Let the summer begin!

As has become our tradition, summer begins with a week (or two) up at my parent's cabin on the Blue.  This year was no exception! I was lucky enough to work from the cabin for the first week with the help of my parents watching the girls for most of the day and me getting up super early to work before the rest of the house got up. While I worked the girls played in the stream, went for walks with my parents, and (of course) did crafts.

Another annual tradition seems to be the "trip-to-the-river-mud-bath"  Where over the course of about 15 minutes the girls got muddier.

 And muddier....

 And muddier...

Until they were both pretty much completely enveloped in mud, which by they way they were calling their war paint in the great battle against the crawdads. (A war that sadly we loose every year, although I did manage to catch one in a net and see to it that its ecosystem-disrupting days were over)

 

On Friday Patrick joined us up at the cabin for the weekend. The goal was to relax, which we ended up doing a pretty good job of on Saturday, with a visit to the Alpine car show and lunch at the Tal Wiwi. Sunday, however, was not so relaxing, with Patrick and Dad spending all day Sunday sawing large trees that had fallen across the road to my parent's Alpine place. Meanwhile, us girls were hard at work picnicking and critiquing their chainsaw techniques....

Then on Tuesday Patrick and I headed to Santa Fe for an anniversary trip and the girls continued to play at the cabin with Mina and Papa.

Santa Fe was a fabulous combination of art, food and scenery! Highlights included a rafting trip on the Rio Grande, Tapas, and the Meow Wolk gallery....

There is more to tell about the way home and the catwalk... but I'll save that for my next post!

LIttle Ballerina!

 Last weekend Izzy had her big ballet performance. She (and her fellow ballerinas) were little birds flitting on stage and spreading cuteness in their wake.  Isadora was very focus on her routine and managed to hit almost all of her moves :)

On my side it was a miraculous effort at turning her ultra short hair into a legitimate bun... a large amount of gel and bobby pins later it turned out pretty well, if I do say so myself. She is excited to ballet again next year (I think in no small part because she enjoys the costumes!)

End of the School Year!

Another school year complete! Izzy will never again be a preschooler (sniff) and Evie is on her way to 4th grade! Yesterday was the prize giving ceremony at their school, which is always a fun event for the kids. They each got to sing a song in French (as well as another song or two in English) and cheer on their friends for the end of the year prizes. In between the two prize giving ceremonies was a little festival with jumping castle, crepes, hot dogs, and a musical performance by a singer from the Ivory Coast. (I missed this interlude because I went back to work for those 2 hours while Patrick played with this girls)

 The big news is that this year Genevieve won a prize! Recall, if you will, last year Izzy won the responsible prize for the preschool. Well the preschool gives prizes based on the key characteristics that the Cambridge learning system encourages. The junior school kids, however, receive prizes for by academic subject (each language, math, science, art, music, and PE). In each subject one child from all grades receives the subject prize... and this year Genevieve won for science!

 In introducing the prize the school's science teacher said that she was impressed by Genevieve's commitment to doing her science fair project, her constant hard work in class, and that she shows a love for environmental sciences in particular. Not only that but she received a 120% on her year-end exam! She recommended that Evie consider a career in science, particularly one that involves "creativity and chaos" :) Her prize was a certificate, a cool optical illusions book, and a set of super strong magnets. Way to go Evie!!

Lazy (relatively) weekends

Well perhaps not too lazy... but compared to running to ballet practice and then driving to camping and other activities it has felt pretty laid back.  Both this and last weekend we've spent most of our days hanging out in the backyard, watching movies or playing mariokart and reading books.

Evie received her hugglepod that she ordered with her birthday money last weekend and spent what must have been 4 hours in it reading... until Izzy wanted a turn and she was relegated to just reading outside.

Patrick and I have spent some time sorting through books still in boxes since we moved almost three years ago and as a result had a few boxes laying around.  Folllwing the idea that no good box should go to waste the girls claimed them to make "houses". All this week they have been asking to sleep in their boxes and we've been telling them to wait until the weekend. Keeping our promise, Friday night both girls "cuddled" up in their boxes and actually slept in them all night. (Of course the sleeping in boxes could very well explain the total, utter meltdown Izzy had today, but hey we are ones to keep our promises).

The highlight of the weekend was Evie's spring choir concert. She had a dress rehearsal just before the performance so we took Izzy over to the planetarium/mineral museum at the UofA while Evie rehearsed and then we all went downtown to the Temple of Music and Art for another spectacular choir experience.

Last Expo of the (school) Year!

This past Thursday was the last Expo of the year. And the end of the school year is a mere 8 days away... how on earth did that happen?! Both girls provided great performances! Evie's was mostly in the form of a video her class made about Paris where she acted like a mime, but before the video her teacher asked them questions about Paris and the kids showed a bit of what they'd learned.  I caught one of Evie's responses on video...

She and a few of her friends worked through recesses to complete a model of Versaile, for which she was very proud.... (but unfortunately I couldn't get a good picture of her in front of it because she was too silly).

After Evie's expo we went to Isadora's, where she discussed the water cycle, the seasons and sang a little song...

Both girls have worked very hard in school this year.  I am so proud of them!

Bear and Turkey (Creeks that is!)

Last weekend we took full advantage of the last of the glorious weather and spent some quality time outside! (This weekend we have done the opposite I am afraid... lots of MarioKart... but as much as I hate to admit it, almost equally as fun because all four of us can now play together.)

Anyway, the week before last I took both girls for a hike to Sabino Canyon to play at the dam, and Evie asked me if she could do a real hike the next week.  I told her so long as she woke up by 5:30 in the morning I would be thrilled to take her. So last Saturday morning I went in an gingerly asked her if she still wanted to get up and hike (mostly expecting her to say no and go back to sleep).   Instead she sat up in bed and proceeded to get ready to go.  We were out of the house and to Sabino Canyon by 6 am. The plan was to hike as far as Evie felt she could go, well really 1/2 as far, and then turn around.  The whole hike to seven falls is 8 miles, so we didn't figure we'd make it the whole way on our first try.  We did, however, make it 4.44 miles and had a blast together walking, talking, and checking out saguaro blossoms, a rattlesnake (not too closely of course) and Bear Creek.

While we were gone Patrick took Izzy to ballet and then when they were back at home we loaded up the car.  All artfully packed so that we could fit inside the Subaru: 4 Lacroixs, 4 sleeping bags and pads, 4 canvases for painting, 2 dogs, 2 pillows, 1 tent, 1 camp stove, 1 cooler full of food, 1 frying pan, 1 spatula, and 1 bag of clothes... what we (well really I) managed to forget was 3 sweaters (I was the only one with a sweater), 1 first aid kit, and 1 lighter. Fortunately the car had an extra lighter... unfortunately the spatula managed to hide itself in the tent so that it was not to be found when needed.... 

After a two-hour drive made utterly awesome by a good book on tape (Museum of Theives) we made it to Turkey Creek and lucked into a great undeveloped campsite right by the creek. We took at little hike down the creek to a waterfall, which involved a bit of bushwhacking to get to and away from.  Sadie demonstrated that she would much rather walk the log than swim, which was hillarious, and both of the girls proved to be good side-o-the-hill scramblers.

We then settled back into camp, made a rip roaring fire, some dinner and (of course) roasted marshmallows.  Perhaps the best part of the evening was the near constant gobble gobble of a turkey tom... I guess the place is well named!  The next morning we woke up to a chill and were very sorry for our lack of sweaters in a cold canyon...  so we packed it up and headed back to Tucson.  A short, but wonderful foray in the woods!

Evie Turns (well really turned) 9!

Favorites:
Color - Pink
Animal - Elephant
Book - Secret Zoo series
Music - Coeur de Pirate
Movie - Secret of Moonacre
TV Show - My little pony (same as last year)
Subject(s) in School - Art and Math
Game - Baby dragons - where she and her friends pretend they are baby dragons who have adventures
Afterschool Activity - Jujitsu
Food - Macaroni and cheese (somethings I guess never change)
What she wants to be when she grows up - Engineer or an elephant scientist
Best Friends - Isabella, Nanan and Ruby
Best thing that happened while she was 8 - Getting to see my cousins twice!!

Notable things -Has started to read whole chapter books in just a few days (and will even take to reading instead of watching TV), went to sleepaway girl scout camp and really, really loved it, and became very interested in elephants and started donating money from her allowance every week to an elephant rescue group.

Sleepover b-day

Last year both girls had birthdays on the road.  This year we decided to be a bit more chill about it and so both will have b-days at home.  For her birthday Evie picked four friends for a sleepover.  She made her own invitations for her friends on the computer. We were pretty happy with her initiative and (for some reason) didn't think to proofread them... which meant that the birthday was accidentally set for a Friday night (when the weekend before we were in DC....) We rolled with it pretty well though :)

The birthday bash consisted of pizza eating and playing and then the main event of a trip to Valley of the Moon to see Rumpelstiltskin. Three of the girls had never been, so it was extra fun to have them experience the quirky place.  After the show they hung out and played the "games" for awhile and then we headed home for cake. 

After cake, Evie opened presents (Evie's friends bought her legos, shopkins and sewing crafts) and then the girls watched wiener dog internationals (a high budget film to be sure) and then had a "scary story contest". 

While the girls slept I put together clues for a scavenger hunt for the next morning and then got up early to hide the treasure.  I am not sure who had more fun... me or the girls :) 

It was a bit exhausting to have the party on Friday, but we were pretty thankful for a restful Saturday night and Sunday!

March? April?!

How is it that all of March and half of April have gone by without my finding a moment for the blog?

March was fully of birthdays... first mine and then Patrick's..... For my birthday I ran (or really ran/walked) a 5k beer run, had a crew come out with me for a room escape game, and then to the Casa Video bar for a good beer... pretty much the best birthday! Made all the better by the banjo that Patrick "bought" me (i.e., I picked it out)

Its a pot of gold cake

Patrick's birthday was celebrated closer to home (or really at home) but was no less fun.  He had an incredibly unique and interesting day (you should ask him about it...) and then we had a few friends over for cake and games. On a similar vein I "bought" Patrick a new hub and wheels for the MGA :)

The weekend after Patrick's birthday was our 5th annual International Day representing Belgium.  I made four batches of waffles and was still sold out by noon!

For Easter we went over to a friends house for a good ole desert egg hunt.  The girls made out like candy bandits (and were also very happy when the Easter bunny left them sparkly eye beanie boos under their fruit trees... Not sure what the Easter bunny was thinking... those kids must have almost a dozen of them by now :)

Then the biggest event of late was a spring break trip to Washington DC to visit family and for me to interview for Presidential Management Fellow positions.

While in DC we visited Chessie's dog park (aka the congressional cemetery)

Then later in the day got a little democracy in with a trip to the U.S. Capitol via a guided tour by an intern at our congresswoman's office. (It was not Izzy's favorite part of the trip... mostly I think because the poor girl was very tired)

Ate plenty of good ice cream.

 And took a visit to the natural history museum.

Perhaps the highlight though was the time the girls were able to spend with their cousins... a full on 3 night sleepover! The five of them were very cute together.

Then when we got home from DC it was a week's worth of Evie birthday parties... but I will update on that one in a few days :)