Nova is 3!!!

What an amazing day... Nova is three years old, we got enough snow to play in, we have a new President, and my best loved dog who has been gone since Saturday morning came home this afternoon. I am so happy. And so amazed. How does one grow from this:
to this: in just three short years? Happy Birthday my little snow angel...
We had such a fun day. The kids bundled up and ran outside in swirling snow before eight o'clock this morning. They ran all over the yard tasting the snow, making snow angels, and sledding on the little backyard hill.

They came inside after a couple of hours for hot cocoa and lots of books by the fire. We had some lesson time, too, since we have skipped math for the past couple of days. Clover wrote about the snow, drew some pictures, and did math equations. Indigo & Willow are working on the letter M. They both drew pictures in their main lesson books. This is Willow's drawing of M-shaped mountains under the full moon. Nova drew a picture with his new crayon pebbles from Stubby Pencil Studios, an online craft "store". He was not at all interested in having pictures taking of his lovely drawing, but he did let me take a picture of the crayons. I am so in love with these things!!! They are perfect for small hands, have beautiful colors, and seem really sturdy. After lesson time, the kids bundled back up and went outside for more snowy fun. Clover brought Charlotte with her this time, and they checked on the chickens. Those poor hens were so confused by the snow.

When I felt like everyone was probably soaking wet and frozen, I boiled maple syrup on the stove and called the kids in for maple snow candy. Yum!
Clover gave Nova the adorable gift that she made for him. It is a lovely little felt cardinal stuffed with wool and lavendar. We have a beautiful cardinal family in our plum tree each year. The babies fly away, but the mother and father cardinal make their home here. During the Winter we see them often because they are dependent on our bird feeders to some extent. When they started to be around regularly, Nova started to claim the male cardinal as his own bird. We all started calling the bird "Nova's cardinal" and watching him and his sweet wife every morning. We have had so much fun thinking up stories about the cardinals, and making sure that they have plenty of food, and talking about how wonderful it must be to fly around showing off those awesome red feathers. So, Clover's gift was very well-received and very loved, and I am so proud of her for making this sweet little bird.