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. :)

The wind up (Week 14)

Things are shutting down slowly in our days. Classes are ending, sports being put on hold until the New Year. I think we will all welcome the utter lack of pressing plans for the next little while. Our last set of soccer games is this Saturday. Check out last Saturday, when Hannah continued to take the ball and RUN with it. (She's in the red hat people)



Over at Leif's game, he was THE MAN for the multitude of corner kick opportunities they had. (Also in the red hat)



I has been freezing cold here for a week now, so our outside time has been limited. We've been sure to get some sun on our faces any chance we can, and get some fresh air busting up the ice on our pond. But overall it's been another inside kinda' week. We've spent it opening advent doors and seeing the treasures inside (Harry Potter lego, tickets to a great Christmas Pageant, Noodle box family take out), doing our Holiday baking (this year it's Peppermint Bark, Nanaimo Bars and Ginger squares) and playing an odd, ever-changing game with bouncy balls. Let me back up.

Kit's birthday was on Friday, and Hannah managed to finish the third Harry Potter on Thursday night, so much excitement was had as we celebrated with Kit; we were wathcing the third movie after his birthday dinner. Things are changing in the movie, as the actors age with the storyline (between filming) and their faces take on a different look as they enter their teen years. The storyline is also more challenging, as Hermione travels back in time and sees herself in her present. Hannah really had a hard time understanding that, still does actually. And we've realised that while we understand it, trying to explain it leaves us at a loss for words about mid-way through. But it is really cool to watch and think about, and maybe the wheels are still turning away in Hannah's head on this one. She launched this one at us the other day:

"You know that Chirp joke about "What flies but has no wings? And the answer is time? I get it now. It's because (big arm waving here) time is a thing, and when it's outside, it's flying, like a bird, but it doesn't really have wings, but inside it's different, so it's all about how we see time and where we are during it."

Sort of.

Reading Harry Potter has brought up some things for Leif as well. He's just finished the 5th book, and it's a tough one. First, there's a really evil (like child abuser evil) teacher at Hogwarts this year, and she makes Harry write lines in her office, makes his hand do it whether he wants to or not. And as he writes, the script is getting carved 'magicaly' into his hand, which hurts and bleeds, then heals and carves again with the next thing he writes. So he's basically reading from the point of view of watching torture, watching a child be abused by an adult with intent. Great. And he brought it up to me (I'd forgotten all about this evil wench of a character) because he said he felt wierd reading that part, that he felt physically not-okay about it as he read it. And we discussed why that was, at least in a basic way. Because he knows what wrong is, and he could see it happening in the story, and his instinct is to stop that injustice, to make it go away, and the sick feeling is because he is not alright with it yet cannot affect it *and* still has to witness it, because he wants to move on in the story. Ugh. I'm starting to worry about these books, as I now what lies ahead.

A side note, another parent brought up to me that they cannot find much in the pre-teen boys genre of ficton that is NOT like the HPotter series, in regards to young boy battling evil forces, darkness all around. I hadn't made this connection, yet I have seen other series that Leif could move on to after these. And I wonder if I can get him to move away from this sort of thing. I know his next chosen read will be The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings Trilogy. More boys battling evil. I wonder if he'd willingly leave this genre after reading nothing but for over a year at that point?

At the end of the fifith book he was confused about a conversation Dumbledore had with Harry. the point of it was that, out of love for Harry, Dumbledore went against his creed and kept information from Harry because he knew it would harm him, it would be too big of a burden for a young boy to carry. How Dumbledore was sad for this fate that is Harry's, that the boy had yet to learn about. That he felt a familial kinship with Harry and thus wanted to protect him. It was heavy stuff and hard to explain. Our language has such a dirth of negative descriptors, adjectives, yet for feelings of love and joy and happiness or friendship, we have some similes, some metaphors . . . but you end up sounding like a Hallmark card and the child you're explaining it to is still waiting for the punchline of information he seeks to make it all make sense.

I love a good long sentence.

The bouncy ball game is good for hours of fun, yet I am very much unclear on the rules or the strategy involved. It's about bouncing your little rubber ball around the kitchen (as your mother cooks and bites her tongue not to screech to get the hell out of the kitchen!) and trying to get it to go between the stove and the cupboard, or knock over a golf tee set up under the island cart. They play it for hours!

Another fun thing lately is CADOO, the Cranium game for kids and parents. Hannah's been playing with Kit and it's cool to see her brain figure stuff out fast. "Go get something round you can balance on your head for 30 seconds". Hannah thinks for a second, then runs into the kitchen, and comes back with a mandarin orange on her head. Nice.

We went on a forest walk with Taro and Leah and found relics from the old lime mine that was once in operation out in Brentwood Bay.



We learned that the sunken gardens at Buchart (which is directly behind the park we hiked in) are the old lime mines, which sank over the years after the mine was shut down. You can still see the big smokestack in the distance.

And we found cool mushrooms.






Some pictures of our wintertime-preparations.

Fetching our tree means a visit to the tree farm in Saanich, where they have lovely Clydesdales.



Then we need to hunt for 'my' tree. It looks like this, and we call it a noble fir, though it is slightly different.



They seem to be harder and harder to find each year, and it turns out that is because they are afflicted with an aphid from Europe that totaly messes up their growth, and so they are planted less and less. Damn non-native bastard bugs.


The tree at home, all decked out.





The Lighted Truck Parade is the best parade ever, and my favorite holiday activity bar none. I LOVE it! Cement mixers, flatbeds, big rigs, all decked out in lights from grill to hitch, driven by big guys with beards and smiles for the kids. My kind of manly.



One year we'll get our small big truck in there. But not this year. :)

And me? I'm excited. Excited because Kit is off as of next week, and I can find joy in going for a run every day. Excited because I'm helping Shona with her fabulous Community Love-in Wedding Fair, which is in January, but we have much behind-the-scenes crafting to do. Excited because I've ordered two great knitting patterns from Magpie Patterns and I can't wait to get started on them in the New Year. Excited because I've cleared out one end of the basement so I can sew and now I have loads of ideas for things I want to make. Excited because the kids want to read and play Scrabble and watch movies with me all winter. Excited because life is what you make of it, and I'm determined to make mine shine.

Ho ho ho.

C

A Photo Essay (Week 13)

We skipped last week's blog, I'm just so busy, I wish I could double the hours in my day (not everyone else's, just mine). So here's this week, what we've been up to, where we're headed. Go visual.

We beaded.



Leif has been asking about drawing depth/perspective this week (a field of a soccer game or a hockey game) and I offered some practice techniques (how to draw a 3D net, or how to draw a cube). Then my mom, Nana, arrived for a visit, and I put her years of teaching and artistic skill to work.



In an effort to reduce clutter and improve the flow of the house, I sold a bunch of bookcases and we're putting up big shelves instead. But first we need to build them.



We bid our fall table farewell.



And began the slow assemblage of our winter table and snowman's mantle.




Ivy built a tall, skinny tower of markers.



Leif drew a comic.



New chickadee mags arrived and were devoured.



On the first sunny day in 4 weeks (I mean it!) we headed out to find some fungus.



We made pinecone treats for the birds.






Hannah discovered if she takes a picture of Leif on a wierd setting as he jumps on the bed, he can actually become invisible. Way cool huh?



And my favorite part of the week was a trip to vancouver to catch up with our good friends and my brother, my nephew and my lovely Sis in law Virginia. Here's Ivy and her buddy Bryn, and Ashley and a bunch of cousins.





Baby it's cold outside.

C