Lots of Snow

February has been a cold and snowy month.

It started Monday the 16th around noon. We were able to squeeze in a half day of school before going home early. It was very cold, so the snow stuck immediately and was more powdery than I've ever seen snow here in the valley. Predictions were for 6-10 inches but we ended up with somewhere between 4 and 5.

The girls and I got out for a bit to try to sled, but we couldn't find any hills that were steep enough to get up a good amount of speed.

Of course, snow always means a warm mug of hot chocolate once you come in from the cold!

The temperatures were so low that the snow just stuck around, keeping public schools closed all well. We returned to school on a 2-hour delay on Wednesday with normal days on Thursday and Friday.

Saturday came the serious snow though. It looked like a blizzard outside most of the day. I wish I had thought to take a picture, but alas I didn't. When all was said and done we probably had about a foot of snow, though I didn't measure it. The wind was blowing, and there was some drifting. The pictures below will give you a feel for how much snow it actually was.

The girls had fun digging tunnels and coloring the snow. Sunday was a gorgeous day that got up to about 50 degrees outside, so they played and played. There was so much snow that it didn't seem to melt much even with the warm temperature. Monday returned to cold and will be all this week, so I suspect we'll be seeing snow for awhile yet.

And now we're home for another snow day today. We got just a light dusting of snow, but it came during the morning commute time so a day at home it is. Gives me time to blog and tell you about all this crazy weather!

Charlottesville Field Trip

Wednesday I had the honor and privilege of accompanying the junior class on their field trip to Charlottesville. We toured both UVA and Monticello as part of learning all about Thomas Jefferson as an Enlightenment thinker.

Selfie with good old TJ

I hadn't been to UVA or even Charlottesville for quite some time, and it was fun to be on Grounds with the students and able to show them around a little bit. We had a student guide who gave us a tour. He was a first year and very knowledgeable about the University. I found that I learned quite a few new things during the tour.

Our guide as he talked to us on the lawn

Telling about the pavilions and Jefferson's plan for the academical village

One of the new things I learned was about the role of slavery at the University. What are now the gardens were the slave areas where slaves owned by professors and by the University lived and worked out of view of the academical village.

Unfortunately we could not get a good view of the Rotunda due to renovations. Cabell Hall was being worked on as well.

Working on the columns of the Rotunda

Waiting in the cold for our tour guide

Cabell Hall

After a whirlwind tour (that was not enough time, in my opinion) we were off to Monticello. Here we toured the house and grounds. Again, I found that I learned a few new things about the house and about Jefferson.

Arriving at Monticello, where we also had an excellent tour guide

Group photo on the steps at the back of the house

Newly reconstructed slave quarters on Mulberry Row

The 1000 foot long vegetable garden where over 200 vegetables were planted

My group posing with TJ -- see him in the middle?

This was a great day of learning for me and the students, and it was beyond fun to be back at my old stomping grounds. Looking forward to doing it again next year!

Circadian Rhythms, January 2015

Apparently I didn't take many photos of the day-to-day this month, but here's a few.

Earning chore money by vacuuming in her jammies

Middle school skating night at Funky's

She didn't want to go home

Trying out a group fx fitness class at Achieve

Ripping the nasty carpet out of the girls' bathroom

Snow Day Turned Science Project Day

Monday we had a snow day. This was nice since we were away all weekend for Henry's birthday bash. It wasn't much of a snow, a couple inches of very wet flakes.

All bundled up for outside fun

Sophie and her snow dog - can you see it?

The girls took the opportunity to conduct their science fair experiments.

Sophie was testing ratios of milk to vinegar to make the best plastic from casein, the protein in milk.

Checking the temperature of the milk

Stirring milk and vinegar together

Checking for curds

Putting cheesecloth in position

Straining the curds

Observing the color of the liquid after straining

Curds produced from various amounts of vinegar (by teaspoon)

Weighing the curds

Shaping them before drying

The messy aftermath

Hannah was testing how much salt to add to water to make an egg float.

Stirring the salt solution

Measuring liquids for varying salinity in each cup

From 1 to 5, all salt solution to pure tap water, with varying concentrations in between

Testing an egg in each solution

The results - an egg floats in a solution that is approximately 10% salt

Henry Turns the Big Oh-One

This past weekend the girls and I were happy to be able to drive to North Carolina to celebrate Henry turning one year old. You only turn one once, and it was nice to be able to celebrate this milestone with Kelly and Jon. The highlight of the weekend was watching Henry enjoying his monster cake, which you can watch on Jon's Facebook page. Here are photos from our stay:

Adding fur to the monster cake

Balloons are fun!

Decorating

12 months of Henry

Monster Oreo pops

Monster watermelon

The completed cake

Look at that mischievous grin!

He enjoyed the cake, yes he did.

Where gifts are being opened, a crowd of kids there will be

The perfect party hat 

The older kids each colored a monster - this is Hannah's

And here is Sophie's - the Henry monster