Our Own Chip (or Dale)

Now we know how Walt Disney got his inspiration for Chip and Dale so many years ago. We have one of their descendants in our yard, and we even discovered that Shawn has a few "Donald Duck" tendencies. Last year the boys made some suet for the birds; we were studying birds and were looking forward to observing the different species that would be attracted to the good food. It did not take long for two little furry guys to catch a scent of it and start feasting. So Shawn moved it further up the branch, which did not bother them a bit. So Shawn moved it up even further, "there is no way they will be able to jump this far, and the branch is to thin to hold them up", is what Shawn thinks! I can picture the squirrels watching Shawn and devising a plan. Sure enough, they leap from the tree trunk and "fly" to the suet basket. It looked like a squirrel bungee jumping line; it bounced so much, but they made it!! So at the end of winter the score was Squirrels 1, Shawn 0. This year Shawn had a different action plan, he tied two different baskets in "off squirrel" locations. Well, the score is now Squirrels 2, Shawn 0. We will keep you posted if the score changes!!

A Week in a Flash

That's how I feel about this week, it went by in a flash. I was even in a state of denial until one day Nolan brought me back to reality. Someone asked me when we were leaving to go to Brazil and I answered 2 weeks. Nolan points out to me: "Mom, you have been saying two weeks for a while now." Oh well! At least I got some things done as we prepare for the trip. Christian had his last day at Kulshan and is now officially home schooled, returned his saxophone to Mojo Music (we are not lugging that with us), made sure all the boys swim suits were still a good fit, went out to try to find swimsuits for the kids. Ironically this year I'm surprised there is not much choice out there for swimsuits yet, whereas in other years, I'm a little annoyed that they bring them out so soon!! I guess I can say we are on the countdown now, 7 days to go!

Here is our toy of the week:

Just a plain old PVC pipe! The boys got to take it home after a marshmallow blowing contest in cub scouts and they have been playing with it non-stop. For housekeeping purposes they are using their Nerf gun bullets instead of marshmallows. I even gave up using my fleece in the house, apparently, fleece makes a good "target" for their bullets, it sticks nicely, so I was under constant attack. At first I even humored them, but there is just so much one can take when living under constant attack.

Music to my Ears

The other day as we were packing some activities for the boys to do during my Pilate's class, I told Nolan that after reading to his brother and then reading his book for 30 minutes, he could play his DS. To which he promptly replied, "Could I continue writing my story instead of playing the DS?". And this is the boy who would rather have his teeth pulled than writing a paragraph!! At least that's how he felt just a short time ago! Yeah! The hard work is finally paying off!

And here are other comments that are music to a homeschooling mom:

"Oh no mom, I would like to finish all of these math pages, this is fun!" After I told Christian he could move on to the next chapter in his math book.

"How could they think that the world started with a bang?? Just look at the ampullae of Lorenzini in the sharks that senses electricity in water! Or the echo location in the dolphins! Or look outside at the trees that produce oxygen!! It's clear that it was all created by an amazing God" This was by Nolan, our nature lover.

And here is Ethan, I bought this puzzle book for him and the whole family found it to be pretty challenging. Ethan is not only solving the puzzles, he also made up his own!

A Taste of the Olympics

This past Saturday we attended the 2009 FIS Nordic World Cup Festival at the Olympic Park venues in beautiful Callaghan valley (just down the road from Whistler). We left the fog behind and rode up the Sea to Sky highway towards the sun filled mountains. To witness the ski jumping up close and personal was a very neat experience. When the boys first saw the platform, their mouths dropped open as they stared uphill. It was a great competition with the last athlete performing the best and farthest jump.

Here is the secret of how to get this close to an Olympic athlete at an Olympic venue: Go a year early!

Higher Ground

We certainly have enjoyed the warmth and sunshine this weekend. I decided I was only going to ski in the afternoon, IF the fog would clear by then. Well, I did not have to wait that long, as soon as we got to higher elevation, the skies were as clear as they could be. I guess it's was they call an "inversion", with fog in the lowlands and sunny skies in the mountains. And that's not all, according to the Mt Baker website, the temps up there were 20 degrees higher then down here. I thought I was warm due to the exercise! .

Wow! Did we score this weekend, after all that snow and then all the rain, it was nice to get some warmer sun rays again!

Pretty Snazzy and Jazzy

Forgive me Jill for using on of your blog's entry title, but I thought it just fitted this picture perfectly. Here is Christian, all ready for his first band concert. It should had happen about a month ago, but Jingle Bells can be played in January just as well. It was really amazing to see and hear how the kids (almost 50 of them) came together and delivered some beautiful tunes. Especially if you consider that most of them had never even touched their instrument of choice prior to the start of this semester. Kudos to Mr. Norman, how does he do it? Now take a closer look at Christian's beautiful black trousers. I have to mention them since it took me several trips to the mall to finally find one, and this most likely will be the one and only time he will wear them, a grand total of 90 minutes. The pants are not quite the style he would chose to wear to school, or anywhere else for that matter, but it was part of the concert attire. At first I tried to get away with black denim, that way maybe he would get a few more uses out of it. But those one were to small and I had to take it back and could not find the next size. Then I spotted some nice corduroy ones that had a nice cut and would be cool to be used for other occasions. Luckily I looked around the store for other items and happen to place the pants close to some other black clothes, I then realized that the pants were dark brown. Bummer!! I did consider it, would anyone be able to tell the difference. I even asked a sales lady, and she informed me that they were indeed dark brown. Oh well! So the search went on, and I was successful at last.

Anyone Out There Brave Enough?

To treat your taste buds to something different and exotic?

Our boys did not shy away

Actually, most of our familiy that gathered for our delayed Christmas celebration were brave enough to try it. And no, it did not taste like chicken, and was not bad either. In case you are wondering where we got this exotic food, it was Uncle Darrel that had brought it back from South Africa.

A few rounds of krokono (and other games) is always a must when our family gathers