Snow and Science

We had an amazing week.  It started with a nice Monday holiday from school and work.  The weather was great and so we headed out for a family snowshoe trip.  We had such a great time!

Can you believe that we're about 4 feet up on top of the boardwalk around this lake?  The posts that you see in the foreground of this picture are actually posts up in the air of the boardwalk.

We had some great snow and quite enjoyed ourselves.

For some reason I enjoy crashing and falling in the snow.  I probably spent as much time down in the snow as I did walking.  I'm fairly confident that no other person in the whole wide world has ever made a snow angel in this spot!!!

Mom says this picture brings a little tear to her eye - she thinks I look very grown up!

Here's mom and Sam taking a break.

And here are the boys with mom.

And here is a family self portrait.  

 Sam always seems to need a ride as we get towards the end of the hike.  

But here he is finishing strong.

We had a little snack in the car after our snowshoeing adventure . . . .

. . . . but then dad decided to take us all out for sushi on the way home.  Sam loves sushi - except that the bites are a little big for a small guy.

I have never been a sushi fan - but I decided to be brave and try a California roll.  The parents promised that there wasn't anything "raw" in this roll so I gave it a whirl.  I wasn't too excited to find out there was seaweed in it, but then I decided I actually liked it.  And most of all, I'm very proud of myself for trying it!

Then on Thursday this week, it was Science Fair time at school.  Sam's presentation was first.  He did a class project about Germs.  Here is the invitation he made inviting us to see it.

You can take a look at his parts in the presentation here.  He is officially known as "Sam the Science Guy!"  His teachers said that he was the most responsible student in class and that's why he got the parts that he did.  

He did a great job, didn't he?  Here he is in full costume.  

And here he is with his project notebook.  His class really did do a great job!

Here is Sam with his best friend Elinor and some of his other friends.

And just for fun, here are the petri dishes that they collected from different parts of their classroom.  Gross, huh!

And finally, Sam with his science fair posters.

 Then it was my turn for some Science.  My class split in two for two different projects.  I chose to work on bridges and tried to determine the strongest type of bridge.  Here I am with my half of the class doing our presentation.

Here is our poster and my project notebook.

And here I am with some of my best friends - Ben G., and Davis.  

 Sam's after school teacher brought a real 2002 Olympic torch for us to see.  We've been LOVING watching the Olympics the past two weeks.  I've decided I want to learn how to snow board and Sam just wants to do anything where he can go fast!

And finally, here I am working hard on my book report that is due this coming week.  More on that next time.  

Sam Alert:  Hey everyone - wasn't that a great week?  I got to ditch school for about 1 1/2 hours to spend a little quality time with mom.  Mason had a test after his Science Fair so mom signed me out.  Here I am sneaking out to the car.

And we went grocery shopping - we found a store that had shopping carts just my size.  I was in charge  the whole time.  It was soooo much fun to be in charge of the cart.  I got to pick out all the items, push them around, and put them up for the cashier to ring up.  What's more fun that spending time with mom?  Being in charge of that time - that's what!

Sam out - have a great week!

Just a Hint

There was just a hint of the coming spring in the air this week.  We actually spent some time playing outside - usually with a light jacket, but still . . . . outside in the clean air just the same!

We spent a little quality time with our remote controlled cars after school 

one day.  Ahh - good times!

 We went out to dinner with our friends one night for Uncle Randy's birthday.  Easton (his grandson) was there and we had the BEST time!  Easton and I even happened to have the exact same shirt on.  Yep - we're both cool like that!

 Saturday was a little cloudy and breezy but still on the warmer side of winter weather.  So we made the most of it and headed out for some adventures.  

We stopped for a visit to Farm Country at Thanksgiving Point.  

Here we are mooing with the cow.

 This turkey was strutting around all puffed up.  He sure was handsome.  Makes us want a nice yummy turkey dinner with sweet potatoes, rolls, and cranberry salad.  Somehow I don't think he was dreaming about Thanksgiving dinner!

The Farm jail - hopefully not a sign of anything to come!

 We took a family spin around the Farm on the tractor-pulled wagon.  

And we did a little horse riding.  

Yee Haw Sam!

Our favorite part of the Farm is feeding the goats.  They did not disappoint.  They're always hungry and ready to eat.

After the Farm, we headed for mini golfing.  We tried a new place that we had never golfed at before - it was fun.  

Sam and I are learning to take mini golf a bit more seriously.  We're focusing on our shots and working hard to get the ball in the hole in as few hits as possible.

Mom and dad claim it's a lot more fun when we play seriously rather than us running around like squirrels the whole time.  

Mom lost the game by 2 strokes and had to treat us all to ice cream afterwards.  

It's nice to think that spring isn't too far away. 

Sam Alert:  Hey everyone - Most of the snow you see in this picture has now melted.  The weather people say we're going to get more snow this week, but spring snow is always better than winter snow!  My remote controlled car doesn't like ANY snow however.

I wrote a note to my family for Valentine's Day - - - can you read it?  

It says "Happy Valentine's my family".

Sam out - have a great week!

Celebrations

We celebrated a couple of big events this week.  First - it was daddy's birthday.  He says he's 103 years old.  He looks surprisingly good for being that old.  Here we are in our traditional birthday boy sandwich pose.  We sure do love our daddy!

And we finished our Read-A-Thon at school this week.  I won first place in my class with over 2800 pages read.  Sam came in second place in his class with over 1000 pages read.  

We celebrated the Read-A-Thon wins with a trip out for ice cream.  Umm, umm, good!

In other events this week, we accompanied mom to a fun store on Saturday where we got to do some fun Valentine's crafts.  Here we are afterwards.

We also got to go to a movie - we saw the Lego Movie.  It was excellent! 

A great week was had by all.

 Sam Alert:  Hey everyone - Sam here.  

I worked really hard for my Read-A-Thon over the last few weeks.  I'm learning to love reading too.  

And here I am with one of my Valentine's crafts . . . a bow and arrow.  I've been "shooting" hearts at my family all weekend.  

Love Sam!

Little Mice

Our picture sharing is slim this week . . . because we were being little mice.  You know that old saying - "When the cat's away, the mice will play"?  Well we are the mice and mommy is the cat, so to speak.  She had meetings out of town last week and dad promised not to take incriminating pictures of all the things we did.  So we share with you only a few pictures from after she got home.  

We had a very small Chinese New Year Celebration this weekend.  It wasn't up to our usual standards but dad got sick so we kept things small and quiet.  And just to answer the obvious question before you ask it - I have no idea why I'm standing on the chair.

We played trains this afternoon.  It's been awhile since we set up a big train track to play with.  We got out one of our favorites and dad helped us set it up.

And here it is all put together.  Hours and hours of fun!  

Sam Alert:  I realize that we are dressed in pajamas in a lot of pictures you all get to see.  I just wanted to say that apparently mom has rubbed off on us.  Pajamas are the norm in our house unless we are headed some where.  They're just so comfy and cozy!  And we love it!

Sam out - more pictures next week.