Snow Days

 Well, make that our "snow week"!  We ended up being out of school all week for the snowstorm that started on Monday night.  King George ended up with 7-8 inches total, which means that buses can't run and kids can't wait at bus stops (when it's a balmy -2 degrees in the morning!).  The excitement was in the air Tuesday morning because this was the first "real" snowfall we have had this season.  Jason and Emily were having a hard time making it through the yard--Jay sank up to his mid-thigh with every step!  The snow was that fluffy airy stuff that we never get--great for skiing, not great for snowmen or sledding.  On Wednesday our next door neighbors invited us over to use their handmade snow ramp, which was awesome!  We pushed Emily and Jason down on their snow discs, which the kids loved.  
By Thursday we were getting cabin fever and headed out to the library for some time away from the house.  Today, I've taken the kids to daycare and dropped the other two off for play dates with friends, so it's quiet for the first time all week!

These mittens are hard to manage!

My mittens are wet and my hands are cold!

Snow everywhere!

My guys--Jay outlasted us all!  He wanted to stay out in the snow for hours.

Warming up with some oatmeal.

Lip smacking good!  Willow is such a patient beggar  :)

Emily couldn't get enough of throwing snowballs for Willow!

Master Bedroom Re-do: A Coastal Feel

 Tim will be the first one to point out that I can't go a month without a home project.  It's sorta true.  Call it my guilty pleasure, call it "keeping busy", but I enjoy sprucing up the house from time to time.  With our old house, we waited until we were going to sell it to do any updates, and it would have been nice to live with those updates first!  So even though I plan to be in this house for a long, long time, I want to enjoy the nice changes now.  
Our bedroom has been a point of contention for me, because of two reasons:  (1) I painted it dark gray/blue and it felt like a cave and (2) it was only one of two rooms left with wood colored trim.  I wanted to go lighter and brighter.  Tim was very against white because it made him feel like a renter, but I convinced him to try Hushed White by Behr.  Two coats later, and it had the slight yellow tinge of a room full of smokers (see above).  Neither of us like it.  So we decided to go in the light gray direction and I found Dolphin Fin by Behr.  My new favorite gray!  It looks amaaaaazing with the new bright white trim and is neutral enough for my beachy coastal bedroom vibe.

 The new gray color!  LOVE it!  We updated from roller blinds to white 2-inch faux wood blinds to match the downstairs.  I fell in love with these curtains from Target called "Blue Dot"--they are a darker blue with aqua dots that criss cross in a lattice pattern.  The aqua dots almost look like bubbles under water.  Target doesn't like to restock often, so I ordered 3 more panels online and hit a sale!  Score!  We also updated the ceiling fan to a more modern one with chrome and medium wood blades.

 I wanted a bed set that would blend with the room and not compete with Carrie's sealife quilt at the end of the bed.  And I didn't want anything too matchy-matchy with the curtains.  I found this quilt set with matching shams on Walmart.com for only $47 on rollback!  It's "seafoam green" which was the perfect muted aqua color.

 Found this lantern at Hobby Lobby and had to have it!  I put a candle in it and secured it to a $6 iron hanger, also from Hobby Lobby.

 I moved around some of the artwork, and a "sailboat in the storm" painting that Carrie had bought me (done by my friend Melissa Riker) fits perfectly!  I liked a watercolor of coral from Etsy but at $20, it was ridiculous to pay for such a small painting.  I showed it to Caroline, who whipped me up a copy in about 15 minutes!  And I like her version soooooo much better!

 The wall color and trim look so good with the darker furniture now!

NJHS Induction Ceremony

 Caroline applied for the National Junior Honor Society, and after a couple of weeks of nail biting and worrying, she found out she was accepted!  The ceremony was on January 28th, and it was great to see her cross the stage and sign her name in the official register book.  Mike Archambault and Greg Goujon are in charge of the society this year, and they have a lot of fun activities planned for the kids.  I'm sure it didn't hurt that Caroline's friends Emma, Claire, Anna, and Lauren were all accepted too!

Mrs. Collins, Principal

Mr. A , Mr. G, and Jenna, the current president

Ice Ice Baby!

It's craft central around this place!

Painting on ice blocks

 The kids and I have already had a couple of late arrival days and one snow day and it doesn't even feel like we've gotten any good snow!  On a mucky/rainy/sleety day last week, I decided to try a new activity with Emily and Jason.  I had seen something similar on Facebook and figured, why not?  I froze two containers of ice for them and we painted on them!  The blog called for us to use watercolors, but we used poster paints since we already had them out on the easel.  The kids had a lot of fun!  Jay's block of ice started defrosting quickly, so his color ran together to make a beautiful blob on color.  And clean up was as easy as me picking up the blocks and putting them in the sink to melt.

Science Fair Awards

 We did Science Fair awards on the same night as the science fair, so our antsy students didn't have to wait too long to find out who won.  I was out of school that day because Jason decided to run a 103 degree fever (turns out to be an ear infection--his first!) but I came back that afternoon to help with the awards once Timmy came over and took over my "shift".  Sometimes it feels like the misbehaving students get all of the attention around this place, and it's so nice to have an awards ceremony for kids who are going above and beyond in their school work.  
Caroline and her friends really cleaned up shop!  Caroline got first place in her category--Molecular and Cellular Biology--AND is a Piedmont regional finalist!  So she will be accompanying me to UVA for that event on March 17.  
Caroline's friend Claire won first place in Biochemistry, Emma won first place in Chemistry, and Lauren B (Lolo) won first place in Environmental Analysis!  And all were also chosen for Piedmont, so the girls are going to have a ball!

Caroline getting her award

With her project!