It’s hard to say which end of March was Lion-ish or Lamb-like. But our only two snow days of the year were this month. The weather seemed to swing dramatically back and forth all month long.
The kids were set loose with the camera out in the yard. It was very pretty… not very well treated for getting places however. There was one morning where I woke up at 5 a.m. and checked out the window; nothing. At 5:30 I opened the front door and was greeted with a winter blast the likes of which belonged in the stories of Owl at Home. Winter blasted in the door! We were pelted and blown. Snowing so hard our tracks were immediately covered and it looked as if Haley and I were the only two in the world up and trying to get about. By the time we got 1/4 of a mile from our home I had to pull over. I couldn’t see anything including the tree and fire hydrant right next to the car. It was more than a little scary. Then we started to move once I could see again and decided to pursue our journey to the church building. We got out onto the busy road at a crawl and turned the next corner. We started slipping and sliding and I was really having a hard time controlling the vehicle as the snow continued to come down fiercely. Just as I was wondering if we would be able to make it home in time after the class IF we indeed made it there alive we were faced with a steep-ish downgrade looking way more threatening in the snow, of course. At the same moment we both decided to turn around… it cost us 20 minutes and a big scratch on the car to get home from the next neighborhood over. We found out later that the snow had been coming down at an inch per half hour and a ton of accidents happened out on the roads with the unexpecting travelers. I have experienced many times snow like that but not in this region. Snow like that around here is nearly unheard of, though it was short lived and the roads were fine by the time the kids were ready to go to school.
Our only two snow days all winter happened in March, as I stated before. The kids got outside and really had a lot of fun.
Here’s a little snowman they made. Yeah, it’s little… yeah we close down schools for this!
Kaitlyn dressed appropriately for wacky tacky Wednesday (turned Thursday because of the snow day).
Then she changed into something more suitable for her VERY FIRST violin recital where she played Twinkle variations with the other beginning violinists. We won’t talk about the grief we caught for missing the violin recital at the other school that was moved to the same time due to the snow day.
Then Tristan played his cello with the orchestra for the latter half of the recital. It was nice to hear the progress they’ve made in their performance and Rick was able to attend a performance of theirs for the first time this school year. His own work schedule keeps him THAT busy.
Nathan and I went to the Museum Center on the same day as Kaitlyn’s class field trip. We ate lunch there and Nathan was very happy to see Kaitlyn in the Woods where they could play together briefly. He misses her a whole lot during the day.
But we had fun together too and moved at our own pace; construction, water play and
Caving! Afterward we stopped at the flagpoles outside.
Puzzles! Some were even fun interaction for the kitties.
Then there was Fasching… the annual school carnival with food, fun, games and silly prizes for an afternoon of fun and memories. Sauerkraut, potato pancakes, German chocolate, huge salty pretzels, sodas…
Does Kaitlyn recognize her teacher, the pickpocket lady with green hair??? The kids, armed with change from their piggy banks, used some of their spending money for extra treats they wanted to buy, if they wanted any. Nathan played a whole bunch of games and displayed some of his prizes for me.
A few more games before heading home. I went looking for Tristan and found him with a friend in the Root Beer Garden.
Cute brothers had a fun time, as we all did.
Many signs of spring emerged finally and feeding the birds (and squirrels) dwindled.
Kitties spent more time outdoors, mostly in the backyard enjoying the spring breezes.
Winter tried one last time to grab hold of us at the end of March which made warm cozy nights with good feet warmers still desirable.
Spooky worked on learning his Alphabet… Nathan played along!
Chess club ended for the year with an award for Tristan. Haley was tapped and inducted in the National Honor Society. Both in the same day!
Nathan worked on coloring skills… he can now color mostly in the lines and he draws freely shapes and lines that resemble what he’s trying to make.
This is a bunny he made for his cousin. The bunny form was made from Nathan’s wrist. He drew in the tail and all the colored eggs on the page… it was so cute! Nathan is much more interested in drawing if it is for someone else. It’s wonderful to see his creativity emerging like when he comes to me with his “Macaroni-a-saurus” drawings. A sense of humor, too!
Tristan was awarded his Webelos patch at Cub Scouts… sort of. They forgot to purchase it so it was more of an announcement this month. This was followed by an evening of healthy living family fun… an opener to the “healthy living challenge” that all the kids (and adults) took on led by the 8-11 year old boys and girls.
Tug of War was blast for the kids. (Nathan is in the middle “helping” there).
There were obstacle courses with bouncy balls to bounce with, tents to crawl through and barrels to roll in with lots of running and jumping in between.
We ended the month preparing for Easter and Spring Break. We volunteered as a vacation destination for Brownie (Kindergarten pet turtle) but ended up with Roxi the bird. The bird was beautiful and would have been fairly trouble free if it weren’t for my cats! Admittedly the combination was more responsibility than I care to take on again.
Oscar was the second cat at the table to observe (with intensity, I might add) the bird. Spooky had been there first in a matter of minutes of the bird’s entrance. After that we put Roxi upstairs behind two closed doors on a hook on the ceiling. This was the safest place I had but it still kept Spring Break interesting. For one thing it’s hard to get five kids to remember to always keep the door shut. The second thing was that two cats were found in the bedroom with Roxi and when I reminded children to keep the door shut the kids told me the cats had opened the door. I didn’t believe them until one day I was in the bedroom with the door shut changing someone’s sheets when the cats opened the door!!! Meanwhile, Lindsay had entered the room on the first said occasion to find one cat perched on her bed while she slowly spun the bird cage hanging on the hook from the ceiling with her paw which birdcage had the second cat clinging to the top of it as the cage turned. The hook was nearly out of the ceiling and the bird was saved from certain disaster just in the knick of time!!! After I experienced the cats opening the door to the room themselves pet sitting became a two door buffer deal and the bird was beyond ready to go back to school as soon as spring break was over. Alive and well with me thanking my lucky stars this bird can only chirp back to the teacher!
