Catching up...

Well, well... we've had more than usual going on over the last few weeks, but here's a catch-up on a few of the major events:



Maren and Malcolm earned silver medals at the district chess tournament and their cousin Aidan got gold. You can see all three in action in this picture:


Malcolm is on the left in the first game (and yes, he wore the hood for all his games); Maren is in the second game (in the green sweater); Aidan is on the right side in the third game. Maren and Aidan ended up playing each other (Aidan triumphed in that match!); Maren had to play TWO tie-breaker games to get the silver! (That's seven games in a row... more stamina and concentration than I have, sadly.)



All three advance to the provincial tournament, which will be held just around the corner from Grammie and Grampie's house this year (yay!). I think they are proud of themselves, what do you think?

If there is one thing we've had lots of, it is SNOW! Lots of snow days, during which my children discovered that we have just enough yard to make a toboganning hill that nearly runs right into our door. Surprisingly, no one was hurt. At least not by sliding into the house... or snowballs!


A very fun experiment we tried on the very snowiest of the snow days had some decidedly delicious results. When we woke up to at least a foot of fresh snow, I put on my boots and headed out in my robe to collect a big pot of clean snow for this:


Snow ice cream! Here's the "recipe," in case you want to give it a try....

Start with a cereal bowl of fresh, clean snow. Measure 1/4 tsp of vanilla into the bowl and drizzle 1 to 3 Tbsps of maple syrup over top. (I'm told you can use sugar, too, but maple syrup is so much more delish!) Then pour in 4 to 6 Tbsp of heavy cream and stir it all up. (We also tried out a sprinkling of cocoa powder... also very yummy!)

If all goes as planned, you should get reactions something like this:


(Thanks to Laura for the tip.)

Now, if you'll excuse me, it's time to knuckle down and try to dig myself out of the mountain of backlogged schoolwork I need to get done before March "break" is over.