Christmas Tree Redux

On Saturday morning, the kids must have missed our Christmas tree because they decorated the living room plant with pipe cleaners, many shaped into fuzzy candy canes.

It was such an unseasonably warm day that we ate breakfast outside. These warm winter days would be so much more fun without the threat of global warming hovering over us.

Alice had a plan for the retired Christmas tree: put it in a tree!  The kids played in it a lot, but it was especially cute to see Simon and Ellie sitting in a tree...𝅘𝅥𝅮𝅘𝅥𝅮

Alice's First Fake Nails

In her stocking, for Christmas, Alice got some fake nails (from the dollar store). She finally put them on today.  They didn't last long, but she felt pretty cute while they lasted.

Zac's 41st Birthday

On Tuesday, Zac turned 41. I baked and decorated the cake the night before. Zac always makes the frosting and does the base coat for me, because I do not do it well and get frustrated easily. So he always contributes, even to his own cake. My creativity seems to have waned in these later years, and unfortunately the cake ended up pretty basic. The problem with cakes is that you can't do a rough draft and then continuously edit (like I do for my writing). When I make a cake, which is only once a year, I wish I could keep editing and revising it, but nope.

 Anyway, the kids were excited to see it in the morning and Zac is always a good sport about my amateur cakes.

After school, the kids helped put candles in the cake.

When they finally finished supper (quiche & salad & bread) Alice lit the candles.

Then we sang happy birthday and the kids greedily licked the candles.

After the cake, Zac opened presents. It took forever because Simon made him at least a dozen little packages of stapled-together paper with various rocks and cards and trinkets inside.

Science Museum & Panic Day

Sunday was the last day of winter break before we all went back to work and school. I scheduled Sunday as my "panic day" for getting ready to return to work after my extended leave. To help out, Zac took the kids to the science museum for the afternoon so I could panic in peace.  It turns out I didn't actually panic much--I had finished all my grading on Friday night so I just needed to get my units planned out and just kind of wrap my head around returning to work. It was easier than I expected, so maybe after 12 years at this school, I've finally got the hang of it and can begin to coast a bit.

Zac said the kids had a really good time at the science museum. 

Back at home, after supper, the dishwasher-loading training continued.

Fun at Durham

On Saturday, I took the kids to Durham so Zac could work on some house projects without being interrupted.

One of Simon's favorite places is the room with a bunch of giant blue building blocks. He worked with another little boy, and later with Alice, to build a pretty impressive fort.

The really exciting thing that happened this time was that Simon got to pet a tarantula in the bug house.

Back outside, near the tree houses, they have a new fort-building area. I like that there is starting to be more nature-play and creative-play areas at parks.  They're trying to mimic good old-fashioned playing in the woods.

At home with the kids, week 2

For the first week of break, we were all home as a family, and Alice and Zac were pretty sick while Simon was medium sick. So we didn't really go anywhere or do too much. During the second week of break, I was sick, Alice was still sick, and Simon was mostly fine. Zac went to work every day except Wednesday (New Years).

The nice thing about the long break was that the kids really had a lot of down time to be creative with their own projects and play. Simon mostly played outside and in the garage, whereas Alice would alternate between active play and reading or drawing. The neighbors from across the street came over a lot, and Glenn and Murphy came over a couple of times too.  It was a nice low-key week, for the most part, as the kids can organize games of hide-and-seek by themselves and I just have to referee a bit here and there.

Alice mixed paint with water to make this alternative "juice."

The gears are a lot of fun to play with!

Nail polish time!

We've been inundated with cookies and treats. The kids have especially been enjoying the fabulous cookies sent by Grandma Cam.

Snack time with Glenn and Murphy.

The weather has been warm enough for the kids to play in the garage a lot. With Glenn and Murphy, they mostly built weapons. The garage mess stresses me out a lot, so I cope by trying to completely ignore it.

Cat poses

I noticed Simon inadvertently sitting the same way as the cat.

Then it became a fun game for the kids to imitate the cat.

New Year: New Chore

With the ample stay home days this break, I've started training the kids on loading the dishwasher. So far, they think it's great fun. 

Park and Groceries (my life in two words)

Because Friday was supposed to be rainy, I wanted to get the kids out of the house for a bit. A slight drizzle started just as we headed out to the park, but I was determined to persevere. We went to White Deer Park, where the kids had a lot of fun on the two play grounds, the big hill slide, and the fort in the woods.

On our way back (covered in mud from the park), we stopped at the grocery store. For the second time, one of the workers in the produce section brought out some little sample-size cups of fresh blueberries for the kids.

The kids love to take turns finding the items we need.  Alice was thrilled to find this pig-shaped ginger.

We also always have to stop by the lobster tank.

New year, same Simon

On the morning of the new year, we found this note in the hallway outside Alice's door when we got up.

The note, transcribed and edited for clarity, reads as follows: 

For Alice: Alice have you been looking for pink poof? Well, I stole it and you'll never find it. I found it in the box and I have it. Your egg is lost. Anyway, it's stupid.

So Simon is in full form as annoying younger brother, it seems.

New Year's Hike

After breakfast, we packed a lunch and headed to Eno Quarry for our new year's day hike. It was a beautiful warm day and the hike was great. We'd never done this trail before, and were delighted to discover nice paths down to the Eno river, with lots of boulders from the quarry for the kids to climb on.

I always feel bad for all those suckers paying a fortune to take their kids to Disney. The nature rides are fun and free, and there's no lines!

They played on the vines and later this hill for quite a long time.

We're always practicing our tree walking skills!

Simon saw this mound on the opposite side of the quarry pond, and couldn't wait to be "king of the hill."

The kids had a lot of fun with this little leaf collection.

Then we took another trail down to another section of the river.

Simon played on this rock for a long time. He really loved scrambling up and down it.

On our way back, we found the ruins of the Cabe mill and played around them for a while.

The stonework on one of the walls was particularly beautiful.

One final stop on the way back--a recently fallen tree provided much entertainment.

To give you a sense of how we hike, we did just over four miles in five hours.  We don't so much hike as go outside and play.

When we got home, we made our traditional new years day ham bone soup with black eyed peas.  What a nice start to the new year!