Either the babies or the boys are always playing with the trains around the tree.
14 December 2014
13 December 2014
Geography
When they didn't know I was listening ...
Scotty: OK. It has to be somewhere with the perfect weather. Like summer, fall ... Oh, I know! Hu-wah-ee! Yes! I choose Hu-wah-ee (Hawaii).
Grant: No, you can't just choose. You have to spin the globe and see where you land. And if you land on water, then you have to swim for the rest of your life. Ready? Spin!
(Scotty ended up in the deserts of Africa.)
17 November 2014
I Just Want to Remember
These moments ...
The day I sent the kids to play for a break, and then looked outside and saw a beautiful streak of sun shining across the sky. Instantly the thought occurred to me that instead of doing the dishes, I should go outside, too. Just thinking about the near-missed opportunity, I get a little teary-eyed. I put on my coat and grabbed Shari's giant pink ball. I was thinking we could play catch. When I got outside, Grant had a large walking stick in his hand. He had started carving it at Cub Camp this summer, but lost interest before finishing. It turned out to be the perfect bat for our impromptu hour of jumbo baseball. Those sixty minutes comprised the highlight of my week.
The night I entered the boys' room to kiss them goodnight and found Scotty surrounded by a homemade library of science books.
The week we had three moose in our cul-de-sac all day, every day.
And how crazy Uncle Tom was so excited to finally meet them that he hand-fed them.
But how the kids love him anyway. (Yes, Uncle Tom is in there.)
How Grant made a bell from spare parts from Shari's broken alarm clock (thank you, Max). He put it in Nicole's room so she would have a surprise when she came home from babysitting.
When Grant and Scotty wrote this cute poem with their co-op class.
How Grant has learned to love reading poetry in his spare time.
When Shari Brooke found me and said, "Look, Mama! I build a pentagon!"
How Max isn't always up to trouble.
The year the babies were too sick to trick-or-treat, and Nicole and Scotty wore old costumes, but we made a chess rook for Grant because his farmer hat from last year was too small.
When Nicole was cat sitting for three weeks and took a different sibling over with her each day.
The time Scotty willed himself to ride his bike across uncharted snow.
And finally, the time Nicole and I went to Les Misérables - just the two of us.
I'm so grateful for all of these beautiful moments. They fill my life with the sweetest memories.
LEGOs!!!
We've been on a LEGO kick for approximately four years. I would say that they earn the titles of ... Most Expensive Toys, Most Used Toys, Messiest Toys, and Most Loved Toys.
In this picture, we have a school yard that the kids built collaboratively. There's the classroom, of course. And in the school yard, there's a slide, zip line (inspired by a new park near our home), teeter-totter, monkey bars, and one of those dizzy-whirling things that you never see on playgrounds anymore.
Scotty also built a tree on fire. That's awesome. LEGO should make a set with all of those fire pieces so the fire trucks have some work to do. Scotty probably compiled the fire pieces from ten different sets.
I love it when they make their own ideas come to life (which is actually daily around here). It's magical!
16 November 2014
A Fall Family Walk
Clint had a surprise day off work this week, so he accompanied us on our field trip to the woods.
The kids found an abandoned river otter home (the course of the river changed).
Shari and Daddy found a dead salmon (not pictured).
Max wanted a selfie without the "armie."
20 October 2014
October Is My Favorite
by Helen Hunt Jackson (1830-1885)
O suns and skies and clouds of June,
And flowers of June together,
Ye cannot rival for one hour
October's bright blue weather;
When loud the bumble-bee makes haste,
Belated, thriftless vagrant,
And Golden-Rod is dying fast,
And lanes with grapes are fragrant;
When Gentians roll their fringes tight
To save them for the morning,
And chestnuts fall from satin burrs
Without a sound of warning;
When on the ground red apples lie
In piles like jewels shining,
And redder still on old stone walls
Are leaves of woodbine twining;
When all the lovely wayside things
Their white-winged seeds are sowing,
And in the fields, still green and fair,
Late aftermaths are growing;
When springs run low, and on the brooks,
In idle golden freighting,
Bright leaves sink noiseless in the hush
Of woods, for winter waiting;
When comrades seek sweet country haunts,
By twos and twos together,
And count like misers, hour by hour,
October's bright blue weather.
O suns and skies and flowers of June,
Count all your boasts together,
Love loveth best of all the year
October's bright blue weather.
Just For Fun
Grant *still* makes these, except they're cooler every time.
Scotty likes fuzzies. They all get their own names.
The city renovated a park near our home.
Scotty was using the gears for ears before the camera reared its head.
Grant was demonstrating a principle of balancing. The center post alone is impossible to balance on your finger. But if you add the side posts, it's all of a sudden an easy feat.
Scotty used wood scraps from the garage to build a dump truck.
Scotty and Daddy also made Scotty a rolling cart so they could work on the trucks as a team.
Continuing A Century Old Tradition
Homemade ravioli was brought to my family in America in the early 1900s when my great grandma Stassi immigrated from Sicily.
I think she would have loved to see Nicole and her Daddy in the kitchen rolling these out. It took all evening, but it was worth it!!