Winter Wonderland!

This morning we awoke to the best surprise ever -- full-on snowing! The nighttime brought snow so everything was lovely and white -- the kids were in awe...

Which led to more snowball fights on the way to school...

Here's Stephen heading off to his school in his new grey jacket -- an improvement over, in his words, the other one that makes him feel like a marshmallow --

Here are some pictures from my morning run -- I LOVE running here because, as Anne Shirley of Green Gables says (we're almost done reading that together - it's our nighttime book... when I finish a chapter all the kids pop up and say - NO, read more!) - everywhere you look here - there's so much 'scope for the imagination!' I brought the camera this time so I could capture some of my favorite parts of the scenery...

This unreal owl that someone carved into an old tree in a front yard -

One of the long stretches I run down - between the mountains and the orchards ~ with the country farmhouses in the distance where I hear the rooster crow every morning...

Here's a view of downtown Crassier - with the cute church near the park and the Harry Potter-ish 'whomping tree' on the right -

The beehives...

The rows and rows of fruit tree orchards...

The cute little bridge connecting our home to the park - we can hear the babbling river from out our windows...

And ofcourse, the 'bravo' praise for those kindly pet owners who dispose of the poopies...

Jenny, a darling Swedish woman I met at Kenny's school, (her son Louis is in Kenny's class) had heard all about our family (just because we're coming halfway thru the year - she said at the start of the new year everyone's new so it's not so unique) ~ she was so helpful and gave lots of ideas for fun things... but after we talked for half an hour, she said she was impressed with how well we've already become accustomed to everything - that people move here all the time, but usually from within Europe, so it's not such a big change. But a move from America - everything is so completely different... it made me feel good to know that we're on the right track. Learning SO MUCH everyday - the kids come home from school saying new phrases, and it's just a fun time. Daron's taking in a lot with his new job - I'm glad he's enjoying it all too. (We particularly liked the Toblerone samples he brought home from his HP convention yesterday...)