art show

This one is titled "It's A Rainbow"

This one is titled "A Painted Painting"

Friday night we attended a student art show at Cooper's school. The pictures above are the two pieces of art Cooper had in the show. The children's art was displayed on the walls in the hallways, and they were showing videos of the children making some of their art projects. They are studying music for their current project, and Cooper was excited to show us some of the instruments they had in the classroom ("A real saxophone!"). There was also a pizza fundraiser (they were selling pizza by the plate) but by the time we went to get our pizza they had run out. That was OK though, we just went home and ordered pizza and ate while watching our movie for our weekly Family Movie Night.

happy valentine's day!

Just found out they cancelled school again tomorrow! Happy Valentine's Day...

drifts

I took this picture out of our front door last night, to show that our steps are completely buried by the snow drift. Paul didn't like my picture, so he went outside (which I wanted to avoid) and took a picture of the front of the house, below.

I guess I should have taken pictures during the day, but I didn't think it about until late. We had a little blizzard here yesterday. The city stopped trying to plow in the morning because they couldn't keep up with the wind, although it kept snowing all day. School was cancelled yesterday and is cancelled again today. We did make it out of the house yesterday and drove (through unplowed streets) to a neighbor's house a couple of blocks away for a playgroup (we were the only ones we showed up). We were literally driving over big snow drifts, and got stuck a couple of times, but eventually made it through the snow with my trusty all-wheel-drive Subaru. I figured we weren't going far and the worse that would happen was that Paul might have to walk over and shovel us out. Paul was home because his office decided to close when they stopped plowing. Pretty much all businesses were closed.

So everything is calmed down today (aside from the stir crazy kids stuck in the house). Its actually a nice, sunny, blue sky day, with a foot of snow and huge snow drifts on the ground.

sledding

She's going down backwards in this one

I took Kestrel sledding this afternoon. There is seriously only one hill in town, and everyone sleds on it. It snowed last Tuesday, but a lot of the hill was bare just due to people sledding and walking up it. Still, there were a few patches left with enough snow to sled down. I went a little reluctantly, because I thought I'd be cold and tired, but once we got there I had a good time helping Kestrel sled, though I didn't actually sled myself. I helped her carry that sled up the hill over and over, though. There is something about being active in the cold weather that really makes you feel good!

FYI - I added pictures to the post on Jan. 28th about Kestrel cheerleading, so check it out.

circus!

The entire first grade at Kestrel's school performed in a circus this afternoon! They've been planning this circus for months. All the kids got to perform. The kids were either ringmasters, clowns, animals, animal trainers, horseback riders, acrobats, jugglers or tight-rope walkers. Kestrel was a juggler (which was what she really hoped for) and juggled scarves. She's been excited about this circus since they started planning it. They all did a great job and it was so cute to watch them. They performed for parents today, and kids were handing out popcorn as we walked in. Yesterday they performed for the rest of the school. This is one of the things I love about Kestrel's school. They often do these special projects or performances that bring together a number of different classes and teachers all working together to to make it happen. Kestrel always seems most interested in school when there is something special such as this going on.