Hugs n Kisses

Happy Valentines Day to all my sweet bloggie buds!

We always have lots of hugs n kisses round here...

But now we have an extra special sort ~ a pony!

Meet "Hugs n Kisses."

Doncha just LOVE her name?! <3

She's been generously loaned to us for trial 

and we're hoping she'll work out and join our family for eva!

Just in case, we also have more hugs n kisses, like these.

 Brownies waiting to be dusted with powdered sugar.

 Crayons made with Ikea molds.

Hearts made with Ikea's version of Perler beads.

These were sent to our LOVEly Great Aunt and had to be labeled by their artists! ;-)


And now our table is ready for plates of heart shaped pancakes...

 Soooo sorry bout the awful pics.

Yup, we're feelin' the love.

Hope you are too!!!

xoxo

Leslie

Playin' Hookie

Do you ever take your kids outta school just for spontaneous fun?

Today was our first time. Sarah only had a 1/2 day anyway. 

We thought she deserved it after her stellar report card too.

We went to a fairly close *small* ski "resort;"  Ski Liberty. 

Tonight, all agree it was an awesome day.

Earlier there may or may not have been tears n tantrums.

Not *just* from the short people.

Dad over fees for only 4 hours on the slopes.

Daughter over less than perfect performance (tho only her third time out)

Momma over daughter...

Jack's the only one who never got his knickers in a knot!

We came home to find that the dog (?!) had gotten the back door open and the house was 48 degrees!

Oh well, we'd stopped for dinner and done chores so we'll all just pile in bed w/the elctric mattress pad on and watch The Waltons while the woodstove cranks up...

Also, we drove our new VW diesel wagon and got way waaaaay better mileage than we used to in the tank truck!

Yup, AWESOME (& overdue) DAY!

(As mentioned, the camera's dying so best pics came from Droid!)

Hope your weekend's off to a FUN start!

Just Do it!

I loooove quotes.  Here's one of my most favoritest!  ;-)


"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."

-- Theodore Roosevelt

"Citizenship in a Republic,"

Speech at the Sorbonne, Paris, April 23, 1910

Or, as paraphrased by Nike... 

(And posted in my barn aisle)

Just DO it!

Are you chasin' your dreams?
We are, and it can be a wild (& scary) ride...

snow days, play days, gray haze

You may want to avert your eyes.

There've been lots of snow days

despite a lack of lots of snow.

There's been lots of snow play...

But sadly all is grey.

My year + cannon sx110 camera has been slowly dying

 and it's lens/light thinga ma jig sees a dark world now.

How truly sad as I've seen much that made my heart sing.

Use your imagination

Or take up a fund for a better camera (& lessons) for poor me.

Some happy souls try to camouflage themselves in the snow.

Others seem trapped and need paths cut just to venture out and look around.

 Indoor fun was had. 

If out of season...

Who says bobbing for apples is strictly an autumnal activity?

Not Jack!

I buy the 90% off gingerbread kits for exactly these days!

Cause that's exactly what you need when you're home from school. 

An extra big sugar rush to help you create extra colorful chaos.

Then back out to practice writing in the snow.

Most creatures on the farm seem happy on these days.

Except me with my grey n grainy pics.

And the tragic snowman with a large yellow spot on his side.

Oh well, that's not a color I need to highlight anyway.

Hope you're world is all cozy *and* colorful!

I do want to THANK YOU ALL for the supremely kind and thoughtful comments you left on my last post about dear Kitty. She was a very special cat and she enjoyed a very happy, healthy and long life.  She was amazingly some where between 15-19 yrs (she adopted us when she was maybe 10yrs)! She was healthy right til the end when she threw a blood clot. It broke our hearts to see her in such pain and unable to use her hind legs but we know we were all very very blessed to have had each other for so long.

xoxoxoxo