February 27, 2014

Jed has spent quite a bit of time this winter making things with his Legos.  This invention is unique, though, in that it is a conveyor belt which actually creates Lego bricks and parts.  I predict this little beauty is going to save us a fortune. :)

February 14, 2014

We started losing our power on Tuesday, and lost it for good Wednesday night.  The lady on the right, Miss Louise, lost her power Wednesday afternoon, and since we had power at that time, she came over to our house and spent the night.  We spent a very chilly Thursday morning going through the address directory of our church, while she explained who everyone is and how they are connected.  It was enough to keep our minds off the cold, along with our fleeces and blankets.

Thursday afternoon Miss Louise got a call on her cell phone from her cousin-in-law, Miss Mary, who had never lost power.  When she learned that we were chilly, she invited us to come spend the night with her, which we gratefully accepted.  Tracy decided to make it a boys' night with Jed so they spent the night at a motel at the beach and Miss Louise and I headed over to Miss Mary's. 

I suspect the ladies' pajama party was more fun.  :)

February 12, 2014 - Part 3

This little guy was breaking my heart, out in the icy weather.  He seemed pretty content to be sitting out in the open, though, flitting about from place to place.  Our house is on stilts, so he had plenty of protected space to hide out in.  Perhaps he was as excited to see some honest-to-goodness winter weather as we were.  :)

February 12, 2014 - Part 2

 By mid-afternoon the ice was getting quite a bit thicker.

My favorite was the pine trees...I loved how each needle was coated.

This was taken late in the day, just before dark.

We lost a lot of branches, as well as our power, but it sure was beautiful.

February 12, 2014 - Part 1

We had another ice storm today - a real ice storm, with real ice.  :)  This first batch of pics was taken early in the morning, when things were just getting cranked up.

February 10, 2014

We had a great time making Valentines this year!  Jed chose a pretty difficult design, which I was pretty happy about because I've been trying to get him to make this card for two or three years now.  :)  I forgot to get a picture of the arrow once it was pulled, but it spelled out J - e - d, in cursive, of course.  :)

January 29, 2014

That might look like snow on the dock, but it's actually ice.  I've never seen anything quite like it...it was like ice granules.  This is probably the closest thing to snow we'll get in Wilmington, so we called it a snow day and went out and played.  :)

The marsh water was even frozen! 

Getting down the front steps was kind of tricky.

The neighbors had a snow day too and came over to play.

It was a good day.

Not as good as a winter day in Maine,

but good enough.  :)

January 24, 2014

Jed's had an interesting day already.  Fridays are trash pick-up day, and he had to take the trash bin to the curb in 24 degree weather this morning.  That's balmy compared to our friends in Maine, but it's the first time he's had to wear mittens since we moved to North Carolina.  It's noon now and still just 38 degrees - yahoo!  We miss winter!!

A few minutes ago he lost another tooth - that's the fourth one in the last couple of months!  It had been years since he had lost any teeth, and now he can't seem to stop. 

We had to run some errands yesterday so I got him a haircut while we were out and he walked out with what look like the beginnings of real sideburns.  How did that happen??  I'm not ready for how this boy is growing up.

January 22, 2014

We've missed seeing chickadees this winter, but there have been bluebirds congregating in the trees outside the schoolroom window.  Their brilliant coloring is quite distracting for a certain easily-distracted boy.  :) 

 I snapped these pictures in quick succession and we laughed when we saw the last photo!  :)

January 8, 2014

 

I didn't know what to expect here, weather-wise.  This is further south than I've lived before, and closer to the ocean as well.  It's been warm...we've had the air conditioning on (sporadically) every month we've lived here, including this one. I love cold weather.  I love snow.  I don't love air conditioning.  I especially don't love it during the winter.  So you can imagine my thrill when we had a cold snap for a few days and the salt water in the marsh at low tide had iced up!  It was pretty interesting to see, fleeting as it was...it was gone by mid-morning...but for a little while, it was winter.

January 6, 2014

Our sweet friends the Chicks sent Jed and me these mugs all the way from Leeds, Maine.  If you click on the picture to enlarge it, you'll see that they drew dots connecting Maine to North Carolina.  I love it.

December 28, 2013

Brad and Jenn got Dyce a scooter for Christmas, and he got to try it out on the road at our house.  I don't think he quite gets the concept of pushing...or else he does and he's too smart to let on.  :)

December 27, 2013

I love this picture of Jenn reading to Dyce.  The book was a gift from Uncle Jed to his favorite nephew.  :)

While Jenn read to Dyce, I read to Decker the book we had gotten for her.  She was quite taken with the mirror.  Look at that chubby little hand on mine!  :)

We waited for it to warm up a bit in the afternoon and then we headed out to Wrightsville Beach.  It was the first time I've been there since we moved, and I was surprised to see it took us less than 10 minutes to get there. Decker was snug cuddled up with Jenn.

 Dyce, on the other hand, threw caution - and his shoes - to the wind.  

 Don't you just love that tongue sticking out?  Builds a better sand castle, don't you know.  :)

If I had been watching Dyce instead of taking pictures, I would have seen the disaster coming his way.

How did I not see this wave coming towards him?!

Don't let Dyce's bare feet fool you - it really was not swimming weather, even in coastal North Carolina!  He took it like a trooper, though.  That boy is tough - Maine tough.  Too bad we couldn't get his parents to move there - he would have fit right in.  :)

December 26, 2013

My older son Brad and his wife Jenn joined us Christmas night, along with Dyce, age 2, and Decker, age 2 months.  We went for a walk down the dock the next day..Brad actually donned boots and braved the marsh in search of Tracy's glasses, which had flown out of his pocket when he was racing Jed down the dock on Christmas Day.  I'd love to share a picture of that, but I promised I wouldn't.  :)

Isn't this the sweetest picture?  Decker sleeping in her little bassinet, blissfully unaware of the chaos going on around her.  :)

December 23, 2013

This picture makes me so happy.  Our friend Jos in Australia made the banner you see hanging in the back window of our schoolroom.  There's a letter on each tag, and she sewed them all and attached them to the hanging cord with miniature clothespins, separated by hanging bells.  We love it!  The most fun part is there's a heat vent in the floor under the window and when the heat is on, the tags dance in the wind. 

Here's a shot of the living room from the school room.  I took this picture accidentally....there was something wrong with the lens and this was a test to see if I had corrected the problem.  Since I hadn't taken any pictures of the house yet, it was a keeper.  :)

December 15, 2013

I brought some Maine goodness with us when we moved....balsam needles, tiny bottles of maple syrup, and maple sugar candy.  It was so much fun making the balsam bags and assembling the goodie bags for our new neighbors, church friends and clerks/delivery folks, etc!  Maine is so iconic for so many things, and it all seems so exotic down here in the South.  :)