Maple Syrup-ing

The Friday of spring break we boiled down our first batch of maple syrup.  It was a cold morning and all the water evaporating off both the sap and the cold, wet blocks sent a nice white cloud into the air. The rising sun was just hitting the red pines in the windbreak by the time I got outside and took the picture.  Matt of course had gotten out much earlier to get things rolling.

Clare went skiing on the crusty snow.  She loves when the snow is hard packed and she can ski to her heart's delight in the field.

Lena is a puzzle builder extraordinaire.  We have three 24 piece puzzles that she does by herself quite often.  I was watching her with some new puzzles in the church nursery and she had no trouble doing the 12 piece puzzles by herself even though she hadn't seen them before.  She's at such a fun age where she's just soaking everything up and those little wheels are just a crankin' in her brain. She's talking so much now, using full sentences like "Where Clare-Bear go?"  and "I have one, please?" "Daddy at work?" and, when she woke up from her nap to see friends in the living room: "I see people in there."

Pure preciousness.  When I tuck her in at night and do something little like refill her water bottle or spread her blanket over her back she says, "Thank-you, Mom".  

Out for a walk.  These two love to be outside.  On Monday we went for the best walk - it was sunny and warm enough that I wasn't cold but not so warm that we broke through the crust on the snow.  The girls walked all over - out to check the sap buckets all the way across the field, then to the pond, then wound their way through the trees and apple orchard back to the house.

Checking out some little critter's hole at the base of one of our tapped maple trees.

Lena enjoys ice cream with fresh maple syrup on top.  It doesn't get much better than that!