28 March 2010

Happy Birthday to Gibson who turned 3 on Friday! Gibson is a charmer, a bit of a tease, easy to laugh and right in the mix of everything our family does. He's quick-- physically and mentally. We ate his birthday cake around the fire pit since building fires with Brandan is one of Gibson's favorite things to do.

Becky admits that sometimes she spends longer making the family night treat than she does preparing the lesson. This is never a problem for Brandan. In the photo Gibson, Helen and Abe are frosting sugar cookies for our treat Monday night.

Abe is playing soccer this spring for the first time. He hasn't played soccer before because Becky didn't see the point. After a couple of weeks of practice, she gets it-- Abe is having a super great time. He really loves soccer and anxiously waits for every practice. He loves the drills and the scrimmages. He even loved showing off his first injury-- a skinned knee. The other kids like playing at the playground during practice and Becky likes being outside, so it works for everyone. 

We had Spring Break this week so we went to a science museum. Sophie's hair is a great length for demonstrating static electricity.

We also went on an urban hike. Sophie said once that Spring Break was like prison (her mom made her do chores), but at least it's a prison with a nice view. 

Sophie and Ireland in front of the wildlife center before they handed off the eggs. 

Sophie and Ireland found some unusual grey and white mottled eggs in the sand volleyball courts near our house. Looking online, they found out the eggs belonged to a killdeer. They called a wildlife rescue organization and we drove them to the wildlife center.

21 March 2010

We celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary this Wednesday and it feels like the blink of an eye. We remember how sore our faces were by the end of our wedding day from grinning-- we were positively giddy with happiness and completely absorbed in each other. We thought we were getting a good deal, but we had no idea. Being married is a million times better than we expected, and our expectations were high. We've been so very, very blessed and look forward to eternities side by side.

Sophie had her Spring band concert this week. Sophie played in 2 trios and 1 duet-- Jolly Old St. Nicholas, London Bridge and Aura Lee.

Abe started taking ukulele lessons. He wants to learn how to play the guitar and his guitar teacher suggested that he start on a ukulele because it's smaller.

Becky is saving about $1 a week by baking bread. What homemade bread lacks in economic sense, it makes up for in deliciousness.

14 March 2010

Apparently Gibson needed 5 spoons to eat his granola Tuesday morning.

On our way to bed one night, we found Sophie on the upstairs landing making earrings for the student teacher who is helping in Sophie's geography class. The teacher will finish her student teaching soon and Sophie wanted to say thank you to her. Sophie made some lovely dangly earrings out of jasper and jade.

Abe wanted a challenge this week so we let him take apart a broken blender. It's old enough that it doesn't have any circuit boards in it-- just lots of interesting moving parts. Abe drew a diagram of the wiring with colored pencils before he disconnected them. Right now he's trying to figure out how to get the center shaft out so he can remove the motor. 

On Saturday we went to Sophie's Spring piano recital. All the music was from the classical and romantic periods. Sophie played an Ecossaise by Schubert. The recital was delightful to listen to-- so many lovely pieces played very well-- an impressive amount of talent and hard work shown by the students.

After sitting quietly through the recital the kids got to work out some wiggles at a nearby playground. It was sunny and breezy and felt wonderful to be outside. 

7 March 2010

After surgery to repair his hernia, Brandan couldn't lift anything that weighed more than 10 pounds. Gibson has weighed more than 10 pounds most of his life and missed Brandan carrying him around. Brandan's surgeon cleared him for full activity this week and Gibson couldn't be happier.

Once the carpets were dry, we enjoyed playing soccer in the furniture free room. 

We had our carpets cleaned on a rainy day and so they took a couple of days to dry, much longer than the 2-3 hours the carpet cleaners advertised. We hung out in our kitchen, along with all the furniture from the family room. Helen played Phase 10 with Becky for a while and when she got tired of that, she made her own playing cards to go along with the game.

Abe and Sophie hurried to get dinner dishes done so they could join in the soccer game. 

Helen provided some musical accompaniment on the piano. 

Abe and Sophie joined us for a game of kids vs. parents. Helen and Gibson switched sides early on. We left the furniture off the carpet until Saturday night, when we were having guests for dinner. Otherwise, we might still be crawling past the piano and over the couch on our way through the house. The kids really enjoyed the open space.