Love Birds

Lucy made this in art class at school and gave it to Austin for Father's Day.

The inscription says "love birds" and the heart below has my name and Austin's.

On this Father's Day, I want to say how thankful I am that my children have a fantastic father.

I am so glad Austin and I get to be love birds.

And I am particularly grateful that our children know that their parents love each other.

I feel incredibly blessed and lucky.

Happy Father's Day, Austin. I love you.

Gavin's Writing

In honor of the last day of school, I'm posting some of Gavin's first grade writing from this year. Once a week, each child had to write three or more sentences on a topic of their choice. Even though the notebook came home and will be carefully filed away, I'm going to preserve a few of them here just in case. And so my family far away can get a sense of this quirky little person I live with. I'm keeping the line breaks that make these observations feel like free-verse poetry. And the spelling errors that got by the teacher.

I love hipos! They

are very very fat.

But I don't know why

they are purple?

Maybe it's natural.

I like fish. That's

because they like

water. Well actually,

I like cat fish.

There whiskers are funny.

My mom is a history

professor! It seems

boring but it is awesome!

And she has a dog in her class!

(I actually did have a service dog in my class this year.

And I'm relieved that my profession only seems boring.)

Noses are awesome!

You can breeth out

of them unless you

have a problem with

your nose. My nose is cool.

Once upon a time

an evil alien

destroyed the world.

It was not great.

Until the evil alien

died of torcher.

 

 

Once upon a time

there was a prince

who fought bad

knights and dragons

and all those

things. He shrunk

one day ravealing

that he was sadly

an action figure.

Self-portrait of the writer at work.

Horses are here!

 Our summer guests Beauty and Arabella arrived last night. The kids couldn't wait to get home, get cowboyed up, and get out in the field to greet their new friends.

Gavin and Beauty getting acquainted.

Lucy and Arabella

Seriously funky cowgirl outfit.

The grass is nice and high this summer,
I wonder how long it will take them to eat it?

Chicken Update

The chicks are about eight weeks old and starting to look like little hens, eating a full feeder of chicken pellets every day. They adore Lucy, and even Gavin is warming up to them, though I don't think he'd let them nest on his head.

Brother's Day 2012

One of my favorite things about our family holidays is shopping with each kid to find the perfect little gifts for their sibling. They know each other so well.

Lucy chose an ice cream cake with blue frosting.



We let him open his gifts before church.
And eat ice cream cake for breakfast.

 Gift #1: a fake mustache.
(He's obsessed with facial hair lately.)

Gift #2: Lord of the Rings Legos.
Gandalf and Bilbo Baggins.
Can't wait for the Hobbit movie!

Gift #3: A Mentos launcher and bottles of Coke.
This one had to wait for after church.

Pull the string to release the Mentos . . .

The massive Coke geyser didn't dissapoint!

Girls on the Run

This year, Lucy participated in the Girls on the Run program. It is led by volunteers after school (including my colleague Rowly, an ultra-marathoner) and involves training for a 5K run along with discussions emphasizing teamwork, self-esteem, positive body-image, and nutrition. I am SO thankful to all the volunteers that worked with Lucy, who absolutely loved it.

Saturday was the big 5K race for all the Girls on the Run programs in Vermont. There were literally thousands of girls there, along with volunteers and parents and supporters. Austin decided to run the race with her. He ran a half-marathon in April (I didn't blog it, I wasn't there to get pictures, but I'm very impressed with his accomplishment). I think Austin was delighted to have someone to run a race with. He and Lucy are already planning for their next tandem race, a 5K in Northfield at the end of summer. We'll see if she can keep up her training!

Getting psyched the night before.
On her wrist are strings representing laps run.

Can't run a race without hair color and face paint!

Dads (and Gavin) showing solidarity with blue mustaches.
Gavin's wore off by the end of the day, to his disappointment.

Northfield girls ready to run!

Approaching the finish line!

Lucy ran her 3.1 miles in 35 minutes.

Little League

Gavin inherited the baseball mitt I used to play catch with my dad, and he inherited my dismal hand-eye coordination. To his credit, he decided to put both to the best possible use by joining the Northfield Phillies baseball team this spring. Gavin may not have abundant natural talent but he does have something rare on this team of first- and second-grade boys: he pays close attention and listens to instructions. As a result of that (and a lot of practice with Austin, who is helping coach) he is picking up the game quickly. He has had an RBI (a "ribbie") in the past three games and he loves playing. He told Austin the other day that someday he wants to be able to be the coach of his own kid's baseball team so there's a good reason to learn all those skills. I guess this means we are investing in the athletic opportunities of our future grandchildren whenever we have batting practice? I hope these grandchildren get the athlete genes from Austin's side. Though who knows, some of those genes may even show up in Gavin one of these days.

When coaches call a "huddle" they tend to get a "pile-on."
Gavin is in there on the bottom somewhere.

Soccer

Between piano, the school play, book club, French club, Girls on the Run, and math homework, I thought Lucy was plenty overscheduled for the spring. But she REALLY wanted to play soccer again, and Austin is such a softie when it comes to sports activities, so I reluctantly agreed. We had a chat with the coaches and explained that Lucy could not play in the Sunday games, and they were very cool about that. She has consistently attended all the other practices and games, even in the cold spring rain, and I am very proud of how much progress she has made. She is really starting to figure out the game and be aggressive with the ball. She is enjoying herself immensely and even though she is not the star of the team, she is a great teammate and a good sport.

Update: Lucy scored a goal in her last game of the season! Her team was in a tournament, and because of Lucy's goal her team advanced to the next round (which was on Sunday, unfortunately.) Way to go, soccer star!



Sister's Day 2012

The inventor of Sister's Day has no idea how lucky she is. 

She has a brother who completely adores her.

Concerts

Lucy's piano recital was on Sunday, June 3rd. She played two pieces solo then participated in a trio with two of her friends. They sounded amazing!

Want some CHEEEEESE with your refreshments?

The next night was Lucy's choral concert for school. She has really learned a lot about music this year, thanks to very patient piano and chorus teachers!