Oh The Places We Go

Some days, just the thing that one may be needing,

Is a party to celebrate the wonders of reading,

And what better inspiration, what better muse

than Teddy Giesel, whom we know as Seuss?!

Last week was his birthday, 

and we had such fun!

We dressed up each day and

 when it was done, 

We came Friday night to our school for THIS fest:

And wanna guess what we liked the best?

Eating lollipops.

But the activities were cool, too. We got seed packs, and promised the Lorax we'd plant them.

We had our faces painted and did a Book Walk. We shot hoops and went "fishing" for booky prizes and saw lots of our friends from school. It was a fun week of celebrating Seuss: the man who has probably single-handedly inspired more readers than any other one person in the history of ever. 

Then on Saturday, we broke out the bling and headed to the big city. 

 

(Don't worry, I was a passenger when I took this picture...)

Jason was driving us to the theater where he would perform and I would watch a fantastic show!

 It was not a kids show, however, so the short ones stayed here: with our Gammas and Gamma Cousins. Girl Pandemonium is the only way to describe 5 girls between the ages of 1 and 6--or 8 girls between 1 and 36, depending on how you're counting your girls.

                                                   

A brief but wonderful overnight, and them home to a gorgeous afternoon, where the wee ones played outside while Yard Spring Cleaning began! 

                                                 

Now, our attentions fly away to NeverNeverLand-- with a full week of rehearsals and a SHOW on Friday night! Yeah! AND! Grandma will be here this week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We can't wait! 

Beached.

 Sorry it's been a while. I was here:

Doing this:

    Gamma Gamma Gathered 2012. We've been friends for half our lives. 

I'm pretty sure I was missing them all desperately for the first 18 years. :)

SUCKERS!

Nope, not name-calling. Just calling it as it is: an entire exhibit at our local kiddo science museum on the blood-suckers in our midst. I didn't go searching for gross--we had to find a release of Winona's need to "do science" today before any more baking soda and vinegar exploded or food coloring dyed our walls. After a full morning of chores and cooking, we all needed to get out, so to the science museum we went. Unprepared, and without our DEET.

 This should be video, because only a "talkie" would do justice to this thing. It's a TICK that inflates to HUGE when you sit on the little yellow stool long enough. 

 It's eating me alive. 

Did you know that a mosquito can smell and track your carbon dioxide from a half mile away?

Did you know that 19th century meteorologists kept leeches in jars of water because when the barometric pressure dropped, the oxygen in the water would reduce just enough to send the leeches to the surface for air... hence, an approaching storm? 

Did you know that a mosquito taps into you about 20 times before hitting a vein and sucking?

Did you know that I could have happily lived out my days without any of this knowledge? 

We did not get a picture of TICKSTER, which is too bad, because instead of shouting out "Right hand blue!", I would say "Right hand Bed Bug!" "Left foot TICK!" 

What ever happened to good ol' dinosaur exhibits? But, of course, the girls loved it. Jezzie sleeps happily with a tick tattoo on her hand. 

I DID love the spinny things from the gift shop and the great outdoors afterwards (ironically bug-free).

For Crayon Out Loud

This year's valentines for all 50 (count them) 50 of our classmates. Plus another dozen or so for teachers, non classmate friends, etc. We melted a lot of crayons. 

Happy Valentine's Day! We LOVE you!!!! 

Inquiring Minds

It's all relative, of course, but this city we live in can seem smaller than the (actual) small towns I've lived in because of how everyone seems to know everyone and a "Two Degrees of Separation" rule seems to apply. Working in a community hub, this can occasionally feel a little clausterphobic for me, but sometimes it's awesome: like this time. As I've mentioned, Winona's K teacher is a good friend of mine. What I may not have mentioned is that my boss's wife also works at Winnie's school and keeps close tabs on her comings and goings. Through this channel, I often get reports on W's school day that she failed to mention; and I love it.

Here's a recent favorite:

The canine unit of the police department visited the Kinders last week and gave what I heard was a pretty riveting talk on what a Day in Their Life looks like. During the course of the talk one of the officers described the "tools" he uses and mentioned, among other things, the notebook and pencil that he keeps in his pocket...and he patted his chest pocket. When the presentation was all over, they asked for questions. When no hands went up, Ms. Clare (boss's wife) says, "I bet Winnie has a question." Without hesitation, Winnie asks, "What's in your other pocket?"

Not, you know, "Has your dog ever attacked someone?" or
"Have you ever been bit?" or
"Can I ride in your car and push a bunch of buttons?" or
"How cool is it that you get to track down criminals and make the world a safer place...?"
but...

What's in your other pocket?

Do tell, officer. The suspense is killing this Kinder class.

Love is in the Air.

But the cat wouldn't know much about that. She can't breathe.

Awesome Sunshine. Weird. But Awesome.

I keep thinking it should rain. But it keeps NOT raining, and although it's just really bizarre, it's really lovely.

 We threw 978 rocks in the water. Give or take.

                                                    
On Saturday night, Winona and I went on a date and saw Oliver! I had forgotten how much great music (beautiful melodies) are in that musical. Winnie loved "Consider Yourself!" and Artful Dodger the best. She went up to the girl who played him afterwards and said, "I think you did a really great job!"

Sunshine or no, Valentine's Day is fast approaching, and we had some crafting to do. We made some good progress on our school valentines (but no spoilers here! you'll have to wait!) and made these "stained glass" (wax paper, shaved crayon, iron, scissors, fishing line) hearts. I heart them!

 This morning, I headed out into the sunshine on my own to enjoy this beautiful place:

 I started my hike in the valley of the hills and rolling savannahs and it was cccccoooooooolllllddd in the darkness. So I took every trail that went upward, toward the hillside with the sun. I took this shot when I was only paces away from the sunshine--and about 50 yards later, I stopped to take off most of my layers. The sun works.

Weekend Plans

On Friday evening after work, I ran into a good friend at the grocery store. She asked what I was doing that night and I think I let a good full 15 seconds tick as I thought about it. "Nothing" wasn't quite right. But how does one say...

 "Well, I'm going to hang with Gypsy Princess and Kangaroo Ballerina (don't ask-- no one really knows) in our tent city that doubles as a bear cave. There will be moments of tenderness...

and bursts of chaos...

We'll be using a placemat from a Chinese restaurant as a Pirate's Treasure Map to determine where the Saucy Gold Bowl is buried, awaiting our discovery...(Turns out: in Mama's underwear drawer. Who knew?  Adds a whole new meaning to the term "pirate's booty," I tell ya...!)

...and we'll be tucking our babies into bed at the very end of it all--far past our bedtime because even though I kept SAYING, 'Ok, let's brush our teeth and get to bed' I didn't really MEAN it because it was all just too sweet and fun."

I couldn't quite come up with all that, there on Aisle 3, and said something like,
"Hanging with the girls...." Which, is another way of putting it, I guess.

A Balancing Act

Assuming it would rain--because, well, it's January and it's Oregon-- I planned on taking the girls to an indoor gymnastics open gym to play this morning. When a call came in from a friend to join them for biking in the park--because, lo and behold, it's SUNNY this January in Oregon--I nearly changed my plans. 

But then, I know how that goes. I relish the time with my friends, and the kids relish their time with the other wee ones. Then, we come home, they head into (much needed) quiet time/naptime and DOH! I haven't spent any of my precious Saturday with my kids! 

So, I asked the girls what they'd rather do, loading the question like nobody's business. (I think it went something like, "Do you want to go jump around on fantastically fun toys at place we hardly ever get the chance to go or ya wanna ride bikes? Jez, do you even have a bike? Winnie, I think your training wheels are broken. But, you know... it's up to you.")

Guess what we did?

They bounced like crazy. And we had a blast together. I briefly lamented not being out in the sunshine (must. soak. it. up. while. it's. here!) but got over it listening to the incessant giggles and "C'mon Jez! Let's try THIS!" and "NONA! OVER HERE!" 

 Jezebel pulled herself approximately 47 miles on this thing. (That would be a rope and a wheely-stool).

And Winnie. Dear, sweet, sometimes timid Winnie. She hasn't learned to fully trust her strength or physical abilities and when it comes to physical activity she is often scared of the "fall" or the "hurt" or the "whatever else could go wrong." She not only looks before she leaps (good thing); she frets before she leaps (something we're working on). She got in line, onto the rope and off of the rope 3 times before she was able to push off the mat and swing without reaching for me (instead of holding onto the rope... yikes!). The third time she got off, we talked about needing to trust and believe in her strength and that she was just as strong or stronger than any other kid there. She did it! 

 She was really proud. And really done with the rope. Back to the trampoline! 

"Hey Mom! I got myself up here when you weren't looking. Now what?"

Now, you borrow some of your sister's fear. Just a little. And don't give it back.