flathillfarm.com

(inventive, i know, but slightly more relevant to what this blog has evolved into since the days of mr. tweeds.)

i’ll be posting there from now on, so if you’ve been visiting me here-please don’t stop, just update your bookmarks!-and we’ll see you there!

like when it calls for an EXPERIMENT.

an experiment like putting FOOD COLORING in a glass of WATER.

and it’s times like these that i’m reminded of how fun it was to be excited by something as simple as that, because boy, let me tell you-scout thought it was pretty awesome.

of course, she took the entire experiment very seriously, as any scientist should.

but then again, she found a way to make it fun too. all work and no play and all that, right?

right.

as much as i hate it when bug sneaks out of bed when he’s supposed to be sleeping and turns on his light, i also kind of love finding him passed out with a book next to him.

ipods.

we gave the kids some old ones that had been floating around our junk drawer.

a six and a three year old too young for ipods, you say? yeah, you’re probably right, especially for the three year old, but hey-what one has so must the other, and this was our attempt to quiet the non-stop nintendo ds begging.

the good news is, for the most part, they are great with them-they wander around listening to the 28 songs we have loaded on to the ipods (or, in bug’s case, just one- “barking at the moon” by jenny lewis from the bolt soundtrack)-and dance and sing along, quite unaware of how amusing that is to the rest of the world.

and yes, we have the volume control all locked up (at a pitifully-low-but-feels-safe-to-parents-level) to avoid early deafness.

at least until they figure out how to maneuver the sound settings, anyway.

how could i forget our trip to the new york state museum? and yet somehow i did.

but guess what? we took the kids to the new york state museum over vacation.

and it was fun (despite the fact that we had to pay admission because-of course-this was the fund raising weekend of the flower show).

but shelling out twelve bucks aside (oh, the humanity!), it was a great trip, and we’ll definitely be back …just not on a flower show weekend.

but, more importantly, we were there to celebrate my brother and future sister-in-law’s engagement! and it’s definitely worth celebrating. (forgive the crappy iphone photos, but i was too busy having a wonderful time to drag my camera into the mix. priorities, people.)

the kids were pretty excited to go out to eat with some of their favorite people, in a fancy, grown up restaurant, and the grown ups were pretty excited to go out to eat with some of their favorite people in a fancy, grown up restaurant too.

the food was amazing, the company was wonderful, and, of course, the whole reason for being there was pretty awesome too.

yup. thumbs up all around. so thanks, mom and dad, for hosting, and thanks dan and rachel for giving us the (wonderful) excuse!

last sunday the sunday school kids all had a sledding party, and thankfully the weather was perfect. in fact, it was pretty much the perfect way to end our vacation week-lots of sun, lots of fun, and lots of physical activity.

did i mention we had lots of fun? i’m not sure if you can truly grasp the fun. scout’s face is not particularly expressive in this pic.

bug enjoyed playing “king of the hill” on some of the giant snow piles.

he also enjoyed running straight up the sledding run while people were coming down and his mama was too busy taking pictures to take care of her kid.

luckily the sledder kindly bailed before running my son over. because i was at the bottom of the hill snapping away and didn’t even notice.

then bug went back to his attempts to throwing giant hunks of snow at the sledders as they sped past him. thankfully the sleds were fast and his reaction time was slow, so no sledders were hit.

there was hot cocoa, pizza, and snacks to keep everyone’s strength up, of course,

which everyone seemed to enjoy.

and in the end i think it’s safe to say-a good time was had by all.

i love a dinner of hors d’oeuvres when the kids are in bed.

after all, there were plenty of books to be read (and please note the wall artwork by hannah),

birds to be watched,

and books to be read.

did i already say that one? well, too bad-it was better than the “let’s run around and see who can scream the loudest” game that preceded it. trust me.