Hot Air Balloons and Mules

Thank goodness they send the kids' schoolwork home. How else would I ever know that Alice's favorite form of transportation was a hot air balloon, or that she has plans to ride a mule in Australia?

A whole month of stickers!

We never thought we'd see the day when Alice managed to not be too bad at school for a month straight.  (It's actually longer because she got all stickers for the last week or two of February as well.)

Playing Dress Up

Alice and Parker like to play in Alice's room (which is great, because then Alice is out of our hair and not fighting with Simon).  They often come down wearing different outfits.

One day Parker brought over her make-up kit. She had obviously been trained in the fine art of make-up application, because she looked normal, whereas Alice looked like a demented clown.

Island Adventure

One evening, Zac took the kids to the little island on the pond where they had great fun and found a skeleton.

Evening under the power lines

In the evenings sometimes the kids like to go play on the little field under the powerlines across from our house. They usually play in the "hideout"--two trees with a little tree cave under them, or they make grass and flower art, or play restaurant (Parker's favorite) or they just run around. (Simon is not normally crying--he wasn't feeling well on this day so everything was extra tragic.)

Marbles morning

I took the kids to Marbles for an early morning playdate with Grayson. We usually go to Marbles when the weather is bad and we want to get out of the house, and then Marbles is crowded because all the other parents had the same idea. But the weather was actually quite nice today, so Marbles was quite calm and uncrowded. I stayed near Simon in each play area and then just gave Alice a boundary of where she could go that was nearby. This worked quite well and she had fun playing around in the different areas with Grayson while I visited with his mom and dad and baby sister.

Sometimes in the main area they have special crafts or activities set up for the kids. This was one of the worst ever: yarn painting. You take a piece of yarn, dip it in paint, then squeeze the paint off with your fingers, then put it between folded paper and pull it out. You can do this with several different paint-colored pieces of yarn to make a cool design and a giant mess.

Only kids allowed

We had a large box from the media credenza that was delivered Saturday morning and installed Saturday night after the kids were in bed. We left the box in the living room for the kids to find, and sure enough, the next morning when Zac came down he found both of them in it.

Later that day Alice taped a sign to it declaring "Only kids allowed!"

Sweet Reward

Alice went four weeks straight at school without getting a number on her behavior calendar. The numbers correspond to comments indicating what misbehaving the kid did that day. A sticker means the kid had a good day. Alice has rarely gone a full week without getting a number, but somehow she hit a good-behavior streak in late February. Earlier this week I had bought cake mix at the grocery store and I told Alice if she made it to the end of the week without getting a number that we would make cupcakes on the weekend. (Whenever she gets a number we take away videos.  But the trend in parenting these days is to reward good behavior rather than punish bad behavior, so although we still do plenty of punishing, we try to remember to reward good behavior every once in a while too).

So in the afternoon, Alice and Parker helped make the cupcakes. While they were sitting at the island putting the baking papers in the pans, Parker said, "Alice, I wish we were sisters.... Do you want to pretend we're sisters?"  It was so cute, and I had the thought that this was probably better, because if Alice had a real sister she'd just fight with her all the time, but she gets along really well with Parker.

Then after supper Zac made the frosting and the kids iced the cupcakes. Well, Simon frosted one, ate it, and went and played in the basement. While Alice and Parker did a great job decorating the cupcakes.

The cupcakes later featured in one of Alice's school writing assignments:



The luckiest day I ever had... "was when my mom gave me the prettiest cupcake."

The Talking Trees

Our friends Kate and Rob had told us about this place called Clemmons Educational State Forest where you can push a button and the trees will talk and tell you about themselves. Alice was very intrigued by this idea, but then the move and winter happened, so it was several months before we had free time and good weather to head out there with Kate and Rob and the kids.  The forest was really cool with lots of short kid-sized hikes. On the talking-tree path, there were posts that had a button and then a person impersonating the tree came on and told you about its life and purpose. The kids were afraid to push the button the first time, but then got the hang of it.

Everybody waiting for Simon to stop looking for bugs and hike.

We had a lovely picnic lunch at a table overlooking the pond.

Then the kids had to poke sticks in the pond. All that yellow scum is the pollen.

Then we went on a walk around the pond.

Then they walked on some fallen trees....

The tree below reminded us of the Fight-over Lamp.

Another path was called the rock path and had little geology lessons about the rocks.

Alice enjoyed pretending to be a teacher at the outdoor learning space.

The kids were pretty tuckered out on the way home.

Color Math

Alice seems to really love math, and we'll find all sorts of equations scrawled on the backs of papers. But here (it is really hard to see) she did a math problem with colors. So it says "white + blue = blue/white." I'm not saying Alice is a prodigy or anything, but I just think it's super cool how she comes up with this stuff on her own and how she's making connections between concepts.

Evening at the Pond

Now that the time has changed, those magical 30-60 minutes between supper and bedtime snack are full of outdoor adventures. Today, the kids played at the pond and Simon made what he called a cupcake out of leaves he happily dredged from the pond with a stick.

Kitchen Sink Window View

At our old house, there was no window at the kitchen sink. At our new house, I really love being able to see turtles, geese, ducks, and herons while rinsing dishes, in addition to basic things like trees and the sky.

"Look! There's a snail on the door-window!"

Alice's First Loose Tooth!

She is soooooo excited to have her first loose tooth finally.

The easiest way to have three kids

I always felt kind of bad, being a third kid myself, for not having the fortitude to have three kids. But at our new house, we've found the perfect solution: adopt the neighbor kid! Parker is a year older, a grade higher, and head shorter than Alice. She also only has one brother, but he's a teenager, so she spends a lot of evenings and weekends playing with Alice and Simon. As far as luck-of-the-draw neighbor kids go, we couldn't have gotten much luckier. She is the opposite of Alice: easygoing, imaginative, well-mannered, obedient...and she'll even find bugs for Simon or help him find bugs. So she is a welcome addition to our family, with all the benefits of a third kid and none of the hassle.

Alice in the magnolia tree

This tree in our front yard is great for climbing.

"It's getting nighter!"

Every evening since the time changed, the kids sit down to their bedtime snack when it is still a little bit light out. Every day, Simon asks me, "Why are we eating bednight snack at morning?" Then I explain that the time changed and it will be dark by the time they finish their snack and head to the bath.  This satisfies him. Then fifteen minutes later, he will notice the light has faded, and he will announce, "It's getting nighter!"

Simon sets the table

Simon really wanted to help me set the table. It was funny how clueless he was about everything, given that we eat here every single night. He had no idea where to put the napkins and when I gave him the forks, he just arranged them in a swastika configuration at one end of the table. It took a lot of coaching to eventually get the table set.

Slides, swings, and dung beetles

On this chilly Sunday morning, I took the kids to the nearby park. I was happy to see Simon doing something other than playing with bugs for a change.

Wait, when did Simon graduate from the baby swings?

Alongside the greenway, the kids found this pile of dirt (remnants from a fallen tree's roots) and started pretending they were dung beetles on a pile of dung. They played here for over half an hour, and probably would have stayed another hour, except it was time to go home for lunch.

Bugs at the science museum, bugs at home

Zac took the kids to the science museum on this rainy Saturday morning.

While Zac was at the museum with the kids, I was able to finish organizing the hand-me down clothes in the attic. I love that the walk-up attic has enough room for bins, so now I can put all the clothes for the kids in labelled containers and not have to rummage through garbage bags of clothes when we get hit with unseasonably warm or cold weather (like 80 degree days in February). I am so grateful that my sister loves to shop and has a boy and a girl a couple years older than my kids. I hate shopping, so it is quite nice to basically have a store in the attic.

We've also been battling a couple of ant invasions. One group comes into the upstairs bathroom and another inhabits the kitchen.  Who knew ants like toothpaste?