Elementary Spring Music Concert

Christopher and Kelly had their last concert of the year. They both performed in the same concert because 5th grade is technically still in elementary school even though this year they were part of the middle school.

The concert started with the 5th Grade Band playing a few songs.  They did really well and I have a feeling we'll be investing a lot of money in black pants and white shirts - concert clothes.

Then the 5th graders sang a fun song.

Then the Kindergarten through fourth grades filed on and sang their songs all about animals.  I think Christopher's grade sang a song about peanuts.

A fun picture of Christopher in front of the decorations.

Adventures in Bus Driving

It rained. It finally rained and we got 1 1/2 inches on the farm. That will really help when John plants corn this weekend.

However....

RAIN + PARTIALLY FINISHED DRIVEWAY = AN ADVENTURE!

At 7:00 a.m., the bus pulled into the drive as usual.  The bus got stuck before it even made it to our brand-new sidewalk.

John got out the "big guns"... the 9320 John Deere Tractor (pulling a sweep, used for tillage - it would have taken too long to unhook the sweep so he just brought both).

I'm just glad John stayed home a little later than usual this morning.  Can you imagine what would have happened if he hadn't?  Can you picture me doing this?  I think not.

John and Joe, the bus driver, hooked the bus to the back of the sweep with a chain and John started to pull the bus out of the muck.

The bus, moving along nicely.  Look at the dirt it's pushing in front of the wheel.

Rounding the corner of what will be the circular drive (you can see the big pile of dirt to the left of the bus - it was excavated from the drive so they could lay gravel or some other road-creating material).

Rounding the corner... and the bus got stuck.  For a minute there I was worried the bus would tip over with my children inside.

John got out and decided to try to dig away some of the mountain of dirt.

He thought better of it and hooked up the tractor again so they could pull straight east, into the field.

Going over the mountain of dirt again, and again my heart was in my throat, afraid the bus would tip over.

John and Joe hooked the tractor back up again so they could head north back toward the road.

It worked and they made it to the road.

Thirty minutes later and the bus is on its way again.

Never a dull moment, for sure!

Eastern Colorado Elementary Honor Band

Kelly tried out for an made 1st Clarinet for the Eastern Colorado Elementary Honor Band.  It's a big deal.  They had a guest conductor and spent an entire day in rehearsals and then had a performance at night.  Kelly practiced and practiced and did a great job.

She had to wear black pants and shoes and a fancier top.  We had to buy a fancier top because she is a t-shirt kind of girl.  I love the top she chose.  I have a feeling that between band and choir we'll be spending a lot of money on performance clothes.  (Usually they will be black pants and white shirt so easy to plan for.)

Kelly is in the front row, fourth from left.  I am glad she was wearing the orange shirt - made it easier to find her in the crowd!

With Grandma and Grandpa Layton (and Leslie) after the concert.  We are glad they could stay for her concert.

Making Donuts

A few weeks ago, when Little John was home from school with pink eye, he begged, BEGGED for me to run to town and get him donuts.  Instead, I taught him how to make them, the easy way.  Kelly was jealous so we made them again when Grandma and Grandpa Layton were here.

 

Step 1:  Buy the cheap, Wal-mart brand biscuits that come four to a pack.  (I'm sure you could use any kind of biscuits, but I'm cheap.)

Step 2:  Use the lid to the vanilla bottle to punch a hole in the biscuits.

Step 3:  Fry them in hot oil.  Make sure the oil is not too hot or they will quickly burn.  We use tongs to turn them over so the other side gets cooked, too.

Step 4:  Make a powdered sugar glaze (powdered sugar and water) or frost them with chocolate frosting from the can (lazy!!!) and ENJOY!!!

8th Grade Cotillion

When I was in middle school we called it the 8th Grade Grad Dance.  Here they call it Cotillion and it's A BIG DEAL!  Many of the girls get their hair and nails done and lots of kids have dates.  Some of the boys rent tuxedos and it's just a big deal.  JJ didn't have a date and we didn't rent him a tux but he still had a fun time.  They invite the parents for the first 30 minutes when they take pictures of all the classes (middle school was 5-8th grade this year).  After the class pictures they have a mother/son and father/daughter dance and then they politely request that the parents leave so the kids can have fun.

Posing before he went to the dance.

All of the 8th graders.  In case you are wondering, there are only 27 kids in his 8th grade class.

All the girls.

All the boys.

All the boys doing a conga line.  They were not all excited about that.

The only picture we have of the mother/son dance (which lasted for less than 30 seconds for us before JJ decided he wasn't dancing with his mom anymore.  Stinker!)

John and his friend, Topper.... they are ready for the parents to leave.

Shoveling Snow?

 Don't you love the snow shovel?

It's a Caterpillar D6N LGP.

It also works as a dirt shovel.

With the sunset in the background.... Isn't it romantic?

(Please ignore the burn barrels in the foreground.  That negates the romantic sunset.)

I'll Huff and I'll Puff....

We had a blizzard yesterday.  By blizzard I mean horizontal winds blowing snow all around us.  Eastern Colorado blizzards are not at all like the Idaho blizzards we've experienced.  In Idaho the snow falls vertically and when it's over you end up with lots of snow on the ground.  In Eastern Colorado, though, the snow "falls" horizontally and except for the drifts, there is usually little accumulated snow on the ground.  That's the kind of blizzard we had yesterday.  The wind was blowing at least 45-50 mph yesterday and all night long.  This morning the news reported that the wind was blowing 41 mph.  Church was cancelled because the Branch President and his family couldn't make it to Church.  That means the rest of us who live out of town probably couldn't make it in, either.  Since about half the families in our congregation live at least 10 miles outside of town, he cancelled Church.  Since we had a free morning, after we watched a Church video with the kids, John and I went for a ride to take pictures of the drifts.

The garage door hasn't been installed yet so we have a tarp over the opening.  It was in jeopardy of ripping off the nails so we barricaded it with plywood and heavy totes and boxes.  It helped so the wind didn't rip through the tarp.

The front of the house.  You can see the tarp in the garage.  The pickup has been parked in front of the suburban so the wind would go around the garage and not blow the tarp off.  You can also see the snow blowing around the house.

On the road next to the house... we can ALWAYS see the pine tree and the shop from the kitchen window.  For most of yesterday, the pine tree was either a faint shadow or we couldn't see it at all.  The shop is only 1/4 mile away from the house.

The shop is the silver building on the right.  The big drift is just behind the supply room.  That is the pine tree that we can always see from the house.

A big snow drift.  You can see a horse trailer on the left and the semi on the right (above the mirror).  There is a pickup in between the trailer and the semi.

A different view of the picture above.  From the right you can see the jeep and the semi and a tiny corner of the pickup.  The horse trailer is to the left of the pickup and then a shed.

 

You've all seen the pictures of the Golden Gate Bridge in the fog... where you only see the tops of the bridge?  That's what it reminded me of when I saw the electric towers in the blowing snow.

The snow is only blowing close to the ground.  It probably only blew for about eight feet above the ground and then you can see the blue, blue sky.

The tree line at our neighbor's house.  Those little trees are 4-5 feet tall.  You can see how deep the drifts are there.

Just another picture of the neighbor's front drive.  They won't be going to church today either, haha!

The neighbor's house from about 1/4 mile away.  You can see the blue sky above and the swirling, blowing snow down by their house.

Just another picture that shows the blowing snow near the ground.

A picture of our house from 1/4 mile away.

Another picture of the blowing snow.  You can barely see the electrical poles in the middle of the snow.

Above and below - I tried to get a picture of the snow swirling around just north of the house.  You can't see it very well, though.

The drift outside the man door to the garage.  You can see the footprint from where we stepped out.  You can also see a couple of icicles at the top of the door.

This is a window in the master bedroom.  I have no idea how that happened, but it is the only window that has a clear circle and snow all around it.  You can see the icicles in the shadows.

The window well on the east side of the house.  It's full of snow.  This is just under the master bedroom.

The south side of the house, looking west. You can see the two holes where the window wells are.  (The shop and pine tree are in the background.)

A picture from a basement window (same window as above - the back of the two).  This one caved in.

Same window as above, looking up to the sky.  You can see where the snow caved in.

The other window of the two on the south side of the house.  There is less snow in this one because it didn't cave in.

Looking up from the window well - I stuck y head out the window so I could get a better picture of the snow.

Within about 15 minutes of taking all these pictures, the wind stopped and it is perfectly calm outside.  The snow is beautiful against the blue sky.  It is supposed to be above 40 degrees today and warm up to mid 60s by Thursday so it will probably all melt soon.