A thin coating

 We awoke this morning with a few inches of snow on the ground.

Truth be told, I went to bed last night with a thin veneer of snow on the ground, and was awoken early this morning by a robo call from school announcing a 2 - hour late start.  I then turned off the alarm and fell back asleep.

It is still barely hanging around still this afternoon. Largely it has turned into slush. Shoveling is completely optional.

9 more days!

Christmas is fast approaching. We have been busy busy busy. This weekend we went to see the Nutcracker and today Odin and I went skiing. There is a chance of snow in town tomorrow and Tuesday.
I will have pictures up again soon . . .

It's beginning to look a lot like . . .

But before we get to that, I suppose you want to know about our Thanksgiving.

We did something new this year. Something that we (Johno and I as a married couple) have never done before. We stayed home for Thanksgiving - and did not invite anyone over. It was just the three of us. We had a lovely day. It was relaxing, restful, quiet and really quite nice. We had lamb, spinach pie, and yams for an early dinner. Knowing that we would need a reason to get out of the house for a little while I volunteered to feed the animals at the farm that evening. After we returned home we enjoyed some pumpkin cheesecake. It was so nice.

I was going to show you a picture of the wreath that Odin and I made this evening. But it seems that I have reached my photo size limit on this site. I shall have to look into that before I add more images.

Artwork

Odin made this tonight. It is a "grandson flower"

Fun on the Farm

The farm (where I spend most of my "free" time) is holding a Holiday Farm Festival fundraiser the second Saturday in December. I volunteered to do photos on site with proceeds staying on the farm. I am pretty excited about the event and it is giving me loads of opportunities to play around with my camera. Last week I did a few test pictures of a few of the horses. I had a ton of fun with them. The horses, while not having the time of their lives, were very tolerant.

Zephyr was very curious about the camera

Odin fun day

For us Saturday was all about kiddo fun time. We went to the grand opening of the new children's museum (it was fabulous!). Then a birthday party at an indoor playground. Then we came home and played int he leaves! It was all very tiring and noisy but fun, fun, fun!

Halloween

Thought I'd keep you waiting to hear about Halloween. I figured this way it wouldn't get lost in the shuffle of everyone else's kiddo and pumpkin pictures.. Okay, really I've just been a tad lazy.Yes the costume does look familiar. He was really excited to be a flying squirrel again this year. Next year he tells me he wants to be a Jedi.

Odin carved his own pumpkin this year all by himself. It was his own design too! My pumpkin was extra scary, it was rotting from the top down. I managed to carve it, but by the day of it was nearly impossible to get the mushy, rotten lid off to light the candle. I had to put a few bamboo skewers in the top to support the lid from falling onto the flame!

Weekend Recap

We have had another fun, busy weekend.
For the past few weekends we have been doing farm work. Some friends just bought a new house with about 5 acres and needed a place to put their horses. So one weekend we helped them build fence-line and make a paddock. The next weekend John and Odin went back to start building a shelter for the horses. They had troubles finding the materials on a Saturday so they didn't get a whole lot done. I was at another farm (where I ride) that day clearing blackberry vines, hauling wood chips and dismantling beaver dams.

This weekend was no different. Most of it was spent at the farm building a lean to for one of the horses. Saturday we spent all day mostly in the rain working on the shelter. Odin ran amock on the farm, mostly finding nice juicy mud holes.
Sunday morning we woke up and had some pumpkin cinnamon rolls before carving up our pumpkins. Then it was back to the farm to finish the lean to. We finished just in time to drive our to the beach and do a little clam digging (more on that later!). It was a late night driving home and John and I both noted how much fun we had over the weekend. Good thing too, our friends still need to build their lean to!

Mentos

Ages ago I bought a pack of mint Mentos to make the diet cola geyser. They have been sitting in a drawer waiting. They have been waiting until it was going to rain. You see, we live on a cul de sac and the plan was to do this experiment in the middle of the street. However I did not want everything to be covered in sticky cola mess for a long time. The rain has finally returned to western Wa.  The other evening we pulled the Mentos out of the drawer.

It is super explosive and cool. We had a slight misfire, as the Mentos did not all drop at the same time. Therefore I failed to get an "action picture". Odin was afraid it was going to explode laterally, and  was running away as it went off. I will do this one again for sure! Only next time I will be ready.

Fund Run 2012

Friday was the big fall fundraiser for Odin's school. They do a Fund Run. The kids get pledges for running wither per lap or a fixed amount. Then on the day of the event they run! There were parents cheering kids on, helping to mark down laps, and taking pictures. John and I were both able to go. He was one of the cheering parents, I was one of the photographing ones!

Odin ran 17 laps around the school track about 3.5 miles!

Stretching with Spirit

A stretch after the run.

Fun things

The boys joined me at the farm one day to help give Zarah a bath. I thought it was going to be one of the last nice days. I was very wrong. They have all been nice days since. . .  That is supposed to change next week.

 Odin had fun stacking the barrels, then knocking them over.

Do you remember the pictures of the cool fort  / curtains I made for Odin's new loft bed? They looked like this:

He still prefers to sleep here:

We went to a sandcastle festival this summer. Highlights were a big pile of sand to play in
and a touch tank (with crabs!)

October? REALLY?

It has continued to be dry and sunny here. Pretty strange indeed. It is cooling off in the evenings lately and supposed to be in the high 30's tonight. But this afternoon in was in the low 70's, just lovely.

The other evening after dinner we went for a bike ride and we all commented on how beautiful the evening was. The temperature was perfect. The scattered clouds in the sky were reflecting the beautiful pinks and oranges of the setting sun.Odin rides at the same speed that we do now. And when he wants to he goes crazy fast.

This evening after dinner we made a few baking soda / vinegar rockets. My sister sent us some tiny plastic test tubes (with stoppers) filled with candy. Odin enjoyed the candy then thought to blast the test tubes into the sky. They worked way better than the film canister rockets ever did for us. One of then blasted about 20 feet high!

We also used the baking soda volcano that Odin made a few months ago. I thought I had some pictures, but I need to search a bit more . . .

School

Last night was curriculum night at school. I got to go into Odin's classroom and learn how and what Odin will be learning this year. I thought it was fascinating. One of the points that his teacher brought up was the importance of writing. She told of the importance of the kids seeing family members write, reading what others have written and especially writing themselves. His teacher said a great way to encourage this is to have people write letters to the students, and then the parents encourage the students to write back. It starts small a sentence or two maybe, but over the course of the year usually grows into four or five sentences. Odin already has one pen-pal, his friend Laura in Minnesota. Lets see how many more he can have!

Fridays

The other day as I was waiting for the overdue school bus to arrive I thought it would be great to ride bikes to school with Odin. So I decided on the spot that we could ride on Fridays if Odin wanted to. (I am pretty sure we will be fair weather riders, but I'll keep you posted).  On Friday morning we hopped on our bikes and off we went. On the way to school we passed by a woman watering a garden bed. "Mom! She looks like Rachel Carson!" Odin beamed.
I am not sure who had a prouder moment, Odin, for making a connection between a book and real life, or myself - mother of a boy with a good ecology upbringing!

The ride itself was great. I escorted Odin to school locked up his bike then rode home. Later I rode to school to pick him back up. He was so excited to ride home and show off his bike to his schoolmates.

First Grade!

Today was great. We started with blueberry pancakes,



then off to the bus!



A little sugar,



And off he went!

Big Day tomorrow!

Backpack?
        CHECK!

Lunch bag?
        CHECK!

Haircut?
        CHECK!

Fresh School Supplies?

CHECK!

 Silly Back to School Picture?

CHECK!

 Enjoying Summer to the last drop?

CHECK!

 


I think he's ready!

Man date

Hi there, this is John.  I figured it was about time that dad added a little to the post.  So, what's a man date you ask?  Well, every couple of months myself and some of the guys from work get together for some food and drinks and then go out to a movie that our wives wouldn't really been interested in.  We took to calling it a man date.  That way when you ask for permission to go out you can say "my attendance is mandated"!  Anyway, so what does that have to do with Odin?  Well, one Saturday morning a few weekends ago Michelle got up early to go ride horse before it got too hot leaving Odin & I to fend for ourselves.  We were having some good guy time (probably doing something mom wouldn't have approved of) when Odin said "dad, it's like we're on a man date"!
So, this last Sunday Odin and I spent the day on a proper man-date.  He has been wanting to check out the Space Needle since we moved here.  We started there.

On the drive in he was afraid it wouldn't be as tall as he imagined. 

But the view did not disappoint!

 We then got some lunch and met up with our friend Mike K. at the Museum of Flight.  It was a good days worth of guy time!