Ben & Jerry's!

Yesterday I took the kids for a special treat at Ben & Jerry's in Waterbury. They have been doing so good with their school that I thought it woudl be a fun reward!

February Break

The last week in Feb and first week of March was february break for the kids. We snuck in a few fun activities throughout the week including a trip to Echo, the science museum in Burlington, bowling, and then the big highlight, to the Pump house which is the new ginormous indoor waterpark at Jay Peak.



Chicks!

Our shipment of chicks arrived via usps this morning! The kids are now proud owners of 8 little fuzz balls. 2 of them are looking a bit weak, so we are hoping they make it through the night. I contacted a local hatchery today and have a few new chicks on reserve that are supposed to hatch on Saturday just in case these two don't make it.

Josh is excited because he picked a top hat breed, which he hopes to show with 4-H this summer at a few of the local fairs. I'm not sure Emily has left the side of the brooder box for more than 2 minutes all day. She loooves sitting there watching them and petting them.



Vermont Farm Show

Yesterday we took a day off from school work and went on a field trip with some friends to the Vermont Farm Show in Essex. Desi was lucky enough to have a day off of school, due to no power at the school. So she came along. I had a hunch ahead of time that the kids may be completely bored just walking around looking at all the booths and the small number of animals there, so together with the other mom, we came up with a scavenger hunt/ question sheet for the kids to work on while we were there.

The kids were each armed with a clipboard and a pencil as we headed into the exhibit halls. We got lots of compiments from exhibitors on the questions the kids asked, and some were curious why the kids had the clipboards so they explained it was their "homework". The highlight of the event, was when they met one of the reporters from our local news channel. One of the items we put on the scavenger hunt, was to find someone who is on tv/radio and get their autograph. The reporter was suprised to get asked and happily signed her name on all 6 of the sheets.

After a few hours at the expo, we headed to Pizza Putt for some lunch and to let the kids run off some energy in the giant playplace! Visiting during the week when school is in session, is definitely the time to go. The place was almost empty, and we enjoyed $5 large pizza specials!

 



Montreal

This weekend we made our annual January trip to Montreal, so Brian could go to the Vermont Bar association's conference.

I was worried we weren't going to be able to make the trip at all. On Thursday after Jake's hockey practice he started to complain that his ear hurt, we gave him a hot pack and some tylenol, and that seemed to help. Later that night he woke up in extreme pain and was pretty miserable for most of the night :( Fortunately he was able to get some sleep and made it until 8, when I was able to call the pediatrician, and took him down to get seen. He once again had an ear infection, that we didn't know, and had another ear drum burst :( Poor guy! So we were given some antibiotics to fight off the last of the infection, and were cleared for our trip, since he wasn't in any pain anymore.



After a quick drive, we arrived at our hotel. 3 of the 4 kids went swimming in the pool. Unfortunately no swimming for Jake so he and dad hung out in the room and watched some hockey. On Saturday we headed to the Biodome and Olympic Park, while Brian was in his workshops.



Our Christmas Tree

Last Sunday we all bundled up and headed over to a local tree farm to find our Christmas Tree. We haven't had a real tree in a few years, mainly because we were traveling and the wood stove would suck it dry. But this year we decided to get a real one so Hiroka could experience getting a Christmas tree.

The kids and scout ran all over the place through the mud in search for the right tree, after a little convincing on our part we found the right one. Then the real fun started with cutting the tree down, and then hauling it down the mountain back to our car.



Granby Zoo

To celebrate my birthday and father's day we decided to take the kiddos to the Granby Zoo in Canada for the day. This is such a fun place for kids. Not only is it a great zoo, but it also has a huge water park, and a small rides section as well which are both included in the price of your admission ticket.

Mt. Mansfield

This morning the kids and I headed over to Mt. Mansfield to hike. They have a lot of energy from being cooped up in the house because of all of the rain, so it was time to get out enjoy the sunshine and hike off some of that energy! The plan was to take the auto road up and then hike the ridgeline (3 miles roundtrip). Unfortunately the road was still closed, as they were repairing parts that got washed out from all of the rain and snow melt. So then onto plan B. We took the gondola up to the clifftop and then hiked back down. (2-2.5 miles). The boys did fine with the hike, and surprisingly emily did fairly well as well. She probably hiked a good half -3/4 of the way down, which for her little legs is quite a distance!
After our hike we stopped at ben & jerry's for some ice cream and to visit with papa tractor before coming home and taking a much needed nap!

Now off to work on daddy's birthday cards and to wrap their presents they collected on the trail.

Our busy week

Jake is missing Josh a whole bunch this week, so while Josh is gone, i've been coming up with some super fun activities for Jake to do this week, so he can brag to Josh when they talk on skype each night. Here are some pictures from our busy week already....

Climbing Mt. Mansfield (highest peak in Vermont)
Going for a Gondola Ride in Stowe

Strawberry Picking

Parc Safari

This year instead of having a large birthday party, Jake decided to go to Parc Safari instead. This is a safari park just over the border in Quebec. The kids LOVED the safari drive. Emily keeps asking where the animals went. All 3 got to feed a variety of animals including giraffe, zebra, bison, elk, and a bunch of others. After the safari drive we walked around the zoo park, and checked out some of the other fun activities before heading home. It was a great day, the weather was perfect and there were maybe 30 cars in the parking lot so a lot of the time it was like we were the only ones there!