Pretty Piano

This has nothing to do with my kids, but I love, love, love this song and have listened to it so many times I've lost count.  If you love piano music at all, press play, close your eyes and let it speak to you.......




I found this by watching this clip which plays this song as background music, but since the man who narrates the clip is Carl Sagan I couldn't put that one up first.  If you want to watch it, let it load fully then skip ahead to about 2:44.  It's got these unbelievably beautiful images of our universe, but the beginning is full of secular humanist garbage. The song is perfectly suited to the pictures though.

Carl Sagan's "Pale Blue Dot" - Watch More Funny Videos

Collecting Petals

We try each spring to get out and wander among all the flowering trees and shrubs.  Usually it is too cold or rainy and all the blossoms disappear in a couple days.  We almost missed our chance this year, but I'll say it was both successful and memorable.  And it all smelled so good!!

A super friendly kitty kept us company on a warm hill where we were admiring and picking wild growing flowers (grape hyacinths and violas).  We imagined that this must be how people feel walking past our house when Ruby is outside -- she is just as friendly and loving.

Many of our neighbors have given us permission to pick from their flower beds, so we do but we always make it so no one would even notice a few missing.

Despite the gusty winds we still brought home a bucket full of fallen petals for playing with and flowers to fill up vases on the table. 

Bits & Pieces

The stuffed kitten families have been a favorite since Evan was 5.  They have all had some sort of makeover... some needed "repainted" with a Sharpie and one has a new nose since his original one fell off.  Some are so stained from dirty hands they don't come clean anymore.  But they are loveys indeed.

Loving warm days.  Loving sitting in the sun.  Loving shorts in March.  Loving having Todd home for weeks as he waits for work.  Loving Evan's cute curly top which is growing in nicely.

Playing before church one morning.  Chloe has been letting me have a say in her outfits a bit more lately.  As long as she has sparkles she usually agrees :-)

Some new stuff in the living room makes it feel more like home.  A favorite photo with a hubby-made frame over the couch, new lamps donated to us from Brook, and a re-purposed bookshelf -- formerly a tall one, now cut in half and serving as two shelves (the other is downstairs).  Starting to feel like home here..... finally.  (Todd has been home for weeks and keeping busy!)

Right after I took this picture I thought, she looks like she is ready for her first day of school.  My big girl.  It's hard not to think of her as my baby, she is growing so much!!

(wearing jeans!!!!!!)

Our kitties are starting to shed their very thick coats, so we brush them outdoors whenever possible.  Chloe loves this job.  She loves any job really.  "I can help you with that Mom!!!" is her favorite thing to say.  Cooking, folding laundry, washing windows.....

Todd's been reading Tarzan stories to Evan, but these photos are about more than just what book we are reading at the moment. They show a vital part of our family.  Together time: reading and laughing with each other is a part of every day.

A Rant about Playgrounds

 It seems there are rules for behavior that is acceptable on the playground. 

These rules are not posted anywhere, ever, but I'm sure you've heard them:


Don't cut in line. 
Don't climb on the top of the monkey bars.
Don't climb up the slides.  
Don't touch the wood chips. 
Don't pick up the wood chips.
Don't carry sticks. 
Don't pretend sticks are guns.
Don't try to go around the scared little kid at the top of the slide -- stand there eternally and wait your turn.



I've heard parents shout absurd and horrid things like this at their kids for years and I'm tired of it.  I've also had other parents try to correct MY kids for doing these kinds of things. "Don't be dangerous kid!!  Don't do anything I don't allow my kid to do!!  Don't do anything that my kid doesn't like!!"

I've also had people glare at me for obviously not passing on the ridiculous playground rules to my offspring as though I have done the world a disservice.




My kids climb up slides. 
Every time. 
Since they were 2 years old.

And they do all the other things on the list of rules.

It's a PLAY ground.  Can we just play?  Can we just let kids be kids?  Can we just let them solve their own problems sometimes?

Maybe they don't care if they have to wait three seconds for a turn, or that someone faster than them got in line first, or that a big kid ran by and bumped them a bit hard on the shoulder.... And if they do care, aren't we there to gently and lovingly help them out??



Our family's only playground rule is the same life rule we follow everywhere: 
Be kind; Be respectful; Obey mom and dad.


How does that translate at the playground? 

If you want to climb up the slide, make sure no one is on the ladder heading up. 
If someone is on the monkey bars and you want to climb on top, wait. 
If you have been on the swing for a long time, give someone else a turn. 
If you want to make a stick into a gun, don't shoot anyone except your sister.

Be kind.
Be respectful. 
And if you do something that really needs to be addressed, mom or dad will talk to you (without embarrassing you) and you are expected to obey.

But most importantly, just play and have fun!!

Our Favorite Trail

We haven't been to our favorite trail since late summer last year.

Moments before we all left the house, I realized we have never been there in the winter or spring so our kids have never seen the woods with leaf-less trees.


It was very different, very open.  I can only imagine they would love this place with snow everywhere, but let's not spoil it with that thought... on to our beautiful spring outing.

Evan still likes to cruise way out of sight and way ahead of Chloe, but she (and we) try our darndest to keep up and not to think that he has gone careening over a cliff....

See, there he is... no worries.

Evan was a bit nervous when we got here.  He hasn't ridden his new bike very much yet (only a few days) and the hand brake has been an adjustment for him.  He's not entirely comfortable with it and really doesn't like to fall off his bike.

But he did fine.  Great, in fact.



Around every bend there is something new to see or do or explore.  Occasionally there is a big hole or a dip in the path or tree roots or pile of dirt.  All these obstacles just add to the intrigue.

Every hill or bump is an opportunity for wheelies and ramping. You knew that, right?

There are several ravines and trails that lead down towards the water.  One ravine has a huge and very old tree acting as a bridge.  We can only explore there when Todd is with us, so of course we made time to find it and let the kids show how brave they are with Dad right there to hold hands or rescue them from the 10 foot drop.  I decided to stand this one out watch the woodpeckers instead.

Chloe wasn't too sure at first about crossing but after a few passes back and forth it wasn't so scary.  

The cliff at the other side was steeper than where they had originally gone down, but that wasn't a problem for these climbers.  We always joke that Evan is part mountain goat.  He is so sure-footed, it's unreal.  Chloe was keeping up with her big brother better than we thought.  She has really gained confidence and strength since last year.

Back on the trails, Evan discovered a built-in bike ramp.  In his excitement he just took off downhill and popped up on the other side with huge eyes and an announcement:  "That was kind of scary."

And then four hundred times later, we moved on.

While Evan ramped, Chloe cleaned up all the broken glass on the trail.  It's ridiculous how much glass there is.  Eventually we had to put a stop to the clean-up effort before she really got hurt on something. 


We left the woods with the sun streaming through the branches and birds singing everywhere.  Magical.

(We wrapped up our time here at the little playground nearby, but I'll post pictures of that later on.)

Cootie Catchers

Cootie Catchers are those folded up paper things we used to play with in middle school to tell our fortunes... remember those?  Well, the kids discovered this amazing folding paper technique at last year's maple taste and tour and haven't stopped folding since.   We have hundreds of these things...

They will sit and fold and decorated and talk about their cootie tribes together for hours. Each cootie has a place in the bunch.  They have leader cooties and cooties with special powers.  Some can fly or shoot.... 

They spend hours playing with them for days in a row!  I just had to capture it on film since no one ever understands what I mean when I try to describe it.  Actually a video would be better since I cannot reiterate the dialogue these two imagine while playing.  But since I can't sneak videos of them anymore, you'll just have to imagine it for yourself...

Favorite Places to Be

Up in the Tree

 

Riding New Bikes

At the Playground

Outside ...... 

from morning till night!!!  

It's officially SPRING!!