Trevi's new favorite prefix

It must have started with nonfiction. That's the only word I can think of with the prefix, "non", that I have used more than once or twice in conversations with the kids. Well, now Trevor wants to use it all the time. Just today, he told me that a banana was "nondessert", my funky 80's moves were "nondancing", and at bedtime, he was "nontired".

Here you see him playing a game called, "Nonfishing":
How do you play, "Nonfishing", you ask? Well, you dump an assortment of items on the lawn, and then you use the grabber thing (which is awesome - thanks, Larisa) to pretend you are fishing for all of the stuff. But, because there are no actual fish, you are "nonfishing".

A Blank Canvas

For a long time now, I have been talking about making a giant painting for our bedroom that was the combined effort of all four of us. A few weeks ago, I received a sign (in the form of a half price sale on all canvases) that it was time to stop talking and start painting.
The kids got first crack at this vast expanse of white. I gave them about a dozen colors, and asked them to use any kind of shapes or lines, but to keep things abstract. It was mainly Clara who needed to hear that, because Trevi is an abstract kind of guy anyway. And he proved it while painting by saying things like, "Look how abstract my squiggles are, Mummy!"
I also let them know that this would be an ongoing project, and they should stop whenever they felt like they had done enough for the day.
Here's a look at how things progressed:
Chad and I are digging the masterpiece so far, and I can't wait to see how it changes over the coming days (or weeks?). I love watching how thoughtful the kids are about their work. Clara even asked me if I was planning on using any yellow in my sections, because she didn't want "the whole painting to look too much like bright sunlight". Chad and I will add some of our own abstract squiggles once the kids have filled up most of the space. Fun.

Using a nautical tune to ask an agricultural question

What do you do with a big zucchini,
What do you do with a big zucchini,
What do you do with a big zucchini early in the morning?
Cover it up with frogs and pine trees,
Cover it up with frogs and pine trees,
Cover it up with frogs and pine trees early in the morning.
...And then you draw a pond and tape it on so the frogs can go swimming.

This has absolutely nothing to do with zucchinis, but we are hoping to put some more color in this place over the next couple of weeks. As you can see, we have a teeny bit of narrowing down to do first.
Now that I think about it, we have enough sample cards that we could just stick them all over the walls, and that should do the trick.

Clara's Hair Salon

Clara has owned and operated several hair salons over the years, and Trevor is always an eager and willing customer. His hair doesn't offer many styling options, but Clara somehow manages to create a new look every time.
Central to the styling is the use of numerous headbands, barrettes, and ponytail holders. A lot of water spritzing and brushing also goes on.
You may notice that both kids actually got real haircuts this week, and I've got to say that our local Great Clips might need to change their name to Crappy Clips. Clara and Trevor had so many wayward pieces of hair sticking out and hanging down that I've been chasing them around the house with scissors, trying to even things out. Luckily, neither child has reached the point of crying over spilt hair. It's only a matter of time with Clara, though...

On an unrelated note (no pun intended), Clara has learned the treble clef in a few short days, and can often be found sitting at the piano, singing, "C, D, E, F, G....G, F, E, D, C". Conveniently, this is the exact same melody as a favorite little ditty of ours,
"1, 2, 3, 4, 5, I caught a fish alive..."
This picture was taken more than an hour before it was time to leave for day camp. Clara was so excited about going that she already had her backpack on. Good thing she's signed up for another two weeks.

Splish Splash

Ahh, summer. That's all I have to say.

Chadthoven

The piano is becoming a bit like a Buddha's belly in our house. We just can't seem to walk by without giving it a quick rub. Both Chad and Clara have had a go at my Beginner's Piano book, and they are progressing rather quickly. Check out Chad's first concert:

A Visit from Gomma

Usually, we only get to see Gomma at Thanksgiving, when we make our annual trek down to Ventura to spend Thanksgiving with the entire clan. From time to time, though, Gomma finds herself in our neck of the woods, usually when she's off on some adventure, like an Elderhostel (which, by the way, sound totally cool, and I plan to go to some as soon as I meet the minimum age requirement). Gomma and Grammy dropped by today, much to the delight of the kids.
So, now I'm going to let you place your bets: which great-grandchild will be the first to surpass Gomma in height? Clara has age going for her, Zoe (not pictured) has curly hair for added height, Trevor is the eldest boy of the bunch, and Amani (not pictured) seems to have the genetic advantage in the height department. I'm going to put my money on Clara. She's only a head shy of the finish line, and those shorts were pants just last month......

Blast From the Past - Merry Half-Christmas!

We are exactly at the half-way point between Christmases, so I thought this would be a fine time to take a little photographic stroll through some Nova Scotia moments of Christmas past. No creepy ghosts or cantankerous old codgers (well, maybe a couple of the latter), just cute kids, family, frolicking, and plenty of food.

Nana has high hopes that Clara will be a less argumentative piano student than I was.

Papa reads A Visit From St. Nicholas, with kids all cozy in new Christmas jammies.

Uncle Bryan breaks a cardinal rule of life and runs on ice. I guess his "sea legs" help.

We don't really have snow blowers in the Bay Area.

Hours of each day are about the food.

Our luggage doesn't always find its way to Nova Scotia right away, so sometimes we have to improvise.

Like I said before....lots of food.

Reindeer's-eye view of the festivities.

Food again. Come on, it's Christmas!

"Let there be Peace on Earth, and let it begin with me..."

I love this photo. Good thing I took it, because it rained the next day, and Frosty became Drippy.

One of the perks of rural living is that you have plenty of extra trees lying around.

We don't make it to Ontario as often as we would like to, but we are guaranteed to find snow at Grandpa Bob and Granne's place. Sometimes we even find a cousin or two!

Merry Half-Christmas, everyone!

A Bicycle Built for Two

I finally managed to snap a picture of Trevi on the Trail-a-bike with Chad. What a great invention. The boys can go on much longer bike rides than when Trevi is riding his own little bike, and Chad doesn't have to worry about him straying from the path. There is one small drawback, though. The backseat driver doesn't have any real motivation to watch where he's going, so he gets in the habit of sightseeing. Then, when he does happen to be riding his own bike, he continues to sit back and take in the view. He forgets that it is fairly important to face forward and make sure he's not about to crash into anything. Like parked cars. Or the curb. Two other great inventions: helmets and bandaids.

Day Camp, Day One

Clara was off to Day Camp today for the first time ever. No nerves, no apprehension, just one excited little girl looking forward to a new adventure. And wearing very cute shorts.

She loooooved it, and can't wait to go back tomorrow. When we picked her up at the end of the day, she proudly showed us her camp t-shirt, and was bubbling over with the news that she was finally tall enough to ride the big waterslide at the community center (It's that big yellow thing behind her head).
Way to go, Sweetie! And yay, Chad, for being on the ball and signing her up for three weeks' worth of sports, dancing and singing. That is exactly the kind of thing that a person like me leaves until the last minute, only to find that the fun camps are already full, forcing me to sign my poor neglected child up for Build-a-Ship-in-a-Bottle camp, or Learn-Your-Greek-Columns camp. So, three cheers for organized husbands.

I have a good idea....

Trevi likes to entice us all to join in on his invented games by shouting the phrase, "I have a good idea!"
He says it so earnestly that you immediately agree about the goodness of the idea, regardless of what it is. Today, his good idea was to play "Pick Up the Sheet" (an old classic). Here's how it goes:
Trevor grabs the sheet off of his bed, and drags it around the house for awhile (and I cringe as I watch him shuffle across the chronically filthy kitchen floor). At some point, Trevi lies down and covers himself with the sheet. He then uses some kind of weird voice to shout out, "Mummy, Trevor left his sheet on the floor! Please pick it up and put it back on the bed!"
My job is to pick up the sheet and carry it back to the bed, all the while grumbling about how heavy it is, and how I had never before noticed all of the lumps and bumps in that nice sheet. Finally, I toss the sheet on the bed, and am shocked to discover that there is a boy hiding underneath!
Trevi laughs and laughs, and then asks me to leave the room (my cue that the process is about to begin again). Further proof that one doesn't need all kinds of fancy toys to keep a kid amused. Which brings me to the next good idea....

We have been playing a bizarre version of golf over the past few days (Or, in Trevi's words, "This is my special virgin of golf that's a new virgin that's different from the old virgin that most people play.") Ya, I'll let you do with that what you will..... So, yes, golf. The gist of this, ahem, version of golf is that we toss whiffle balls in and around obstacles in the backyard. Trevor is in charge of guiding us through the course, the layout of which varies from day to day, depending on what happens to be lying around. Today, Trevi added a brand new element to the game: planning. He built the 18th hole in our hallway, complete with a bucket at the end to catch and hold your ball, thus ending your round.
When I had finally mastered the stroller trap and whiffled my ball into the bucket, Trevi high fived me and said, "Congratulations, Mummy! You got the high score!" Then, he hung his head and said, "But I'm sorry to tell you that the high score is actually a bad thing in golf. It means that you don't win. Better luck next time, Mummy."
Apparently he learned about golf scoring from Curious George. Good old PBS.

Blame it on digital photography

I just can't help myself. I see something cute. I grab the camera. I take pictures until the memory card is full or I get badly splashed and fear for the camera's safety. I've gone a bit overboard, I know. But all of these little stories would fall through the cracks otherwise.

Here is today's little story, saved from its descent through the aforementioned cracks:

We're just swimming around, and Trevi decides that he'd like to build a waterfall. He wants to get a bunch of pots and stack them on the lawn, all the way up into the tree, and then hang the hose down from a big branch. Great plan, but a bit too water-wastey, so I manage to convince Trevi that his marble-run tubes would carry water nicely. Add the dish drainer mat thingy to direct the flow back into the pool, and ta-dah! A waterfall!


When Livingston stumbled upon Victoria Falls, he could not have been more thrilled than this.


Trevi bypasses the marble run and just dumps the water straight onto the mat.


Clara gets in on the fun. She thinks the Barbies might like to ride the rapids and plunge off the falls.


Barbies and Ken swim around for a bit.


While Ken practices high-dives, the Barbs hang out in their boat.


Trevor knows that Ken is the thrill-seeker of the bunch. He lets Ken become one with the waterfall.


Eventually, the Barbies decide that they'd like to put their cocktail dresses back on, and Ken gets kicked out of the community pool for dangerous acrobatics and indecent exposure. So it's time for a treat.
We savor our first batch of homemade smoothie popsicles. Four thumbs up. Did I mention how much I love summer?

Lazy, Hazy, Crazy

Summer is a great thing. It's wonderful to see it stretched out in front of us, a sparkling parade of nowhere to be and no reason to blow-dry your hair. Corn-on-the-cob and sprinklers. Popsicles and sidewalk chalk. I love it. And I love watching Clara and Trevor soak up every moment of this never-ending weekend.
Trevor can swim now, which is so, so exciting, and really incredibly cute. He was just starting to go floatie-less at the end of last summer, but it took him a few times in the pool this year to get his confidence back. And back it is. Yay, Trev! The only problem is that he swallows gallons of water, because he can't seem to stop smiling while he swims.

I should also mention that Clara is almost as excited as I am about having a piano. Here you see her playing a random show tune, "Promises, Promises", from a random book I found, while Trevor, disguised as Bendy the flamingo, builds some sort of structure in the foreground. Oh, and by "playing", I mean that she is shouting out the lyrics in a vaguely musical way, while hitting the same single piano key over and over again, keeping perfect time with her shouting.
Trevi is pretty meh about the whole piano thing, which is fine by me. One's ears can really only take so much. My Alfred's Level One Basic Adult Piano book, by the way, is en route from Amazon.com as we speak. D'ya think all this blogging is helping to make my fingers more nimble?

Camping!

Since I had to spend the bulk of this week packing up and moving my classroom (as well as doing other boring work that I will spare you the yawn-factor of describing here), Chad took the kids camping for a few days. They tried out a new spot called Clear Lake, which is 3 hours closer to home than our usual camping place. And since Clara starts to complain of feeling ill after about 2 hours in any vehicle, closer is better.

I must admit that it was a huge bummer for me to see them go. Sounds insane, I know, and normally I would relish a few days of alone time. It's just that camping is usually a family affair. I didn't really want to be stuck here with the drudgery, while my clan was off getting dirty and eating s'mores without me. Oh, the guilt of being so unappreciative of a quiet house and three sleep-ins!

But enough self-pity. I got my work done, and they had a blast. The proof is in the pics:
Kudos to Chad for pulling it off. Camping is fun, but it is also work. And 1 adult + 2 kids = more work than fun. I'll be happy to help adjust the work/fun ratio when the four of us hit the woods in August.