If I'm not careful you might think you're in IKEA

I went to IKEA this morning.  By myself.  Felt kinda bad because the kids LOVE it there.  Plus they always eat the swedish meatballs, but have you heard what they found in the IKEA meatballs in "Europe"?  

Yeah.  Skipping that for a while.

Science Fair

Last we the kids had their school science fairs.  Olivia's was Tuesday and Joseph's was Wednesday.  This was Olivia's first year participating.  She was so excited!!

Her project included a taste test of different waters.  Our town's tap water came in first place in a taste test.  The town's DPW manager happened to be there that night and he was proud our water did so well.  Here he is, clearly impressed by the result:

Explaining  her project to the "judges."

This is Joseph's project.

He was so proud of it!

Here he is explaining his project to the Assistant Principal using clay models.

Everyone got medals.  

If you can't beat the snow, join in...

New England is the place to be if you must deal with snow.  

Dog sledding (twice!) and snow tubing have been two favorites this year.

Yesterday

Instead of cleaning up my kitchen and running the dishwasher, yesterday morning, we headed outside so the kids could dig a fort in the snow.  For about an hour.  It was ICE-COLD out there.

Totally oblivious to the snow plow behind them.  Actually, they had already watched him from a while.    Turns out, they knew the guy plowing.  He plows their school too, and mows the school fields.  Townies.

Then instead of doing the mountains of laundry that really needed to get done, we had lunch at Friendly's.  It's their "favorite restaurant."  I hope they change their minds about that some day.

bean bag toss, it will be in the Olympics one day

You can only take so much snow.  They played outside in the snow for a llllooooonnnggg time today.  Joseph even rode his bike at the end of the street.

Time for something different.  Bean Bag Toss.  It's a competitive sport.

Oh, What a pie can do...

Remember this pie?

Well, guess who stopped by Saturday while we were shoveling and clearing off our cars full of snow?

Oh YES SHE DID!!  She offered to help clear off the car!  

New beginnings....amazing things because of a blueberry pie.

(oh, yeah, she did return the pie plate about a week ago).

This is the shape the red car was in when she came over (I had already done my car) and offered to help, and she did help!!!:

My newest, most prized possession:

Meet my new coffee press:  

Bring on the power-outage and blocked roads during a cold blizzard.  I'll be ready this time.

***File this under things to grab in a fire:
husband and kids
coffee press
car keys

EVERYTHING ELSE is replaceable!!!!!