Valentine's days

We celebrated Valentine's Day in a very low-key way over a series of days - our weeks are jam-packed right now with activities, making it tough to cook special meals (or even eat together). Tuesday night was a foundation board meeting and basketball practice, Wednesday was OBOB competition, Girl Scouts, swimming lessons, and soccer practice, Thursday was climbing, Spanish, ballet. But the kids had parties at school and I made heart-shaped shortcake biscuits, Liesl and I made each other cards, and today we bought cupcakes and chocolates.

basketball season begins

Both kids are playing basketball again this winter, through the local YMCA, on teams with their school friends. It's been good so far - Liesl has been becoming more competent at dribbling and passing, has scored a couple of baskets, and has even attempted a few rebounds. She's on an all-girls team competing in a coed league, so they are definitely outmatched some weeks, but she and her team (the Purple Foxes!) are undeterred. After seeing how much joy they derived from fall soccer season's striped socks, I decided to spring for purple fox socks for the team. They match their purple tshirt and look amazing - it's so fun to see them all out there, trying their best and celebrating joyously whenever anyone scores.

Sebastian is on a slightly different version of the team he's played with the last two years - same coach and some of the same teammates, but also some new friends as others have decided to stop playing. They've played four games and although no official score is kept, the boys tend to know, and they're probably 2-2. Sebastian has good ball-handling skills and a decent shot, and on a good day he keeps his head up and does a great job of passing, driving to the net, managing the court. On a bad day he picks the ball up too early and gets trapped, and doesn't try to shoot many baskets. He's definitely improving as the season goes on, and we wish he'd practice even more on his own at the school courts. But it's not his favorite and he gets discouraged sometimes. We'll see if he continues beyond next year -- but for now, I like to watch the games.

star student

Liesl's first grade class has a "star student" every week - everyone gets a turn, one student per week. The star student gets to pick where they want to sit in the classroom and have a special lunch with the teacher and a friend on one of the days. They make a poster and give a presentation about themselves, bring in two objects for a show-and-tell, pick a book to read to the class, and at the end of the week get a booklet made by their classmates full of compliments about them.

This was Liesl's week, and she was so excited about it. Here's her poster.

I am 7 years old; my favorite color is pink; my favorite animal is a dog; my favorite food is stromboli.
This is what I look like (on a bike!).
This is my family (Camille made an appearance).
My favorite place is school (because I get to learn new things and play with my friends and my teachers are nice).
When I grow up I want to be a dancer.
My favorite thing to do is play with my friends.
If I had one wish, I would wish to go to Hawaii.

For a book, she brought in Ella the Elegant Elephant, about an elephant who goes to a new school, gets picked on by the school bully, but then acts heroically to save the bully and is lauded and loved by all. She wears an amazing hat that was a present from her grandmother, and is her distinctive accoutrement.

For her special objects, she chose Bunny Foofoo, obviously, but then (to our delight) had difficulty choosing a second object that was personally meaningful and said something about her. She couldn't think of any toys or dolls or games or articles of clothing that were particularly important. In the end, she picked a volcanic rock that I brought to her from Mt. St. Helen's - it represented the outdoors, and adventures, and her mama, and because they are learning about rocks right now in school, her love of learning new things (this week she wants to become a geologist). Steve and I were pretty tickled.

For her special friend for lunch, she considered asking her friend Ryder, but then since Ryder had asked her already, she didn't want to have the same three-person lunch with the teacher. She then decided to ask for Nora, her bestie, because that would be sweet. But then she decided instead to ask Zara, a little girl in her class who has never been asked by anyone to be their special lunch friend. Liesl thought it might make her especially happy. It was definitely one of those moments when I feel humbled by one of my children - by her kindness and thoughtfulness, by her empathy - she makes me so proud.

Clue!

Aunt Adele sent us the board game Clue! for Christmas, and we've all fallen hard for its retro charms. We played three nights in a row after getting it last week and had to say no to a fourth consecutive evening of play (we had the Hoangs over for dinner). The first time was a little wonky, figuring out the rules and the secrecy and how to play, but since then it's been super fun.

 Friday night: Clue and a French yogurt berry cake! It was a pretty sweet winter evening.

Every winter I am happy to see not just our board games being dusted off and used, but puzzles, Legos, arts and craft supplies, cars and trains, Magnatiles... these things sit on shelves all summer long and I think about giving them away, but so far, every winter, the toys and games reappear and amuse us. Sebastian made a Lego dog, on wheels no less! Jasper continues to inspire. :)

Despite the water explosion, it was a happy weekend of fun activities - Liesl had a basketball practice; Sebastian had a futsal game; Jasper and I went for a long run in Forest Park. We went bouldering at The Circuit and swimming/pool play at the SWCC. For the first time, Sebastian went down the big slide at the pool, because he is finally not afraid of going under the water at the end. It was AMAZING. He loved it so much he did it again and again - probably a dozen times. I was so happy to see him get over his fear and be rewarded. We were able to play follow the leader around the pool, all of us swimming under water, and to jump and do somersaults and handstands -- it was probably the best pool visit we've ever had.

the mishap/the silver lining

Steve decided to check the filter on our water heater on Saturday morning, to see if he could clean it out and improve the reliability of our hot water supply. Unfortunately, he didn't turn off the right valve and so the water was not shut off as he expected. I heard cries for help from upstairs and found Steve helplessly trying to stem a gushing blast of water that was spraying everywhere in the upper hallway. There was probably a full minute of disaster before I could run down to the garage and shut off the main supply. We got towels and frantically mopped, but it was clear there was water underneath a lot of the carpet, and then Sebastian yelled for us to come and look as water started coming out of a recessed light in the kitchen below. Sigh. We cleaned up the water as best we could and called a water restoration company. They sent a guy who tested our walls and floors and ceiling for moisture and then started ripping up carpet padding and installing dehumidifiers and fans upstairs and down.

We think we have escaped relatively unscathed, fortunately - there is very little damage and this drying treatment should be effective. The company is returning tomorrow to reassess and probably take away the equipment. And on the silver lining side, when we cleared out our closet (because the carpet floor was wet), we found a necklace that I thought I had lost years ago.

I bought this necklace in Portland in August 2012, when we had a Mah family reunion in Seattle/Portland. It felt like a good luck charm to me then, as we shortly thereafter managed to make the big leap across the country to this city we loved. Maybe it'll bring good luck in this year as well!

And after every disaster, there has to be dessert, to assuage everyone's souls. I made salty peanut chocolate chip cookies, via Nigella Lawson. Yum.

Cannon Beach

The weather forecast was iffy, but Monday was a holiday and we wanted an adventure, so the kids and I headed to the coast. It turned out to be a gorgeous day, partly sunny, mid-50s, and no wind, and I'm so happy we took the chance and drove out to Cannon Beach. Jasper was delighted to see the ocean and romp with the kids and other dogs; Sebastian and Liesl splashed in the waves, dug in the sand, ran down the dunes, flew the kite, threw the frisbee, and chased Jasper around the beach. We had fish and chips and fish tacos at Tom's and got two bags of saltwater taffy - as always - it was a wonderful day together.