Weekly Wrap- Up: The Week We Had the Trees Taken Down

We had a pretty quiet week at home.  The weather was cold and rainy so we ended up sticking close to home and taking walks whenever it cleared or warmed up enough for us to get out.  The real highlight of the week was watching the workers take down a few of the trees in our yard.

Friday we were heading out to go hiking and the boys were all ready to go early.  We were so surprised to find that most of the snow and ice had melted in the chasm so our group decided to hike through it.  We had a great time climbing over all the rocks and spent a few hours playing on the playground afterwards.  We stopped to get some ice cream on our way home and then the boys all went outside to play kickball.

Ian headed to work on Saturday.  They're putting new gravel throughout the campground and trimming trees. He was so excited to be driving equipment today; I even heard he got a chance to drive the dump truck (with his dad as passenger) and did an amazing job using his mirrors to back it up.  He is so lucky to have all this practice on all this private property!  The younger boys spent much of the day outside.  It was so beautiful out!!  After dinner my husband and I went for a walk and we saw some deer and even a barred owl!  I have never seen an owl out in the wild.  Of course I didn't have my camera with me though; that always seems to be the way.

On Sunday Alec began putting together another dough animal/ resin display.  This time he made some jellyfish in water.  Ian was off at work and Evan was watching TV.  After lunch we had a birthday party to go to and spent the evening with my family.

It poured almost all day on Monday.  There were a few breaks in the weather and the boys went out to play when they could.  Ian worked with the excavator to clear a few stumps from a lot that they were working on over the weekend.  The boys settled down to do a bit of schoolwork and they all started a new writing program we'll use over the summer to try and strengthen what has become an area of difficulty for them all.  After dinner the sun came out and we decided to take a walk in the woods-- we saw a beaver, some red wing black birds, and a very pretty sunset.

Ian, Evan and I had a few errands to run during Alec's karate class on Tuesday. After karate we all met my mother in law at Dunkin Donuts.  The kids had egg sandwiches and we talked a bit about our vacation and the plans we already have in the works for next year's vacation.  The boys worked on some schoolwork, helped clean the house, and headed outside to play for the afternoon.  Ian finished clearing up the lot and headed out for a haircut as soon as dinner was over.  Alec added his final layer of resin to his jellyfish-- they glow in the dark since he used glow in the dark dough to build them!

We had some trees cut down on Wednesday and it kept the boys entertained most of the day.  We have a few big pin trees near our house that have been shedding large limbs with every storm that passes through and we figured it was time to have them taken down.  It took the 3 man tree crew a full day but they cleared both trees.  Alec found time to finish up his jellyfish by adding some flowers, and a top and bottom to the fake tank using more dough.  The boys and I played a State Debate game and worked on some other schoolwork too.  Evan  headed out for a sleepover in the evening and Ian headed out with his grandmother to go to dinner and out shopping so my husband and I took Alec to dinner and we did a bit of shopping too.

The before picture; courtesy of Evan

First they trim all the limbs off 

Eventually the tree was just not tall enough and they climbed the tree to finish 

Playing States Debate 

Alec's completed mini aquarium 

Watching them chip up all the limbs

We woke to more pouring/ freezing rain on Thursday but Ian and I decided to head out and get groceries anyway.  We spent a quiet day at home doing schoolwork, reading, and watching TV.  Evan popped in long enough to work on his math book and then left again and we never saw him until dinner.  Alec spent most of the day in his room listening to his book on CD and Ian kept working on his Lego truck.  He has been modifying the rotator he has been working on ever since he saw one in read life on Tuesday.

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