March

Let's March right into spring, shall we? My favorite time of year. 

We had some parent/teacher conferences this month. 

Remember that Andrew is Lloyd? It's official on his IEP document. 

Avery and her friends planned and executed a giant "late over" at our house one night. 

Then they went across the street to Bea's house to sleep. 

I mean "sleep". 

They were up until 2ish. No more sleepovers. I hate them. 

This is a good boy activity. 

They were kept so busy for hours poking those sticks at the fire. 

I think it's important they learn fire boundaries. I kept half an eye on them. 

We went on a lovely walk in the sunshine one March day. Neighbor dogs Britta and Stevie joined us with their humans. 

Here's a thing about Evan: he takes on the age and personality of the kids he's around. Like when we are around 4 year olds, he is one of the 4 year olds. 

So it was interesting when the dogs jumped out of the car and started running around and sniffing everywhere - he became the personality of the dogs. He ran around and sniffed and chased and did the dog thing. He hung out with the dogs the whole "walk". haha 

Also Evan is really good at helping me make "rip and dip" (which is what we call pancakes). 

He comes over and flips them before they get "burned" (golden brown). 

He likes them to be "vanilla" (barely cooked). 

Then he says - every time - "I need to get out my handy dandy tinker bell plate".

Explanation: we have this Tinkerbell plate Avery got from her third birthday party, and Evan uses it to put the cooked pancakes on. He carefully transfers the "vanilla" pancakes from the skillet to the plate with his spatula. 

Then the kids use their hands to RIP the pancakes and DIP them into the syrup. 

That way I don't have to cut them into bite size pieces. 

So I guess "women's day" is a thing. I didn't know about it, but Avery did, and she insisted we had special women day together. 

We went on a bike ride to the gas station to pick out treats, then we 

watched Wild Hearts Can't be Broken (I used to have that movie memorized).

Soccer started! All the things have started! We are moving at break neck speed around here. 

(Except not this week because it's spring break, so we are heading down to San Diego.) 

But between Avery's soccer (I'm the coach), Evan's baseball, and Andrew's soccer (on a team with Hunter!) we are at the fields 5 out of the 7 days a week. 

Plus subbing plus young womens plus laundry and grocery shopping and all that nonsense. 

Sometimes I look at my neighbor Jessica sitting out on her porch with her two kids that aren't in school yet...and I remember that life of just hanging out with my babies. I've said this before; it's nothing new, but man...what a different world that was. Different hard. Different frustrations. 

But I miss those days when the children were just an extension of me and my agency. 

While we are heading down this nostalgia road: 

let's talk about Pearl Jam.

In our new car we have three free months of XM Radio. So we listen to Pearl Jam station.

.

The other day on our way to school, I was driving with my three kids back there in their seatbelts and a Pearl Jam song came on (Release from Ten... "I'll ride the wave...where it takes me..."), and I just got hit in the face with the realization that this great song was playing from my youth, but now I am a mom driving my car full of kids to school. 

I announced to my car full of kids: 

"Children, this is Pearl Jam."

"I first heard this album on a school bus as we were driving home from a track meet in Eureka Nevada. Chad Anglin lent me his "tape" and I listened to it on my "walkman" the whole ride home.

After every song I was like: 

what. 

is.

 this?" 

"And now this album is in the annals of history and the greatness has come and gone and we've moved on to other things, but this is my very own history, children."

It just seems like time is doing funny things. 

It's hard to articulate the slight of hand time has pulled on me. 

Anyway. 

There's my kindergartner in his first concert. He was so shy and great. 

He does this nervous thing where he bites and chews and eats the sleeves of his clothes. 

By the time it's summer, all his long sleeves will be short sleeves. 

Visitors

G and G came for a visit. 

It seems like it's been forever since we've had a nice "sit on the couch all day and catch up" situation. 

Jim and Grandpa played some "Rockin in the Free World". 

Saturday we drove to the Samish Overlook.

There was a parachuter on the launch pad, prepping to take off. 

He was straitening and untangling for a long time. He would fluff his parachute in the air, then land it back down over and over.

We weren't sure what was the hold up.

Finally he up and ran toward the cliff, ready to launch, but suddenly backed out and aborted the take off. It was so scary for a minute. It seems like something you can't second guess. 

Then we realized he was just super nervous. I can't watch a person jump off a cliff if they have any reservations. I started to sweat. 

Then some other jumpers came to retrieve their car and saw he was still fixing to jump and they helped him gather his courage and he finally took off. 

woo hoo!

It was such a relief to have him finally off without a problem. 

Spring Equinox

Hey everyone! Do you hear that buzzing/humming sound out your window? That is the sound of spring. That is the sound of frogs. It's the most hopeful sound you'll ever hear. 

At first you don't consciously notice it because it's like a white noise. But then you realize there is a humming going on around you and by gum, it's the FROGS! I love you, frogs. 

And what precedes and follows that sound is warm weather and sunshine. And the kids are outside and the trampoline is squeaking and the doors are left wide open. 

It's warmer outside than inside. 

Jessica gave us some Orbeez, and that has been hugely entertaining. 

As soon as the boys got home from school yesterday, they hopped on their bikes and rode across the neighborhood to fetch some friends, then they came to our back yard to play baseball. 

At first they were playing with a real baseball, but in order to save my glass door from getting shattered, I made them use a whiffle ball. 

This winter was pretty mild, except for that week of snowpocalypse, but it was a rough one. 

It was rough mostly for Avery. I'm not sure what the exact catalyst was (friends, 5th grade, hormones), but she was having major anxiety. It was making her physically sick. 

I wanted to make sure she wasn't truly sick, so we went to a few doctors appointments to get to the bottom of why she was always feeling so yucky (tight throat, nausea, heart burn, etc etc). 

But for the last month or so, she is back to her old cheerful, playful, happy self. It's such a relief to have her back. 

Home Church

So, I just want to report a bit on how Home Church is going for us. 

In years past we have always done a lesson on Sunday, and it was usually somewhat painful and fight-y. So the transition to home church evening wasn't that big of a leap. 

The surprising part is how relatively smooth and - dare I say - delightful it has been. 

Also surprising is that we really do spend an hour together on the lesson. This is a big deal for the Larsens. Everyone is into it (for the most part) - even the boys. 

After the lesson part is over, we draw in our notebooks something we learned or talked about. Then we take turns presenting our drawings. 

The Sunday I took these pics was when we read about Jesus calming the sea. 

But for some reason Andrew drew the Nativity. 

Shoulder shrug. 

Then Andrew ranks us - who did the best drawing to the worst. He literally writes the rankings down on paper for all to see. Some weeks this makes some people upset (eye roll). I've tried to make the rule - no more ranking! but nobody listens to lame-old-mom. 

Then we run downstairs and eat a Sunday treat. 

Also I'm so happy to report the frogs are SO LOUD outside my window right now. 

Spring Equinox is tomorrow! I could cry of joy. 

Tow Rope

Winter is waning thin, so we finally made it up to Baker for a Larsen Family Snow Adventure.

So maybe you remember what happened last time we drove the kids up to Baker? We turned around 3/4ths of the way because the kids were being so awful. Remember? We went home and did chores?

 So we were leery of taking them up the mountain again. It could be a complete Larsen fail, or it could be awesome...how could we know?

Well I'm happy to report that it was awesome. 

The tow rope is free, so me and Avery hung out there while the boys went down a ways to play with the sled.

The first time up the tow rope was terrible. Avery made it down by scootching inch by inch down the "hill" until about 30 minutes later we got to the "bottom" and she did NOT want to go back "up". 

So I said, fine lets go find the boys. 

But then she started to practice on her own on a flatter area without that bugger tow rope. 

Eventually she got the courage and confidence to go back and do the tow rope over and over and over. 

Soon the boys came and watched and rolled around in the snow and licked the snow. And licked and licked and licked the snow. Like dogs. Then Andrew started licking Evan.

But it was so fun! And so beautiful. I can't even believe how beautiful. 

I rode the tow rope up and also cannot believe how rusty I am. So rusty. It made me realize what a different human being I am now than I was 22 years ago. How has time gone by like that? How?

We ended the day eating gross pizza by the slice in the lodge. 

**A key to the success of driving up the mountain was stopping at Maple Falls on the way up AND down for a "treat", and the open sun roof on our new car.**