Snow

It has been snowy since November!  We'll get snow, it will stick around, melt, then we'll get some more.  Last winter spoiled me, because we must be way up on our snowfall!

Started the new year with two rounds of snow.

1-1-26:

1-2-26:

The next round of snow was deep enough to see all of the animal tracks: squirrel, deer, bird, and maybe even the neighborhood cat!

I've skipped over a few dustings, but today it was bitterly cold, so we were fortunate that it was a small amount, because even 10 minutes outside was quite uncomfortable!

 If the snow wants to taper off and give us an early spring, you'd hear no complaints from me!

later days

School Spirit Days and Other School Related Pictures

For spirit week, Alice and Emily dressed up each day, but William's themes were kind of difficult for him to join in on!  As rushed as our mornings are, the only pictures I have time for are in the car.  But for day one, it was grinch/green day!

The twins had flannel day, but we only had a single shirt, so Juliet went looking very 90s grunge, and Grace borrowed a plaid shirt from Alice, that was huge, but at least she was kind of themed.  Kristy gave me some of Zoey's old flannels for the next round of dress up days!

Christmas accessory day is definitely the easiest!  We have hats and headbands and necklaces galore!  Sadly, these were the only days I took photos, but there was more spirit, and William did don spirit wear at least once. = )

On the first day back at school, I was in for one of the support teachers, and we did an activity that required cutting.  Sadly, she only had five pair of scissors, and we needed 8 for one of the groups.  Ironically, as part of one of my Christmas gifts, the twins bought me a bag of two adult sized scissors, and a class set of metal scissors.  I happily dug the largest and easiest to use from my get rid of box, and donated them to her scissor bucket. = )

From her window, during planning time, I was able to watch bird and squirrel drama while eating my lunch and listening to one of my first audio books of the year.  On the day it rained, they were nowhere to be seen, but I kept forgetting to pack my binoculars for a better view!

The same tree, a week later.  No birds or squirrels in sight.

I'm not sure when the next spirit week is, but I do feel like it may be around Valentine's Day.  

Now, we'll just try to stay warm and celebrate the things we can as they come!

later days

Other Fun

Over the last month, we've had all sorts of little fun events and moments, which were not big enough to merit a separate post, so I've grouped them all together here.

First up was William's robotics party.  They had a smorgasbord of food, presented awards, and did a round robin style gift exchange.

 

Grace found all the sizes of cereal in one of our cereal containers, and ordered them for fun.

We got to have Kennedy over one night.  Juliet was one happy girl, since they aren't on the same team, and don't get to see much of each other at school.

On one of our day dates, Billy's beer had a cherry in it!  It's unusual for him to have a garnish!

During the Christmas break, the twins set up a warm, snuggly pallet, using Daddy's new heated blanket.

After seeing me taking a picture of the twins, Emily also wanted her picture taken.

The very first weekday of break, William had a doctor's appointment.  He first had an x-ray, then we went up to his appointment.  Thankfully it was just a follow up appointment, and things are looking good, so we won't return for six months.

After his appointment, we ran some errands, like dropping of Juliet's clarinet, since a piece came off of it, and went to the thrift store so that he could find some gifts for his sisters.  He found this 'um bro' hoodie, and thought it was funny.

I'm not entirely sure where the crepe paper streamers came from, but the girls had fun playing with them before they went into the trash.

 

For Kristy's birthday, we met at Starbucks, so that I could buy her a birthday coffee, and then we headed to Goodwill for some thrift store shopping.  We decided to go most expensive to least expensive, which is a nice way to do it, I think!

At our second stop, I found a stash of my reusable bags!!!! I'm super excited to add some of these smaller sizes to my stash!  And the whole pile was only $4.50, which is just over the cost of a single one!

I found a rainforest cafe parrot cup at our final stop, but Billy said he didn't want it.  Since it was almost $5, I wasn't about to buy it without his confirmation!

   

Kristy showed me some coordinating shirts on the free table during our last mom's meeting, that she had cleaned out of Zoey's closet.  The twins were excited to wear them the very next day!  If their hair is looking a little short, it's because I trimmed it.  Grace's came out awesome, but Juliet's middle area kept coming out short, apparently because she kept looking up while I was cutting. lol.  She likes it well enough, and Grace actually wants me to take some more off of hers, but it is so bitterly cold, it's going to be a while.  One of them asked for bangs, to which I replied with a laugh and a no.  I'm no cosmetologist, but I can cut a (mostly) straight line.

To celebrate his birthday, Billy wanted to take the kids to Zap Zone.  Since it was a long weekend, we took the kids the Sunday after his birthday.  Zap Zone honored every coupon that we brought, and the kids enjoyed their all-day passes.  Billy joined them for bumper cars and laser tag, while I held down the table.

The girls got some blue slushies, though they weren't as good as McDonald's apparently.  They did come in cool cups though!  Alice and William just got bottomless sodas, so no fancy cups for them.

Bumper cars!

Yesterday morning, before we left for Zap Zone was a tough one!  As I was getting dressed, I accidentally knocked my hairbrush into the toilet.  Thankfully, it was old and falling apart anyhow, but still a slight annoyance to have to replace it. Then, when I went to boil my tea water, I found that the hot pot was dead. = (   I can always boil the water on the stove, but it's not nearly as convenient, since it won't automatically shut off, if I get distracted doing something else.  I was able to order another one from Amazon, due to arrive Thursday, which is not too far off.  The final annoyance of my morning was when I went to look something up on my computer, and had no internet!!!  It took downloading an update and restarting twice, plus plugging in and unplugging the wireless card numerous times.  In helping me troubleshoot, Billy found that he had to complete the same process.

At the mall, once Alice was finished playing, she recruited Grace and Juliet to go shopping.  Knowing that there was a Claire's nearby, I asked them if they would be willing to purchase a replacement hairbrush for me.  They picked me out a very pretty one, which will hopefully last me as long as my previous one!

With many exceptionally cold days in the forecast, we will be staying inside as much as possible!  Hopefully, we can still find some fun things to do!

later days

Murder Mystery Party: Chicago Caper

Back in the summertime, when we had Billy's coworkers over for a backyard party, we set up a murder mystery party for January. It was set in a speakeasy, so I decided to blackout our dining room!  In order to do that, I needed lots of black fabric.  

I found bits and pieces, but not enough to cover all five surfaces. So, in November I turned to the internet, where I ordered 18 black tablecloths from the Shein website.  They are not known for their quality, but I didn't mind uneven edges or thin panels.  I waited an entire month for my delivery, and when a month had passed, I finally contacted them to see if it were still on the way.  They immediately refunded my money. = (  I was glad to have my money back, but was left with the same problem as before: I needed black fabric!

So, I turned to yet another site known for their poor quality: Temu.  They shipped my tablecloths almost immediately, and they arrived the weekend before the party.  However, when I opened the box, I found out that they had sent me 18 white tablecloths.  Seriously.  I mean, how does that even happen? Even a colorblind person would be able to tell the difference between black and white!!!  I double checked my order, and it said "black" on my invoice.  so.annoying.  

With the same issue looming, and the party less than a week away, Billy drove me first to Fedex to return the wrong order, then to Walmart, where we walked around looking for possible solutions.  We finally encountered some contractor's plastic, which would be plenty large enough to cover the walls.  We bought four rolls!

At home we started covering the dining room with the fabric first, then added the plastic everywhere else.  Sunday evenings Billy plays an online game with his dad, so we ran out of time to set up the "hallway" in the basement, but did finish the dining room, and I was able to add some signs on the doors.

I had agreed to work 3 days in the week leading up to the party, which made for a very busy week, and I didn't get to go grocery shopping until Friday!  I did see these cool noodles, that I did buy, but ended up serving basic penne as the noodle side, since we were going for 1920s, long before Aldi finds! 

And, once I finished the food shopping, Kristy met me out in Charlotte where I found a pair of suspenders for my costume! (But still no stools)

Once I got home, I was assembling my costume, cleaning, adding finishing touches, pushing through the laundry, cooking, creating the basement hallway, and prepping the dinner for Saturday, so when I turned in at 9pm, I was exhausted!

While I was showering Saturday morning, I had an idea to put some signs up outside, since we notified the guests that they were to enter through the basement storm door.  Billy had sent out a secret knock and password for the guests to give earlier in the week.  On the day of the party, he sat down in the basement 'hallway' 

The drink counter was the only thing that I didn't completely finish setting up before our first guests arrived!

But everything else was ready to go!

It was quite dark, with all the black, so we did end up having to turn on the lights, in order to read our booklets.

Grace and Billy did a nice job setting up the tables!  I realized the morning of, that I hadn't gotten a second round of plates for hors d'oeuvres, so we broke out the antique china plates.  I was a little worried about breaking it, but really, and truly, why do we even have it if it's just going to live in a cabinet? Grace and Emily were so gentle with them, and Grace washed them several times throughout the night!

The main course was the recipe from the booklet: Scaloppine di Vitello al a Bathtub Gin, though, chicken was an easy substitute for the Veal.  Our other special dish was served in giant champagne goblets: lime sherbert with ginger ale.  I'm sad that I didn't take pictures of any of this, but I do enjoy living in the moment during the party!

There weren't really good angles for Emily to take a group shot, so she did a panorama, and then a length of the room shot.

At the end of the party, we celebrated Billy's birthday with a Dairy Queen ice cream cake!

Since the party started at noon, our guests were gone by six, leaving us so much time to clean up!  It felt like it had been night for the duration of the party, with the sunlight all blacked out.

It was a really fun night; we were the only murder mystery party veterans, so this was the first time all of our guests had attended a murder mystery party, and they all looked fabulous!

******

Spoilers to follow:  Billy was not the murderer!  It was actually 'Silky' played by Mel!

******

One last note: I had failed to find Capers at Aldi or Walmart, and while I thought I had some, I didn't realize that they were in a jar that needed refrigeration, so I found mine, two days after the party. = (  The dinner didn't taste off without them, so I guess it was fine.

Everyone enjoyed it enough that we are already coordinating another party, during warmer weather: Murder at the Manor!  I'm happy to have yet another group willing to participate in the fun of murder mysteries!

later days

edit 1-19-26: backdated for continuity.