spring break trip to Vancouver Island (part 1)

Sebastian, Liesl, and I took a trip north to Victoria, B.C., for spring break. My cousins May and Ken live there and generously offered us a place to stay (by which I mean I announced we were visiting and asked them if we could crash, so they had little choice but to say yes...).

We left home first thing Monday morning - stopped for coffee and bagels at Clearing Cafe and then drove north on I5 to Olympia and then onto the Olympic peninsula to Port Angeles. We walked around the town and enjoyed the views and then caught the ferry.

We arrived to a wonderful welcome dinner, including a chocolate birthday cake.

On Tuesday we went to the Royal BC Museum. There was a great exhibit on First Nations peoples - totems, stone knives, a detailed model village, a canoe - and Sebastian was very interested. It was probably the first time I've been with him in a museum that he was genuinely able to focus and pay attention to the exhibits. There was also a big wooly mammoth, and a visiting exhibition of nature photographs from around the world. That was pretty stunning.

Then we hopped onto a taxi ferryboat and went across the harbor to Fisherman's Wharf.

We ate some great fish and chips for lunch and then bought six small herring to feed to the seals!

After dinner my mom produced a carrot cake she had made - wonderful lady - which was delicious. She had also brought along crowns and party favors, so it was a very festive birthday all around.

Liesl's dance class

For the final dance class of the winter session, the parents were invited to sit inside the studio and observe the fun. It was wonderful to see Liesl paying careful attention, copying teacher Jarmila, and dancing around the room. She loved dance class. We signed up for the spring session too, which will begin in a few weeks.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I made Irish soda bread, braised short ribs, roasted potatoes and cauliflower, braised cabbage and apples, and green beans (beef, potatoes, and cabbage - traditional Irish stew ingredients - but cooked separately). My family raved about the food. It was lovely.

a cushion concert with the Portland Youth Philharmonic

On Sunday afternoon we tried something a bit different - a cushion concert (i.e. you sit on the floor), intended for young children, with the Portland Youth Philharmonic. It was a string orchestra, with cellos, violins, violas, and the double bass, in which they played five short pieces - Mozart, Grieg, Handel, a selection from "Peter and the Wolf". The members of the orchestra ranged from 7-13 years of age, which very much impressed Sebastian and Liesl. Best of all, before the concert began there was an instrument "petting zoo", where the audience children were allowed to touch and experimentally play all of the different instruments.  Seb loved the violin in particular and asked if we could please buy or borrow one for him and see about lessons.  That was cool, and unexpected. :)

spring hike at Tryon Creek State Park

Sebastian's poem about Liesl

Sebastian has been writing poetry in his kindergarten class this past week. He's filled three blue books with happy stuff. Interestingly, his poems don't rhyme - I remember learning to write poems in elementary school, and they always had to be in abab or abac format. But Seb's are very contemporary and free form. Today, he brought home a wonderful one:

"Liesl"
Liesl is a good sister
I love her
She plays good games with me
Liesl plays pretend house
She loves that game
And I do too.

hiking at Tryon Creek with friends