 |
| That number on the wall means he's 25 feet above the ground. Bobby took this picture from the second story balcony. |
Robert managed to climb all three rock faces this week! If only he could be so brave in swim lessons ;)
Wednesday, March 16, 2016
"Climbing is my talent"
Robert managed to climb all three rock faces this week! If only he could be so brave in swim lessons ;)
Lemon Cranberry Scones
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| Proud baker and disgruntled assistant (who must settle for the SECOND largest scone). |
She made them herself! They were divine. There's something to be said about kids making pastries...they don't overwork the dough. And when you can use fantastic recipes from America's Test Kitchen, success becomes routine :)
Monday, March 14, 2016
Birthday Girl
Alice turned 9 today, thrilled to her toes. She insisted on doing things with a little more maturity.
She ate an "adult" portion of veggies at dinner and read an "adult" portion of the chapter during family scripture study (with great emphasis and feeling). Grinning. Delighted. So pleased.
She won't let me take a picture of her, though, so you'll just have to imagine her doing these things :)
Our home teachers gave her a Spanish-English picture dictionary and some Spanish vocabulary flashcards. Very generous. She wanted to practice with them after her homework.
We got to Skype with my parents and the Barneys tonight, which was fun. I've had to practice letting the kids be their kid selves. When I stop trying to have a decent conversation, then the Skype experience becomes much more enjoyable.
Alice asked for a birthday party this year. After all the hullabaloo last year with her turning eight, I was reluctant. We talked about my reservations and her hopes and finally compromised on a very low stress party format (win for me!) in which she could invite as many friends as she cared to (win for her!): we will simply meet up at a playground and play for 2 hours. She promptly typed up an invitation and printed copies for her 12 closest friends.
Sheesh, girl. You're blowin' my mind!
Love her, even when I don't understand her. Love to see her excited about change. She's hopeful about the future and loving today. That's a good place to be on one's birthday :)
She ate an "adult" portion of veggies at dinner and read an "adult" portion of the chapter during family scripture study (with great emphasis and feeling). Grinning. Delighted. So pleased.
She won't let me take a picture of her, though, so you'll just have to imagine her doing these things :)
Our home teachers gave her a Spanish-English picture dictionary and some Spanish vocabulary flashcards. Very generous. She wanted to practice with them after her homework.
We got to Skype with my parents and the Barneys tonight, which was fun. I've had to practice letting the kids be their kid selves. When I stop trying to have a decent conversation, then the Skype experience becomes much more enjoyable.
Alice asked for a birthday party this year. After all the hullabaloo last year with her turning eight, I was reluctant. We talked about my reservations and her hopes and finally compromised on a very low stress party format (win for me!) in which she could invite as many friends as she cared to (win for her!): we will simply meet up at a playground and play for 2 hours. She promptly typed up an invitation and printed copies for her 12 closest friends.
Sheesh, girl. You're blowin' my mind!
Love her, even when I don't understand her. Love to see her excited about change. She's hopeful about the future and loving today. That's a good place to be on one's birthday :)
Friday, March 11, 2016
Snippets
James asked to have someone over to play today. First time ever. And he didn't ask to play with the kid his age that he sees regularly. No, he asked to play with the other kid, slightly younger than him, that he fights with 75% of the time. Huh, what!? Why?!
For the record, Robert has yet to request anyone to come over to play. He has also never asked to go play at someone else's house.
Alice. asks. every. day.
Alice wants make-up and jewelry for her birthday. Real jewelry: clip on earrings and necklaces that she can wear for real. Not dress-up stuff. Ack! Ack! Ack! Trying not to panic. I'm scratching my eyes out at the thought of visiting the jewelry portion of a store, much less selecting something that I think my child will like. I have NO idea! She also asked for a puppy...maybe a puppy would be less painful.
Wait...just got an idea...maybe I could let her choose her own jewelry...make it one of our girls' nights or something. Set a budget, let her go wild. Yes. I can handle that.
Robert is reading! It finally clicked. His teacher tells me he entered KG at a reading level A, which is barely sounding out words on his own. One of his closest friends at school started at level D. Both boys made incremental progress through the year, but suddenly Robert decided he wanted to read what his friend was reading and he worked at it until he could. Now he reads level J. Robert has this quiet little competitive streak in him...most stuff he doesn't care about, but if he DOES care about it, he'll find a way to succeed at it. He confided in me that he likes being a good reader. Which, you should note, is different from liking to read. He likes being good at it. See? Subtle competitive streak.
Our furnace stopped working last night. Lucky for us, the house managed to stay relatively warm (63F) despite the freezing temps outside. When Bobby went into the crawlspace to have a look, he discovered inches of water on the floor. Yay. Two service calls, 9 hours, 4 furnace parts, and $1500 later, all problems were identified and repaired. The furnace just happened to stop working AND make the flood. Two totally different, unrelated parts broke at the same time. Go figure. It's a blessing, though, 'cuz we would not have discovered the leak for months otherwise.
For the record, Robert has yet to request anyone to come over to play. He has also never asked to go play at someone else's house.
Alice. asks. every. day.
Alice wants make-up and jewelry for her birthday. Real jewelry: clip on earrings and necklaces that she can wear for real. Not dress-up stuff. Ack! Ack! Ack! Trying not to panic. I'm scratching my eyes out at the thought of visiting the jewelry portion of a store, much less selecting something that I think my child will like. I have NO idea! She also asked for a puppy...maybe a puppy would be less painful.
Wait...just got an idea...maybe I could let her choose her own jewelry...make it one of our girls' nights or something. Set a budget, let her go wild. Yes. I can handle that.
Robert is reading! It finally clicked. His teacher tells me he entered KG at a reading level A, which is barely sounding out words on his own. One of his closest friends at school started at level D. Both boys made incremental progress through the year, but suddenly Robert decided he wanted to read what his friend was reading and he worked at it until he could. Now he reads level J. Robert has this quiet little competitive streak in him...most stuff he doesn't care about, but if he DOES care about it, he'll find a way to succeed at it. He confided in me that he likes being a good reader. Which, you should note, is different from liking to read. He likes being good at it. See? Subtle competitive streak.
Our furnace stopped working last night. Lucky for us, the house managed to stay relatively warm (63F) despite the freezing temps outside. When Bobby went into the crawlspace to have a look, he discovered inches of water on the floor. Yay. Two service calls, 9 hours, 4 furnace parts, and $1500 later, all problems were identified and repaired. The furnace just happened to stop working AND make the flood. Two totally different, unrelated parts broke at the same time. Go figure. It's a blessing, though, 'cuz we would not have discovered the leak for months otherwise.
Tuesday, March 8, 2016
Dirt! Glorious Dirt!
Warm day today. Very warm. The babe and I got to play outside in the garden while the other three were at school. Normally, I would have used that time to exercise, but Matthew had a fever this morning and I had to change my plans.
This was good for me, though.
I pulled weeds and measured/planned some infrastructure changes while Matthew toddled around playing in everything...mostly dirt and the big red car. The top few inches of soil in my raised beds were warm and fluffy. I just raked my hands through it and smiled.
The chickens got to stretch their legs around the yard, too, but after 30 minutes or so of pecking and scratching, they gathered around my legs and followed me around. Kinda creeped me out. I led them back to their pen :)
We did some stuff in the middle of the day, and came back outside in the afternoon. We had a couple friends over and the biggest boys started digging for gold (clay chunks). I kept pulling weeds (should have pulled those last fall, dagnabit!). At one point, I heard Matthew and James playing in the big, red wagon nearby. Then I heard a "fwump"*grunt* and I turned to see Matthew's legs flop over into the garden bed. He had been standing in the wagon like James and lost his balance. No worries, his face broke his fall:
It's a good thing the soil was so soft and freshly cleared of pokey weeds ;)
I suddenly found myself in a serious grump. Not because of the crying, dirty kid who would now need a bath before dinner. No, I love my kids getting dirty. This time, I was grumpy because we had to stop our fun right then if I wanted to get ANY dinner made and served before bedtime.
Confession: I hated making dinner tonight.
But I did it. And strangely enough, the kids were so hungry and so happy from playing outside all afternoon (instead of snacking all afternoon), that they ate it up gratefully and massaged my shoulders. Before I knew it, I was saying, "Cheesecake for everyone!"
And Bobby brought out the cheesecake.
Spring is the bestest time EVER!
This was good for me, though.
I pulled weeds and measured/planned some infrastructure changes while Matthew toddled around playing in everything...mostly dirt and the big red car. The top few inches of soil in my raised beds were warm and fluffy. I just raked my hands through it and smiled.
The chickens got to stretch their legs around the yard, too, but after 30 minutes or so of pecking and scratching, they gathered around my legs and followed me around. Kinda creeped me out. I led them back to their pen :)
We did some stuff in the middle of the day, and came back outside in the afternoon. We had a couple friends over and the biggest boys started digging for gold (clay chunks). I kept pulling weeds (should have pulled those last fall, dagnabit!). At one point, I heard Matthew and James playing in the big, red wagon nearby. Then I heard a "fwump"*grunt* and I turned to see Matthew's legs flop over into the garden bed. He had been standing in the wagon like James and lost his balance. No worries, his face broke his fall:
It's a good thing the soil was so soft and freshly cleared of pokey weeds ;)
I suddenly found myself in a serious grump. Not because of the crying, dirty kid who would now need a bath before dinner. No, I love my kids getting dirty. This time, I was grumpy because we had to stop our fun right then if I wanted to get ANY dinner made and served before bedtime.
Confession: I hated making dinner tonight.
But I did it. And strangely enough, the kids were so hungry and so happy from playing outside all afternoon (instead of snacking all afternoon), that they ate it up gratefully and massaged my shoulders. Before I knew it, I was saying, "Cheesecake for everyone!"
And Bobby brought out the cheesecake.
Spring is the bestest time EVER!
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