The Snow Cave

We have had quite a few snow storms this winter and it has really accumulated in our yard.  What do you do with all that snow besides shovel or snow blow it?  You build a snow cave!  The boys love to play inside, outside and on the cave every chance they get.  I snapped a few pictures of Ehric playing in the cave before his bus came this morning.  He is going to miss that cave when the snow melts!

A view from outside the cave.

 Ehric sitting inside the cave.

Standing outside the cave.

French Toast

On Friday it snowed yet again. Since school was cancelled I decided to make a special breakfast, Raisin French Toast with sausages and orange juice. It was so good!

Raisin French Toast
6 slices Pepperidge Swirl Raisin Cinnamon Bread
1 oz milk
1 egg
Pinch of Cinnamon

Tiny bit of Vanilla Extract

Preheat griddle or pan (lightly butter or oil first). In a shallow dish scramble together the milk, egg, cinnamon and vanilla. Dip both sides of the the bread slices into the mixture and then cook both sides on the griddle.

Aiden ate half of his French Toast and then decided that he wanted to eat Pancakes. Since I had a hot griddle and a Pancake mix handy I humored him.

They both left the table happy with full tummies. "Snow day, yummy snow day!"

Snow Blowing & Hot Cocoa

It has been snowing for most of the day today and our driveway really needed to be plowed by the time Ehric got home from school. So after Ehric got off the bus and made snow angels he and Daddy got to work plowing the driveway. Daddy taught Ehric how to use our Case tractor and for a six year old he did awesome!! Maybe in a few years he will be plowing the driveway by himself.

Since it was snowing and it was cold out I figured everyone would want some hot cocoa. I decided that instead of using the Swiss Miss I would make some from scratch. So I dug out my Hershey's cookbook and made some Hot Cocoa. It was so good with the gingerbread we have leftover from our gingerbread house from Christmas. Everyone had a mug and warmed up!

Hot Cocoa

(from Hershey's 1934 Cookbook (C) 1992)

3 tblsp sugar
2 tblsp Hershey's Cocoa (or any baking cocoa)
Dash salt
1/4 cup hot water
1 1/2 cups milk
Marshmallows or marshmallow creme

In a medium saucepan, combine sugar, cocoa and salt; stir in water. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture boils. Boil and stir 2 minutes. Add milk. Heat to serving temperature, stirring occasionally. Do not boil. Remove from heat; stir in vanilla. Beat with rotary beater or wire whisk until foamy. Serve hot, topped with marshmallows.

Optional: before whisking add in a little bit of cinnamon.

Raspberries!!

Aiden has really enjoyed picking raspberries in the play yard over the last few days. Daddy even setup a ladder for him to reach the high berries! Here he is picking, eating and delighting in his harvest!

Honey, Raspberries & Baby Birds

Hubby recently befriended a fellow beekeeper that lives up the road. All week they have been chasing swarms together, and as a thank you he gave us 5 jars of honey and 2 packages of honeycomb from his bees. We tried the honeycomb after lunch and had fun sucking the honey out. It was so floral tasting and sweet. Can't wait to try the honey out soon!

After lunch the boys went to play outside and discovered raspberries in their play yard. They were so excited and spent most of the afternoon picking berries. Hubby weeded out some butterfly bush from the raspberry patch and discovered a bird's nest that had two baby birds inside. He showed it to the boys. They were so excited to tell me about it, and Ehric said it had two little red colored birds in the nest. I will have to go inspect it tomorrow. Not a bad Thursday!

A Walk In the Yard

What I am thankful for this morning

The past few days have been rainy and overcast; and the weather forecast is predicting another wet four days! Since they are predicting afternoon showers today, I am very thankful for the few rays of sunshine we are getting right now.

I think because we have been cooped up so much, we all seem to be a little crankier and demanding more than usual this week. Not a good match when both Momma and the boys feel that way at the same time! So I am hoping that this morning we can all get a little bit of fresh air.

The birds seem to be enjoying the weather. The boys and I listened to a bird singing in our front yard. Our guineas seem very happy and are making their very distinct noises. I even spotted a few chickens out happily pecking the ground.

Whenever the rain lets up for good...sometime next week I believe...it will be time to mow the grass again. Daddy has realized lately that he cannot mow the grass in peace like he used to (without little men wanting to tag along). So he compromised the last time and got a little exercise in the process.


Here is Ehric riding and Daddy walking along! I don't think that Daddy wants to mow our 2 acres that way every time, but it sure did make a cute picture moment!

Have a great day!

Fun in Our Yard

After rearranging furniture all morning the boys really wanted to go outside. So we have spent most of the afternoon enjoying our yard. It has been a little overcast but a relatively seasonable day. The birds have been chirping away and we have been having fun. I love spring!

Earlier in the day Ehric wanted me to read some of our library books to him while they played in the sandbox. So I lugged out all the books and started reading. I was a little leary of bringing the library's books out because of it being overcast. I guess I was right to worry because at one point the clouds got really dark and the wind picked up. Sure enough it started to down pour. I ran with all the books in my arms and safely got them inside. But before that we were having a good time; and even one of our roosters seemed captivated by a book I was reading. I made sure to show him the pages before I turned them. It was funny!

After spotting two little red birds (I believe) earlier in our apple tree I got out our binoculars. The boys and I went birding around our yard. It was a lot of fun except that the birds all seemed to be hiding on us. Also Aiden decided that he wanted to use the more expensive, nicer pair and I got stuck with the kiddie one. But it was fun to watch him walking around like a naturalist.


This past weekend Daddy and the boys came home with a trailer load of logs. After reading Toymaking with Children by Freya Jafke I got inspired to make a ring of logs for the boys to walk on. It has been a hit with the boys. One flaw is that Aiden needs my help to go around it (or so he says). The other day I must have gone around in circles atleast 50 times. Amazingly I was not dizzy but I was tired!

Our daffodils are really blooming right now. They look so pretty walking down the driveway.

Tucked into the daffodils I found one pretty red tulip. I had to talk Ehric out of picking it for me even though he really wanted to. Last year Daddy got mad when Ehric and Aiden picked one too many of the daffodils and tulips. But if he wants to pick some dandelions for me I would be fine with that.

The boys love to play in their sandbox. Since Ehric was a little one he has always been so relaxed playing in the sand. I was able to capture him playing happily and relaxing at the same time.

Aiden was in an imaginative state right here. He was making up stories and brooming his dump truck along. I love when they can both be so close yet do not bother one another. It makes for peaceful play.

Well we are all getting hungry...so time to make dinner! So glad that we had a great spring day!

Our Beautiful Monday

We got a new couch finally!! It is a very comfy sectional.

I am so glad that we finally have somewhere to sit.

What a difference a few weeks make. Today was so beautiful.

The boys had fun playing in their sandbox.

Flowers are even starting to pop up! Yeah!

A few of our chickens enjoying a nice walk in the sun.

Ehric helping me stack some wood.

Daddy and a friend having some fun of their own.

The boys and I went for a walk in the woods with neighbor friends.

Will Spring ever get here???

Last night a major snow storm hit. I saw a news report this morning that said we got around 14" of new snow. In northern Maine areas they got around 20"...that is a lot of snow! Last night as I was getting ready for bed (around 10:45pm) my neighbor called asking me to move my hubby's truck so that he could plow. The snow was coming down so hard and so thick that it was really hard to see anything. Even at that point there were tree limbs done around my driveway.

I cleaned off the truck as best as I could to see, and tried to move it out of the driveway. It would not budge. So I raced back up to the house (hopping through the snow) to get a shovel, and then raced back to the truck and started to dig out the buried tires. I was trying to get the truck moved before my neighbor finished his road, but the truck still wouldn't move. By the time my neighbor pulled up I was so out of breath, cold and soaked to the bone from the wet snow. We figured the truck was not moving because of all the ice under the snow (the pitfalls of getting a melt before another snow storm); so he used his chain to pull my truck out of the driveway. Thank God for good neighbors!!

Here are some pictures that I took of my yard this morning.

You can't really see it too well, but on the right hand side is a lilac bush that is completely ruined now!! Hopefully it will recover.

A view from my front door.

A view down my driveway. Newly plowed.