Hannah decided to tackle a 3D puzzle we were given this winter. It was a million tiny foam and paper pieces. She worked on it when she woke up each morning, while the rest of us slept. she employed some duct tape (atta' girl!) when things just would not stay put.
When it was finished, it was ready for an attack by the people of plastic.
It now sits atop her new dresser (yes, we finally have new furniture) and she gazes at it each night as she falls asleep. Love it.
As her brother had made up a quiz of his own (more below) Hannah got into it and made up her own soccer quiz. While it may be hard for you to read, I get it. Questions like "who is my favorite player on my team?" "What colour team do we usually play?".
In a fabulously new turn of events this week, I snuck off with Leif for a few nights, and Hannah and Ivy went to the cabin with Kit. While there Hannah hauled buckets of fire wood, built a math tool for me (more later on that) and built a humongous fire with Al. She was useful and capable, and loved every minute of it. Plus they roasted marshmellows. Yummers!
Leif's week was full of hockey. He befriended a boy down the street who plays street hockey too, and many 3 person games were had with he and Hannah. Hours of it!
Then he concocted the hockey quiz, which Hannah and I scored poorly on (but we did much better than Kit, ahem!).
We explored stats in hockey, and how an average can be calculated. While he 'got' the formula, the concept was too big and I failed to come up with a way to explain it. He wanted to figure out who was a better player, based on the stats in his magazines. So buddy A played for 2 years and scored 37 goals, and buddy B played for 11 years and scored 200+ goals. So I said divide each total by the # of years, and you'll get a yearly average, then you can compare them. Sure it works. But to explain why? Yeesh.
We spent some time looking at this book together. It shows how people around the world dress, play, live, pray, eat and believe. The kids were curious about practices that seemed foreign to them (body modification) and we talked about how what seems 'normal' for us can seem utterly odd in another context. How so many games around the world seem connected, seem to have similar roots. Leif was interested in the ranking systems (of such things as religious groups (diocese, pope, monsignor) and the Navy (seaman, lieutenant) and class systems in some cultures.
Leif's houseplant got a much-needed re-potting, though I did it, and I am the one who remembers to water it. That's alright though. I am the one who chose to give him a plant, so helping take care of it is my own thing. It is striking in it's shiny black pot no?
The other plants I gave the girls got a needed re-potting as well, and were added to our spring nature table. Don't you love the little pine cone bees?
I played some fabulous MIA tunes and it inspired these great costumes and a musical show. LOVE it!
We put together a terrarium this week, using a bit of Ivy's spring ivy plant, plus some found rocks, baby tears, sticks and gems, in an antique terrarium thingy I've held onto for years for exactly this moment. Let's hope we don't kill it.
And speaking of things I've meant to do for years, I finally gave up my ideas of sewing this, or quilting it, or embroidering it, and just bloody painted it quick. It's a wheel of the year, showing how the seasons fit together and where the solstices and equinoxes are, and what we look forward to in each one (strawberries in June, corn on the cob in August). It's crudely simple, but at least it finally got made!
And Ivy? Well, she's outside most days, in her new (to us) wool english coat, a gift from our dear friend who has held onto it for ages. She plays hockey in it, rides her bike in it, and in this shot, maintaines her worm farm in it (a hole I dug in the path garden while I weeded the other side). I love the pairing of the tartan wool coat with the yellow zebra gardening gloves.
Hope you've managed to get outside and enjoy the sunny weather.
C
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