Today's Celebration

Today has been a celebration!  A celebration of making it through the week!  Of starting our Jesse tree activities today!  And in anticipation of the first big snow storm that is due to arrive just about the time Papa is coming home this evening!

Here's how we celebrated these things, today, this lazy wintery Friday.

We played trains.  In the dining room.  Hen loves the wooden train track so so much.            

                       
We had a cowboy lunch on the kitchen floor complete with campfire. (made from train tracks and some yellow felt.  See our trusty Steed.  One boy said, "We should bring him nearer to the fire so he doesn't get cold."  The other boy said, "No....he should be nearby, but only in case we have to make a fast get away."   We ate Annie's mac n cheese (because sometimes convenience is actually important...i'm trying to come to terms with this) It was the bunny and carrot shaped noodles.  The boys called it Jack Rabbit Stew.  :)

We played outside, after lunch, in the crisp wintry air.  Hen went up and down the slides as many times as a wee mancub can manage being bundled up.  The boys ran around yielding any stick they could find, fighting imaginary dragons.  I wandered around the big yard, taking it all in....and I found this guy in the asparagus ferns.

 Can you tell what he is?  It is an empty shell.  Molting maybe?  He's soooo large....about 5 inches long perhaps?

 This was such a treasure to us.  I had never seen a praying mantis in real life before.  Really.  And to find one in my own backyard!  So amazing!  The boys brought him inside and are discussing if we should put part of his wing under the microscope.  Owl, is so sad to ever take a piece out of anything, even if it is just the shell.  He is such a sensitive soul.

We came inside, put the younger two down for a rest and the rest of us made hot chocolate and dunked some rusks.  We had never tried rusks before (the South African kind) and we LOVE them!

They make chocolate mustaches and Badger says, "You look like Poirot.  I look like a French man.  Ooo-la-la!"  And they both giggle until they can't breathe.

Then we make snowflake after snowflake and tell stories and make plans for sledding.  I say "no" a million times about them having more rusks.  

                           

And now the night has settled in.  J will be home in a moment.  Curry Cauliflower soup is simmering in the big pot on the stove.  I think I'll go turn on the Christmas lights and make a pot of coffee for the man. The snow will be here soon!