Easter

Today is Easter.  Nan joined us for dinner.  We had a wonderful church service this morning and breakfast.  We came home and the girls had an Easter egg hunt followed by music from their new instruments.  I call them instruments the rest called them noise makers.  

The girls are good hunters because we do this often.  If they have a snack I usually make them find it first.  

They are both excitable!!!

Everyone pitched in with things like coos coos, salads, squash, ham, buns,  pie, carrot cake.... We did not lack for anything.   

Lavena and Tucker brought tat-toos and finger nail polish. 

 Becca took the group picture which I am sure she will include.  It was a wonderful day and we are certainly blessed in so many ways.  

This was one of our snow days ; )    

 The following pictures are of our sapping adventure!  It is great fun, but lots of work.

Everyone helps out in one way or the other. 

Greg is the fix-it man and generally cooks dinners.

Richie pulls sleds with full containers out of the ditch when they go over the bridge the wrong way.

Lavena and Tucker help make sap runs when they are here on the weekends. 

Everyone else praises the end product which keeps me encouraged.

This is what sap is like when it comes out of the trees.  Is has a slight sweetness, but thin like water.

Sap boils until it reaches 219 degrees F before it becomes syrup.   It takes about 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup.  A tree will give differing amounts of sap in a day.  I have about 8 trees that will give one gallon of sap a day when the weather is just right.  The best flow happens when it is 20 degrees at night and 40-50 degrees during the day with sun and little wind.  

This is a wood fired stove that my dad made for us many years ago.  It has a chimney to draw the smoke away and the pan fits into the top so it is right over the fire.  Greg built a 5 ft X 5 ft X 8 ft high roof over the stove so it is protected from rain. 

The cover is because of all the little birds flying over head.  

This year we added a gas unit to help cook down the sap and it is  also helpful in finishing off  syrup

This is our new system this year.  I only have 4 trees hooked up with lines that drain into a 6 gallon gerry jug.  It is a trial and maybe we will put in a few more next year.  

We have 28 trees with this type of spile.  You can see the sap is ready to drip.  When it is running well it is one drip after the other.   

This has always been the first thing kids wanted to do.   When Jason, Becca and Lavena were small they would help and each season they would start off by getting a few drips right from the tree.  

The hauling is the hardest part of job.  I have 4-- 6 gallon jugs so when they are all full it becomes a challenge to move the sled.  Most of the trail is in a slight downward grade until you come to the last hill before our yard.  That is when it is very helpful to have young people around.   

So when help is offered I don't refuse.   We have made almost made 4 gallons of syrup.

Friday project

What better to do on a friday but turn your table upside down!! One morning we were sitting having coffee and Rich said some day we are going to lower the windows to see the pond better from our table. Then another day it hit me, why not raise the table?? we bought a couple high bar stools and planned on raising the table with boards underneath or build a platform underneath. Then while we were getting ready to start dismantling we were both on the ground, I was looking at the beautiful X's that made the legs. I jumped up and grabbed a tape measure and explained to Rich we can just flip the X's on end and get the EXACT height we needed! and voila that is what we did! 

 

we are so pleased with how it turned out! it looks great and is totally functional! Mom came over and said I cant believe you didnt think of it years ago! We were a little nervous about Nan's reaction to see her table all cut up, luckily she loved it too!!  

we did it!! what is up next???

Mommy & Daddy Date night!

Mill Brook Tavern, we got a back table and had a couple $2 drafts!!! 

Then played a couple times to try to win our little ladies a stuffy! 

we got lucky once...good thing they share nicely!! 

Then we headed down to Cho-Sun for a little sushi!! 

It was awesome! We had a great night out together, and laughed the whole time!

 

Nanny had volunteered to watch Daisy so we stopped by to pick her up! We were all smiles =)

I just have to brag for one second...Rich NEVER wears anything I buy him...but this shirt is one I picked out on my last girls outing  and he LOVES it!! Well I LOVE it and he will wear it so I guess it is a win-win!! I am very proud of myself. And look how great it looks on him!  

xo

Chia Seeds!!!!

Mom came over for a quick visit so we broke out the Chia seeds!! Jack & Maggie make them look so good I had to try it!!! 

I did mine with Almond Butter, it was awesome! I have actually had about 3 spoon fulls ;)

Chic seeds were a big hit by all! 

Dance & Gi

This is Brenna's dance costume, her pictures were today so I snapped a few of my own! 

what a beauty!

Waiting.......... 

getting close....this is her cotton candy crew

Stella had her second class of karate today and got her suit (gi)??

Conveniently my camera was all ready to take pics ;) 

Her kick ass face 

and my favorite smile <3 

Hampton Inn Swim!!!!!!!

Every winter we try to take the girls here for a little get-away! This Christmas Rich's dad's gift helped us get here =) we had a blast! We picked Estella up from school a little early, checked in early and swam our brains out! 

we are so proud of Brenna especially, she braved the BIG slides (with a little chocolate bribe) once she did it, she didnt stop!

Stella was a pro from last year on the yellow slide, her improvement this year was to master the green one! 

and she did!!!!

but the cutest thing was they still played a lot of the time on the kiddy side too! 

there were 2 "old fashioned" phones in our room, which we unplugged first thing, that the girls played on in the down time, so it was super funny when Pop called and she had both phones going at once!

In the morning while I was packing up I saw there were 2 caps in the bathroom, I gave each girl one and it hasn't come off all day! granted it was raining when we left so they thought it was great to keep their hair dry! Even when we dropped Brenna off at dance, Stella had hers on still!! great good bye gift from the hotel!