One of Those Weekends...

It's late Sunday night and it is a relief to have this weekend almost over. It was unbelieveably cold--around 4 degrees F this morning--so we are stuck in the house and reaching our limits with one another. Frederick has been acting like he is trying to climb out of his skin for several days now (new teeth? someone sneak soy into something he ate? or gluten? what is it?) and we are all going 'round the bend. The highlight was when Frederick was in his bath and I heard dripping in the kitchen. Yes, just as I suspected. The ceiling was leaking again which can only mean one thing: Frederick spent his bath time pouring buckets of bath water onto the floor and it leaked between the old tiles, into the floor, and through the kitchen ceiling drywall. This is now the THIRD TIME I have stood watching water pour from a ceiling.
Not to be outdone, about 30 minutes ago Thomas came flying out of his room like a bat out of hell declaring that he no longer wished to live! Why? Because his computer froze and he lost all his roller coaster tycoon data. ("Oh, God! Why does this ALWAYS happen to me?" he lamented. The Lord truly does work in mysterious ways.)

Thomas's Volcano

Two weekends ago Thomas announced (around 11 pm Sunday night) that he had to create a working volcano for science class. Oh, and by the way, it's due on Wednesday. Interestingly, Thomas and I have been down a similar road many years ago when one winter weekend (when Thomas was about 4 and Frederick not yet in existence) and we made a mountain with a giant cave at the bottom out of paper machiere. We staple gunned chicken wire to a board and then covered it with flour-glue newspaper. Thomas was generous with the gluey goop and it took at least a week to dry. Then we painted the mountain brown, the cave black, and the board blue. Thomas used it as a home base for his dinosuars, in particular his plesiosaurus. I reminded Thomas of those happy times we had together and he has NO MEMORY of this whatsoever! Why did I even bother, I thought to myself? Here is our latest co-creation. This time I managed to keep Thomas's glueiness under control and the volcano (with a secret bottle inside, more about that later) dried over night.Thomas again, looking pleased. (Note village so near to doom and damnation.)And here are the secret ingredients: vinegar with red and yellow food dye and a giant box of baking powder that Thomas poured into the bottle inside the mountain. He poured the vinegar into the mountain during science class and, to everyone's delight, the mountain erupted with foamy red lava and the village was wiped from the face of the Earth. (I suggested that he label the vinegar bottles "God's Wrath" but Thomas wouldn't do it. He said, "That is unnecesarily provocative." Thomas is too nice for his own good.)Speaking of lava, Grandma was cleaning out her house and gave us this lava lamp. We can't stop staring at it!

Cleaning out photos from my phone

These were obviously taken a while ago, but as it's such a pain in the arse to get photos off my phone, I tend to let them pile up. Here's Granny braving the arctic cold to get in a little constitutional at ForMar:

"Phew! Safe back inside again!"


I had to drag Thomas KICKING AND SCREAMING to go sledding. Here he is allowing a faint smile to flicker across his lips (against his better judgment):

More from the Rock of Sad Birthdays (now with adverts)

(For background, see earlier post.)

Any takers?

Saw this on a house round the corner from us:

Thomas's Ice Sculpture School Trip

Thomas's class went on a school trip on Friday to Frankenmuth to see the Ice and Snow sculptures. It was bitterly cold. He took these pictures with his handy Nintendo DSi:
Giant Owls of some sort:


A gnome drinking coffee (according to Thomas):


Corporate Sponsorship (albeit ephemeral):


Komodo Dragon:


A crocodile standing on its head for miniature golf:

Thomas and Martha

This is how it would always be, if Martha had her way.

Another New Hat

A package came for Thomas the other day with this hat inside! This hat, which we happen to know has been in production for quite some time, fits perfectly and it thought to be cool by all the right sort of people. Well done, Granny!

Sledding

This past week we have been getting a few inches of snow every day and Emily and Frederick went sledding last weekend and a few school days this week. After one especially pleasurable afternoon, Frederick drew this picture. (This scan cuts off a bit of the right side of the picture, but the word "Stop" is included at the bottom of the hill.)

Frederick Frog

Found this lying on our computer desk. I'll assume somebody wants it scanned and posted. Jami swears she's never seen it before.

Arctic Blast!

The weather forecast for this weekend was "a warming trend" but we haven't seen a sign of that yet--yesterday it was 18F (with a "feels like" temperature of 8F) and today it is 22F (with a "feels like temperature of 12F). Perhaps warming from 18 F to 24F was what they meant? I was hoping for something more like 50F or maybe even 66F. And, since I forgot to "winterize" our backyard, we are seeing signs of the damage that has been done.As usual, I put off bringing in the fish from the pond. There are (were?) 12 in there. This heater keeps a tiny window unfrozen to let out the noxious fumes. I hope some survive the winter, but I am not confident that any will.
I put some cheapie ornaments on the tree outside our front window and now it is too cold to take them down.
Thomas's illuminated yard penguin has had a serious accident. We all feel bad about it as we sit by the cozy fire and look at it through the livingroom window, but no one can be bothered to go outside and fix it.

Pictures From About a Week Ago

Frederick practices spelling some of his favorite words.Frederick being silly.

Thomas and Granny prepare dinner. Thomas is wearing a new hat knitted especially for him by Granny. (Sniff! She left for England last Wednesday and it isn't the same here without her.)

Enjoying a delicious meal.