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Allison

Our new family members

Our new family members

As many folks know, we have a very affectionate, but high maintenance dog – who I’ve nicknamed the “million dollar dog.” He’s pretty much allergic to the Pacific Northwest.

The kids are well aware that we’re not planning to get another dog after Bisco. They know that our next family pet will be fish.

Today, we got the fish. And, we still have the dog.

How did this happen? I attended a thank you luncheon for fundraising volunteers at school. These luncheons are always very nice – and several classrooms get to stop by and put on a performance. Katherine was super excited to perform a percussive piece with her classroom. It was the cutest performance I’ve seen in a very long time.

As one of their special touches, the school staff served goldfish in water goblets for us to take home.

Voila! We now have two goldfish nicknamed “Goldy” and “Heart” – which respectively belong to Allison and Katherine. We have a hurking 10 gallon aquarium in our living room. The fish are swimming peacefully around.

Katherine now has two pages of facts that she’s written on a clipboard about goldfish. I’ll have to transcribe it someday; it’s a hoot.

Fingers crossed for goldfish longevity!

Reading snake for Allison

Allison has been waiting a long time for the Reading Snake. It’s essentially a picture of a snake that kids color in, as they make their way through introductory reading books. Allison has been asking her teachers (I think) to start the snake….and she finally got to start today with Max books!

She’s also been reading up a storm at home with the Bob books. She’s very persistent, sounding out words she doesn’t know…page after page after page. She had set the goal that she would finish the second box of Bob books, which she did, before going back to the first box (which she felt was too easy). The challenge will be getting repetition and practice of ALL the books not just the harder books.

Washing Legos

Washing Legos

Steve has many interesting ideas, but this one really took the cake.

Last weekend the girls visited a few little friends and had a great time playing with their Legos. Steve was so inspired by this that he immediately went home and bought Legos…on eBay. To be clear, he bought 20 POUNDS of Legos that were delivered yesterday in an enormous box.

All was well until yesterday morning when Steve said, climbing into his car before work, “The Legos should arrive today. You just need to wash the Legos…Just go online and read about how to wash them.”

The key word is “Just.” This pretty much consumed our evening. I ruled out two techniques that I read about on the web. One involves putting Legos in a pillow case, tying the case shut and washing them in your washing machine (fingers crossed the pillow case doesn’t open and ruin your washing machine!) The second involved putting them in a dishwasher and hoping they don’t melt. (Seriously!)

We opted for washing them by hand. Steve dumped all 20 pounds into the girls’ bathtub with dishwashing soap and swished them around in hot water. Then we rinsed them out in batches in the bathroom sinks. Then we put them in a huge plastic bin where I mopped them with dry towels to get the water off. THEN Steve dumped them on the family room carpet to dry further.

As Steve noted, “the girls will remember this for the rest of their lives.”

I’m attaching pictures of the process.

Family Visit

Aunt Sharon and Uncle Jamey visited this past weekend to celebrate my mom’s birthday. After they climbed Tiger Mountain with Mom (Yep), Sharon and Jamey came over to make apple pie. We then headed over to Bamboo Garden for some nice spicy Chinese food. On Sunday, Sharon and Jamey took the girls ice skating in Kirkland. The kids had a great time…and slept well Sunday night.

Other Pictures

Patty took the kids late last week to the Zoo during parent/teacher conferences, when they had half day school. They stayed almost the whole afternoon, visiting the entire zoo. Allison was so tired, she slept on the way home.

I should also note that the girls got haircuts yesterday afternoon after school. They got “cotton candy” scent in their hair and sparkles too. Oh boy!

We also took the girls to Baskin Robbins for a special treat, because both their teachers gave positive reports during parent/teacher conferences.

Grandma Dottie made quilts with both girls. Katherine brought hers home. Allison decided to leave hers on her special shelf.

School Out

School Out

We recently had mid-winter break which meant no school for an entire week! Then the following week (last Thursday), it snowed one to two inches in Redmond. Since Eton follows the Bellevue School District weather schedule, and Bellevue decided to cancel school, the girls had no school. With Patty’s help, they managed to squeak out a snowman from very little snow in our yard.

Rainbow Fairies

Through trips to the library, Katherine has discovered the Rainbow Fairies. The premise is pretty simple. Two girls become fairies in various situations to help other fairies defeat Jack Frost’s nefarious plans…or something like that. We’ve read three books so far. To help encourage independent reading, we’ll alternate pages. Allison, of course, has decided that she can read the fairy books too. She will sit for minutes at a time, thumbing through the book muttering to herself.

In the picture, Steve is reading a book from the Bushes about a boy and a dragon. Katherine was a bit apprehensive, which is why she’s trying not to listen – but she really is!

Fourth Place in PuzzleHunt

Burt’s Bees

Every year Steve and I play in Puzzlehunt with a team called the Killer Bees. This year we placed a respectable fourth place, with a team of core and new players. I explained to Katherine that we were very pleased to place fourth, thinking this was a good way to reinforce the whole “have fun, its not about winning” message.

Here are Katherine’s remarks about PuzzleHunt:

“Maybe you should consider calling your team the I Want to Win Bees”

“I accidentally called your team Burt’s Bees…not the Killer Bees..” (to gales of laughter)

“Mama, staying up all night is crazy.”  (Yes, I know she’s right)

Katherine also proclaimed today that she had a dream come true today. She learned about the pbs.org web site, which has little games based on PBS show characters for young children. Katherine spent her 10 minutes of computer time tonight clicking around the site and playing the Clifford game. She was very focused, checking out the site by herself. Allison told us, “Katherine, it’s not fair. You dont let me use the computer at all!”

Changes

Changes

It’s been a very eventful week for Katherine.

  • She can see her first adult tooth emerging.
  • She is in a new classroom at school. Today she took two books to school. Apparently, her new classroom has a “museum” in which kids can put one item from home. The museum is an aquarium! I expect that Katherine will be bringing all sorts of things to school this week. She chose to display “Tinkerbell’s Tea Party” today.
  • She and Allison are finally in an extracurricular class together. They both attend rhythmic gymnastics after school one day a week, which they love!

Allison and I are getting closer to “Twinkle Twinkle.” She can now play all the Suzuki bow rhythms with decent form with open strings. She’s even put her left fingers on the fingerboard–although this is going to take a lot more practice. As part of the Suzuki method, Allison is supposed to go to monthly group lessons. We attended two weekends ago, and Allison was SO determined to play with the other kids (no matter what.) One of the exercises is called CopyCat, where a student plays a rhythm and the other kids follow suit. Well, when it was her turn to lead, I “helped” Allison played a rhythm. One of the little boys could tell that Allison wanted to do this herself, so he suggested that she try it…and she did. She even sat thru 45 minutes of advanced playing by older children. She is a very determined child.

 

 

Pictures

Pictures

I finally downloaded hundreds of pictures from a couple cameras.

Yes – Katherine lost that loose tooth. It had been getting very wobbly for a couple weeks. Finally, Patty looked at Katherine and said, “your tooth is sitting sideways…” and plucked the tooth right out. Katherine was delighted to have the Tooth Fairy give her $5 for her first tooth. (Going rate is less for following teeth!)

Our kids are more aware of money and how to save it for special purchases. Allison saved her money and bought a $20 Hello Kitty stuffed animal at Build-A-Bear last month. Katherine couldn’t afford that, so she settled for a post-holiday moose with light-up antlers on sale for $10. ๐Ÿ™‚ We also took them to our bank last weekend and opened their savings accounts. They were very thrilled to use the change machine, and the prospects of depositing money is very exciting.

You’ll see that both girls are riding bikes that are just a little too big for them. Allison likes to ride the 16″ Novarra bike; since she can’t fully extend her legs all the way around, she’s actually slower on this bike than her 12″ bike. Katherine flies on her new 20″ bike. It’s got six gears and handbrakes. It was very amusing the other day watching Katherine riding down the road with Steve running full-tilt next to her.