Chocolate at Bell Manor

All three of the girls' troops went to an event at Bell Manor in Conowingo MD called Chocolate at Bell Manor.  I love it when all three troops do something together - it sure is easier logistically!
Here's the girls from 1980:

from 2226:

and from 5375:

What was cool was that technically Lyla wasn't supposed to be able to participate because she is still a Brownie.  But she had to ride there with me.  When we got there, someone did not show up and they let me put her in.  Bonus!
There were three different candy-making stations and each took around 45 minutes to make.  They made chocolate-covered pretzels, chocolate bark, meringues, smore candy, puppy chow, shaped chocolates, and dots.

After Lyla's troop was done they all played hand games while we waited for the other girls to finish.

And all the girls that rode with me got to go out to J&P's for dinner!  Yummy!

Aerials

All three girls continue to learn such cool moves on the fabric trapeze!  It is so much fun and it looks so pretty!  Of course I am jealous to try it myself someday, but for the time being I can enjoy watching.  :)

NASA Lander challenge

For our January NASA challenge, the kids had to build a lunar lander.  The lander had to hold two "astronauts."  It had to be able to roll down a ramp and coast a certain distance too.  There also had to be some kind of cargo hold.  It is always really neat to see how the kids formulate different ideas into a working thing.  And they have to work with different partners each time.  Ah, life skills.
Lyla's lander had the particular problem that it always veered to the side when it came down the ramp.  It was neat to watch her and her partner try to figure out why and how to fix it.

Snowpacalypse 2016

     We all got a lot of advance warning about the blizzard coming for us this past weekend.  Everything was cancelled after the afternoon on Friday, and most things were already being cancelled for the weekend.  Everyone stocked up on milk, bread, and toilet paper.  I tried to stock up on a few more items than that.  No one wants to eat milk sandwiches all weekend.  We even prepared for the power to go out.  Jason made sure the generator worked and the girls moved their bedding down to the basement so that they could sleep in front of the propane fireplace in case the heat went out.  So we hunkered down and watched the snow pile up.  

     Saturday morning it was till snowing, but nothing I would think of as a "blizzard."  The girls tried to go out and play a little bit, but the snow was blowing a bit and snow in your face isn't fun for long.

    We did keep trying to measure the snow.  Of course it's a different measurement depending on where in the yard we stuck the stick.  Mostly it got up to around 17-18 in.  Gwyn swears she measured it at 23 somewhere.  All I know is it was over my knees when I had to trudge through it.

     Mostly we just had a pj party.  Many movies were watched.  We introduced the girls to The Matrix.  And we played lots of games.

     Sunday morning, the blizzard was over and it was a beautiful morning!

     The chickens weathered the blizzard well.  The run almost collapsed from the weight of the snow, but I did get it shoveled off and they're good to go!  It's crazy too that at least some of them chose the blizzard to be the time they would start laying again.  I actually got four eggs on Tuesday.  Crazy.

     Once the blizzard was over, we shoveled the roof off.  There was a good 18 inches covering it so this was a chore and a half!

     The view from the top was nice though.

One of the piles off the roof was perfect to dig out a cave.

     Tink does not like the snow.  That wagging tail and cocked ear is all to say, "Is it time to go back inside now?"

     And after the roof, there was the deck (where some of the snow off the roof ended up) and the driveway.  
     We did get the cars dug out so we could leave if we needed to.  That was enough though.  The rest of the driveway could wait as long as we had a path to walk on.

     And Jason's reward for his 6 hours of shoveling?  A donut chicken sandwich!  I settled for a regular chicken sandwich.

Today is the day indeed.

     Monday we finally got to play.  There was a ton of snow piled on the truck so we decided to ramp off the back of the truck and see how far down the hill we could make a track.

We got it down to the playground.  The snow was still fluffy, so the sledding wasn't very fast the first day.  But by Tuesday it was super fast!

    The girls wanted to see how the river looked in all the snow.  I knew this was going to be a hike in a half to get back up the hill with the snow this deep.  Snow shoes would have been very helpful this time!

     But of course it was worth it!  The river always has some kind of wonder to be found no matter when we go down there.  This time Gwyn and Lyla sat for a long time pushing snow in and watching it flow down stream under the ice.

The fort that the girls built made a perfect snow hut too!

     The river is always so beautiful!  The ice and snow just made it more so.

     Evan and Grace joined us down at the river to play for a bit.  There was one section of the back channel that was frozen enough to slide on.

     And the snow was fun to play in on its own.

     Then the climb back up!

     It's been a fun five day weekend!  Schools just keep getting cancelled and parking lots aren't cleared.  Jason finally could go back to work on Wednesday even though schools were still out.  It was a nice impromptu vacation.  Although we did spend two days with no heat in the house other than the propane heater.  On Saturday our heat started making an awful smell - I finally decided it was like a burned pot of black-eyed peas.  We opened up everything we could and troubleshot everything we could, but couldn't find a reason for the smell.  So in loo of starting a fire in the house, we turned it off.  The HVAC people couldn't come until Monday b/c the roads weren't plowed so it was a little like having the power off without having to run the generator.  Thank heavens for that propane heater!  It actually didn't get as cold upstairs as I thought it would.  It stayed around 61 the first day and got down to 55 the 2nd, but we survived.  And when the HVAC man came, there was nothing wrong.  Go figure.  Something made that god-awful smell, everytime we would turn the heat on to test it.  But not for him.  Whatever made the smell is gone now.  

     Today we join the world again.  Some things are still cancelled, but Jason went to work and we have a few places to be today.  At least the girls did get school work done this week.  And we still get to play b/c the snow is still here and  the sled track is slick.  Blizzard 2016 has turned out to be awesome!