You say it's your birthday . . (Week 19)

. . . it's my birthday too, yeah.



Yes, January brings two birthdays in our house. Our little Capricorns rounded out the multiples of 3 in our house, with Ivy turning 3 and Leif turning 9.

First there was Ivy's birthday. She asked for a heart-shaped chocolate cake with 7 candles on it. "Not 3 because you'll be turning 3?". "No, seven candles". Okay.






Then there was Leif's.



Hannah decorated it and made the birthday banner. She'd intended to write Happy Birthday on it, but when she brought it back to me she'd written "Shoot Your 9" which I think is hilarious. It can be either a curse or an exclamation. She made it herself so it rocks either way!



Leif was most excited to purchase his much-sought-after road hockey goalie helmet. Now he's set (but who to play with?).



Hannah worked really hard to make both birthdays fun for her sibs. She made gifts for each of them (Leif's pizza necklace and Ivy's Owl book) and helped bake their cakes and get things ready. What an awesome sister. She is really stepping out as her own person these days. You can see new aspects of her personality developing and her sense of who she is, seperate from her brother. Wahoo.

This week has been a week of getting back into the swing of things. Aikido and soccer started up again, as well as skating lessons. The kids are still working on the same skating level as before, having mastered some skills while others still need some work.



Leif's aikido classes are really challenging him to trust his Senseis, to push himself to try new things and better understand his aikido practice.




We picked up some great building blocks in Portland and spent lots of time this week building great things.



Leif's love of hockey has led to an introduction to the internet. He can now navigate his way to find the weekly game highlights and check scores on recent games. Hannah has finished Machinarium (I've told you guys about this way cool computer puzzle right?) and is now on a mom-imposed computer break.

We've gotten into a new cartoon series called Martha Speaks (thanks Peg and Mark!). I find it hilarious and the kids learn great words to add to their vocab, so it's a win-win. It's about a dog who eats alphabet soup and is now able to talk. It's been nice to find something truly cool for kids, and we appreciate the grandparents who tape it for us. :)


We've been finding time for lots of road hockey these days. Leif is in goal (of course) and Hannah gives him a real challenge as she shots tough shots into tricky corners. We've known Leif loves hockey, but Hannah is really good at it! Go little sister!





Kit has been working on the front patio this week. Hannah really enjoys helping him with it, and it's great to see her interested in his work and happy to lend a hand.

I found a great book series for Hannah called Ivy and Bean. She really likes the stories and we've worked our way through 4 of the 6 books in the series. I hope we can latch onto something equally entertaining when we're done. Perhaps I can motivate Hannah to ask the children's librarian for a recommendation.

Now that we've stopped reading Harry Potter Leif spends all his time memorising stats from his hockey magazines. It's incredible the trivial stuff he knows about the teams and players.

I've taken the plunge and hired a homeschooling teen to come and hang out with Ivy a few afternoons a week, so I can take the big kids skating and swimming, and be free to give them all my attention while we're there. It's been hard to juggle the needs of all three, and either entertain Ivy while the other two are in classes or deny the bigger ones an activity because it's too hard to do with Ivy along. I felt bad at the idea of singling her out of these new outings, but we couldn't do them with her, and she'll be getting much-needed one-on-one time anyway. Let's hope it all works out. :)

And this month we MUST get started on our goal of learning Japanese. Exactly *how* we'll learn it is still up in the air, but we at least need to try. Suggestions are most welcome. :)


C

A mid-winter's tale (Week 18)

Yes, if you're keeping track, there's a chunk of weeks missing there. Well, it's hard to keep up at times, so we logged some holiday weeks where I do not have to file a homeschooling entry. I'll bring us up to date in these next two posts, and then y'all can quit 'yer whining. :)

Before we jump into what we did Week 18, which was over New Years, here's what we did over Christmas:

Grandpa Jimmy came to visit from Toronto, and read storybooks to the kids all afternoon on the sofa. I loved watching them, and I absolutely adore this picture.




We went out for noodles at Noodlebox with Grandpa too. How could we not share a fave eating spot with a visiting relly?





Ashley, Virginia and Aubrey came to visit, and the cousins bonded.



Alright, back to the regular entry, Week 18.

We had a great family holiday over New Years. We drove down to Port Townsend and met up with Shona and Cynthia's families for a wee sleep over. We rented a house at Fort Warden, the heritage military base maintained by WA State Parks. It was awesome! To give it a cultural context, Fort Warden is where they filmed An Officer and A Gentleman with Debra Winger. It originally housed soldiers and officers and their families and these buildings have been converted to affordable year-round rentals. We stayed in a house on Officer's Row, which faced the parade grounds lawn and the soldiers barracks beyond that. They've maintained all the trademarks of the rinigal era in the decor, and we enjoyed guessing at the servants' quarters which were under lock and key in the attic.

The big draw was the batteries up on the hill. We put headlamps on the kids (see Hannah's pic below) and ran through tunnels, up and down the stairs, stood in old cannon rings and peeked out of bunkers at the ocean. It took us 2 days to see them all. It was incredible and loads of fun.















If you're ever in Port Townsend you MUST stop for pizza at Waterfront Pizza, the oldest pizza joint in P. Town. It was hands-down the BEST pizza I have ever eaten in my life. I mean it dude. Seriously.





After Fort Warden we set out for Portland Oregon. En route we stopped for lunch in Olympia and came across Hannah's latest venture:



It rained every day, but we didn't mind, we're used to it. Here's Ivy studying a downspout in Portland.




Powell's Books is enough reason for me to sneak back to Portland on my own. It is a bookstore that is an entire city block, housing new and used books on every topic imaginable. We each walked away with a great book; Leif - hockey, Hannah - Star Wars, Kit - garden gazebos, Ivy - Goodnight Gorilla and me - scandinavian sewing designs.

Hot chocolate at Powell's:



If you're hungry while you browes at Powell's, you can scoot across the street to Rocco's pizza and order a 19" pizza.



It was absurd, and we could not finish it. But pizza and a movie in bed all together in our hotel made our first night in Portland a lovely one.

We stayed at a fantastic hotel (at which our camera an out of batteries, sorry. but their website has a thorough gallery) that is a converted elementary school from the early 1900's. They have their own brewery, movie theatre (in the old auditorium, complete with sofas and beer/pizza delivery to your seats), all the classrooms were converted into guestrooms, so ours had the old chalkboard and cloakroom. We loved it!

The homeschooling family goes to school:



(When I first joked with Leif that we were 'going to school' because the hotel was in an old school, all he heard was he beginning and got all upset that we were sending him to school. Sigh.)


And you know what else we found and loved in Portland?

SUSHILAND!!!!!



Man oh man it was fantastic. The kids lurved the conveyor-belt delivery style, and the food was cheap so we ate extra. :)



Hannah trying calamari, which she ended up loving, though she found it tough to chew.




We visited the Portland Zoo, which was depressing and grim, even without the rainy weather. Ugh. But the Japanese Gardens was lovely and we all found it very soothing. Leif took lots of nature shots, as he tried to capture the peaceful feeling it gave him, and Hannah looked tirelessly for the Koi that were supposedly in the big pond that ran under all the little bridges. Kit checked out the garden structures and stone pathways, and I found a quiet bench to sit on and knit a few rows.

On our last pass through Portland, we found Leif's future endeavour, maybe.



It was a great week-long holiday. The kids got a sense of geography, history, how to negotiate who gets the coveted Gameboy from the 90's while we drove long distances, and that we can find good eats in any town. I knit stuff and ripped it out again, Kit got to use his Crackberry data package to locate food and maps as we navigated the towns, and we all had a great time.

I'm already planning when we can go back. :)