Today we were invited to a little sugaring party with some people from church. We learned how you boil sap, tasted some raw sap (which looks and tastes like slightly sweetened water), ate homemade donuts and fruit dipped in syrup, ate sugar on snow (yum!), went sledding and tried to keep warm. It was really fun. We love experiencing Vermont...even if it freezing! Unfortunately I brought a camera with a dead batter so I only have phone pictures...
This morning I was in a yoga class when I looked out the window and saw a blizzard. A blizzard! When I saw it I almost cried. And I've only been here since February...I can't imagine if I had been through the entire winter! But I guess that is what we get in Vermont! So to celebrate the first full day of spring we went in the hot tub.
Last night the kids and I set a trap in the hopes of catching him and having him lead us to his pot of gold. After setting the trap Kate asked, "What do we do if we catch one?" Ryan (for some strange reason) responded, "We will cook him and eat him for dinner!" I started to jump in to explain that Leprechauns are not for eating when Kate replied, "No!! That's not healthy!.....maybe for dessert!" Nice.
Kate drew a picture of a rainbow to lure him in
When they woke up they saw a trail of rainbow jellybeans leading towards the trap
The trap was sprung!
But we when lifted the box, we found that the leprechaun was too quick and he got away. In his haste, he had dropped some of his gold coins and jelly beans! Lucky us!
We then dressed in our green...and BYU (Sawyer is very opinionated on what he wears, but I figured it was appropriate for the start of March Madness. He was wearing green socks though!) And we headed to our swimming lessons. 
Sawyer was feeling less than photogenic
After the aquatic center we headed to our second gym (yes, I just joined a different and hopefully better gym!) and I was able to BodyCombat while the kids enjoyed the new play place. Besides nibbling on our leprechaun goodies, we didn't do much else to celebrate the holiday. Kate did draw a picture of a leprechaun (or Leprkon) this afternoon:
Doesn't he look delicious?Ryan had a day off last Friday so we headed to Boston. But it could have been any other city in the country because we didn't do anything Bostonish. We ate at Chickfila on the way to IKEA and then stopped at Target on the way home. It might sound lame, but we had a fun time getting our shopping fix in! And Sawyer was finally tall enough for the IKEA playland (he was actually just close but the nice lady let him in!) and Ryan and I got to walk around shopping by ourselves for an hour and a half! It doesn't get much better than free babysitting!
We do hope to enjoy Boston sometime soon.
My mom sent the kids a little St Patrick's day package and in it were these cute little suspenders. Since we probably won't see many people on the actual day, I decided to give them to the kids this morning so they could wear them to church. They were both really excited about it and love the suspenders! Thanks Grammie!
When we were moving to Vermont I researched gyms more than anything else and I purposely chose our house here in Quechee because it is fairly close to the gym I chose, the Upper Valley Aquatic Center. It is a great facility and I am trying really hard to make it work, besides the fact that I am not in love with their classes or their schedule. All the gyms here are really expensive. I am paying $105 a month for our membership, $25 added on for unlimited group exercise (its $5 a class if you don't pay the monthly fee), and on top of that I have to pay $5.50 per hour for both of my kids to go to daycare. If I was going to the gym the same amount as I did in my wonderful Houston gym, it would add up to $218 per month. That is really hard to swallow and it is daily testing the balance between my obsession with working out and my thrifty side that wants to save $5.50 a day for day care. And really, it wouldn't be so hard if the classes were awesome. Sigh.
But one advantage to this place is the swimming pools. It has an awesome splash park that we can use whenever we want and I am excited to get my kids into the sport of swimming. So this is the place for us...for now!
I signed the kids up for weekly swimming lessons and they have been so excited. Kate has done swimming lessons the last 2 summers and we, of course, spent a lot of time swimming in the long Houston summers. She is really confident. Sawyer has always had no fear in the water but this is his first time doing swim lessons. They both loved it and loved their teacher, Dan.
Sawyer is young for his group (you are supposed to be 3 but they made an exception since he is almost 3) but he did really well, fearlessly blowing bubbles, putting his head under the water and jumping in higher than anyone else.
Kate was more advanced than anyone in her class and even surprised us by back floating on her own for the first time like it was no big deal. I have tried to work on it with her and she always would spaz when I would let go but she did it perfectly first thing. The teacher said she should probably be in the more advanced group but he was going to keep her in here for a little bit so she can learn some more terminology. I thought she did an awesome job, she tried her hardest to speak up when her teacher would ask her questions (which is something we've been working on) and you could just see how happy she was! And ever since I started swimming with a swim cap she has been totally obsessed with having one too and was so excited to wear her bright pink one today! The teacher thought it was pretty hilarious and I think its the cutest thing I've ever seen!
We are excited to have this be part of our weekly schedule as we are getting more into our routine! And even though it is still freezing, snowy winter here, it is fun to be in the pool still!
We ran a lot of errands yesterday and I decided to take my camera with me to take some pictures near our house.
Sawyer is getting so big and he says the funniest things. Ever since Disney he has been obsessed with being tall. It, of course, stems from not being tall enough for some rides. So when we were in Toontown riding the mini roller coaster (his favorite ride) over and over because there was no line, we would get off the ridee, run to the front again, and stand up tall to get measured...again. He would declare himself "tall enough" and then have a really proud look on his face we headed for the ride. And then we would do it ask over again. So now he is constantly standing up on his toes and telling us how tall he is. From the tops of chairs, couches, chairs...everything.
I also loves when he uses the word "actually". "Mom, I want milk....actually apple juice." "Mom, I want to watch Mickey Mouse....actually Pirates."
He loves making his bed all by himself. He sleeps with about 20 blankets...he found all his blankets I would rotate through and now he wants them all...and it is so funny to watch him carefully lay out each blanket and stack them on top of each other.
These superman jammies were a nice Walmart find. Sawyer went through a phase of hating long sleeves and pants so all his jammies are shorts and not warm. He was so excited to wear these and he was "flying" all over the place. If you ask him what Superman does he will say, "flies in the sky, helps people, and listens to his mom." He might have ben coached!
Sawyer is a fearless swimmer. When we were swimming one time he all of a sudden started going full on under the water with Kate. He loves swimming to us from the edge if the pool. There is nothing cuter to me than seeing his big blue eyes looking up at me from under the water.
I know Sawyer will be embarrassed of this some day, but I'm not posting a picture so its okay! He spends part of each day in his Snow White costume with the matching red heels. When he is all dressed up and I call him Sawyer he'll say, "no, I'm No White." I love it.
He also will fight his sister for the pink cup, plate or bowl and loves the Disney Princess books.
But he also loves Woody and Buzz more than anything in the world, his BYU football shirt and riding his bike. He's a well rounded boy!
I love my Sawyer boy!