day at the planetarium

We decided to visit the planetarium this past weekend. It was a grand re-opening, the planetarium having now doubled in size from what it was last time we visited. Unfortunately my camera was acting even worse than ever so I got no pictures of the kids pretending to be weather forecasters on tv, the science experiment show about light spectrum's and many of the other fun things we did. I managed to get a few posed pictures here and there but spontaneity was not something my camera could cope with this day.

Space shuttle. We saw a show about this, strange to think that the shuttles will be retired in a year.


Way back in time for space travel.


Colin is in charge of the universe oh no!!!

That ball could be changed to represent any planet or a variety of earth views. There was a cool music and science room too and we watched a movie called Ice Worlds in the planetarium. We learned about constellations here and also at the north and south pole. The show itself was on the planetariums round dome ceiling and it was wonderful! We love learning about the cold poles so getting to see this show was excellent.

Outside the planetarium is this rocket which had just been placed there a few days ago!

Ski Day Friday

We joined a ski field trip through an out of State homeschool group on Friday. They were nice enough to open it up to any homeschooler. We live only 30 minutes from were they were skiing, skiing in March is more bearable weather wise than January, the prices were great so we joined in.

We're ready!

Tristan and Colin had an intermediate lesson while DH and I had a beginner lesson. Still couldn't convince Hayley or Trevor to ski. Hayley was massively helpful running messages to the little boys when I couldn't due to being in my class. So it was kinda good that she didn't want to ski! She was taking some pictures but for some reason most of them came out super blurry or fogged up. My camera does have issues which only I am used to so that was likely the problem.

Later in the day the boys talked me into going up the chairlift with them. Bobby didn't master stopping yet so they couldn't persuade him.

I really don't like being on this chair lift Tristan.

You'll be fine Mummy.

I don't like heights!

It's a long way down there.

I made it to the top without falling out and breaking a limb. Yes I was more scared of the chair lift than skiing.

Ready Mom...


Get Set..... (COLIN where is your helmet!?)



Come on, Let's Go!

Gulp, ok down I go and I didn't even fall on the long run down. I didn't attempt to take pictures going down!

It was a green to blue trail which I think was a pretty good accomplishment considering I haven't skied since I was a teen.

Glasses at last

We finally found an eyeglasses store which works with our vision plan. Tristan chose the frames he likes and the prescription lenses should be ready mid-week. What a relief to have this checked off our to do list. He got Flex glasses which hopefully will be harder to break than his original (and same frame replacement) pairs.


Here Hayley teaches Tristan some methods of communication including the Braille Alphabet. She was working on the Communicator badge for Girl Scouts.

Hayley also made a very nice poster advertisement for a made up brand of cat food. Then we held some debates between she and her brothers on different topics. The kids did well!

Hayley had a field trip at Girl Scouts, they toured a city hall and even saw a jail! The girls were able to stand in the jail cell which Hayley thought was kinda cool.

Skis for boys

We got our tax refund and although most of it had to go right towards bills we used a little for fun. For the little (now bigger) boys fun! We found that renting skis was literally half the price of skiing so we would do a lot better buying the boys their own skis. We found some great end of season deals In fact ski equipment for two boys is almost less expensive than one little pair of eyeglasses through some irritating vision plan providers. Go figure.....

First though we had to find our way back into our own State after wandering out if it (accidentally) while searching for eyeglasses that work with that pesky vision plan.

Ahh there is New Hampshire, I knew I left it somewhere around here.

A few days ago Colin got measured. He was very upset that he had to try on "girl color" ski boots since they were out of some sizes in "boy color". The salesman assured him that the pair he buys will be boy colored but it didn't make trying on pink and white boots any easier so Colin closed his eyes through it all!

That's better!

The place we bought from sells both ski and golf equipment, it is a warehouse. Tristan liked the big golf ball and wanted a picture with it.

Today we picked up the completed ski packages The boys were happy as can be and can't wait to ski again! Colin even got his favorite color, orange!

It gets harder

In our continuing saga of Finding an eyeglasses retailer who
1. accepts our VISION PLAN
2. can do high power prescriptions
3. charges reasonable rates
4. is not 1,000 miles away
We stopped at two more eyeglasses stores today on the way to somewhere else.

One was not open, that was easy.

Two was open and helpful (too helpful and hovering?) and got us all set up with a pair of glasses (after much thought and more thought by Tristan) and then said our part of the bill, less VISION PLAN payment of $149 would be $200. Yes this would actually cost more than going out of network to our original eye doctor. $350 for one child's pair of glasses and not a particularly special pair at that. When we asked if they had frames that were perhaps less expensive we were told they were all the same price. Okay.

While optimistically trying glasses Tristan found these cool magnetic sunglasses. They magnetize right to their matching glasses. Adult sizes only though!


He finally settled on these glasses until we got the over sized quote.

Later in the day I looked online and called the horrid VISION PLAN and found that we can't even look further now because the overpriced store put in a claim already and we are only allowed one pair of glasses a year. It just gets more and more complicated. The horrid but somewhat helpful vision plan said she can cancel the claim on Monday and then we can try again. She suggested a Walmart in the southern part of the state as they actually still accept this awkward vision plan and have good prices. I guess it's worth the drive to get the NotFreeButLessExpensive glasses through the vision plan, which I might add we don't plan to renew next year!

Thank goodness for the online retailers but I am still determined to actually use the VISION PLAN which we are paying $20 a month for!

I hate it when that happens

When the snow plow builds up the snow so much along the sides of the road that it completely blocks the path out of the house.


That is inevitably the day that the mailman will beep instead of drop off because he has a parcel and then if the path is not cleared one of us (me) will have to climb through the snow piles to get to the road.

I cleared the path and found the mailbox again too. It was quite buried.


It is a pretty site on our road these days but a cold one. More snow coming Sunday.

How hard could it be?

Eyeglasses take 3...no 4. Last summer Tristan got eyeglasses. They broke after a few months...all by themselves. He got new frames, under warranty. The puppy ate the frames and the lenses. We PAID FOR new frames and lenses. Last night Tristan forgot to put his glasses away before bed and they got slept on and stepped on and probably bitten by the puppy. They were on the floor by his bed when he woke up...broken again.

So now, here we are with a VISION INSURANCE PLAN surely we are prepared for anything now.

Tristan's regular eye doctor it turns out doesn't accept the vision plan. On the back of the flimsy paper card they sent there are logos for places like Walmart, Sears, JC Penney and Target. We head off optimistically for the promised once yearly FREE pair of eyeglasses.

Our nearest Walmart, 45 minutes away, is not part of the plan because they are independently owned not part of the chain. They still wanted to sell us something and were relatively helpful but by gosh we want to get the promised FREE pair from the VISION PLAN which is not free, it's $20 a month.


Sears looked promising. They helped Tristan choose a frame (a lengthy process), wrote up the order even though the VISION PLAN's system was down and they couldn't verify that Tristan is insured. Typed the prescription into their system then...nothing. They can not do Tristan's prescription since it is a high number prescription (blind as a bat in daytime kinda prescription).


So we move on to JCPenney. "Our location doesn't have vision facilities" we are told.


Target..."this location has no optical shop" we are told.

Then we gave up and went home. I do have a pair on order from Zenni Optical (and plan to get a second pair from them too, great prices) but I still hope to eventually find a way to get a FREE or cheap pair through the VISION PLAN which is now seeming like not such a good plan at all.

What's Up?

What's up there on that roof?


It's furry and orange


and cute and silly


It's Flower the cat!

Perhaps he wanted to enjoy the warmer day today, without sitting on the mountains of snow on the ground.

Tubing Cub Scouts

We went snow tubing again this week, this time as a cub scout den meeting. We suggested it and the leader said sure! A fun time was had. I am convinced that tubing is the most difficult thing ever to photograph, they go too fast!

Randon pics

Our ferrets are multi talented

Not only are some of them maths ferrets as shown in an earlier post some of them are also phonics and language arts ferrets! These kids around here sure have it easy with all the ferret helpers!

Wait a minute here, don't eat the book!

What a "Bover" long hair is

Tristan's hair was "bovering" him so much that he couldn't concentrate on his reading this morning.


It was looking scraggly so I set up my Mommy barber shop (hair clippers).


Tristan didn't like his haircut though because he only wanted the front cut he wanted to keep the rest long until summer. I convinced him we should do it the same all over and he agreed but then felt upset after it was cut off. I haven't a lot of skill in hair cutting and can really only do a buzz cut with the clippers or no cut at all. I did use a longer length plastic thing so it wouldn't be totally summer short.


No photos please, I'm too distressed by this short hair!

Tristan soon forgot about the hair cutting incident had a quick shower to get the itchy hair off and played happily the rest of the day. He kept a handful of his cut hair though! LOL

I on the other hand noticed that one of Tristan's toys needed sprucing up. His magnet set. He used to bring his magnet set absolutely everywhere, he only brings it sometimes now. The set has been to parks and co-op's and friends houses etc. The set was filthy! I was worried about it all rusting but on second look decided I didn't care, all the magnet parts and pieces looked filthy. I soaked it all for an hour then rinsed and dried and the magnets look good as new again. No rust!