March Decoration Madness

This year for the traditional March Madness decoration extravaganza the Ipson's sent us some items that had to be used in our decorations. These items include a skein of orange yarn, a piece of flannel fabric, and materials to make a flag. We decided to decorate the living room and dinner room this year (you can review last years rooms in our older blog by clicking here).

And it wouldn't be complete without the newly made March Madness quilt.

Welcome to Portland

We had so much fun going to Portland to visit with family, see basketball, and tour the beautiful area. More to come soon, once there is time to go through and pick some pictures to post.

Getting Ready

I'm all ready for March. Are you?

Highland Conservatory

For the first time since we have lived here, we went to the conservatory at Highland Park. It is a pretty neat place. Different climates in different rooms.The desert room was pretty dangerous because of all the cacti--some very sharp needles.  

There were some huge palms and many flowering plants. The Spanish moss was pretty neat too.

Winter only comes on Sundays

The winter has certainly been unusual. Last Sunday it was snowy (previous post) but then the rest of the week was fairly warm with a couple days in the mid forties. Then for the weekend the "arctic front" moved in and we got Sunday snow again. Overnight and until about 11am, it was snowing like crazy. When Caleb got home from his morning meetings he said the visibility with the snow falling and blowing was only about 100 feet. We ended up with about a foot of snow. But later this week the weather is once again supposed to be in the 40's. Not the typical Rochester snow that falls and doesn't melt until spring. Sadie and Sylvester loved going out to romp through it all. Sadie had to work a little harder to leap high enough to make it through. Sylvester was so excited to go outside that he was springing around with little leaps.

Cold and Snowy Outside, Warm and Toasty Inside

Last Sunday, we got a surprise when we looked outside. An hour earlier it had been dry with no sign of snow, but then suddenly there were already 2 inches and it was coming down like crazy. We went for a drive to see if we could find any fun pictures. Even in the dark it seemed pretty light because of all the snow reflection.

For dinner we had warm and toasty individual chicken pot pies, kind of a fun change from the usual and just the right size. Sylvester wished that he got one of his own. (sorry Caleb)

Marshmallow World

 Thursday on the weather channel there was an article listing the 5 areas that are the furthest behind their average to date snowfall. The Rochester area was #2. So far the official snowfall had been 1.5 inches and typically by mid January, Rochester has received about 35 inches. There are no complaints about the lack of snow so far. In fact is has been pretty nice.

But Friday the weather decided to help us start to make up that deficit by finally bringing the snow. Time to officially haul out the boots, scarfs, gloves, etc. And the temperatures have dropped to re-enforce that it is actually winter (today in the mid-teens). Hopefully this delayed start doesn't mean it will still snowing in June.