winter fun

I lost a day this week. Don't ask me how that happens, but it did. All day today I thought it was Thursday. I kept making plans, shocking I know, for home school. But it's Friday. I'm glad too. I'm ready for the weekend!
 Last night was a friends birthday and we, a bunch of us gals, crashed her house for a girls night in! The kiddos, mine and all the other ladies were not invited, and we had a blast! A bunch of friends eating and laughing and having a great time together. We had some of that microwave fondue, and I was in charge of heating it up and, I've never done that before, fondue that is, and I burnt part of the plastic it was in! Oops! It smelt like burnt popcorn!  Fried zucchini all over again! Well they made me try the chocolate and it was fine, the stuff that was not burnt, and we had strawberries and some other yummy treats! Gotta have yummy snack food for a girls night!  I didn't get to bed until 2:30am! And let me tell you morning came really fast too! Matthew let me sleep in, but I was up at 8:00, but laid there until 8:30. He did all the chores while I slept, what a great man I have! I could have stayed in bed, but my eyes refused to stay shut. Go figure. So we had school, and carried on with the day. I had 2 glasses of coffee today instead of one. Yes, I drink my coffee in a glass, it's iced coffee. Yes you read that right it's iced. I don't drink hot coffee. Yuck. Not even when it's -12! Earlier this week some in-laws came over, and my brother in law decided we would do a kid swap. So the kiddos had to be good in school all week, his kids and ours are very close in age, and they home school too. So tonight we did the kid swap. Emma and her cousin, they are 2 days apart in age and just like two peas in a pod, are here for the night. Two five year old girls, oh boy! Well DaLaney and another cousin are three months apart in age, went to the in laws house. Two seven year old girls, oh boy!! Could prove to be interesting for both sets of parents! It's all good, they've spent the night before...
So what did I do this afternoon? Well I wanted to take a nap, but that didn't happen. I'll show you what I well we did this afternoon.

What on earth is that?

This is interesting... the boys deep in thought...

OK, now it's looking like something. Know what it is yet?

Oooooo, doors going on! Nice hands honey...

Ta da.. got it yet??

Isn't she perty?

What? Oh that's the inside of it!

"Fire it up and watch them horses run"... Oh sorry, I love that song! Know it?

We're in business, well almost... can you smell it?

 OK, I didn't realize I had taken so many pictures. Actually I have more, but won't share them all. We got our saperator set up today! And when I say we, Matthew was the one that bricked it up. I watched and took pictures and handed him the bricks! Apparently you buy the saperator, and then you have to brick it up and then fire it up and let the bricks cure. So that's what we did. Now we have to level it on one side, because if it's not level it's a nightmare to use. I still need to show you what we used to have compared to this one. I haven't found the picture yet. I'm sure we'll have a learning curve with this one. Hopefully it will be a short one and we can get it and have fun with it. If it had been the middle of February today we would have had a good run of sap. But it's only January.  It started to boil, the water, we put in it in about 10-15 minutes! That's fast, but the fire comes right up, and well, it's too hard to explain, I'll have to see if I can get a picture. Oh, and if your wondering why there is a tarp looking thing hanging up, it's because we had a space heater blowing on  the bricks to help them dry and it kept the cold out of the sap house to help them set while we glued them on with the cement. Now we need to empty the saperator because it's supposed to be really cold tonight! What were the kiddos doing while we were working? Well they were outside enjoying the sunshine, fresh air, and temperature's that didn't freeze you, and they were riding their bikes too! No unfortunately I don't get a picture of them. Would have been great picture too! Maybe tomorrow. It was kinda tough riding the bikes with the snow, but they tried, and had fun doing it too!

Oh and the name of the song is My Kinda Party by Jason Aldean!

Note: I know it's called a sap evaporator, and if your wondering why I call it a saperator and have the time and inclination you'll have to read the other posts with the label syrup to explain the meaning of the word. It's cute how it got it's name!!