February Adventures

Buddies

The lovely Sera amid one of her lovely messes

"Tobogganing"

Girls

Love is in the Air

We sure found lots to love this February! There were snuggles, some fun dates, and plenty of laughter along the way. And believe it or not, we actually enjoyed the cold and snow.

Sera topped our list of loveables with her stunning smile and enthusiastic attitude. She's started standing up, but she doesn't care much for walking unless she has someone's finger squeezed in her little fist. When she wants to get around, she scrambles at lightning speed on her hands and knees. But she knows other ways to move as well. When we're sitting at the dinner table, Sera likes to rock herself back and forth hard enough to move her high chair. More than once we've gone to check on Sera in the morning, only to find that she's moved her crib several feet from the wall. She hasn't abandoned her appreciation for applause either. She's figured out that she can get us to clap for her by clapping herself. We think this girl has a future in the performing arts!

Emerson has never cared for moving as much as his siblings. He still likes taking time to smell the roses . . . well, more like the snow . . . and the sidewalk . . . and the old piece of gum stuck on the sidewalk. Only Theo seems to have the ability to encourage him to get moving—at least sometimes. Along with everything else, Emerson's digestive system slowed down for a while this month . . . again. It took plenty of split pea soup and an excess of prune juice, but we finally got things moving in that arena as well (oops, I think we just lost all our non-parental readers). He has, however, convinced at least himself that he's fast at cleaning up. Unfortunately it's mostly just an illusion—he shakes his head back and forth while he works so that he feels like he's moving faster than he actually is. It's a riot to watch.

Addy has waxed so helpful recently. She learned how to sweep the kitchen (well, sort of), and she continues to be the best 4-year-old babysitter we've ever seen. She and Emerson both enjoyed Joy School this month as we covered the unit on interest and curiosity. We had the Joy School Valentine's Day party at our house this year, and the whole day was non-stop fun. We got to do all sorts of experiments and magic tricks, and wrapped it all up with a valentine exchange complete with some of the cutest valentines I've ever seen 3 and 4-year-olds make.

Theo, as always, was on the move this month. He has recently developed an obsession with tops of every kind. He makes tops out of Legos, ball-and-stick toys, coins, and virtually anything else you can think of. And they're pretty impressive—his lego top spins for well over a minute. He informs us that he spends a fair amount of time making and spinning tops at school as well, so we'll have to see how that is reflected on his upcoming report card. That's not the only thing he's informed us of recently. He had us all convinced for a couple of weeks that in addition to the swimming lessons at the YMCA, he was attending a hockey class at school and taking field trips to the local science center every week. Only when we began to question the lack of notes and such coming home did we realize that he made the whole thing up. Which resulted in the addition of "honesty" to our list of family rules. We're in trouble if he can already pull the wool over our eyes at six years old!

Aaron spent a weekend in Vancouver toward the end of the month for the Northwestern Division ACDA conference. He had the good fortune of meeting the Kings' Singers there when they performed, and making friends with their manager. Now he's in the process of scheduling them for a concert here in Regina (albeit not until October 2009)—we think this town made a good catch when they got ahold of our Aaron! Other than that, he's knee deep in rehearsals for a Carmina Burana concert this spring, and he's decided to forge ahead with trying to finish his doctoral exams by the end of the year. It's making for a stressful semester, but it won't be long before his students can call him Dr. Mitchell.

As for me, I'm loving feeling settled here in this city. Although I have been having doubts lately about how long we should stay in our current house, it's great to have friends and playgroups and especially time to write. I recently managed to submit a winning entry to a KidLit contest on a web forum I belong to. Although it's not the best thing I've ever written, it gave me confidence to have it appreciated by other writers, many of whom are published and agented. If you want to check it out, click on the link under "bloggin' around." But keep in mind I wrote and edited it in only an hour—every time I look at it now, I think of all the things I could have done to make it better.

January 2008

An Extended Holiday

On January 21, we finally took down our Christmas tree. I've always been one to get the tree down first thing on New Year's Day, but none of us were ready this year. It probably had something to do with being gone for much of December, and possibly a bit to do with our tree being artificial for the first time this year (it wasn't any deader on January 21 than January 1 after all), and of course it took several days to restage all the Christmas morning pictures with our new camera, but whatever the reason, having the tree up kept our home festive a bit longer this year. Now we're down to snowflakes on the front windows—but those can stay quite a bit longer if the reports we've received on Canadian winters hold true.

This month has been a full one and a fun one as well. Somehow we managed to clog January with two birthdays. For Sera's, just after the New Year, we loaded everyone up and hit Denny's. She also got her first birthday cake—chocolate with flowers. Since then, she knows what chocolate looks like. No chocolate cookie or brownie is safe when she's in the room—she crawls right over and begs. She also got a fun Little People train that the kids chose out for her and—wonder-of-wonders—she actually likes it more than the box it came in. She's showing such maturity these days.

Emerson's birthday included his first big birthday party—a "bug" party—with friends. By "big" we mean three friends. Emerson prefers smaller crowds and less noise, so it was a perfect match. Of course none of the two- and three-year-olds actually wanted to play any of the party games: "stick the dot on the lady-bug" involved a scary blind-fold, and "buzz, buzz, sting" (aka duck, duck, goose) went completely over their heads. They had fun digging around in a container of rice for plastic bugs though, and the rest of the time they just played with toys. That's what it's all about when you're that age anyway I guess. I, however, am beginning to see the allure of Chucky Cheese birthday parties.

Addy and Theo have enjoyed getting back into a routine after the holidays. I must be rubbing off on them or something. Addy almost got to start at a cute preschool I found, only they filled up right before I got her in—we're both disappointed by that, but hoping a spot opens up before long. She's still having fun in Joy School, especially since Emerson and another little girl joined the fun. It's great to have an extra week between teaching, and it's nice to be able to cancel so easily when it gets too cold. Meanwhile, Theo managed to talk his way into a sled recently (he paid half), and he rarely stops talking about how much he enjoys careening down the hill (or "tobogganing," as the Canadians say) with his friends at recess.

Of course recess has been cancelled a number of times this month because of the cold—they cancel whenever the temperature plunges below -20º C (-4º F), which has happened alarmingly frequently lately. We got down to -40º recently (that one's the same on either scale—FRIGID!), and found out how things work around here when it gets cold. They don't. Cars don't start, people don't go out much, and ice forms on the inside of the window-panes. To make up for it though, the school takes the kids to the YMCA for swimming lessons, which Theo has loved.

As for us, I have gotten down to writing a lot more recently. Once the kids go down for their naps, I plunk myself down at the computer with some hot cocoa and write away. I've completed another picture book and am in the midst of rewrites for a middle-grade novel I'm working on. Meanwhile, Aaron has a great concert season planned out, including a performance of Carmina Burana with the Wind Band—it'll be great!

Humorous Happenings

Humorous

happenings

• Lifted from a conversation between Aaron and Emerson one morning when Aaron finally sauntered into the kitchen to eat breakfast after everyone else had finished: Emerson: *places toy car on table next to Aaron's plate* "I'm sharing my car with you. And you're going to share your pancake with me. You are, because I'm sharing my car with you. And that's sharing." It sounds like Emerson has finally figured out a way to make sharing work for him!
  
• Addy was over the moon when she was chosen as a helper at a magic show at the library recently. The magician invited her up and gave her a wizard's hat and cape and a magic wand. Then she managed to change scarves from one color to another, make one pack of candy into about 30, and finally, change another huge container of candy into a rabbit. Ever since then, she has been begging to go buy a magic wand at the store—we just hope she's not too disappointed once she gets it home!
  
• Sera LOVES baths. As soon as she sees the tub, she starts flapping her arms up and down, so that the splashes start the moment she hits the water. It requires a bit of clean-up, but it's worth it to hear her ecstatic laugh.
  
• Theo is all about "clubs" lately—but don't cross him. Whenever anything doesn't go his way, he retorts: "well, then you're out of all my clubs!"
  

What's for Dinner?

Mexican Haystacks

Ingredients:

1 lb. ground beef (browned)

2 cans tomato paste

2 c. water

1 onion, chopped

1 c. frozen corn

1 c. chopped celery

1 can kidney beans

½ c. ketchup

2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce

2 tsp. salt

½ packet taco seasoning

Garnishes: tortilla chips, lettuce, cheese, sour cream

To Make:

Simmer all ingredients(except garnishes) in crock pot on high for 3-5 hours. Serve over tortilla chips and shredded lettuce with sour cream and shredded cheese to garnish.

Mexican Chicken Chowder

Ingredients:

2-4 frozen boneless/skinless chicken breasts

1 can diced tomatoes and taco seasoning OR 1 jar salsa

1 can cream of celery or cream of chicken soup

1 pkg. frozen mixed vegetables

1 can kidney beans

1 c. water

Garnishes: sour cream, tortilla chips, cheese

To Make:

Simmer all ingredients (except garnishes) in crock pot on high for 3-5 hours. Remove and shred chicken, then return it to the pot. Stir in sour cream to taste (about 2/3 c.). Serve in bowls garnished with chips, sour cream, and cheese.