best friends

Liesl and Nora have school together every day, and after-school cooking and art classes, and they play soccer on Sundays ... and still they ask for playdates multiple days a week. On Thursday they asked me to take these photos of them - they're staged, deliberately - and when I asked why, Liesl said it was because they wanted to be sisters. They decided that if there were enough photos of them together - if I had enough photos on my computer of Nora - people would assume they were sisters. I love the creativity and imagination of 6-year old thought processes.

In related news, I asked Liesl about friendships in her class, and she was extremely specific about exactly who was best friends with whom: Campbell and Elia, Eleanor and Ella, Sophia and Elia, Payton and Bailey. (Most of these I knew, although some surprised me.) She was a little more uncertain about some of the girls, and tagged them as being part of a threesome, or playing with various girls or no one, and I, ever the underdog, felt sad for them and anxious on their behalf. I'm glad Liesl has Nora; I hope they include the others.

Sebastian at play

 

Sebastian continues to play both baseball and soccer - baseball games on Tuesdays and Saturdays, with practice on Thursdays; soccer game on Saturdays. The weeks feel very full of driving/scheduling/carpooling/observing. Both teams are full of his school friends and he's really happy. This weekend's soccer game was not very exciting - the recreational league they've been playing in since kindergarten has become too easy - they're regularly blowing out the opposing squad - and so next fall the boys will start playing with LYS soccer, a more competitive league. Sebastian participated in tryouts for that team on Sunday evening and did well. (He was all nerves beforehand but then was great once he was out there - as it turned out, he knew the head coach, and that calmed him.) There'll be a second session next Sunday.

Sebastian has missed a number of baseball games so far - finger injury, rain-outs, conflicts with soccer - but he played on Saturday afternoon and pitched three innings. He struck out a few batters, walked a few, and for the most part threw it over the plate and let the batters swing. Accuracy is really lacking at this age and there are a painful number of walks every inning. (Seriously, in this game, we scored probably 10 runs on walks...) So I'm proud that he at least puts the ball into play and avoids hitting the opposing team's batters. He's not much at hitting yet - doesn't strike out, but doesn't swing and keeps getting walked - and that's definitely something to work on.

 Stealing third base.

spring flowers and scenes

Spring sunshine has finally started to arrive in Portland - a month late - and with it the wildflowers. The kids and I went hiking this morning in Forest Park, along the Ridge trail and Wildwood, and saw trilliums and other beauties.

It was nice to get out together - Liesl's been sick all week and has mostly been lying around reading books, making drawings, writing in workbooks, and generally being lethargic.

On Friday night after dinner, Sebastian and I took advantage of the late sunshine to walk down to the pond together. He brought along his little bow and arrow and shot at various targets along the trails.

The ducks at Mill Pond have hatched their ducklings; we stopped awhile to watch them peck in the dirt and chase their mom around. Baby animals are so fuzzy and adorable.

 Friday evening sunset above the trees.

The elementary school planted six or seven new trees last week - ginkgos - in back and front of the building. Both Liesl and Seb got to participate in the planting, shoveling dirt, and were proud to show off "their" trees.

 

Rainbow! 

Last week, Liesl and I took a "nature walk" along the trails, down to the Pond. She brought along a pencil and paper, and a book for backing, and made a list of everything we saw along the way. "Whot we see on hour nachere woc: chomelya, magnolya, baby trye, cryck, dade mol, brown brd, hoce, wiolde rose, fron, dock, holy, charye, brige, lady bugs, moshrom, chreiyams, budr fliy, dugles fir." (What we see on our nature walk: camellia, magnolia, baby tree, creek, dead mole, brown bird, hawk, wild rose, fern, duck, holly, cherry, bridge, lady bugs, mushroom, trilliums, butterfly, douglas fir.)

Dogwoods in bloom outside our dining room window.

mama hike at Dalles Mountain Ranch

It rained in Portland today, but my friends and I made our way east, past the Dalles, to Columbia Hills State Park, where we found sunshine and spring wildflowers in abundance. We did this hike last year as well, and it's a lovely place to venture out in spring.