Today on The Knoll

This is what's been going on today:

We started the day off with Silas and Eli playing together well.  Yea!

I made redneck greenhouses.

Broccoli seedlings.

Christian started building the master closet!! 

I have daffodils blooming on the hill behind the house.

Colin luxuriated indoors next to the fire.

I made cinnamon pull-apart bread.

It suddenly hailed.

Here are my daffodils just a couple of hours later than the other photo, surrounded by hail.

It hailed and thundered all the way through nap time.

Colin did not appreciate the hail storm.

Then the sun came and the clouds were swept away.

Eli got to splash in some puddles...

...and throw some rocks.

We headed home as the sun set on a busy, wild, wonderful day.

Now we're going to eat some of that bread for dinner!

Auntie Birthday

Auntie Char's birthday is in February.  Silas helped me make the cake for her birthday celebration that evening. 

Dancing must be an ingredient in a Charlotte cake.

A little shimmying while spreading the flour in the pan.

At Grandma and Grandpa's - Eli disobediently playing with the pots while Zac looks on.

Party animal.

We got a good picture with the birthday girl.

"Mmmm...cake...Can I lick it?"

No, he did not manage to lick the cake.  But he wanted to.

The crowd singing happy birthday.

We got her some goofy glasses.  Just her style.

And some goofy finger eyes while Silas has a balloon in his belly.

Lasers in the Hallway

I saw this on Pinterest and thought Silas would love it.  He did!

We even made Auntie Char go through all of it.  Eli liked a lot, but I think he mostly enjoyed bulldozing through the string and tape rather than actually getting through it without tearing it down.  Silas said it made him feel like a spy and spent the next couple of days sneaking through the house.

Bedtime Boys

Burns' Night

The Scottish celebrate the poet Robert Burns' birthday every year with dinner and dancing every year on the 25th of January.  My father-in-law organized a dinner this year that included the burning of a great pile of wood, eating lots of haggis (or perhaps just a little), reciting some of Burns' poetry (the most famous being 'Auld Lang Syne') and moving in certain formations that some would call dancing.  It was a lovely evening.

My nephew with a slightly more Scottish look to him than normal.

Christian in his kilt.  It was cold outside, so he wasn't willing to go without trousers.

ELI!!!

The burnfire.

Christian waltzing with his sister.

Doing the sword dance, which I'm sure has a proper name that I don't know.

Since we don't have very many ancient battle swords laying around (where are you when we need you Josh?), we had to make do with some of Silas' plastic ones.

I think we all got our exercise in that night.

Silas joined Jasmine in for a dance.

Sophie and Stephen doing a Scottish jig.

Silas trying to do a Scottish jig.

Christian's turn. 

I'm sorry I didn't get a picture of the haggis; it was really nice mixed with mashed potato.  I did get a picture of this strange couple:

Oh, that's better.