St. Patty's Day Weekend

Since Micah and Becky (and Larrie and Mary) are up helping mom with sugaring, we managed a nice weekend at home.  The weather on Saturday morning was perfect for spring skiing (40 and sunny) so we headed to Ragged.  It was our best day of skiing/riding this year.  Haley spent the first half of the morning going up and down the magic carpets, and was really doing well skiing by herself.  I kept asking if she wanted to try the chairlift, but not pushing her any further when she said "no thanks."  Finally after a big snack she wanted to try the barnyard chair, and after the first run down she had a huge smile on her face and said, "Let's do that AGAIN, mama!"  Yes!  It's been a rough year getting her to transition from the harness (of last year) to skiing on her own- not due to any lack of skill; she totally knows how to turn and stop FINE, but just a crisis of confidence.  I think she's finally over that!

Andy and Aiden had a joint snowboarding lesson in the morning, and that went well too.  Aiden is really starting to get how to S-turn, and also handles the lifts fine.  And it finally clicked with Andy too- the snowboarding thing - he is not falling anymore, which must be nice for his body!  On Saturday afternoon the kids and I headed over to their friends Angie and Alex's house for a playdate, and by the end of the day they were dropping into bed like zombies.

Making dog biscuits for Kimball

Sunday we headed to the Andersons for the annual St. Pattys Day/Maple Brunch- Rich and Heidi outdid themselves as usual, with eggs benedict, caramel french toast, chocolate waffles, and sausage.  Mimosas and irish coffees, kids running around like mad people, and little baby Colin taking his first toddles around the Anderson's house.  It's excellent to have good friends who don't mind when a two hour brunch turns into an all day party.  We ate and laughed until our bellies hurt, as usual.

Tapping with Tubes

Last weekend we headed up to Monkton to start our first sugaring season with tubing in the sugarwoods.  We weren't sure how much of our tubing would still be strung up in the woods after winter storms and fallen trees and limbs, but it wasn't too bad.  There were a few downed lines, but the worst problem was animal chew damage to the lines.  Some of it was definitely squirrels or chipmunks, higher up on the trees, but according to local sources, young coyotes also really like to chew the rubbery lines when they are teething.  So, in any case, a lot of chewed sections had to be cut out and new lines spliced in.  Still, I think tapping went quicker with the tubing than in previous years of having to haul 200 buckets and lids down into the sugarbush.  We were done by Saturday afternoon, and had plenty of time to enjoy the sauna and even try a little (still unsuccessful) ice fishing on Grandma's pond.  

 Now, we just need the weather to cooperate.  There have been a few isolated days here and there where the mercury reached about 38 and the taps started to drip, but the vast majority of days have been solidly below freezing (it's about -7 on St. Patty's Day as I write this!) so whatever sap has flowed out is generally frozen solid in the tubing or the bottom of the buckets on the top of the hill.  Uncle Larrie and Aunt Mary are up helping mom this week, but so far there hasn't been much to do that is sugaring related.  Not even any sap in the tanks yet.  Mom's friend Dave who owns Boyer Orchards and has a big sugaring operation keeps telling her she has to be patient... so we'll see.  We are up to VT again in five days and hope there will be something to boil!

Haley was so tired after her weekend of sugaring that she passed out IN the grocery cart!

Annual Gingerbreading Fest

The construction site is always a big mess!

Our annual Gingerbread Fest with the Camerons and Deans is a moving target.  Some years we do New Year's party houses, some years we make Valentine love shacks, some years we make leprechaun huts, and some years it is new housing for the Easter Bunny.  We never make them for Christmas; I think that must be the only rule!  Last year we used milk cartons to help hold the house structures together, and this year we went even easier and used graham crackers for construction material instead of baked gingerbread panels.  You know what?  The kids did not even notice, and they enjoyed the decorating and candy sampling just as much as ever.  

Baby Finna towers over bunny graham town

The finished village

 Candy sampling was the activity of the day.  We did eat pizza before construction time, just to try and fill the kids with something slightly nutritious before the onslaught of sugar, but it was still all about the lollipops, jelly beans, smarties, chocolate eggs, licorice and peeps.  Only Andy, who held baby Finna for the whole construction, escaped the binge.  Jeni might have ingested less than the rest of us too, since she took all of these great photos!  It was a sweet day, as usual ;)

Ciara with her mouth full (of what, I wonder?)

Hmm... let me see if these are any good before I put them on my house!