spring is in the air

Oh my, spring is in the air! I mean, not that is WARM, but it has warmed up, the snow has melted and we actually got some sun today. Most of the week we were stuck with a constant downpour, but today was good.
In honor of the great weather, we decided to plant some bulbs.



Some of the chestnuts that we found in the fall had sprouted roots and we planted those as well. (even though Leland doesn't really like chestnut trees, because they make a mess year-round.) We'll see if they grow into actual trees.

On a complete not related note: here is conversation that happens almost at a daily basis somewhere between 6 and 7 in the morning - before Leland and I need to get up. (Monty being the one party in this conversation and me the other)

"Mommy?"
"Humpff"
"Mommy?"
"Yes Monty?"
"Can I say something?"
"Yes dear."
"Mommy?"
"Yes!???"
"I er... I ... Can i go to the bathroom?"

Honestly! Does the child have to wake me up at six in the morning to ask if he can go to the bathroom? Why doesn't he just go?
Alas, we have told him time and time again, if you need to go to the bathroom, by all means, GO. But to no avail.
He is an interesting child....

skating

The boys have the week off in honor of carnaval. Last Friday there was a carnaval party at school. Monty was a pirate and Stoney a knight.


This is Stoney at the carnaval party at the school, the girl behind him is in his class.

On Monday we finally took the boys to the skating rink - a long overdue promise. Stoney had been with school a couple of times and he is getting the hang of skating a little bit. For Monty it was the first time and he would not venture on the ice without holding at least one hand of either Mom or Dad.







The boys had a great time. As for Leland and me, well, we decided we are too old and too stiff to do this kind of stuff ;-)

some more about the crash...

Here is some more tidbits on the crash with the bus -see previous post. We had just received 'Flat Connor' in the mail the day before and Stoney thought it would be an excellent idea to take a picture of the crashed bus with Flat Connor. (We are working on getting some more appropriate pictures with Flat Connor)



Also, a glimpse into a child's mind - Monty's in this case. The day after the crash he went up to his teacher and told her all about the crash. The added matter-of-factly that 'Jesus had protected our house from the bus crashing into it, but He forgot the neighbors house'.

Meanwhile, it is still absolutely freezing over here and still slippery. Stoney crashed (again) on his bike today on a piece of ice and had a bloody knee. A day or so before they were at the school and Leland made this little video: (everything is just one sheet of ice over here)

Crash!

I know, i know, we didn't get the two feet of snow that the DC area did, but we have our problems. We got a couple of inches of snow this morning and that in combination with ice, and a bus, resulted in this:

The house directly to the right is ours, i guess we got lucky. Yikes.

The police came (naturally) and asked us to wait outside till the fire department had come and cleared our house as well, since there may be damage.
Stoney was a little shaken by the thought of our house collapsing, Monty however, wasn't faced by the whole thing.
Eventually the fire department came and okayed us for going back into the house, after which Stoney did his own inspection and told us all was clear because he didn't see any cracks anywhere.