Goings On

The main topics of conversations around here revolve around counting down the days until school is out. I will echo Jayna and say that I am one of those crazy people who loves to have their kids around. I don't like them going to school. Ever. If I had my druthers we would live in a cabin in Northern Montana and I would read to them from Shakespeare and the scriptures and we would call it good. Thank goodness for my kids that this scenario will never happen. Although it almost did, when Zane and I fell in love with the Yaak Valley a long time ago and camped in the middle of a forest in a chilly October and made plans to raise our family in that middle-of-nowhere-ness. But then we didn't. 

And I digress.

11 days of school left. FYI.

This weekend Eliza danced at a fairies and gnomes festival in Idaho City. I was happily relieved to find that the people dressed up like fairies and gnomes were darling little *children*. 

Because you never know what you will find at little out-of-the-way festivals where these ladies dance.

A big ole' congratulations to this boy, as his team just finished an 8-0 season. 

I am so proud of how hard he has worked to learn a new sport. He really loves it, and would

probably sleep with his lacrosse stick if I let him.

One of the cool parts about our neighborhood is the wildlife. We have a pair of Red-Tailed Hawks nesting in a tree on our street and they have provided much Wild Kingdom-type entertainment. If you look closely, you can see a little squirrel who was snatched from our back yard and is on his way to being LUNCH.

This little peanut continues to dazzle us with her beauty and charm.

There was never a happier baby and she makes everyone smile. We are lucky to have her.

Also, I want to gnaw on her arms.

And, while our loyalties will always lie in Beantown, it has been so much fun to watch Josh Hamilton tear it up this year. Cause sometimes it's more fun to watch a team who wins more than they lose. Just sayin'.

Green Chuck Taylors

My 40th birthday present to myself.
I had an identical pair when I was in college.
Midlife crisis? Nah. 

Ode to Zane's Garden

When we lived in Seattle Zane would always mow the lawn of our next-door neighbor because, well, she didn't. He has always thought it ridiculous when people stop at the very inch where the property line ends and have a gorgeous lawn when the one next to it, and connected to it, is six inches tall and has gone to seed. Zane hasn't ever tried to assume why someone hasn't mowed their lawn, he just does it. The woman who lived there once knocked on the door when I was home and said, in a British accent, "Tell your boyfriend thank you for working in my garden!" I was totally baffled. Then I translated boyfriend into hubby, and garden into lawn and it made sense. 

So, one of the billions of things I love about him. He reminds me of the beehive that is a symbol of the Mormon people. Hard working, and never stopping to think about whether or not he should be so.

When we bought our current home the back yard was a mess. It had lawn at one time, but the three big dogs that lived here had trampled it to nothing and the previous owner had dug an underground den of sorts (complete with a huge plywood roof) for his dogs to burrow into when it was cold. Or hot Or rainy. Or something.  That was all their was. Dirt, some 99% dead grass and dog poop. 

Zane has taken it upon himself to remake our back yard into a lush mini Seattle. It is beautiful. He has good taste and is thrifty to boot. A lot of the plants are second hand, from one of the St. Luke's buildings that got a landscape remodel, or cast-offs from our neighbors, whether they know it or not. My husband has been known to pick out plants and bushes from their trash piles and nurse them back to life. Thank you Zane for making me feel like I have my own little Garden of Eden in the back yard!

I love the 'favorite places' post that Zane made as a surprise

for us while we were gone to Utah for a couple of weeks.

We still need to amend the two Grandma signs.

Beautiful bleeding hearts. They remind me of Grandpa Jennings' yard.

A cute kitty and a cute garden stone we made for Granny with

Eliza's hand print when she was about a year old.

A few years ago my Grandpa gave us a bicycle that belonged

to my dad when he was a young boy. It wasn't in any condition
to be repaired, but Zane has made a special spot for it under our
oak tree. In the summer he wires a flower pot on the front of it. 

The stone walls are made of the concrete that we took out of the

basement walls to make room for bigger windows. 

Annie helping me check out the raspberry bushes that came
from the gardens of one of my sweet D.U.P. friends.

This is my project. It is too many indecisive years in the making.

Any opinions on the color?

Kid Stuff

As I am wrapping up my in-home-preschool career, I am finding myself giving things away. Not that I don't want to keep everything. Not that I don't want little Hadley to be able to come over and play with all the cool, wooden, educational toys, and not that I don't look dreamily into the future about ten or fifteen years and think that I might have GRANDCHIDLREN for heaven's sake that might want to play with wooden educational toys, but I am realistic enough to know that kids don't want OLD stuff to play with and also that my house is barely 1600 square feet and has a severe storage deficiency. So a lot of stuff is going away in the next two months.

In this line of thought, I thought I would share a few activities that you that I have found to be highly popular with my cute little preschoolers, and that are easy and cheap to have around. (Just not at my house for very much longer)

The Dice Game

This is so darn easy to make and really requires no expense if you have a Yahtzee game lying around, and can steal one of the dice (dices?) (dies?) to use here. If you want, you can go to the school-supply store and buy a big wooden one, or a colorful one. Truly, though, the kids don't care much.

Using a word document program, make a line with 6 squares and type in numbers 1-6 on them.
Print seven million sheets of these because they will get used. I promise.
Put them in a little box with two markers and the dice. (Die?)

Take turns rolling the die, and circling the number on your number strip as you roll it. If you roll a number you have already circled, the other person takes their turn and you have to wait. This simple game teaches:

1. Small motor skills--circling the numbers (some kids like to draw a big X through the number instead) and learning to roll the die. This is trickier than you might think for a young preschooler

2. Counting skills--the kids learn to count, and then after a while, recognize immediately, the number of dots on the sides of the dice.

3. Patience--they simply cannot stand when they roll a number they have already circled, and will try their best to cheat their way into another roll.

Water Animals

So darn easy. Buy a tub at the dollar store. Buy a package of plastic sea animals at the dollar store (or Michaels, or Hobby Lobby). Find a rock in your back yard. Fill a little water in the tub and watch your preschooler play until the cows come home, or until his chubby little fingers are so soggy they alarm you.

Scooping and Pouring

This is a nice Montessori trick that is easy and fun for the kiddos. Collect a zillion different little cups, saucers, bowls, measuring spoons and scoopers. (Again, the dollar store is your best friend, although you can hit a thrift store and find 'fancy' cups and mini pitchers) Go to the bulk section of WinCo and buy little baggies of dried beans, corn, or even rice (if you're brave and have a good vacuum) and anything that looks interesting. You will be surprised at how many hours of creativity and fine motor skill practice this provides. Change the apparatus and bean/corn/rice stuff around often. The kids also love it when water is used in the biggest bowl/pourer rather than dry items.

Lacrosse

Wilson loves him some lacrosse this Spring! 

Boxers

Zane brought home two pairs of boxing gloves from church. Doesn't that sound odd? From church? They were in a box of old things that were being cleaned out. I need to ask some of the old-timers from the ward, but I bet they were used for the same reason we have basketballs and volleyball nets now. Just for fun sport.

Last year I read "The Big Burn" (which was so excellent that you should definitely put it on your to-read list, especially if you live in the Northwest) and was surprised to read that Teddy Roosevelt and Gifford Pinchot used to box each other's ears for sport. It was just an invigorating workout.

So I'd like to think that boxing was less the hyped-up nastiness that it is today, and more just men being men. (Think Max Baer and Jim Braddock here) That's my theory anyway. But I thought Zane in his white shirt and tie, and Wilson looked pretty cute sparring in our living room.

Flyin' Irish Feet

Picnik is closing a month from today. Picnik is a big part of my life. It is how I can say that I got ONE good picture from hours and hours (and hours) of Irish dancing this week.

From this:

To this:

Does anybody have any ideas for post-Picnik life?

Celebrate the Starch!

A nod to the famous Irish tuber with my delish potato-leek soup, and our favorite bread.

Who says Mormons can't have green beer on St. Patrick's Day??

Beer Bread:

3 cups self-rising flour (yep, it has the yeast already in it)
3 TB sugar
1 bottle beer (O'Douls will do if you don't want the real thing, although they'll still CARD you for it at Fred Meyer.)

Mix together and pour (more like plop) into a greased loaf pan. Let rise 30 minutes and then bake for about 45 minutes (or a little less) on 350.  It's not good the next day, so eat it up!

The Snake

Saturday was the most beautiful and warm day we have had all year. Wilson, his buddy Hudson, and I rode our bikes several miles down the greenbelt to enjoy the weather. We rode past Zoo Boise and saw this guy looking over the fence.

The boys found a fort that somebody built alongside the river and had to explore. We found a dead snake and it made their day. At first there was some discussion about whether it was one of 'those' kind of snakes that just plays dead. Wilson bravely poked it with a stick to find out. They wanted to bring it home to watch it decompose, but when they went back to retrieve it (armed with a heavy-duty Ziploc bag) it was already gone.

Hmmm. Did a hungry critter eat it for lunch or was it really a narcoleptic snake as they feared?

Martha the Murderer

The dead birds have been showing up on the back porch mat for several years now. We understand that cats have instincts, and that they like to present gifts like this for their humans. We always just swept up the brown and black and grey and yellow feathers and gently scolded her.

But then.

One day last week my preschoolers lined up to go home, and as they filed out it was brought to my attention that there was a dismembered bird on the *front* porch. Drawn and quartered was the phrase that immediately came to mind when I saw the poor thing. Who knew that a sweet, if not dim, fluffy kitty-cat could be capable of such a barbarous act.

So.

Martha Frances is now sporting a collar with a jingle bell in hopes that it will keep the little birdies on their toes and out of her claws.

Skip, 2, 3 x 50

Spencer and Heidi teaching a mass Irish Dance 101 at Mutual last night.
Everybody got the skip-2-3 down pretty well!

Road Trip: Cell Phone Camera Version

I hate when I leave my 'good' camera home.

Katie and Kevin were the reason for this road trip.

Well, Katie really, because it was her bridal shower.

It was revealed over the course of the shower that

both she and her hubby-to-be are in love

with each others' eyes.

*Sigh*

May she cook many a good meal in her cute apron.

My sweet little twins. Tiny Sydney yanked out her
own tooth this weekend and came running,
covered in blood, to happily show it off.
Kate can aptly handle the brute yellow lab--

that is as big as she is--when he sneaks into the house,
 and is only the second woman in our family who has

 shown to be good at math, after Eliza.
A visit to this place is becoming a new tradition on our Utah trips.
Black and White Cookie....yummmmm.

 Grandpa's cat, Charlie. Poor Charlie had to be shaved to

be rid of all his matted hair. He still looks handsome, even

with his little orange tabby Ugg boots.

I remember driving past this when I was really young.
Back then it had farewell and welcome home
messages to missionaries too.

I really wonder how many layers of paint are on it,
as I think it changes fairly often.