Ghana Gavin

I tried to talk Gavin into doing Germany for his country report, but he insisted on studying Ghana, where his Grandpa goes several times a year. We have a lot of Ghanaian stuff around the house from Grandpa's travels, and we had lots of West African friends when we lived in Philly, but I didn't know much about Ghana as a country until Gavin's report. 

Gavin did a presentation to his class wearing a traditional Ghanaian-fabric wrap.  The mask was a huge hit with the kids, as were Grandpa's pictures of a Ghanaian first grade class in an open pavillion with a grass roof, and his pictures of women carrying bananas and toilet paper in baskets on their heads. I brought some Ghanaian drum music and Gavin taught the class a fun dance we learned from some of Grandpa's videos. Imagine doing the chicken dance to a drum beat and you've got it.

I think the kids (and parents!) enjoyed the chance to stand up and dance around for a while in the middle of nineteen first grade country reports!

Aloha!

Yesterday we had an unexpected snow day.  Unexpected because it's only the second day this whole winter we've had more than an inch or so of snow fall in a single storm.  In the end, we only got a paltry 6 inches, but the snow was steady enough to keep us home for the day.  Austin cranked up the wood fire until the house was a balmy 80 degrees.  Then, the next thing we knew, Lucy appeared in full hula gear and Gavin in his swim trunks, declaring it

Hawaii Day!

The kids made flower decorations for the house, created activities and games out of Hawaiian trivia, and insisted that we cook Hawaiian food for dinner.  I didn't feel up to braving the roads for a trip to the store, so we had to make do with what we had: one can of pineapple and some dehydrated hibiscus flowers my friend brought us from Mexico.  We simmered the hibiscus flowers, reserved the liquid for a hibiscus-pineapple punch, then sauteed the flowers with onion and green chilis for hibiscus flower tacos, which were surprisingly delicious.



For a table centerpiece, Lucy removed the eggs from our Easter Tree, replacing them with dangling facts about Hawaii. Did you know the governor of Hawaii is Neil Abercrombie and the state bird is the Nene? Now you know. And so do I. Gotta love Google.

We listened to Hawaiian music on iTunes while Gavin danced around strumming his wooden-spoon-ukelele.  Then we downloaded and watched a movie about the Pacific Islands. Lucy declared Hawaii her "favorite place outside the United States" which makes me doubt those high grades she's been bringing home from Geography class. In the end, I guess this all goes to show that we can entertain ourselves pretty well at home -- as long as we have our internet connection.

Valentine's Week

Who can confine so much love, joy, and junk food into a single day?  Not us. We celebrate Valentine's Day for an entire week, beginning with the annual Daddy-Daughter Valentine Dance in Montpelier. This is Lucy's favorite event of the year.  She spends hours getting ready, and she chooses Austin's outfit to make sure he looks just right.  (He is NOT allowed to wear his kilt.) They go out to a fancy dinner with friends (luckily the restaraunt serves fries and ketchup) then dance the night away to Taylor Swift, Selena Gomez, Justin Bieber, and other teenybopper faves. 

Austin got Lucy this sweet wrist corsage for the dance.

Every year, I tell Gavin we can spend the evening doing whatever he wants.  Every year, what he wants is to stay home and eat a junk food picnic while watching a movie, then build a fort under the kitchen table and make shadow-puppets while wearing our headlamps.  Every year, that's exactly what we do.

This year we decided to switch kids and do another special activity.  Austin took Gavin to see The Phantom Menace in the theater, and Lucy and I stayed home and had a fabulous mother-daughter spa day.

Lucy's eye-cucumber kept rolling away.

Children, this is how much your parents love you.  We love you enough to slather our face in your special homemade-concoction mud masque.  We love you enough to endure Jar Jar Binks in 3D.  We love you enough to lay on the kitchen floor for hours.  We love you enough to sing and dance to Justin Bieber.  We love you enough to love every minute of it all.