Marina Touch Tank

 Cam and I are both home these two weeks with both kids. The four of us need (NEED!) stuff to keep us out of trouble. I have a physical need called "Getting out of the house each day."

So, on one such rainy day, we took the kids on down to the Squalicum Marina "Aquarium" (we've been here before, remember?)

Once again, Clem watched only. She refused to touch any of the terrifying sea creatures.

 Whereas Dutch would have climbed in if we'd let him.

If you guessed that Dutch tried lapping up the water from the touch tank like a puppy, then you are correct. When Cam intervened, Dutch realized that cupping his hand and bringing it to his mouth could do the trick.

Yup, our visit there was short.

Hello again, old friend

 It's been ages since we hit up our old haunt, the Skagit County Children's Museum. I think Clem had to be 3 or 4 when we were there last. And now we can't remember why we waited so long!

 There's a whole toddler "farm" for wee lads like Dutch...(who by the way ONLY went up and down the two slide-like inclines on this play structure. What gives?)

(and also has been taught by Daddy how to do a perfectly scary bear cub growl, now he loves bears!)

 

...there's also plenty for a 6 year old explorer like our favorite wee lass. 

She loved fishing and playing princess Barbie dress up, 

 She got to play long-shoreman and semi-truck driver.

 Then she rode this gull like a rodeo bull.

And made a snow man frame in the art area. Seriously, I just can't get enough of this place!

Gymnastics Showcase

Last week was Clementine's Gymnastics Showcase. The love of my life went to cheer her on (mama had a meeting! Sad face) while she performed.

Clem's pretty cautious these days with the "dangerous" stunts they teach her (when did THIS happen??) but I love that she is building confidence. I love that she is positively beaming at the end. She is just beginning to dip her toes into the world of gymnastics and I hope it's something she decides to stick with.
So proud of her.

(And so in love with Daddy's Daddy-Pride.)

Winter Concert

My favorite Kindergartener decided to spice things up a bit last week. On Tuesday after school, Clementine decided to hop on a school bus, following all of her friends' lead. The only problem is, she doesn't take a bus home, she comes to my classroom after school. Her teacher, our principal and Dean of Students and I hurriedly scoured the building for her. For 10 nerve wracking minutes no one knew where she was. Finally, our Dean of Students came off of the school bus, Clementine in hand.

 

That's him giving her a "Go get 'em tiger." pat before her concert on Thursday. It's not often we get to see this brave girl looking cautious. But before the concert we did!

 She sang some very cute songs with her kindergarten class. She even got to play jingle bells and bongo drums!

 

 

Here she is singing the Cordata coyote leads the way song!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it SNOW!

 

 

Yesterday, we all woke up and made this face! It  had snowed all night and school was cancelled! I was extra jubilant because I literally couldn't fathom making it through another day of teaching in 2013. It's been a rough couple of weeks.

Instead, we raced out the front door at a reasonable time of day (like 8am) dressed in multiple layers of warmth. This was Dutchy's first real snow experience and consensus is: HE LOVED IT! He spent most of the time we were out there eating the snow.  

 

 

And Clem built and built. She went out multiple times during the day--we got snow until about 2pm when it finally stopped. I think in all she built 5 or 6 snow creatures.

A Visit with St. Nick

 We finally made it to see Santa this winter! Nothing like waiting till nearly the last minute! We braved the snow this afternoon and  drove out to Bellewood Acres to meet up with Santa. Clementine made a request or two while Dutch wasn't quite sure what to do!

 Then we hightailed it out front where the kids had noticed the hand carved ride-on rockers. A GIANT horse/donkey, a mini horse and a mini pig!

 Dutch is cautious in new situations (and not at all cautious when it comes to climbing chairs, couches and tables at home). Not for a single second did Dutch let go of Cameron's hand, he was pretty unsure what to do on these rockers!



Quoting Clem

Our girl. There aren't words to describe her cleverness or her sweet and tender soul. Here are some recent conversations from six year old Clementine:

-Today at the consignment store, I was browsing the racks while Clem played in the little toy area. She was alone in there for a bit, then a boy a bit  younger joined her.
"Hi! I"m Clementine! I just turned six years old!"
"I"m K. and I just turned four years old!"
K. went on to describe his upcoming birthday party while Clem told him that hers was Superhero themed.
"Do you like superheroes too?" she asks. "Because if you do, you'd like my dad. He's like the Hulk only he's not green. Just big."


-Last week her class got a new student. A girl! And it was BIG excitement around here. Clem couldn't wait to meet her and had a list of things to tell the new girl before the day began.
After school, I asked Clem what the new girl is like and she said "Let me think about it....I guess...she's really just like a rose with a big smile on it."


-At dinner one night she told Cam and I that her good friend in her class E. doesn't live with his dad because he's one of Santa's Elves. But not just ANY elf, E.'s dad is the TOP elf in Santa's workshop. So obviously E. is not only the luckiest little boy in all of the world, but he can't see his dad as often because he's up in the North Pole.

The BEST of Intentions

 This fall has been the season that shall forever be remembered as Ick Nast. We've had every single bug around and it's disgusting. In October, I got the flu that knocked me on my butt for a whopping 6 days with a fever hovering around 104. It was truly awful. Days after that, Dutch came down with croup. That, too, was awful and for varying reasons.

Mostly, because on that same day, I had *promised* Clementine that I would go on her first Kindergarten field trip with her class. Then, that morning, Dutch woke up gasping for breath. Mommy was no longer a field trip chaperone, but a freaked out, doctor calling machine.
Clem bravely headed out on her field trip with other moms and dads in tow. She minded not a single bit that I wasn't attending. But I did. And my heart hurt.

We were able to get Dutch assessed and treated with time to spare, so we darted toward the pumpkin patch as soon as we could, thinking there'd be PLENTY of chaperoning left to do!

We got there and scoured over the place for our girl in orange. We looked and looked and looked. After about a half an hour, we found her...lining up with her class to board the school bus back to Kindergarten. Womp womp.

I snapped a quick few pics and off they went. She had a great time with her friends on her first pumpkin patch. Dutch was healthy as can be. Those two things were all that mattered.

Clementine is SIX!

 My baby girl is 6 years old (and has been for over 2 weeks--I just can't get used to it)!! This year, she had her birthday party at the Family Interactive Gallery and we all had a blast. She, of course, choose a Superhero theme and I think everything went swimmingly.

In each of the pictures you can see the pink capes that my mom made each of the girls (thanks Mom!) and then each kiddo got to make their own mask at the party to protect their secret identities!

But mostly, they played and played. 

Even the baby boys played--not exactly *together* but they had a good time!

Then there was delicious cake (Avengers on the top, naturally). 

And LOTS of amazing presents! What a great day we all had celebrating this sweet, talented, smart, kind and tenderhearted little girl of ours. 

Kitchen Readers

Clementine age 2

Dutchy age 1.5

 

Both of our babies have found this spot to be ideal for a little light reading.

The Artist (known only as Clem)

Can you tell where Clem and I are in this picture? It's one of our FAVORITE places in the world. 

 Today Clementine's wonderful, amazing and awesome Kindergarten teacher sent home a packet of Clementine's writing/pictures from over the last month. It pretty much made my entire day.

Clem knew the class goal for the month: making sure there's a setting and drawing realistic bodies--no stick figures!
Clementine is also learning  how to label. She mostly labels names but you can see she definitely has setting down.

 I love the perspective of this one. In the bottom right hand corner she has labeled "me, mom." We are facing the movie screen watching the Minions movie. You can see the usher walking in the labeled door, other folks watching the movie and eating popcorn. This girl thinks of everything. I love it.

 No labels in this one but plenty of sun tan! She says this is a picture of Grandmpa helping her off of the sailboat. They are tan from being out sailing. Also, she couldn't find a pink crayon so she made due with orange.

 I knew exactly what this was before she could even tell me. Last year Cam and I made the mistake of taking her to the Halloween store. This was a YEAR ago. And she's still obviously terrified. She says she is clenching my hand as we walk by the spooky Frankenstein and mannequins.

 Here she labeled "Mom, Dush, em (me)." and we are shopping at another favorite place: TARGET!

But this one has to be my favorite. She's labeled herself and "Duch". I am resting in the blue gown. The nurse is wearing impractical shoes and the speech bubble reads "Isn't he cute".
"Dutch baby is getting born" is the title for this one. I asked her why Dutch's arms and legs are so wavy--she says those are fat rolls.

I can't get enough. I love this writer/artist so stinking much.