Category: outing
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Spring break
Spring break has been glorious. I didn’t realize how tired I was until my body collapsed into a heap of exhaustion for days on end while the kids enjoyed way too much time playing on iPads. I think Shep and Neko have built an entire new civilization on Minecraft by now.
Then I cleaned my car. I worked a few days on getting ahead at school. Instead of an all-house spring break purge, I tackled the zones that were really bothering me. (Did you know our children’s bedrooms have doors, and when you close them, the mess magically goes away?)
Today we took a road trip. Took in the science museum and then a delicious meal at a restaurant with amazing light. I managed to sneak everyone’s photo. It appears we are in that phase where everyone sticks their tongue out for the camera. Super.
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Monkey business
When your children are little, you take pride in their accomplishments. Part of this comes from the feeling that you somehow had a hand in what your child had done. They learned to walk—we did it! First words? Well, I really was a good coach, wasn’t I?
Of course, in retrospect, we realize that these accomplishments were their own all along. We were just there for every moment, so we felt some ownership.
But then your children get older, and all of sudden the things they accomplish have nothing to do with you. And it’s quite apparent. Ideas burst forth and they run with them at a speed that is impossible to track. All you can do is gently lift your jaw back off the floor.
We went to the dentist this morning. Neko got this little plastic monkey as a prize for having no cavities. As we sat in another doctor’s office, waiting for the next appointment (packing them in over winter break), I decided to take a photo of it. That is the first photo in this series.
Then Neko asked if she could use my camera. I relented, and the next hour was filled with a burst of creativity, art directing a monkey’s journey through an oversize world. The crops are her own, except for one that I made horizontal so it matched this series. I adore seeing the world through her eyes, an amazing blend of my husband and I.
This is the good stuff.
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Rolling into the New Year
Just hours before the New Year, during a rockin’ party, Neko rolls the largest snowball of 2012.
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Tree
This year has been busy. Oh, so busy.
This summer was a frenzy of remodeling my classroom and that of another teacher’s. We started the school year in the weeds, and barely made our way through.
The first day of winter break was three days before Christmas. I was not prepared. There was no tree. There was not an ounce of ho-ho-ho in this house.
But two days before Christmas, just in the nick of time, we got our tree. We scoured the rather empty field for a solid choice. Neko was determined to carry my parents’ tree. Our tree was a bit, ahem, bigger than it looked outside.
Who knows if there will be lights or ornaments. But according to the Whos down in Whoville, Christmas will come without those.
Ho. Ho. Ho.
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Grown up slumber party
My friend Julie found herself with an empty house this weekend, so she organized a grown-up slumber party.Nearly a dozen mothers/wives/professionals gathered with food, drinks, and air matresses in hand for hours of silliness. And super-mature moves like posting crude Facebook statuses on unattended phones.
Oh, how I needed this night. (And sleeping in until almost nine the morning after.)
Thank you, Julie!
