Helpful Trees Deserve High-Fives

A lot of speculation has gone into what we actually did over Spring Break. We had to forgo many of James' "non-boring" items since the weather was rainy and cold most of the week. (I know it's harsh, but I'm just not going to let my 9 year old go para-sailing in the rain).
While we did play MarioKart & Puenie Land, visit the library, hunt & jump for eggs at playgroup, sort baby/kid clothes, finish assembling the 72 hour kit, get walloped by Dad in Settlers, & decorate easter eggs, the definite highlight was riding to the park on bikes (I pushed Paul & Amy in the stroller).

It's usually kind of a long walk, but riding bikes makes it easier. We waited for the most likely rain-free day and headed out. We had to maneuver around the construction team putting in a new pipe and fix Maggie's slipping training wheels, but in all it was a pretty smooth ride--at least until we tried riding the trail around the park.

We'd never ridden the whole trail before. It's a little hilly, winding around the tennis court and baseball diamond. Maggie was a little nervous on the first hill, but very bravely started downhill. I thought she'd be able to maneuver it alright, since it wasn't as steep as the hill we'd gone down on the way to the park, but it became quickly apparent that she was not alright.

As she gained speed her front wheel began to wobble until she looked like a cartoon bike careening out of control. I couldn't chase after her because I was holding the stroller with Paul. Unable to turn with the path, she headed straight for the grassy slope where the bike finally toppled, and she fell face first into the grass. Luckily, her helmet kept her from eating too much grass. As she slowly got to her feet, crying, I could not stifle my laughter. She had looked so comical, and I knew if she could laugh too, we'd be able to keep going. It took a couple consoling minutes to wipe off the grass and tears, and then we were on our way again. I kept congratulating her for finding the grass to fall onto, but she insisted that she hadn't aimed for it--the bike had led her on its own. We thanked the grass for no scraped knees.

I was very proud of her for getting back on the bike, especially since the path continued downhill. This time she was able to go a little slower, and she safely wound down the hill. I thought we were past all the difficult parts, but suddenly she was out of control again...and ran into a tree. When she got up she only has a small white scrape on the back of her ankle. We thanked the tree and gave it a 'high-five' for stopping Maggie's bike. There is nothing quite as powerful as positive thinking. Maggie was practically swimming in it from me and the boys.

Back home, as I watched reruns of her fall in my mind, I couldn't help but smile to myself. The experience reminded me of a story my Aunt Iris had told me about Grandmother Thornton when they lived in Sunbeam. Somehow some of her kids had been in the car when the car began to roll on its own. Watching helplessly, Grandma had said, "My God, there go my children!" I wish I could remember more of the details--I definitely can't tell it like Aunt Iris--but I remember Iris laughing as she told me & I'm sure Grandma laughed as she retold it as well. Sometimes that's all we can do.

Amy is 4

After a whole year of waiting...Amy is now four years old. We celebrated her birthday in Dunkin' Donut style: eveything was doughnut shaped for her special day.

Menu:
Pankcakes (middles cut out w/biscuit cutter)
Noodles & Cheese
Hamburger Doughnuts & Mini-Doughnut Holes
Bundt Doughnut Yellow Cake w/ Sprinkles

Activities:
Amy helped finish the cake, making sure all specs were followed. The cake made a remarkable recovery from its robbery after a nice coating of frosting & sprinkles. The little sign says "Amy's--4 for 21 cents." Maggie thought that was pretty clever. If you need the sign explained she'd be happy to tell you about it.



After finishing the cake, we went to the church for playgroup, then home for lunch. The kids went visiting teaching with me, Paul falling asleep in the car, Maggie & Amy doing a puzzle there. After a few more errands we had to get home to finish our party preparations. Maggie and I worked on her present. Then it was burger-making time! Aren't the "holes" so cute?

Brian surprised Amy with a real doughnut. Aww...what a nice dad! No, she did not share with Paul (or anyone else), except for the chocolate smile she wore for the rest of the night.

After dinner, we had cake and opened presents. She got a green recorder, "make your own tu-tu book" (from Grandma Charlotte), a puzzle & book, a maraca (from James), an Oreo packet (from Scot), and a new dress from Maggie. She had opened her cards the day before from G.Grandma Nielson & others.

Amy was so surprised to find out that Maggie had made a new dress for her birthday. Maggie & I were just as surprised to find out how short it was. Next sewing lesson: shorts that match.
Truthfully, it wasn't that big of a surprise since Amy was with us most of the time & we really aren't that good of whisperers. She was very nice to humor us.

I think Amy had a great birthday. Thanks for all the birthday wishes! And now that she's four, the boys are very excited to have her join them in chores. Ahh...the bittersweet of growing up.

Dessert Thief Hits Empty Kitchen

Criminal "Cake-Fist" strikes again. This time an unsuspecting birthday cake cooling on the counter. Evidence included a chair left at the scene and a trail of crumbs.

Easter Morning Hunt

Ready...set...find those eggs!



Maggie found a new pinwheel in her basket:

The oldest four in their "easter hats" from last year:



Paul got a new sand pail for the park, but he preferred to eat his jelly beans out of it with the new shovel:
We had a very nice Easter day. The kids found their baskets & hidden eggs before church. I taught sharing time; Brian taught Scot's class. After church it was a nap and then feast time. (Yes, usually it's the feast and then the nap...when you're in charge you get to make up the rules.) We added a lot of new items to our easter dinner menu. Everything turned out great including the rack of lamb, matchstick carrot salad, and asparagus risotto. We even attempted white chocolate "eggshells" with lemony custard filling.
As wonderful as our "trimmings" were, they only enhanced the special feeling we had celebrating the reason for Easter: the Atonement and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. We hope you had a wonderful Easter!

Easter Preparations

Kudos to the Nielson family that actually planned how to celebrate Easter this year instead of waiting until Saturday morning to realize nobody had decorated & the eggs weren't dyed yet (yes, we are that Nielson family). We had a lot of plans and were able to execute most of them. Friday morning we dyed eggs. Our experiment with eggs was creating "hidden message" eggs. Scot and I blew out the eggs and dyed them, then set them out for the Easter Bunny to leave a message for each of the kids. Next year I think we'll expand this and create secret messages for each other as well. (Side note: the easter bunny was not very creative in his messages...perhaps he hadn't anticipated this added task when he came to hide eggs.)

Maggie checking her egg.

Paul pushing the chair over to the counter so he was not left out of the egg dyeing. I finally gave up after putting the chair back every 2 minutes and decided he might as well help as well. What's a little dye...everywhere? (see below)

Eggs in progress...oohh...aahh


One other fun project was making easter basket cupcakes. We opted out of the colored coconut "grass" for Amy's sake, but I think they turned out just as cute.

Two more posts are in the works: Easter morning & our Spring Break adventures. I had a lot of fun with the kids this week. I'm sad to send them back to school tomorrow!

Spring Break

We are finally in our Spring Break. I asked the boys to give me 10 things (and order them) of what they'd like to do this week so we could plan out a fun calendar. This is what James came up with:

I'll translate (apparently we'll be working on penmanship this summer):

column 1: safe/boring
7 non-boring park
6 non-boring swimming
10 stare at each other (super boring)
9 take a walk
8 MarioKart

column 2: fun/unsafe
2 skydiving
3 bungy-jumping
4 dig a hole to China
5 swim the atlantic
1 parasailing

Scot's list:
1 go to an arcade
2 capture the flag
3 play puenie land with mom
4 play settlers with dad
5 go to the library
6 go to the park
7 throw a party

Maggie wants to play Ticket to Ride, play hide & seek, fly a kite, draw pictures, and go for a walk.

Amy wants to decorate easter eggs, play legos & My Little Pony, and play tic-tac-toe.

Paul wants to destroy everyone else's plans, which is why we'll probably only do these things while he's taking his afternoon nap.

We'll let you know what we actually do:)

A Welcome to Spring

We are welcoming Spring in Cincinnati. Brisk air in the morning that smells green and growing (or maybe I just smell fertilizer), we all want to be outside every moment. Of course, Spring is also so unpredictable, we have had rain showers followed by summer-like sun, and are expecting snowflakes this afternoon! The kids are enjoying it immensely. The bikes came out of the trailer; the coats went in the closet. Sweatshirts are about the only thing I can get them to wear, even when it's closer to freezing in the mornings.

Here are a few things we've been doing these first couple weeks of Spring:



James enjoys doing his homework in the tree. The boys spend every minute possible climbing this tree since it's slated to come down anytime now by the electric company. This tree and about five others are getting too close to the 50 foot clearance from the power lines. They would have been climbing it all year had we realized it was on our property the whole time. James says the height gives him a greater clarity of thought. --OK, he didn't really say that, but he always looks very Thoreau-esk when he's up there.

"More bars in more places"
or, perhaps as our neighbors would say with regard to tree-climbing, "More kids in more places,"

Sewing lesson #1. Maggie wanted to learn how to sew, so we have scheduled a lesson for every Thursday after school. We are making a dress for Amy's birthday (despite Brian's better suggestion of making ditty bags for Scot to take backpacking--but how fun is that?). Honestly, I was very surprised at her interest in all the details of dress-making. I expected her just to want to use the sewing machine, but she listened attentively to me describe pattern markings, and how to place the pattern. Who knew?? And, I forgot how fun it is to sew! I'm hoping all the older kids will choose a project that we can do one-on-one this summer.

Garden supplies: take two.
Our 2nd round of soil for the garden boxes. We now have them all filled up, and we were so excited to see the peas & broccoli have already sprouted up in the first box.

Amy helping decorate for Easter. Can you just see plastic grass all over the house? Actually that's not fair, there have only been wooden eggs placed all over, which they hunt for every hour & then hide again.



Art's Night at Summit Elementary. Scot performed with the 5th/6th Grade Chorus. I really liked Take Me Out to the Ball Game (in honor of the Red's opening day on Monday), but Scot's favorite was Angels Watchin', a spiritual. They did a great job on all the songs.
jJames' contribution to Art's Night was his Kenyan necklace. He molded a vulture for the center totem. Art's Night is an evening dedicated to the different arts taught at the school. From displayed projects & poetry reading to chorus performances, I was really impressed with the whole evening. They had samplings from different students representing all the art projects they had done thus far in the year. Very cool.



Paul's obession with balls. Even the watermelon is not safe.

A few other events, each of which has it's own worthy story, but will have to suffice with one sentence for now:
Paul perfected the "mine" from the seagulls in Finding Nemo. I went through Cub Scout training. We attended Cami Winn's baptism. The girl's went to a birthday party next door. And finally, we are enjoying General Conference this weekend & eating our 72-hour kit (mmm...Spam with mac & cheese).