"Stay-cation" Day Two

Kylie's choice was the Bowling Alley.  Brad took today and tomorrow off work, so he got to come with us.  After a morning of chores, the kids were ready for some fun!  Jillian invited a friend.  We let the younger kids have one lane together with bumpers, and the older kids and adults had one lane without bumpers.  I should have switched to the younger kids' lane after my first game! 

Nate showed some real skill; he got three strikes in a row his second game, which apparently is called a "Turkey."

We are not stellar bowlers by any means, but we all had a good time! 

Ben was so excited that he beat the girls in the first game.

But Jill started strong in the second game and held out to the end!

I started strong in the first game and gave everyone a good run,

And then fizzled out to an unimpressive second game.  But Nate was hot!  Kylie (ME) and Brad were pretty consistant throughout. 

Spring Break "Stay-cation" Day One

For this year's Spring Break, we decided to do what we almost always do:  stay home.  Last year's trip to Santa Barbara was an anomaly, a very fun anomaly, but an anomaly none the less.  One year for Sring Break, we stayed home and I painted all the kids' bedrooms.  That was not a fun Spring Break.  This year we decided that each child would get to choose an outing.  We specifically said "outing" so they wouldn't choose to stay home playing video games all day.  Yesterday was Ben's choice and we went roller skating. 

This was only Ben's second time roller skating at a rink, and he chose Rollerblades instead of quad skates this time.  He was a little shaky for a few minutes, but then that good old muscle memory kicked in, and he did great. 

I love the funky-ness of these pictures.  I'm still using my sister's old camera while I'm waiting for my new one to arrive, but I thought it did a great job of capturing the "roller rink mood". 

Ben really enjoyed skating with Kylie.  I tried to take over for a while so she could skate on her own, but he preferred her guidance to mine. 

Tomorrow...the bowling alley!

A Gem

I just found this website:  TheLiterateMother.org and I can't tell you how excited I am about it! Movies and TV shows have ratings, why not books?  It is so discouraging to be reading a book and run into garbage.  My kids love to read, and there's no way I can keep up with them in pre-reading everything.  Hopefully this great site will help my kids make good choices in what they read.  I only wish there was a site that did the same for grown-up books.  Maybe there is?  Do you know about one? 

Shaw Island

Jillian, Ben and I participated in another wonderful annual Shaw Island service day last Saturday.  Kylie had a state math competition, which Brad took her to, and Nathan decided to work for my dad instead, so just the three of us woke up extra early (4:30) Saturday morning and headed out!  The first day of Spring promised to be beautiful, and we were very excited to be able to spend it in such a wonderful place.  This was our third time going to Our Lady of the Rock Monastery. 

First we had to take the 5:20 ferry to Seattle, then make the 1 hour 30 minute drive to Anacortes, then wait almost two hours for the one hour ferry ride Shaw Island.  Quite a full day before we even got there!  The sun was bright and warm by the time we were on the ferry to Shaw.  The kids loved watching the San Juan Islands go by, and were hoping to see a porpoise or an orca, but no luck. 

When we arrived on Shaw, we piled 45 people into six vehicles, including the beloved Llama Limo that the mothers had waiting for us. 

The first order of business was to hand out job assignments.  I was excited to see Mother Mary-Grace again and happily accepted an assignment from her to work with Patricia and several children collecting beach pebbles and filling pot holes.  The beach pebbles were for the rock garden by the Chapel, to fill in the paths and decorate the flower beds. 

Our group of kids were great workers and quickly filled all the buckets (only 1/2 full, warned Mother Mary-Grace or they would be too heavy to lift, and might break the buckets!)  After one pebble run, we were off to work on the pot holes.  First the kids dug extra dirt from high places in the road,

then they filled the holes and packed them down.

Here's our hard working crew, with the Llama Limo, which Patricia got to drive.

We ended up making two pebble runs, and two pot hole runs.  This is the chapel garden where we spread the pebbles.

After our work, we had some time to play with the animals and then eat lunch.

Jillian loves pigs!  She said someday she's going to have a farm where raises pigs.  Hmmm....

Ben thought it was so cool to be able to feed the cows! 

and I LOVE the llamas!  How can you resist these faces?  They have so much personality!

I also found other hidden treasures.

and of course I had to take a picture of these amazing doors!

After lunch, we headed back to the ferry and began the journey home.  This beautiful garden is next to the General Store at the Shaw Island ferry terminal. 

It was a long day, but full of great memories!  We can't wait to go again next year, hopefully with the whole family again.

Why I Don't Love Spring

I'm just kidding!  Kind of!  Baseball isn't my favorite sport, but I love my kids and I try hard to support their interests.  I can't help it if I hope that Ben will realize baseball isn't his thing and decide that he doesn't want to play another season. 

This year is a big step up from t-ball, especially since our Little League decided to do away with the Rookie League.  That puts Ben right into the action with two games a week (on weeknights), that are 6 innings or 1 hour 50 minutes, which ever comes first, and where strike-outs count.   At least it's still coach pitch.  He's pretty worried about his hitting skills.  I tried to reassure him that almost everyone strikes out ALOT, but of course in the very first inning the other team hit through their batting order, making me look like a liar!  Ben struck out three times, but did get one good hit.  We told him that makes his batting average .250, which isn't too shabby.

Why I Love Spring

Shattered Illusions

So the whole leprechaun thing ended up being a huge disappointment for Ben.  He left out the snacks and leprechaun house, and when he was asleep, I wrote a little note to him, pretending to be "Larry the Leprechaun" and asked if I could be his pet.  He was so excited when he saw the note in the morning.  He told his friends at school that he caught a leprechaun and that it wrote him a note. 

When he got home from school, he diligently starting writing a note back to Larry.  In the middle of the note, he looked up at me and said, "Mom, you promise it wasn't you that wrote the note?  Cross your heart and hope to die, stick a needle in your eye?"  UGH!  How could I lie to that?  So I admitted that it was me. 

The look on his face made me want to stick a needle in my eye!  I felt horrible.  He's figured out that the tooth fairy and Easter bunny aren't real (still hanging on to Santa Claus, though...) so I was a little surprised that he was so upset.  No tears or tantrums or anything, just sheer dejected-ness on his face.  I tried to explain that I was having fun with him and loved that he had such a good imagination.  He told me that he just wanted to be alone and didn't want to be around me for a while.  Stick that needle in deeper and give it a good twist! 

About an hour later, he came up and gave me a hug and said he was sorry.  HE was sorry!  What a kid!  I appologized to him, too, and told him if he wanted to still pretend Larry was real that was OK.  He agreed that it would be fun to keep writing notes and said it would help him work on his writing.  Then he said, "Is it OK if I don't tell my friends that it was really you?  I don't want them to be disappointed."  Like I said, what a kid!

Breaking the Barrier

No, not the sound barrier!  I'm not that fast!  But I finally made it up to 6 mph on my runs.  OK, it was only a 3.25 mile run, but hey, I've got to start somewhere!  I've been hovering around 6 for a while, 5.7, 5.8, 5.95 and just couldn't get past it.  Today I really pushed myself, thought I was going to die, and almost passed out when I saw 31:45 on my iPod stopwatch.  That's a whole minute faster than I did on Wednesday.  Whoo hooo for me!   I have to set these little goals for myself or I would give up all together.  I'm disappointed that my physical therapist cut me down to 3 miles while I work on strengthening my knee, so I figured I'd work on the speed.  My ultimate goal is still to do 5 miles in 50 minues.  If I would have started ten years ago, maybe I'd be there by now! 

To Catch a Leprechaun

Ben came home from school today and told me he was going to get a pet leprechaun.  Apparently two of his friends have them, and they are easy to get.  All you have to do is make a leprechan home, set out some leprechaun chow and some shiny trinkets, write a note, and voila!  At midnight, a leprechaun will come eat the food, move into the house, write you a note and be your pet for life.  You have to be a risk taker to attempt this, however.  If by chance you tempt a bad leprechaun to be your pet, he will put worms in your bed for the rest of your life.  Let's keep our fingers crossed that Ben attracts a good leprechaun!

Here's Ben and his friend (who all ready has a pet leprechaun) constructing the home and setting out the food.

According to the resident expert, leprechauns like banana slices, bagels with peanut butter, and green milk.  Tape helps them navigate from one location to another. 

Oh, the Joys!

OK, I know my kids' bathroom desperately needed to be cleaned, but did it really have to take my oldest child throwing up all over it at 11:30 last night to get me to do it????

Soakin' it in!

I've been loving this warm, spring-like weather we're having.  (But according to my favorite weather blog, it's a good thing I soaked it in while I could yesterday!)  After working in the yard for a few hours, Jillian said, "Let's have a picnic!"  So she made us some lunch, we laid out a blanket on the grass, ate a yummy lunch (including a box of girl scout cookies that I finally got to buy this morning!) and basked in the warmth.

This was my view, looking up at the sky.  Perfection!

Our flowers are starting to bloom, our garden is getting into shape, and I'm excited about planting.  But then today I heard it's supposed to get cold and wet, even a slight chance of snow next week, so we'll hold off on the seeds for a few more weeks.

Brad and the kids fixed the tire swing on the big maple in the front yard.  They had a blast playing on it.  Yes, they're wearing shorts!  On March 6th! And they're literally glowing white in the sun.  I love it!