Worn out

Leif fell asleep on the floor in the boys room one night. If you know Leif, you know this is VERY unusual. Leif only sleeps in his crib, in his bedroom, IF you insist it is absolutely necessary and there are no other options. Otherwise he'd much rather be flushing the toilets, starting the washing the machine, finding my hidden chocolates in the sewing area, sharpening pens in the electric pencil sharpener or playing with knives, thank you very much. :-)

No need to panic

The other day, Heidi wandered in from the backyard and started playing with Leif in the living room. 5 or 10 minutes later, Joel asked her if she had seen Reagan lately. Casually she remarked, "Oh, yah.....he's stuck in a tree. He needs help." We all turned and through the dining room window we could see Reagan's little legs and snow boots dangling and kicking from the branches of one of the pine trees. "Why didn't you tell us Heidi???!" "But I just did!" was her surprised reply.

Quick note to self: If I'm ever hanging from a cliff or stuck on a roof, make sure Heidi knows I want help NOW.........not in 5 minutes, not in 10.....

Kayaking

The weather was so nice today!! With the sun out, the temperature warmed up to the high 30's and there was just a little breeze instead of the gales we've been having. Taylor, Heidi and Reagan all decided it was the perfect day to go kayaking to explore the opposite side of the river. Ever since autumn, when the big fire swept across the plateaus in the west, Taylor has wanted to get a closer look at the burned area and see if he could climb all the way to the top of one those plateaus.

When the kids finished up their school, they worked together to inflate a kayak, Heidi packed them all a lunch and using the red wagon, they carted the kayak down to the river.
At that point, Taylor called me on the cell phone to tell me they were at the dock and ready to launch. I brought them gloves and hats with ear flaps because the breeze was picking up and everyone was all ready getting cold. I found that rather funny because Reagan had originally planned on wearing a bathing suit. :-) My kids always want to run through the sprinkler in April and sometimes I let them, but I told Reagan that asking to swim in the river in February is a little ridiculous!
From the Suburban,I had fun viewing them through my binoculars. I could watch Heidi and Reagan scramble up a ravine and play among the boulders. I could see Taylor crest the top of the plateau and he called to tell me that from that vantage point he could see over a 100 windmills!I also watched a blue heron sitting on a log preening its feathers until it heard the kids and clumsily flapped its wings and flew further down river. I've loved blue herons ever since CJ Strike. They may be geeky, awkward looking birds with their legs trailing behind them as they fly, but I find them fascinating.

On days like this I remember how much I love living near the river. I'm so happy the kids like to get out and explore their big backyard.

Just popping in to say hello.....

Yes, yes.....I know. I didn't start blogging any better!!! Sigh. My apologies. It was just a bit busy around here I guess. What were we doing during these bleak, grey days of winter? Let's see, in addition to 3 birthdays, 2 clogging performances, teaching a science class on Fridays, piano lessons, a Shakespeare feast, helping with Music Fest, swimming at Sligers, and various other sundry activities.......

--We were teaching Leif how to read and write. Since he says "baa baa" for bottle, and "ba" for ball and "WAAAAH!" for all the rest, we knew he was one smart cookie and ready for the 3 R's. Just look at that pencil grip. You know he's going to be a real scholar!
--We created a topographical map of India out of paper mache. It was fun to shape a big gooey mess into landforms and learn about interesting sounding places such as the Bay of Bengal, the Western Ghats and the Ganges river. Torsten enjoyed it too, he just misunderstood and thought I said "growl" at the camera.

--We had a fun India culture day with other homeschoolers, making Indian food, doing crafts and listening to a speaker.
--Taylor made some silly balloon hats for striking silly poses,
---And the kids favorite activity of all: skiing!! I relented and agreed to the normal 6 week program that we've done in the past. Now that we've moved to Hagerman it's added an additional 45 minutes to the drive. But who know if we'll be living close enough to do it next year so what's the price of a 100 gallons of gas compared to the memories being made? :-)
Here's a little movie of Taylor doing a jump on one of his favorite runs: Colt. Taylor is the second skier in the clip.