What if Ditto was a Wild Cat?

Today was my first opportunity of the school year to drive Chloe to school.  It's a bit of a challenge sometimes to have two kids in two different school districts, but it also creates some cool opportunities.  For instance, Chloe and I played the "What if Ditto was a Wild Cat?" game today.

It goes like this: the first person starts with, "Once upon a time, there was a Ditto, and he lived..."

Then we make up a story together based on a Wild Ditto Cat living in different environments.  His usual antics involve making friends, eating, napping, and sharing of his zen-like habits with the natives.

Today, Ditto lived in the arctic where he convinced the polar bears that he wasn't an orca whale.  He also got his first taste of seal, and helped the polar bears paint themselves black and white.  

He spent a short time on the farm as well.  All the farm animals thought he was a bull, but he didn't have horns.  So the other farms animals worked together to build him a set of horns like a proper bull.  He taught them all about daytime napping.

The stories lasted the whole drive home, just until we were pulling into the driveway, when Chloe said, "I really like days when it's just me, you, and Kirsten.  I mean, I really, really miss Dad, but it's really fun."

We arrived back home to find Ditto napping on the couch.

Summer learning

This summer, we have had a LOT of plans and goings-on.  Swim lessons, camping trips, water play in the lawn, skydiving, trips to the Children's Museum, and a wedding, just to name a few.  In all of that business, we also wanted to make sure that the girls were still challenging their brains.

So with that in mind, we made two big goals:

-read every day for at least 30 minutes

-practice math skills every day

I used a website I found (education.com) to print out worksheets for the girls for as many weekdays as I could fit in.  Most of the worksheets were math related, but occasionally they were also language arts.  We found that Chloe is great with addition, and I started teaching her some early multiplication techniques.  She's not a big fan of subtraction, though.  So we practiced that a little more heavily.  She's getting the hang of it.  Kirsten is working more on division, and multiplication of fractions and decimals.  They both really looked forward to the worksheets, which is something I didn't expect.

We also signed both of the girls up for a summer reading program at the library.  Our house if full of readers, with Mikey and Kirsten really taking the title of "bibliophile" to the next level.  Kirsten is really into a Warrior Cats series, reading roughly a novel a week.  Chloe is still finding her genre, but is really proud that she's reading chapter books herself now.  Judy Moody seems to be the current favorite.

All in total, the two girls read well over 1000 minutes.  They couldn't wait to have us fill in each square on their reading charts.  And each week that they brought in their reading logs, they got to pick out a small treasure at the library.  At the end of the program, the mayor showed up at the library to draw winners for the prizes they were giving away.  Kirsten and Chloe were both great sports when they received passes to the Children's Museum.  They thanked the staff for the prize, but gave it back because we already have a membership.  They did, however, win some other cool prizes - a family pass to the Skagit County History Museum and some free meals at Taco Time.

Next year I think we'll purchase a couple of workbooks for their math practice, so that finding and printing the worksheets isn't a slowdown.  The summer reading program will definitely be on the agenda.  Both of the girls really enjoyed all the extra challenge, and hopefully they've retained a little more over the summer than they normally would have otherwise.  In any case, they've both really expanded their reading abilities.

Best Mom in the World

I don't want to toot my own horn or anything, but TOOT TOOT!

Ok, so this morning over breakfast (I made pink pancakes) Kirsten proclaimed again that I'm the best mom in the world.  Her words, seriously.  Yay!

So Chloe, never to be one-upped, said, "Kirsten says you're the best mom ever, and I think so, too.  You must be the best BEST mom ever!"

Double Yay!

A Few Hot Days

Summer around our neck of the woods has been, well, struggling to really be summer.  Mild, cloudy days have meant way more lawn mowing than I'd like to be doing.  But that's not been the case the past couple of weeks.  We've had several hot days.  So hot, even, we all whined a little about the fact that it was too hot to enjoy it/breathe/live.

So with Mikey coming home from a particularly busy shift (saving lives and stuff in heat and a black uniform) telling stories of how he'd gotten off at least one call and actually wrung the sweat out of his shirt, I made absolutely certain that our single air conditioned room was super-chilled for his nap.

Kirsten and I, on the other hand, had some errands to run.   And when we stopped at Walgreens to pick up a few items, Kirsten just happened to notice that they had Slip 'n Slides on sale for 50% off.  At first I balked.  "Kirsten, that's not why we're... Oh, they're half off for a double wide, double length, Slip 'n Slide with a splash fountain at the end?! Dude! Let's surprise Dad!"  I mean, she really had to convince me.  Ahem.

So we came home and got to work unpacking and setting up our new toy.  We found the perfect place on the lawn to set up and attach the water hose.  Kirsten was super stoked to get to the business of playing in the water.  Just as I was coming in to grab some towels, I heard Mikey rustling around upstairs.  I couldn't wait to tell him what was waiting downstairs!

With all this fun being had, we couldn't wait to share it with Chloe, too.  So the first opportunity we had to play, we all got in on the fun.

 Chloe doesn't quite have the mass or the speed to slide all the way just yet, so she needed a little assistance.

Camping Trip

The summer of 2010 was the beginning of many family traditions in our home.  One of those traditions was a multiple day camping trip.  This year we decided to change up the location and found a magnificent campsite on Baker Lake for our annual camping excursion.  Shell and I gave this site a trial run the week before and found it to be the best campsite we've been to...ever.  Truly an epic site.  It's in the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest.  A gorgeous example of Western Washington's natural beauty.  The site is on a small-ish triangular peninsula that gently pokes into the lake with sheltered coves on either side.  The narrow isthmus is heavily treed and leaves the distinct illusion of complete isolation.  There's even an outhouse just a few dozen yards from the site.  

 This site is in high demand.  I've never seen it empty and was completely shocked when Shell and I found it vacant the week before our family trip.  The vultures swooped down to reclaim it as their own even before our tent was struck. 

We loaded the Jeep and the trailer in record time and were on the road barely an hour after I returned from work.  The entire family was in high spirits and very excited to try out this new site.  Our hearts were in our stomachs as we turned onto the unmarked road.  Would our coveted site be free?  Or would we have to settle on an inferior site?  As we approached the campgrounds it wasn't looking good.  All of our backup choices were full.  As we rounded the last bend all eyes were peeled for any indication our site was inhabited.  It was gloriously empty.  Everyone chipped in and we set up quickly so play could commence uninterrupted.  

Chloe chose kicking the soccer ball as her first game.  And promptly booted the ball into the lake.  Baker Lake is a manmade lake and it's level changes every day.  What this meant for Dad's retrieval of the ball was a beautiful cove full of grass.  Creepy, creepy grass.  Every kick of my feet was met with the grasping tendrils of the unknown terrors of the depths.  The lake is fed by creeks that extract their flows directly from the beautiful blue glaciers that dot Mount Baker's heights.  So, yeah, it's freaking cold.  Invigorating!

As soon as Chloe and I were appropriately suited up, we began exploring the edges of our peninsula.  The water was warm and shallow around most of the tip.  Well, warm for a given definition of warm.  Basically, not ice.  As we came up on a very shallow area I noticed a large, dark stain in the water.  Curiosity piqued, I moved ahead of The Peanut and saw a wriggling mass of tadpoles numbering in the tens of thousands.  I wanted to share this discovery with everyone equally, so I yelled for Shell and Kirsten to join Chloe and I in examining this unbelievable phenomenon. 

We eat well in our house.  No reason not to extend that to our camping.  Campfire grilled London Broil, chicken filets, bacon, and something Shell calls "hobo dinners".  A delicious mix of potatoes, carrots, onions, ground turkey, and spices covered in foil and cooked on the campfire.  Oh!  And s'mores.  After discovering peanut butter cup's obvious superiority over straight chocolate bars, we decided to experiment.  Snickers, Caramello, KitKat, and Three Musketeers all made an appearance.  Truly a Fat Kid's dream.  The verdict remains with Reese's demonstrating clear and unchallenged superiority as the king of the s'mores candy bars. 

 Kirsten has been reading many different books in the fantasy genre and is naturally drawn towards her heroines.  One such heroine is Hunger Games archer Katniss Everdeen.  Adding to that hero worship is a recent experience with archery at Camp Cornet.  Minutes after setting up camp, K-dizz found some discarded twine and a properly shaped stick and crafted a bow and small quiver of arrows.  Chloe mimics her big sister often.  She asked for some help from Dad on this one.  Both of our archers were now ready to endanger the safety and health of small patches of earth surrounding our campsite.  Their bows seldom left their hands for the next few days.

We spent a lot of time hanging out on a partially submerged log a short distance from shore.  Sitting there soaking up the rays, we taught the girls how to play Twenty Questions.  The penalty for having your answer guessed was a quick dip in the lake.  Failure to guess meant the other three players ended up in the drink.  Kirsten was the master.  Stumping the three of us several times. 

We took a short trip down the road to the Trail of the Sentinels.  It's a short hike down a mostly boardwalk trail through some incredibly beautiful forest.  It's a snapshot of the stereotypical Western Washington forest.  Awesome.

Our last day capped the trip perfectly.  One last visit to the tadpole colony, a couple rounds of Twenty Question on our log, and general camp fun.  We had a visitor to our site in the late morning.  A bald eagle decided to roost directly above us about 30 feet up.  So, very cool.  He hung out overhead for several hours before leaving us to grace another lucky group with his majestic presence.

And, of course, we capped off our trip with the obligatory stop for ice cream.  Barely worth including if not for the excitement coming from the back seat of the Jeep.  It was warm, bordering on hot out that day.  Chloe picked a large popsicle that was watermelon flavored with candy seeds.  Yummy.  Driving with the top off in hot weather produces a wind that's not unlike a hair dryer.  Chloe's popsicle melted almost faster than she could inhale it.  As it melted the wind blew the sticky, sweet syrup everywhere.  It would be difficult to get a more even droplet coating if you tried.  I'm certain my driving skills were challenged by the belly laugh I couldn't suppress every time I glanced back at the green goo covering our daughter.  Fun times.

This was undoubtedly the best camping trip so far.  I'm looking forward to continuing this tradition for many more years and seeing if it's possible to top the fun had this year.