Pedaling Purwell

Clara learned to ride a bike!  She's so proud of her new skill and loves cruising around the cul-de-sac.  Super fun to watch her delight and increased independence.   The secret to bike riding for Clara was having her use the Strider and scooter first to get her balance.  No training wheels.  Also, it helped that the bike is small enough she can put her feet down when she wants to (is forced to) stop.

I like this video because it generates a little anxiety, watching her pedal around.  I'm never quite sure if she's looking where she's going and if she's going to smash into that strategically-placed scooter.   Some of the dialogue:

To Violet, who's trying to get Clara's attention:  "I'm trying to con-cen-trate, Violet!"
"Hey, Whitman!  Look at me!"
Crashing into Miles and the scooter:  "Wha!  Whoa."

Happy Fifth Birthday, Clara!

Holding to her tradition, Clara celebrated at Out of this World Pizza.  Talmage and Sydney made and decorated her "5" carrot  cake.

An Interview:

1.  What do you want to be when you get older?  A mom

2.  How many kids do you want to have?  Two

3.  What will you name your kids?  Violet and Claire

4.  What is your happiest memory?  Having my birthday

5.  Why do you like being a kid?  'Cause I want to grow up to be a mom because I'm a girl and I go to kindergarten.

6.  What do you like to do for fun?  Playing at the park.  On the swings and on the playground.
7.  Who are your friends?  Violet, Claire, Addie, Kate, Jayce, and Anna and Brooklyn.  My favorite thing to do with my friends is play in the playroom and in my bedroom.
8.  What do you love most about your siblings?  Talmage plays nice with me.
9.  What do you think makes a person good-looking? From lipstick and being pretty dressed.  ... How about boys putting on lipstick? [she chuckles].
10.  Name two things we should do as a family on the weekend.  Go camping at Silver Falls and go swimming with our family.
11.  Where do babies come from?   From tummy's.
12.  How do babies get into the mom's uterus?  Get married. And the you go somewhere special, like shopping, with your husband and then it will come out.
13.  What is your favorite song?  I'm a Child of God, Twinkle Little Star, Itsy Bitsy Spider, Bringing Home a Baby Bumblebee, The Butterfly Song ("If I were a butterfly, I'll thank you for my wings, [etc.]. .. and I'll thank you for making me me, me, me.")

The below answers are a good example of Clara's rapid stream of consciousness.  Keep up:

14.  What happens if you slide down a rainbow?  You would get into the water, with a swimsuit.  In deep water I would have a life jacket on.  I would find a stuffed animal which was named Speckles, and a Giraffe and a Monkey.  A stuffed animal one.  Actually not Speckles.  Just two things.  A Giraffe and a Monkey.
15.  Tell me your funniest joke:  When Jackson fell down with a knock knock joke and a tree walking across an apple.  Why did the tree cross the apple?  To get to his other tree party!
16.  Who are you going to marry and why?  Jayce Fajardo.  Because I like him!  He's funny!  He always picks to camp with at our house and that makes me laugh!!!
17.  What is your favorite food?  Spaghetti, peanut butter honey sandwich, and oatmeal and pancakes.
18.  What's the most yuckiest food? Grey strawberries and grey pancakes and black marshmallows.
19.  What happens when we die?  Our bodies gets away and our heart gets away.  And then we get resurrected.  Where do we go and what is it like?  We go to a tomb.  It's like nothing.
20.  Where do crayons come from?  Crayon factory. ... One time Daniel's neighbor went to a crayon factory and they saw all sorts of crayons with Daniel and Katarina.  They had yellow crayons!!! And Tootsie said, "I want banana.  I want banana kind!"  Tootsie's the funniest.  Mom, did you know ... [etc]. ...
21.  What's your favorite show?  Daniel the Tiger, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Octonauts, and Strawberry Shortcake.
22.  What's your favorite doll?  My favorite doll is the Claire with the pink binky that I got for Christmas.
23.  Anything else you want to add?  I like all my Joy School friends and all my other friends.  I like my blankie.  Do you want to see what I do with them?  When there's creepy things or scary things in Octonauts I do [wipes her face into her blankies].  Wait mom!  About Octonauts.  There's all this lava and there's all these animals living in the lava.  And there's some monsters on the lava.  And a slimy animal of the Octonauts, he was on top of the lava.  And some more on the lava cave.  And that she was saying, Almost hotter and hotter.  And then they didn't die.  The Octonaut guys.  I went and watched Strawberry and then I went back and I didn't miss it.
24.  Anything else?  I like my family and my brother and sister and I love them.
25.  Anything else?  I love you and when I'm sad you hold me.
26.  Anything else?  One more thing.  When we were at Heidi's church, I was in Grant's class.  In his primary.  And I had a turn to go up and I was shy.
27.  Anything else?  Um, hmm.  I like when we move and I just think about ... I'm sad when we move. [Why?]  Because I'm shy about school and moving.  Because school is way over here. ... Mom, did you know Jayce, one of the boys in my class, he has a sister and they're almost taller together?  ...
28.  Anything else?  Um.  Nope!

Spring in busting out all over.

 The Patriarch.

February and March have been warm and dry.  It's not even spring yet and the daffodils are already dying, because they've been up so long.

Home Meet

"Goodbye, Great Wolf Lodge."

Sydney was forced to cut ties with her wristband, which she wasn't allowed to wear at gym meets.  It was a solid 3 month relationship.   She confides that she still thinks about GWL even without the band.

XCELLENCE Meet

 
That's a "back hip circle", to those In The Know.  And also, that's Phil, the head coach.   Phil's a little dressed up, here.  His usual attire is a t-shirt with an edgy/witty saying.

This is called a cast.  Not to be confused with a cast.  Or to cast.  Or ... a casket.

Getting pumped up before the floor routine.

"Gymnast Salute!"

Inspired by "Beautiful Oops"

Talmage was flipping through this book, and found inspiration for the Valentine's he made for his class. Instead of saving the ones he got, I wanted to save the ones he gave.  This year, he caught on to the spirit of cheesy Valentine's lingo:

"You're so Tweet, Cate."

"Tell me your antswer, 'Will you be my Valentine?'"

"You're a 'turtle'y awesome friend."

"I be'leaf' we will have a 'long' friendship."

Back at it.

Pretty, pretty.

Clara is an aspiring manicurist.

Spooky face on the far right

The boys are building a civilization in the old chicken coop.  Miles is tucked back in there, too.   So far, no one has come down with an elegant bird-borne disease.

Enchanted

Syd didn't compete in the last meet, but the coach had all the girls dress up as princesses to escort the team girls and the judges during introductions.  A lot of pomp and circumstance goes on with gymnastics.  Next weekend is another meet, so y'all don't go anywhere, now.

His and Hers

The boys hiked Larch Mountain last week.  Five peaks spied from the summit (Mt. Hood featured below):




Two weeks before, the girls hiked Larch Mountain.  Coordinating an all-day hike with family obligations means you go when planned, no matter the weather.

Which for us included record breaking rainfall.

This was our summit view:

Again, to re-cap, this was the view for the boys:



But, while untreated sewage was overflowing into the Willamette, the drenching rainfall meant that not only could we ride our canoe down the trail-turned-tributary, but also that we could see some amazing waterfalls (photo by Becky):

Happy Birthday, Sydney.

An Interview:

What's your favorite:

Book:  The Boxcar Children

Pretend game: I like to play.  The setting is full of magic.  Different stories come to my mind.  I pretended I was a fairy.

 Holiday:  I can't decide.  Halloween and Christmas.  I like to open presents and give presents for Christmas and I like to say "Trick or Treat" on Halloween and get candy.

School subject: Writing and Reading

Movie: The Boxcar Children

Primary Song: I am Like a Star

Food: Spaghetti with cheese

Dessert: Oreo cookies

If you could do anything in the world, what would you do? Fly

What magical power do you wish you had? Water.  I could do things with water and make it appear and stuff.

Who are your school friends?  Otto and Wyatt.  I like them because they are both crazy like me. We just mess around at recess.

What do you like to do with your siblings? Play board games.

Favorite board game:  The Allowance Game

If you had $100 what would you spend it on?  Toys and going to a restaurant.

What country would you like to visit?  Australia and go to the Sydney Opera House

What makes you smile?  Jokes and being tickled.

 

"2-4-6-8-(40-40)-Who-Do-We-Appreciate?"

Our family turned 100 years old this past November.  Cool, huh?

To celebrate, we played at Great Wolf Lodge -- something we'd heard all the fancy families do.  We even got the room with the bunkbeds.  Not that we spent much time in the room.  After a day of water-sliding and wave-pooling, questing, and general tom-foolery, we dragged our weary bodies back to the room to "light the cake."  Literally. 

 One hundred candles

 To avoid triggering the in-house sprinklers, we went outside.  Briton and I double-teamed that cake, trying to get all the candles lit at the same time.  The wind blew them out over and over.  Or it would bend the flames towards one end of the cake, adding extra heat to the candles on that end.  The candles were melting like buddah on a sizzling griddle. 

 Wax cake, anyone?

"My, don't you look young for 100."  

After cake, there was a present for each person that was something we could do as a family.  You know, like a family game, a family movie (Robin Hood), etc.   Sydney [above] is giving Briton a birthday wish ("with a bump on your head"). 

 The next day we played all morning and afternoon at the water park and then went to another hotel.  We took our time the next morning, enjoying the buffet breakfast and pool before heading back to Portland.  It was a pretty grand birthday party -- because after all, you only turn 100 once.


The next math problem for you is:  what year will we turn 200?

 Note:  Sydney still has her Great Wolf wristband on.  She plans to wear it until her wrist gets too big for it.

Every Day is a Peanut Butter and Honey Day When You're a Clara-Bear.

New Resolutions

"Mom Dad note.  Money is on my mind. So wach out! 

 From Sydney."

At this point I'm just trying to catch up before you catch on that I'm back-dating everything.

This hike is celebrating our 40th birthdays with another couple who both turned 40 this year, too. And another friend. Who's not 40.   There's a trail system called the 4T (get it?) Trail that we thought would be a clever hike for our station in life.  But not for our kids (too long).  So we hit a Forest Park trail.

The hiking crew.  Resting.  "If you all look at the camera, we'll give you some snaaa-aaacks."  Kids will do anything for a snack.  Is something you learn once you're 40.

Mila and Miles, having a great conversation.  Over (about?) their snacks:

Not staged. I swear.

And then there was this cool tree.

Where the kids jumped and played for awhile.

Photo by Ksenia.  St. Helen's in the distance:

A Big Christmas

Big Cheetos.

Backstory:  since Miles refers to anything orange as "Cheeto"

Big Lego set.

Backstory:  Sydney saw this set advertised in the Lego magazine in November and wished and wished to have it.  By the time we realized it wasn't a passing fancy,  they were sold out of every store in the Portland metro area (i.e. the few I checked).  Online it could be had for 2x the suggested retail price.   "Every kid needs to feel disappointed; it's good for their character," we consoled ourselves.   But then, here's another Christmas miracle.  Grandma and Grandpa Barker happened to be in England just prior to Christmas and called to say they could get it in the stores there.   Did we want it?  So, imported from England, via Utah, courtesy of the USPS,  er, Santa's Sleigh, Sydney received her heart's fondest desire.  As you can tell, she was elated, thanks to Santa's elves.

Big Dollhouse.

Backstory:  Pure parental insecurity and naivety.  The fact we got it on craigslist softens the blow and the annoyance/embarrassment at the largess-ness of it.  Also, kids do play with it.  As it turns out. Sometimes.