Creepy

I love to find these guys in my sink

Suction so strong it lifts my carpet up

I love my new industrial vacuum dynamite duo. Take that dog hair!

Florida Dreamin'

Track Spikes

Track meet tomorrow. Boys Meet. Owen is running hurdles. Izzy is working on sprints. No girls meet until after break.

Ice Fishing

Neal and Joel went out on Sunday morning to brave the cold (yeah it was a little). They didn't get a single bite, but that's not why we fish, is it? Neal was disappointed to find out that we still don't have one of those cool tents to hang out in on the lake.

Neal's Portfolio

Neal had portfolio sharing on Friday. Did you read the note on an earlier post? This a typical Barton activity where the kids save work from all their content areas and especially projects, art work and big writing pieces in a portfolio. At the end of each semester, there are portfolio days to share with families. I photographed a few things from Neal's on Friday morning.

 Neal's review of Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe

Two poems written to describe the painting above. 

Ratio Drawing on a grid.

 Still Life on it's side. Sorry.

Self-portrait.

Christmas

Sadly, I forgot to take one of the dinner table.  You can see the morning damage, the yearly portrait with Vicky and the kitchen prep! Thanks everyone for such a wonderful Christmas.

Mesmerized by the iPad. Supervised by Chad iz Rad. Christmas Damage viewed in the background.

Getting Everything Ready for Dinner.

Well, at least we can walk on the lake. 

The kids posing with Vicky for their annual holiday photo. 

Use your imagination to insert photo of the dinner table here! Chef too busy drinking prosecco and digging in drawers for serving spoons to remember to take the photo. Merry Christmas.

Cookies part one

Isabel The Poet

Izzy completed her poetry anthology today. She crafted a beautiful book with secret storage for each of her poems. Looks beautiful.

First High School Ski Race Today

Washburn came out alright today at Trollhaugen. Featuring it's hot new 8th grade skier Owen Woodward. Owen skied on the Varsity B squad today. The team ranked 20th out of 63 Well done Washburn. Well done Owen.

Neal's Note

Found this in Neal's backpack. It is an invite for his portfolio review on the last day before break. I loved that it said it started at 8. I could make him a lunch and then take him home early.

Thanksgiving Morning Photobooth Style

I just found this along with about 50 other kaleidoscopic photos of joel, brenda and jerry having coffee. Very artfully arranged.

Italian House for lunch

Just heading out of Janesville, Wisconsin. We had a lovely classic Italian meal, ravioli, manicotti and spaghetti. Now some will nap and one will drive. Looking forward to out stop on Tomah for some raspberry ale.

WE SKIED ON SUNDAY!

3 whole inches and we raced down to the Rose Garden to carve it up! We of course were the first and only skiers that morning. Super fluffy and fun snow. Good weather, great company, happy kid and dog! Loved every minute. Minnesota is awesome.

Our Dog Loves Snow

Finn can't believe his luck that after this long hot Summer and Fall, his dream has come true and snow came again. We got about 3 inches and even some ice to chew on. Finn has spent many hours rolling around on his back in the white stuff, gnawing on ice bergs and just laying around on the deck soaking it all in. As you revel in the beautiful 50 degree weather on Thanksgiving Day, think of poor Finny and how hot and miserable he will be.

The knight on the fridge

Owen drew this guy this morning pretty cool shading and shadow.

Saturday in East Harriet

Check out EastHarriet365 to see our photos each week. Joel and Brenda do the Saturday shift.

Arm and Leg Breaking Weekend

Between the old ski-erg machine and our shocking to the system (knees) but super fun 2 hour run we're a little broken tonight. Ski-erg is some kind of wattage measurer and the Balance Club (Owen included pulled on the arm pulley thing for 30 seconds each. Owen believes his arms to be broken.

This morning we had a gloomy, windy, but oddly balmy 45 degrees for our Sunday morning run. My bright idea from last week was to run for two hours. We ran slowly around Eloise Butler, Quaking Bog and Jar Hill then stopped by Wirth Beach.

Here's our 1 hour crew! Joel's taking the photo.

Then we went out for the second hour through JD Rivers and up North through the Golf Course, up to Golden Valley to the BMX park and back down. By the time we returned to the lake it was significantly colder. My fingers were so cold I couldn't turn the key in the car lock.

Here's our 2 hour completion gang. Susan's taking the photo.

You gotta love Minnesota for being Minnesota. Embrace it or...move, I guess.

Spooky! Cowgirl, Ninja and Steve?

Oooh Alex is such a cute tiger