Snow

It is March 23 and it snowed 5 inches last night. 

My sister in Saint Louis is sending me photos of her blooming daffodils and we are shuffling through 5 inches of beautiful, fluffy, white snow! 

We did have a few days of 60-degree temperatures a couple of weeks back and melted nearly everything. The kids played in the mud and splashed in the puddles, and now the cold has returned. We're happily well above zero, but still, the snow sure makes it feel like winter. I actually don't mind. I know it is short lived and it is a breathtaking reprieve from the dirty brown mess that is early spring.  

These pictures are actually from just a few weeks ago. I am guessing that within a few days, all the new snow will be gone, but it sure was lovely to wake up to it this morning. I love snow, I really do. It is magical, even here in Wisconsin. 

Gavin thought he'd help us out one morning, by shoveling some of the freshly fallen snow off the driveway while he waited for the school bus. He is a sweet and thoughtful 6 year old and this was the perfect activity to burn off some of his incredible energy before spending the next 40 minutes sitting on the school bus. 

I love the light 

the snow

the snow in the light

and the light in the snow

magic

I love snow

I don't like cold at all

I don't like being cold

I love warm golden sunshine 

on a snowy winter morning 

there is nothing better

The View

Let's go back a couple of months for a moment...

That there is our house/yard. We're looking at our lot from the side, looking east. The house faces north, so our road is actually on the left of this photo. The front of our yard is the left 3/4 of the wooded plot you see there and the backyard is that 1/4 on the right. When you're at our house, you don't realize how far back on the lot the house sits. Our house sits on a 2-acre 'yard' which includes the woods you see here and then we have just over 300 acres of farm land that we farm with Cliff's parents. The tall thing in the photo above is an old cement silo and our house (it's red) sits next to and in front of the silo. The house is built where the old barn used to sit. In the photo above, you can just see the house to the left of the silo.

The photo above is "the farm" as Cliff refers to it. This is where he grew up and it's about 2/3 mile up the road from us (or down the road, depending on your perspective). This is where Cliff's parents live and where all of our farm machinery is stored. This used to be a dairy farm and they were still milking cows when Cliff and I were dating, but sold them some time around the time we got married and there is now no livestock on the farm. For the first five years that we were married, we lived in a 600 sq. ft. house up on "the farm" next to my in-laws' house.

The farm again:



and again...

This is also the farm, in the winter time. Actually...  this was May of this year. Yes, May. May as in, when we're supposed to be planning and readying our gardens and watching for the May flowers... not storm showers. Anyway, on the right half of this photo, there are three houses, barely visible. The one closest the the center of this photo is Cliff's parents' house. The one next to it, to the right, was our old house. Then the one on the end (on the right) was the farm's hired-man's house. When we moved out of our old house, it became a rental property. Here's a photo of our old house in the summer time.



then we have the barn down the road...

This barn is on the opposite side of our road from our house, between our house (on one end of our dead end road) and Cliff's folks' house (on the other end of our dead end road). There used to be a farm here, but the house has been gone since before I ever knew Cliff. The land is rented to another farmer. The barn has been one of my favorite things to photograph for years and makes for a stunning silhouette in sunset photos.

The barn is currently being dismantled. The two other small old outbuildings were removed earlier this summer. The barn is taking a little longer. It makes me sad. I love the memory of it. I'm so glad I have so many photos!

These are all of the sites we see when we go for a walk or bike ride up our road... which we do A LOT. I love the mud on Gavin's back in this picture of him on his bike. He had been riding through mud puddles, clearly! It also cracks me up that he's wearing his swim suit - trunks and rash-guard shirt. A swim suit and a bike helmet. These pictures are old now. The corn is way taller than me. In many of these pictures it's only a few inches tall! It was the middle of June.

We have quite a view... whether we're looking out across the fields or right down in front of us. A beautiful, amazing, God-given view.

Preschool Update

Gavin has been in preschool for a month already, and I have to say, it is WAY better than I ever imagined. Gavin loves school and asks every morning if it's a school day. If it isn't, he says he wishes it was!

If you missed my post about his first day of preschool, you can read it here.

One of Gavin's favorite things about going to school is getting to ride in an elevator. His classroom is on the 2nd floor, and he wants to take the elevator instead of the stairs every day! He loves to push the button for the correct floor and watch the doors open and close. I know... easily amused! 

His very favorite thing about preschool is his teacher. He seriously loves her and says that he wants to be a teacher when he is grown up so he can stay at school all day. His teacher is so kind and gentle and really makes the kids feel special. Just last night when we were saying bed time prayers and doing our "God Bless" routine, Gavin said "God Bless Mrs. Langer" and he thanked God that he gets to see Mrs. Langer almost every day. We feel so blessed to have Gavin in her class! She has a very special gift and I'm so glad she is sharing it with our kids!

Gavin's classroom is bright and cheerful and full of fun things for the kids to do!

I am truly amazed at how much Gavin is learning there and how much his teacher fits in to 2 1/2 hours each day! The kids have some free play time, they do an art project, they read a story and sing songs and have snack and have show and tell. I feel like it takes me 2 1/2 hours at home to tackle just ONE of those things! Gavin comes home singing a new song almost every day and I just love it! I'd like a cheat sheet of all the songs he learns there so we can remember the words and keep singing them at home! He is learning all about being a good friend and about the Golden Rule of treating others as you would like to be treated. 

We have most of his art projects hanging on the art wall in our hallway at home, but I take pictures of them too so I have them stored without having to store every work of art forever. Cliff's parents saved a whole bunch of his "keepsakes" from when he was little and have been giving them to us over the past few years. Cliff isn't really interested in them and ends up tossing them out anyway, so we're not planning to save a lot of Gavin's things for him, just a few extra special ones. I do however, want to keep the pictures I have of them, probably more for me than for him.

At school they've been learning a lot about insects and Gavin told us all about how an ant colony works as well as how a beehive works. He made all kinds of art projects of different insects. These beautiful bugs (below) are displayed on the bulletin board outside Gavin's classroom at school!  

The life-size cutouts of each of the kids lined the hallway from the coat hooks into the classroom. The blue and orange one on the left end is Gavin.

I love this little caterpillar! Gavin gave him a long yellow nose. He told me that caterpillars don't really have tails, but he gave his a little pink tail anyway! 

The beautiful butterfly below is one of my favorites. I'm pretty sure the wings are made from big coffee filters, but Gavin told me they were made from big cupcake wrappers, which I thought was pretty cute. Of course he would think cupcake wrapper before he thought coffee filter! I just love the colors on this guy! He's been flying all over our house!

This is his ant hill. The ants have three body parts, and six legs. The big ant on top is the queen and the other ants are the workers and they're moving through the tunnels inside the ant hill.

What I loved more than anything is his name on the bottom of this one. That's the best I've ever seen him write his name. Usually the letters aren't in the correct order and they aren't all identifiable. 

I've seen so many wonderful things in Gavin since he started school and I can only attribute them to his amazing teacher and the opportunity for him to spend time with kids his own age, since at daycare, the other kids are all older by at least two years or younger by at least a year.  

You may remember what I wrote about MY first day of preschool as well, and my uncharacteristic insecurites about it.  I need to say that I really like every child in Gavin's class and every one of their moms so much! I don't usually get to see any of the dads since in Gavin's class it's the moms who do the majority of the dropping off and picking up. The moms are all so kind and so friendly and the kids are all genuinely really nice, good kids.

I've realized, of course, that although we all come from different places - some of the families' lives seem similar to ours and some seem pretty different, we are all trying to be the best parents we can be to our wonderful and sometimes trying preschoolers. The other moms are just like me in many ways. 

Now that we're a month into school, it seems everyone is more at ease and everyone is enjoying getting to know each other! I'm enjoying Gavin's class as much as he is! 

  

Our Little Biker Boy

While I was out of town last weekend, Cliff and Gavin were busy doing all kinds of fun things. They hung out with my brother and his kids Friday night at my brother's house, they went in to our small town on Saturday morning and fed the ducks on the river that runs through town, and the most exciting part of the weekend - Gavin learned how to ride a bike! (with training wheels)

A friend of ours gave us this bike a couple of years ago, knowing that someday Gavin would be ready for a bike. I admit that I didn't think it would happen this year, when Gavin is only three. I assumed he'd be five or six when he rode a real bike for the first time, at least four for sure. This bike belonged to our friend's son and now it has made Gavin the happiest boy in town!

"Mom, can I wide just a widdo wongoo pwease?

Cliff brought the bike from the shed into the garage and tied a rope to the front of it. He let Gavin sit on the bike and get a handle on steering while Cliff pulled him around with the rope. After doing that for awhile, he took the rope off and let Gavin work on pedaling in a straight line from one end of the garage to the other. At first Gavin only wanted to go in one direction, since the slight slope of the garage floor made the bike a little wobbly as it teetered from one training wheel to the other. After a full day of practicing though, he had gained a LOT of confidence!



We brought the bike from the garage into the basement on Sunday night, so Gavin could keep riding and have more space since both of our vehicles were now parked in the garage.

Here is a video of Gavin riding his bike in the basement! He loves to ride as fast as he can past us and "blow" us over with the wind he thinks he creates. He keeps saying to us "I bet you didn't even know a fwee-year- ode could wide a bike!"

We always knew he'd be a biker, but whenever I thought of it, I imagined him on a motorcycle. I'm so glad he is as excited about riding his pedal bike as he is about riding in the sidecar on the motorcycle! I can't wait for this spring when we can all go out for a pedal bike ride together and he can be on his own bike instead of in the bike trailer! So much fun!