winter home life

In between school, work, and organized sports, our winters feature a lot of reading books and playing games, some Legos and craft projects.

 Waffles, berries, and a condiment tower!

Liesl made a fancy dress with cloth scraps and a mannequin that Anne/Camille gave her a few years ago.

 Chess with Sam on a random Wednesday after school.

 The kids finally assembled Liesl's Christmas Lego kit. Liesl needed her brother's help to get going, but then got into it and started to understand the process more, and she finished it on her own.

 We had a snow day playdate at the Sterlings - Wyatt, Seb, and Sam; Liesl and Claire.

Note Sam and Claire's tiny dog Hugo hiding out under the chair.

Sebastian and I had a good game of Scrabble - no score-keeping. He can beat me at chess now, and we're even at Racko, but I still have the edge in Scrabble. Phew.

 

It doesn't happen very frequently any more, but one day when he was bored, Sebastian constructed an epic, full-room wooden train, electric train, and car setup. 

Jasper and I took advantage of a sunny day to go trail running in Forest Park. It was delightful! It was a mud pit!

snowshoeing at Pocket Creek

It took various miracles of organization and luck - finding babysitters, rescheduling, a ride for Seb to a last-minute game, Liesl suffering another round of midnight illness - but Steve and I had an adventure day today with friends Anja and Luna. We went snowshoeing at Pocket Creek, on the eastern side of Mt. Hood. It was a gorgeous day - fun company, blue sky, tons of snow, a lovely 6-mile loop with multiple creek crossings, with views of Hood peeking through the clouds.

Jasper loves the snow and was in absolute heaven for the first half of the hike - jumping into the deep snow and wallowing in it. He was quite a bit more subdued for the second 3 miles, trotting along in our tracks and avoiding powder. But those first few minutes of pure doggie joy were pretty fun.

 

 The moss on the trees along the trail was spectacular.

 Mt. Hood peeking out through the clouds across the ridgeline.

 There was this amazing snow sculpture of a chicken and eggs! We were so impressed.

Check out Jasper's icicle beard! Sweet dog slept all the way home, even as we munched sausage pizza in the front seat.

yet more snow

It snowed again in Portland on Monday - about 4 inches at our house, and more higher up the hills - and yet the school district only called for a late opening, and not a cancellation. Seb and Liesl were crushed with disappointment. But we made the best of it and at 7:30 am headed over to the school field for some sledding, snow ball fights, and snow creature creating.

Sebastian dispensed with the sled, choosing to run and then slide on his legs down the hill.

Stephen created some Calvin&Hobbes-esqe snow sculptures - a girl with an alien in her belly holding her own head, and a sliced up girl creature.

 

You can see the snowball that Sebastian threw at me in mid-air! I threw it right back, of course.

 

Sebastian hiding a tennis ball for Jasper to find in the snow.

These smaller snow events - mostly ice after a few hours - have been a little anticlimactic. We have been hoping for a serious snowfall that shuts down the city and traps us all in our neighborhood, free to sled the streets and tromp around in powder and enjoy the beauty. But still - it's always a treat to get snow here, and I'm thankful that we at least got some in town this winter.

GS cookie booths

Our GS troop is selling cookies this year - I have to say that I was somewhat reluctant at first, to participate in the whole rigmarole, to hustle the cookies (which I don't love), to navigate the byzantine rules - but our fearless friend Courtney convinced us all to try it out. And lo, the girls love it, and it's so good for them. We did not do door-to-door sales, just table booths set up outside local stores. The girls have to be brave and speak to people, they have to answer questions about the cookies, they have to add up the cost per box and make change, they have to keep track of the sales and take care of their display, they have to stay focused on their task and cheerful. Watching Liesl work through all of the necessary mechanics and multi-task has been so interesting and worthwhile. So far we have staffed three booths for two hours each, outside some local grocery stores (Safeway, Fred Meyer, QFC), each time with a friend. They've sold lots and lots of cookie boxes and Liesl has become much more confident each time. Best of all, we will keep some of the money for fun and donate the other half to a nonprofit group that supplies clothing and other necessaries to foster children in Portland.

Lunar New Year

Happy year of the pig! Oink oink! It's Sebastian's special year, as he'll be 12 this fall.
We went out for dumplings at XLB tonight, and the children got some lucky money, and we read (terrible) fortunes, and enjoyed our soup dumplings, tofu and eggplant, beef ho fun, and pork bao.