Winter Activities

It’s mid-February and we’re in the midst of the long rainy season. We’ve had some really sunny wonderful winter days, but we’re now 10 days into a wet weather cycle off the Pacific. The forecast is rain for the next week.  I still don’t mind it. Mom and Dad have decided to winter in Palm Springs from now on. They’re feeling the need to keep their blood warm. I'm thinking about this new yard of mine exploding with growth soon. I have two new batteries for the lawn mower due to arrive any day and I'm torn between selling the gas mower that came with the place and getting an electric back-up, or just getting the gas mower tuned.

Keeping the kids busy means entertaining them indoors. Oliver and Zaeda spread out the puzzles, the Lincoln logs, robots, dinosaurs, princess outfits, etc.  They can take a huge number of things from the playroom upstairs down to the living room, one-by-one in an astonishingly short amount of time.

Gymnastics!

Saturdays are now the day for gymnastics. Zaeda has a class in the morning and Oliver's starts soon after that. 

Jenny and I have taken to each taking one kid in, and then having some-one-on-one time afterwards, running errands and getting a special treat. Oliver likes the Chinese food restaurant nearby. Jenny's been treating them to smoothies.

Golf!

Uncle Mike got Oliver a nice set of clubs for Christmas. We recently went out to a field to hit some balls. Oliver had fun. But golf soon lost out to the play structure nearby.

Valentines!

 Zaeda Quotes: (transcribed in the last 10 minutes as she plays with her brother)

“I have a question…”

“Yessirr!!”

“Dadeeee!  Mamma said ‘no’.”  (as in, please give me a different answer)

“No, you’re not the parent!”

 A Message from Oliver to All the People Who Read Our Family Blog:

“I love you guys. I wish could talk to you whenever I want. I really really like you.   And I really want to visit you every single day. This is Oliver writing you this message."

Here is a picture of how Oliver remembers Grandpa cheering him at last summer's stick horse races at the Fortuna Rodeo.

What I love about this one is that he knows the order of the letters in his name, but he decided that the order in which they originated from the speaker’s mouth was important. This is a good one to read in a mirror.

I apologize that so many of our pictures are lower quality. I’ve gotten in the habit of using my cell phone camera.  Both Jenny and I now have work-issued Blackberries and our long battle to NOT integrate modern phones into our lives is finally over. We lost.