Treasure Hunt

One of Nicholas's Christmas gifts from Grandma and Grandpa was a metal detector. He always gets a reading when he goes over the sidewalk, and he is sure there is buried treasure under there. So far, David has NOT given permission to rent a jack hammer to dig up the sidewalk, so he is limited to the rest of the yard.

Ooooo!! A signal!!








He was digging here, when I looked out the window and realized he was disturbingly close to our dog Bryce's grave! OH no!










Luckily he was easily relocated to another area of the yard:












Big sister Megan stopped by to help out.









Pay Dirt!!!!!

Great Backyard Bird Count

Over Valentine's weekend we participated in the Great Backyard Bird Count. We have counted birds for this event several times in the past. It's pretty fun to keep track of the species we see over the four day period and then look at the maps to see where the most birds are seen.




Megan was in charge of filling the feeders.








Nicholas provided the walkie talkies and manned the binoculars and the identification book.






And Grace and Dash kept out a sharp eye for any feathered friends who happened by.














Not surprisingly, this feeder didn't see a lot of action!

Home Improvement

Several weeks ago, we had some guys come out and add some cellulose insulation to our house. It really made a difference, and we have even noticed a decrease in our utility bill. They couldn't access our bonus room, though, and so my husband discovered that you could buy the insulation at Lowe's and they would let you use the blower for free. From the time this information was procured, my husband (who is generally not that interested in home projects) was OBSESSED with insulating the bonus room. First, he and my dad cut a hole in the closet ceiling. He talked about it frequently and tried to plan to do the insulation every time we had a free block of time of at least 2 hours. (These are much more elusive than you might think.)

So finally, we had a whole free Sunday, and we decided to tackle the task.









The first challenge was getting the blower out of the van. In case you aren't sure exactly how you should handle the machine, they tell you:









Perhaps they have good reason to worry. Here was our set up for getting it out of the van:



For the record, we did NOT drop the machine.







Let's just say, I'm glad we waited. It took much longer than we had estimated, and it turned out to be a 3 or 4 person project. Once we figured out the process, it was pretty straight forward, but the space we were insulating was pretty tight. And it definitely took one person to work the blower, and 2 more to keep the hopper filled. The fourth person was handy in running back and forth between the garage and the upstairs bedroom, providing communication. Here's the team:


Me. You need the mask, but the ear protection was overboard.







Dad. He kept the cellulose coming reliably.











David. Notice the tight space. Now imagine it full of dusty, blowing bits of ground up newspaper. And you're wearing a mask. Claustrophobic much? I did NOT participate in this part of the challange, er, project.





Brendan. Naturally, he had the coolest accessories. And although we asked him to come help, it turned out he had already told his girlfriend he was going to come over "to see how it was done." He was excited. It was entertainment AND education.





All told, it took about 6-7 hours, including 4 total trips to and from Lowes carrying the insulation and the machine, an hour (or two) to set up and figure out the process, and several hours to actually blow in the insulation. But, now it's done, and we can focus on a much more exciting project: the kitchen!!

SNOW!!!!!

Yesterday, shortly after I arrived at work, it started snowing outside. As it began to accumulate on the grass and even the parking lot, I began to make arrangements in case school let out early. Sure enough, a short time later, the call came from the school. Luckily, Grandpa was available, and he walked over to pick up the kids. Snow is a rarity here, so Megan and Nicholas were very excited and played outside twice while they were at Grandma and Grandpa's house (Grandma dried thier clothes in between!). Megan built a snowwoman,
and a little "snow friend,"
(Megan is wearing Grandma's coat --she probably didn't bring hers to school that day:)








and Nicholas practiced his marksmanship with snowballs against the fence. He built a little snowman and then slid down the hill to knock it over.










When we got home, a second snowwoman was created (isn't she cute?)












and Nicholas and the neighborhood boys had a snowball fight. Here's Nicholas accumulating his stash:
He's so proud!








Now we don't get much snow in Knoxville, so I can totally understand wanting to take advantage of the snow while it's here. What I don't get is, the next day, when it was about 25ºF and the snow was all frozen and crusty and you couldn't do ANYTHING with it, both kids still went out to play for a significant amount of time. And it was FREEZING outside. I guess it's the magic of snow.