Welcome to the Sugarbush!

 Miriel plays with dolls more than the other girls did, probably more than all of them combined.  :)  She reads them books and puts them to bed- shhhhhhh! Baby. Seeeeping.

The girls and I went to the farm on Saturday to play in Grandpa's snow cave. 

Hehe. So fun.

It was barely below freezing and it felt positively tropical after the previous week.  We played outside for a long time.

Gus loved it.  Foof-foof! 

Hooray for barnyard snow piles.  :) 

They are a bit too steep and pointy to sled down easily, but they tried! 

Little miss Miriel preferred being pulled on the sled while eating an icicle. 

Checking out the icicles on the cattle shed.

And back to the cave, which they decided needed furniture.  haha.  Silly girls. 

Then it was time for cocoa... and cookies. 

So. Earlier this winter I learned that you can tap several kinds of trees for sap, not just sugar maples. Any variety of maple tree, or walnut trees, or birch will produce sweet sap (sugar maple has the highest sugar concentration) that can be boiled down into syrup. 

Aaaaand we happen to be in possession of no less than eight maple trees in our yard.  Eight!  Seven silver maple, one red maple, and an autumn blaze that we just planted. Sooo... guess what we decided to do?! 

Look at my cute little tree tappers.     

As soon as the temp got above freezing we strapped on our authentic Adirondack pack basket (purely for aesthetic reasons- and for carrying the drill) and headed out into the woods yard.

They wanted to help put in the taps.

I bought a combination of 9 taps and the buckets and bags to go with them.  So far all but one of the trees is producing at least a little bit of sap!

Cadence and I 'did a craft' one morning; Paw Patrol fleece tied pillowcase.

The red maple has sap in the bag! So exciting.

Bob and some guys got together on Friday night- they ate Duck, pheasant, and quail... the girls and I got to hang out with Meg and her kids.  :)  Maria had a really cute, fun craft for the girls to work on.

David was very sweetly reading books to Miri.

Saturday was lovely outside.  We started boiling down the sap that we had collected.

It boiled and boiled while the girls played and Bob worked on burning the stick pile.

Snack time outside watching the sap boil.

In the almost 10 years that we've lived here we've burned sticks in the same place as the previous owner, and while we technically should have a fire pit, it's so far from any houses no one's ever said anything.  Until Bob was just finishing cutting everything into small pieces and burning a few at a time... controlled and safely... and one of the neighbors came out screaming obscenities at us.  *ugh*  Put a damper on the day.  So out of the blue. We were both like- we have got to get out of town. :P 

But, Maple syrup!!  It boils down to so little volume, it's hard to get an accurate temperature on my candy thermometer or on the meat thermometer... :P

Two gallons of sap boiled down to just under a cup of syrup, and it tastes so good.  So fun and satisfying!  Then we ate half of it on waffles Sunday morning. 

 Otherwise it's been pretty quiet here.  I sang at Helen's funeral, Miri went to the doctor, the girls are busy with school, they are loving gymnastics, piano lessons, lots of everydayness, which we love.

Also, we collected 5 gallons of sap today and it's taking over the fridge!  Good thing we like syrup... and if we're stuck in town we might as well turn it into an urban homestead.  Or something. Ha.  

Blessings.

Outside frozy, Inside Cozy

One of my roommates had that on a sign in college.  Although, I don't think 709 was ever really cozy- it was pretty cold in the winter and I wore long underwear constantly. (Back in the days before leggings were cool.  haha.)

It's been pretty quiet here.

Someone has discovered the dress up... and tutus.

Emmy decided that she wanted to make something for her teacher.  (Right. Now. Today.)  So I suggested she could embroider another towel.... it took her an evening.  I think I should teach her some more complicated stitches. :P 

What's better than an empty box?  Two empty boxes!

Eat! Eat! 

Such fashion- PJ's, tutu, rain boots! 

Emmy spent an afternoon helping Bob with his indoor garden.

We miss church lunch....

Domestic little Emmy neeeeeded to sew herself a skirt.  She cut out the rectangles herself and kept trimming it to even it all up, so it kept getting smaller.  hehe.  Poor kid.  We made it work though.

So last summer/fall the girls were attempting to do cartwheels and back bends and were um, not very successful.  So I looked up a bunch of different tumbling class options the closest and the cheapest was thru the park district, however the class times are the least convenient. But, cheap, and doesn't require any extra wardrobe, and hopefully they will learn enough to not hurt themselves.  We aren't allowed to wait inside the building so we've been hanging out watching cartoons in the van while we wait.

Sooooo excited to show off what they learned.  And not wanting to take turns.  And Miriel wants to be in the middle. 

We made it to 100 days of school (in person!!)  This is Emmy's interpretation of 'dress like you're 100 years old.' :)  "I  want a bun like Grandma!"

I am not a fan of fluorescent fixtures. The one over our kitchen table quit working and it was very dark.  Camping lanterns just don't cut it when you have bad eyes and need lots of light to see. 

He hates switching lights for me- such a good man. :) 

Now I have to paint the ceiling...

They wanted to color with me, which I love. 

Grace and Eden passed down some AG doll stuff and my girls are in heaven.  "We need a room just for our dolls!"  haha.  Pretty much.

What time is it? It's Valentimes!!  haha. 

We are fans of making cards. We mailed quite a few this year and the lady at the post office remarked at the quantity... yes, they are very prolific... haha. 

Color! Picture!

The big girls helped decorate a Valentine's house/box. 

We had a day that was slightly less cold (but still really cold) so we let them play outside in the snow. 

The 'hill' the snowplow leaves is their favorite.

Cute little project and a place for them to put the proliferation of cards they created for each other. :P 

We delivered a few Valentines on Saturday and then spent the evening at the farm.  

I made pink heart pancakes for breakfast Sunday ("But I wanted a round one!" sigh)  and we bundled up to go to church. After church we holed up inside and ate red things for supper.  We all watched Where the Red Fern Grows that evening... (Bob: It's an emotional movie for valentine's day!) Cecily was sobbing, Cadence was teary, Emmy was fine, and Miri was singing Baby Shark.  haha.  

Monday we didn't have school for president's day.  Ballet video with the peanut gallery....

We finally got a snow day on Tuesday!  Their school packets took about an hour; Miri needed to do schoolwork too.

Hooray for snow!  I don't think we've ever had snow hanging over the roof like this before- I really wonder if there's a name for this.  They were harder to knock down than I thought.

So strange, and only on the southern side of the house.

Look out below....

It was cold.  But we bundled up and stayed pretty warm.

I would rather just be pulled in the sled....

They were wallowing in the snow.  Hehe.  Crazy girls.

Then Cecily insisted we needed to make paper snowflakes.  So we did.  :P 

Blessings.