Springtime on the river...

The weekend started out with a trip to the house to get Emma's bike. When we got back to Erma's we walked to the edge of the hill overlooking the river and the south shore of Howe Island, Canada. The view was magnificent. In the picture, the dark area in the front is the ice that is left in the river along Erma's shoreline.

A time for friends and fun has sprung once again. For some of our friends, it was a matter of putting in a mode of transportation to come to the island to visit. Mind you, it is only March 28th. Warm temperatures...check. Jet ski in water...check. Ice out of river....well, sort of.
The Jet ski that brought Willie over on this beautiful day.

Willie.... Gotcha Jay. Ice still in the bay in the background.

Willie, Frank and Jay... Enjoying a beautiful day before the sunshine disappears for the next couple of days.

Bye Neil and Shannon. It was nice that you could come over and visit us. Oh, and Shannon, try not to fall in the river again. It is still mighty chilly. Neil, watch out for the ice chunks, especially without reverse.

Looking forward to next weekend. Emma and I will be getting the rest of the stuff over to the island from the townhouse and then bringing the rest of what we need for our trip to Virginia Beach to spend Easter and Spring Break with family and friends.

ARGH Matey...

Emma and the Girl Scouts in the area met up at a fire hall and had a party where they were able to make crafts, sing songs, eat and be merry. The requirements were that they had to dress up like pirates and make either a flag or a pirate ship. Since there are only 3 girls in Emma's troop, they decided to make the pirate flags for the ship. The larger troop made the ship. They turned out rather nice. So did the ship. Back to the dressing up like pirates... When they signed in to the ingathering, the girls were handed a bandana. Not only could they use this onl their head, but they were also going to be used for an ice cream eating "contest" Since there are no winners, I'm not sure it can be classified as a contest. But a little later on that. Before eating, the girls sang a song, which I was able to get a short verion of, but am having a hard time uploading it. In order to eat their pizza, they had to walk the plank. It was a cute idea, and not that expensive... Emma has stripped out of her captain hook outfit. Arts and crafts...a small wooden tray painted red, black and white, with pirate stickers on them. Before they left, the girls received a pouch that had bead necklaces, "jewels" and some other stuff. Overall, it was a good day. Oh yeah, the ice cream eating "contest", the girls put on garbage bags with no arm holes cut out. They had to be blindfolded and feed the person in front of them. I thought Emma was going to throw up she had eaten so much and then the little girl feeding her the ice cream was shoveling it in. Poor kid. Anyway, she had a fun time. I would like to also include the surprise at the end of the party. Thanks to Linda and Kat, I had a birthday cake and everyone sang "Happy Birthday." What a day!

Spring is right around the corner...

Today the weather was beautiful. Frank woke us up early since he was headed to New Hampshire with a co-worker for a week of refresher classes. After making a quick trip to Watertown, Emma and I went to the laundromat. While the clothes were in the washer, we decided to put on our ipods and go for a walk at the recreation center. They have a gravel trail that is 1.1 miles long. I was skeptical that Emma would complete it, but figured what the heck. She finished it and then wanted to play basketball afterwards. So, of course, we put the clothes in the dryer, walked back across the street to tthe basketball courts. She loved the fact that it was such a nice day. When we got back home, she wanted to do her homework outside. It was such a nice day, I didn't blame her. We pulled the picnic table out of the garage and placed it in the sun. I brought out the computer and had the music playing in the background. It also had the multiplication chart up so that she could use it for the division problems she was working on. The result? Emma got her homework all done and she is caught up on her handwriting and "circle math." Here, she is working on division.

I let her play for a little bit in between a couple of the pages. She is such a ham. She was not happy to be going back to her homework. It is going to be a long school career.

The time has come...

The time has come for the ice to leave the river. The wind blew around 40 mph today. The river did not stand a chance considering that is was already weak to begin with. The boys today pulled their airboats off the ice and are getting ready to put the boats back in. The white bands are ice flows from the bays and lake above Grindstone.
Previously, before the ice decided to leave, Emma had a wonderful time ice skating at Potter's Beach. She had so much fun, she was learning how to do figure 8's. She is looking forward to the ice coming back in next year so she can get back out there. It is not a very clear picture, but it came off a friend's website.
Last week at Girl Scouts, Emma and the Girls are making swaps for this weekend's ingathering.
Will post more after the ingathering.