the street by himself and stick it in her door slot. She came over later to invite him for dinner. So yesterday Thomas went over and had pasta, salad and chocolate sundae with them. I think they were so happy to have him for themselves. We had to go over and get him when it was getting close to bedtime! They are the nicest people.

Well, Nolan just got back from tryouts and he thought they went pretty well. We'll find out in an email later. Pinewood Derby tomorrow!

Pinewood Derby Preview

Chris stuck in the tunnel!








Chester gettin' some lovin'.

















The cars are done! Chris took pics of construction and the final outcome. Nolan made the Harry Potter and Thomas is, of course, SpongeBob. Thanks, Dad for the idea of using sinkers. We glued them to the bottom of Thomas' car to make it heavier and then covered them up with brown electrical tape.

Not so lamb-y

March, I mean. We've started March with a lot of activity going on. But the weather is like a lamb. Today the sun is shining and 42 degrees outside! I just had to be out in it, so I left all my chores, grabbed my skis and hit the Bird Sanctuary. It was beautiful! I saw morning doves, titmouses and chickadees. The snow was so easy to slush my way through, although that didn't stop me from falling a few times. I'm not the most graceful skier, but I just love it when I make the time to go. So now I'm back home and I'm continuing to procrastinate my chores by blogging here. My day is going to pick up like gangbusters later, though. I have a meeting at 4:15 which means dropping the kids off at Gaba's before that. Then I have to leave the meeting early to go get Thomas and bring him to a swim lesson at 5pm (more on the disaster of swim lessons later). Hopefully we'll be back at Gaba's by 5:45pm so we can slam down some kind of dinner and then go to an art reception that Thomas is a part of at 6:15pm. If I am still functioning, there's another meeting I was invited to at 7pm. Whew! So some down time right now is okay I think.

So swim lessons for Thomas have taken a nose dive. He can swim now, but I'd like to see him a little more confident and able to swim the length of the pool before quitting. Now that he is at Level 3, he has a different teacher and we also switched to a different time. I think that combination is making him nervous and not so cooperative. So we got permission to try another time that might not be as crowded. We are crossing our fingers that he'll get in the water and be confident to swim. I think sports just aren't in the cards for Thomas, at least not yet. But with swimming, it's a safety issue so I just want him strong enough so he can do it and then we can wave goodbye to swim lessons. On the upswing, we did just sign him up for art lessons. Maybe he can put some of his energy and talent in that.

We are in full gear getting ready for the Pinewood Derby. We are in charge of it this year, so there is a lot to organize and not a lot of volunteers willing to step up. But the boys have their cars half-way done and planning seems to be going okay so far. Nolan has a Harry Potter theme for his car and Thomas is doing SpongeBob. The cars get weighed this weekend and then the race is next weekend. As much as we love Cub Scouts, we are getting a little weary now that it is close to the end.

Parent teacher conferences are next week. Nolan has a Choral Festival to attend soon, and baseball tryouts are in 3 weeks!

Pictures from our Getaway

Chris with Point au Roche State Park in the background. This was the view from our room. How can Paterson think he can close this beautiful park?









Me on a bridge on the Shelving Rock Falls trail in the Lake George Wild Forest area in Fort Ann.









It was a warm day and the water was running through the ice.









Lake George with ice fisherman out there.

No kids for a weekend-It's a Miracle!

After 3 years of waiting, Chris and I are actually getting out of the house for 24 hours without the kids. We're staying at www.pointaurochelodge.com where we've stayed the last 2 times we've been able to get away. It's a beautiful bed and breakfast off of Point Au Roche State park in Plattsburgh. I know Plattsburgh isn't a huge vacation destination for most, but it's where we met, not far to get to and close to hiking trails. We're hoping to check out the state park while we're there, since it's on the chopping block to close if the governor has his idiotic way. Our plan is to ski at Saratoga battlefield (since there's no snow in Plattsburgh), check in, go to dinner at Irises Cafe and then leave in the morning. This is all thanks to my sister Kim who is sacrificing her weekend to take care of my two little monkeys. Their plan is to see the new Percy Jackson movie, eat pizza and play Wii. Hopefully we will all have a great weekend if it all goes to plan (fingers crossed).

So we have kept very busy this week with minimal sibling rivalry! We built a book at the Open Door, went sledding many times (including a home-made hill in our back yard), accompanied friends at a cool new water park we found in Colonie and got through lots of achievements for Cub Scouts. I really enjoyed being with the kids. They just love to play together. Yesterday, Thomas wanted to skateboard on the driveway and Nolan didn't. Nolan sat on the floor, complaining how bored he was and how much he wished Thomas would come back in so they could play again, which happened a few minutes later. Happiness ensued once more.

So next week we get into the routine again as we say goodbye to February...already! We have a pack meeting and basketball practice. On Thursday, Jeopardy is going to have a scouting category, so we're going to watch that. Chris is going to videotape the local high school musical, Bye Bye Birdie. We were supposed to go snowshoeing with Cub Scouts next weekend, but we didn't get enough sign-ups. So I think the plan is to start working on our Pinewood Derby cars. And of course it's Lent so we're working on doing acts of kindness everyday. Lent means Spring, so we're on our way!

I'm a techy fool!

I just recently have discovered the joys of texting. So much fun! I feel so connected. I'm writing on my blog, the phone just rang, I get a text while on my land-line phone, and I'm on Facebook at the same time-wow! My husband's geekiness is wearing off on me big-time.
So it's the first day of vacation and I'm already feeling the laziness of not having to be anywhere. The kids are tuned out watching TV, and not fighting yet. (Wait, I might have spoken too soon.) We had a fun trip to Moira this weekend, ending with a visit to the ice castle in Saranac Lake. I have some ideas on how to keep the kids busy this week, including a new water park I just found out about, sledding, museums, and hikes. So I will try to be better with posts and pics. Gotta get started!

And a few more...

Sledding at Glendale Nursing Home on MLK Jr Day.









Thomas having fun at the NYS Museum Camp IN.