At long last this week, we reached the 100th day of school. The celebration had to be pushed back twice due to snow days that will have to be made up in June. But by Feb. 3, they had actually achieved the 100th day, which is cause for celebration. I think it's more of a kindergarten thing that extends into the early primary grades. A friend with 3rd- and 4th-grade kids said the milestone was not marked in the older grades.

But Daniel and Edward were each invited to create an item out of 100 pieces. Daniel elected to string together 100 rubber bands, which was quite an impressive task. The finished product stretched from our front door to our back door. I lack the photographic equipment to capture that, but this double loop gives an idea of the length.

Edward's medium, of course, was Lego. He decided to make the number 100 out of 100 Lego pieces. This was also an interesting challenge as we didn't have exactly the same size pieces to make the two zeros the same way. But through a bit of trial and error, adding and subtracting and substituting, he made it happen.

This week we also finally completed our Christmas present to ourselves when our new TV stand was delivered. We decided to take the plunge on a new TV for Christmas and John spent a good amount of time researching the various options. The TV itself was delivered two days before Christmas, but then we were left with a conundrum over its set up. It seems that furniture manufacturers are simply unprepared for 2014 customers who want a stand for a 47-inch HD TV that will also accommodate a stereo receiver and turntable.

A day of shopping (with the boys--oy!) the weekend after Christmas left us with one possibility, which we didn't love the look of, but which we were confident would hold the components. It was to be ready for delivery in the 3rd week of January. That week rolled around and I called for an update, only to discover that the piece we had ordered had been pulled out of inventory and another would not be available until the end of February. UGH! In the meantime, we had the new TV set on an end table in front of the old TV and stand (which was not wide enough to accommodate the new TV.) Very classy.

John and I both spent time scouring options online, but just couldn't bring ourselves to settle for a cheap, pressed-board, assembly-required piece as the center of our living room. Finally, John went back out (alone) to our local stores and hit the jackpot. He emailed me a picture of a stand that met the size requirements for all three components plus our DVD player. Then I asked if the narrow side shelves might even be the right width for his stereo speakers. A quick measure and eureka! It works! And we only had to wait five days for delivery.

 

 It just wouldn't be a 2014 winter blog post without a snow/ice/frozen tundra reference. The biggest bummer has been that the sub-zero temperatures have really limited our ability to get out and enjoy all the snow, but last Saturday was a perfect combination of mid-20s with fresh snow from that morning. We called/texted some friends who were just a eager for fresh air as we were, and spent a fun afternoon sledding and then playing on a snowy playground.Whee!