We carved the pumpkins we procured at the Pumpkin Patch for FHE. The kids drew pictures of what they wanted them to look like, and Drew and I carved them. I wish I had been truer to Vivien's drawing . . .
. . . because I feel like Drew really captured the essence of Rafe's and it was awesome.
I love the eyes!
On Halloween we went to Vivien's class for the Costume Parade. One class would start the parade and we would sit in our class and watched them go by, then join the end of the line and follow it all the way through the rest of the school and back to our class. It was fun. Here she is at her party after the parade. I have designated her beloved friend Demenace in the picture below:
Annie loved to be at school with her sister, and Vivien enjoyed showing her off.
After school there were tears for some reason, and she cried off all her makeup and somehow gave herself a unibrow.
But it was easily fixed for trick or treating later. I stayed home and passed out candy and had a really fun time. I made all the super heroes strike poses, all the princesses sing their theme songs, etc. One kid who was probably about 7 looked at me pointedly after I laid out my conditions for obtaining candy, shared a look of disgust with his dad, looked back at me and said, "Really?" Really, little power ranger. Let's see your best move!
Rafe has enjoyed wearing the jacket Drew turned into a costume using felt and a needle and thread. He's very skilled. Guys, this picture is not posed! He really sat down and put his arm around his sister. Heart...melting....
These two have their moments, good and bad.
But they are always happy to see their sister when she's home from school. Especially since she can now read them books!
Here are a couple of Rafe's most recent drawings.
I love the eyes. This is a meteor about to hit our porch:
Here's one Vivien drew of Drew and I. We are kissing. From a distance.
Screen time is obviously a hot issue in the house right now. I went to a lecture the school district did on the blended learning program they're using (a mix of traditional face-to-face and online learning). My takeaways are that it's as important for the kids to learn to use the technology of the day as it is for them to learn to use a pencil, and that I am seriously under-utilizing quality screen time in my mothering. It's going to take some work for me to implement a good structure that will make screen time a valuable thing instead of a waste of time, but I see the importance of it now. So, time to do some research and thinking and counseling with the Lord in all my doings. Speaking of which, here is a picture of me and my wonderful friend Jo, rehearsing a lovely setting of Alma 37:37 that I sang in church last week. I will miss this lady.
Drew had to go out to sea for another two weeks. The day after he left we took part in the Kitsap Penninsula's Salmon Tours, a program run by Washington State University. We went to the one at the Moutaineers Rhododendron Preserve. There were students and a professor in the cabin at the trailhead passing out treats and answering questions and running kid crafts. I didn't realize the salmon spend their adult life in the ocean and don't come back to the river until they're ready to die and that's when they have their babies.
The spawning females come up the river full of eggs and make themselves a redd (nest) by thrashing around in the stream to clear out all the river gunk and make nice space in the gravel for their eggs to sink into. The males fight each other for fertilization rights with their crazy teeth, then the male and female release their eggs and milt at the same time. There's only about a 30 second window for the eggs to get fertilized in the open water before they start to harden. They had a table at the trailhead with some fresh samples to study. Female on the left, male on the right.
Check out the teeth on the males! It's amazing how much the bodies of the salmon change when they're ready to spawn. These are chums and they are nice and river bottom colored.
Annie was as cold as the dead salmon on ice. She wouldn't keep her gloves on.
We hiked down about half a mile through old growth forest to the stream.
There was a little Hobbit house on the way. Maybe more of a Hobbit cabin.
Our marine biologist guide told us the salmon have to give everything they've got to make it back to their spawning grounds. Their immune systems shut down; we could easily see lots of them covered in white fungus. When the males would start to fight you could see them taking chunks out of each other. There were already a couple dead ones along the banks. And just the effort of swimming up a tiny stream as a huge fish. It would be quiet and then all of a sudden you'd hear this wild splashing. Such a crazy life!
Vivien expressed her impressions from the day in art form back at the cabin.
We also went to a Native American Heritage celebration put on by the Central Kitsap School district. It was not as cultural as I was expecting, but it was still fun. There were Native American inspired coloring pages, the elementary school choir sang a bunch of Native American songs, and girl who looked very white did some dancing.
Turns out she actually IS Native American. She let Merrick try out the cradle board that's been used in her family for 3 generations. I think I'll stick with my Baby Bjorn.
The next week we had yet another elementary school celebration for Veteran's Day. Vivi's school had the Navy Northwest Brass Quintet come. They played a Sousa march and some jazz and ragtime, a beautiful rendition of America the Beautiful, and the songs for all the different branches. Musician First Class is my favorite rank ever.
Vivi lost tooth number 2! She pulled it out herself. This time she left it for the tooth fairy. And then she gave the dollar to her friend Quinn as a birthday present.
Here she is talking about the benefits of losing a tooth, then running in to school like she does every day. I lol every day, watching her skinny limbs working under that big bulky backpack. I love her enthusiasm!
We've been trying to hang out with all our friends as much as possible before we move. We met the Bolthouses for a stroll through Clear Creek Park this week. Vivien was a good friend for Emma.
And I went on my last visiting teaching visits. I have the best visiting teachees. I was at all of their houses for like 2 hours. We kept trying to say it was time to go and then we'd just keep talking. Merrick chilled on Diana Holyoak's couch.
He's a very chill baby.
And so happy.
Especially when I am funny (which is all the time, of course).
Here's a 8/9 month Punnett square!
Unfortunately, Merrick cut 6 teeth all at once (4 on bottom, 2 on top) and is having a really hard time figuring out how to eat without biting his tongue. He nicks it with every. single. bite.
Hard enough to draw blood! And he looks at me like I've betrayed him by feeding him sharp food for no reason. I hope he figures it out soon . . .
. . . because he really loves to eat. He's a beanie baby!
I was finally brave enough to make a pot of dried beans. They were delicious. And they'd been sitting in my pantry forever and needed to be used.
I have been working hard to clear out all the stock piles of things that need to be gone through before we move. The kids have capitalized on my preoccupation and gotten into all kinds of mischief.
Annie had her face "painted" Saturday night.
And she's learned how to take pictures on my phone. Her little stubby toes!
This week I've had an extra child in the mix. Her parents went to Hawaii for a work trip so she's been staying with me. It's nice for the kids to have a playmate to keep them distracted . . .
. . . but she has some bowel issues that have required a lot of clean up, and I have washed my hands so many times in the last week that my knuckles are all cracking! I may have to resort to my nightly Aquaphor sock-hands care routine soon.
Drew should be home tonight! I may or may not blog again before we move . . . I don't want to think about it. I have really loved it here and will miss it very much.
Couple of funnies:
Rafe absolutely refuses to eat food that has been split in half to share. "With himmmm it's aaaaaaall or nothin'."
Vivien had a dream that fairies were teaching her to fly. All she had to do was squeeze her shoulder blades together and then her wings would go.
Rafe, "When I die, I'll miss parts of Earth. I'll miss trick-or-treating."
At the Native American celebration there was a game where two kids would hold a stick between them, and another child would have to try to hang from the stick and keep their feet off the floor while the holders ran them as far around the gym as they could go. I told Vivien that I thought she'd be really good at the game because she plays in her jungle gym so often. She said, "Mom! You make me feel mighty!"
Annie was sitting in my room early one morning when she heard Rafe coughing from his bed. She gasped and said, "Rafie's cough! He needs me!" (That contraction is short for "Rafie is cough!")
Rafe to Annie on his way to the bathroom to poop: "Do you want to come in here and sit on your potty and talk to me?"
Vivien as I'm trying to make dinner: I don't want butt-nut squash!
When the kids are playing and run as fast as they can, they yell "CHICKEN SPEED!"
