Singing, Tractors & Feeling Better

 Last Friday, Phoenix & her chorus class toured some of the local retirement communities in honor of Valentine's Day. The kids enjoyed singing and meeting some of the residents and their audience was entertained by the lovely singing and respectable manners. We are very proud of her!

Stuart and Lori went window shopping this weekend for a tractor. What's a farm without one?!

Courtney and her softball team braved the freezing winds Saturday to take first place in their class and win a nice bat!

Ellyn & Reagan have been really sick since last week but we are happy to report that they are finally on the mend and feeling much better. Reagan should be returning to school tomorrow.

Family Game Night

This past Saturday found Phoenix getting everyone playing some fun board games: Pass the Pig & Guesstures. The latter is extremely fun to play! We had a lot of great laughs with that one.

Clearing the Way

Dad spent a lot of time finishing up the trail this past weekend. I lent a hand on Saturday for a bit. The last bit to be cleared was a jumbly bumbly of vines, vines and some thorns mixed in for fun. Neither of us went unscathed or left the scene free of debris.

As of Sunday, the trail around the lake is officially open! Yay! Mom & Dad have already done several laps in the last day or two.

It's also that time of year again...the Science Fair! Phoenix has selected an interesting, friendly experiment involving mice. With that said, I'm happy to introduce the newest additions to the Homestead, PJ & Piper.

That makes the count 4 dogs, 2 fish & 2 mice now! We will keep you posted on how her experiment is coming along...

Bridging the Trail

Spent most of the weekend hanging around the house. Courtney had to help some friends move the first part of Saturday. Phi had a friend spend the night. Adam and Papa spent most of Saturday afternoon working on the trail. Sunday, a good team effort ended with us successfully placing a big piece of steel over a creek along the trail. It is now 75% complete! Now we all impatiently await whatever smells so good in the kitchen!

 Riding the steel

 Brainstorming

 Yes?!

 Trying out the steel first

Learning about leverage 

Attemp to use a wheelbarrow...fail 

Clean up...Phi's supervising 

Papa shows us how it's done 

 Phi pouting cause she didn't get to try

Pics & Pie

Home from work early today, I grabbed my dog & went in search of our resident duck, Donald. I was unable to find him but snapped a few cool pics during my adventure.

When we got back to the house, I sat down and enjoyed a piece of my mom's strawberry cream pie. It was delicious and I think it is almost sugar-free too!