Surprise!

John's birthday yesterday, and out in the barn he discovered an early lamb!  In fact, it looks like ALL the lambs will be coming soon, due to a little ram mix-up back in the fall.  Ewes go into heat with cold spells, so it's best to separate the flock in the fall, if you don't want winter lambs, but we had several unexpected cold snaps this year before we moved the rams out which, as you can see, was enough!  With the temps being what they are, we got busy and created cozy wardrobes for the newcomers.  Our old lamb coats hadn't been used in many years since we are normally a bit better with our family planning, and the fabric was pretty worn out, so I found a pattern on-line and made a batch of flannel ones.  (You really haven't lived until you've dressed a newborn lamb in a plaid jacket.)  The boys named this baby 'Johnny Mozart' in honor of two cool guys' birthdays and life will be rather hectic for the next month or so as lambing commences!          

Baby Ballet

Teaching a session of childrens' dance in a cafeteria is not ideal, but living in the sticks as we do, parents prefer it to having to drive an hour for dance classes!  My lovely Russian friend, Yuliya, has been begging me to start teaching ballet and creative movement again ever since she gave birth to two dance-loving daughters a few years ago, and as incentive, did all the work securing the space, signing up families and advertising for me.  Obviously, she's a better salesperson than I am because these classes are PACKED and well organized, I just have to show up and do my thing!  These little people are so sweet and earnest and have no idea that it's funny to be doing plies on a salad bar instead of a real barre.  Life.  Full of improvisations and all the better for it.     

Ice Castle

Last year we went during the day, which was incredible in itself, but THIS winter we went at night to see it lit.  Stunning.  A team from out west creates four of these around the country and two are close enough for us to drive to in just an hour and a half.  Magic.

Ski Runners

When you and your aging father sign on to teach skiing and snowboarding every Friday to Central VT children under 12, you might be crazy.  When you sign up to run the whole program for your town on top of that, you are probably certifiable.  When you try to host a radio show before you load the kids onto the bus and locate 5683309179355 pieces of lost gear, you are clearly too far gone to be labeled.  In the reoccurring theme of overextending my life, this fits in nicely.  But we aren't doing so badly after all: only one trip to the hospital, three equipment SNAFUs and somewhat less crying than expected.  And had we not taken the job, this opportunity would be lost for our local school kids due to a shortage of instructors.  It's nice to be needed.  Especially for a skill that I'd all but forgotten I had!  We've rounded up some wonderful parent volunteers that keep tabs on the little ones warming up their toes in the lodge and several on-mountain helpers that lend a hand wherever needed.  The program could surely use some fine tuning, but is still a pretty great thing for area kids who might not have the chance to ski much otherwise.  So, even if I have a hard time getting to sleep at night when I'm try to remember everything I'm supposed to be remembering, I'm happy.  This is fun!  (Occasional missing mittens, pants-wetting and ambulance rides aside.)