This summer is turning out to be a lot busier than I thought it would be. The 3 big kids are in a production of Honk! Jr., a musical retelling of the Ugly Duckling story. C and K have major parts, too--C is the Ugly Duckling, and K is the predatory Cat. (S gets to be a cute little frog.)
The performance will be July 21st, so let us know if you'll be around and would like to come!
This month has been surprisingly rainy--almost every day since we moved in, until this week. So, B decided to clean the rain gutters on our new home last week. They were pretty bad--full of years of dirt and other stuff.
He found this little stuffed toy in the rain gutter. Kinda scary--we've been calling it the "creature from the black lagoon."
School is out, and we're enjoying the warm weather we've had for the last few weeks. Last Sunday I wanted to get out of the house, but didn't feel like walking around our neighborhood, so we went for a drive to somewhere in the middle of nowhere, away from houses and cars and people... It was fun. One thing I wish we had here is better places for walking and biking/rollerblading. In Rhode Island we had a great bike path through the forest and lots of beautiful beaches. In Al Ain we had awesome dunes to climb, and wadis to explore, all just a few blocks from our home. Here there's just not much. But sometimes it's fun to drive out in the country and just see what we can see. We stopped at a little cemetery and walked around, enjoying the peaceful quiet. Then we drove a little more before coming home.
We've been digging up piles of dandelions in our spare time. We're almost out of time now, but we tried our best to make the yard a little better than it was.
We've already started moving our stacks of boxes to the new house. We should be moved in this weekend. It will be great to have more space. Living in this little rental hasn't been too bad, except that we had become accustomed to living in an oversized luxury villa in the UAE, and we now have way too much furniture and stuff, which made this little house feel even more cramped. It's funny, because in Al Ain we never had enough furniture for our huge villa. For the first two years there B and I didn't even have a bed--just a mattress on the shiny marble floor. S's huge bedroom suite had only a crib in it for a very long time. (We were just out of grad school and needed to save money.) I miss that beautiful villa... But it will be nice to have our own place here, even if it's not as big, new, or luxurious as our home in Al Ain.
When we moved into the house we're renting, there were lots of dandelions in the yard. We spent time digging out a lot of the weeds just because we wanted to. But we never could get all of them. Then last spring and summer the dandelions were back. We didn't have quite as much time and energy to deal with the dandelions--I was pregnant, then I had a new baby who took up all my time. B was away on field trips and to conferences most of the summer. He did mow the lawn occasionally, but digging dandelions wasn't at the top of our priority list.
Now the dandelions are really back. So, I've tried digging up some. (Even though it's still too cold outside for me. And too windy. If it were warmer I'd be out there a lot more.) There's one part of the backyard that is just covered in dandelions now. If this were our house I would probably dig up that whole area and turn it back into a garden.
The dandelions are pretty, though. I guess we could try making dandelion fritters or something...
We have been busy, non-stop, for the last couple of months it seems... Science fairs, school plays, sicknesses, swim lessons, a big birthday, and all the other usual things. Oh, and we bought a house, too. Things have been a little crazy.
The 4th graders at C's school have been studying the Lewis and Clark expedition as part of social studies this year, and in April they put on a musical, The Adventures of Lewis & Clark, which was fun. C loved learning about the expedition, and we're planning to visit part of the trail when we drive to Portland for a conference this fall. Here's a very short clip from the opening song of the play:
Later in April, K, along with the Children's Musical Theatre, performed "The Elephant's Child," from Rudyard Kipling's Just So Stories. K did an outstanding job as the sly Crocodile. Here's a short clip featuring Miss K in the great grey-green, greasy Limpopo River:
(They've performed the show 4 times, and will do it once more next week.)
This month S had her turn to perform--the kindergarten put on a play about the Three Little Pigs. S was one of the narrators, and she did a great job! I don't have a video clip of this one, but here's a photo of S during the play (wearing a dress and pinafore my Mom made for me when I was in kindergarten):
This week we had choir concerts for both C and K, tomorrow is field day at the elementary school for C and S, next week is C's 2nd science fair, and later this month will be S's ballet recital. Meanwhile, we're packing to get ready to move into our house in June. It will be nice when all of this is over!
Recently we were talking to a couple who lived with their children in Asia on a Fulbright last year. The subject of tourist attractions came up, and how strange it is to visit a tourist attraction and then to realize that you or your family has suddenly become a tourist attraction for the other tourists. And how difficult it is for young children who aren't comfortable with strangers coming up and talking to them or pinching their cheeks or kissing them, which is common in some cultures and not in others.
This has only happened to us twice: in Beijing, when B and I were visiting the Forbidden City , and in Dubai, when we visited a public beach (before we learned where the nicer, less crowded beaches were). In Beijing it was not a big deal--a few Chinese tourists approached us and asked (using hand motions) if they could have their picture taken with us, and we agreed--no biggie. In Dubai, we had children, so that made things very different (the situation was different in other ways too, actually, but it's a long story...).
These were obviously rare exceptions to our experiences overseas--nothing serious, just one of those odd things that occasionally happens when traveling.
Panorama from B's field trip to Western Utah in March
We are all elated that B is done with teaching night classes for a while. (Of course, he was teaching the night classes by choice to begin with, and it was a good thing, it's just going to be so nice to have him home more!)
We are to the point that I feel comfortable going to the library as a family again--baby and all--which has been great.
Our snow is melting again (hooray!), but we've enjoyed some of the crazy weather lately--S and C loved playing outside in a hailstorm not long ago.
We had visitors last month and got to see my adorable new niece.
And just for fun, a rainbow cake we made for St. Patricks Day and to celebrate the end of our weather unit in cub scouts!
We are having all kinds of different weather this month. Last week we had some warm days--up in the 50s--and a lot of snow has melted. This week we're having colder weather again, and alternating between rain, sleet, hail and snow. Today we've had hail and snow so far.
I've been the Bear Cub Scout den leader this year, and this month we worked on earning the Weather pin, which was fun. B helped the boys construct simple weather stations. We made posters about the water cycle, we reviewed cloud types, and we discussed our local climate and potential weather hazards here in Eastern Idaho.
B took some pictures of a moon doglunar halo earlier this month--supposedly when you see one it will snow. And the next day, there was snow!
