Go Duke!

It is that time of year...

We are off again for another wonderful week-long trip
to North Carolina where we will relax on the beach,
eat copious quantities of seafood,
and watch Duke hopefully dominate the NCAA tournament.
We leave tomorrow night on the red-eye.
I am not sure if taking the red-eye will turn out to be a good idea
or the worst idea I have ever had
(I don't see there being too much in between ground on this issue),
but I will let you know soon.
It is all going to depend on whether Orin
flies like his mommy (i.e. sleeps the whole time)
or his daddy (has no interest in sleeping on a plane).
Feel free to pray that in this way, he will be more like me.
Either way, in just 48 hours I will have the sand in my toes
and will no longer care whether our plane ride was horrible or not.
I can't wait.

Mega Garden Switch

There has been a change in the plan.

The Mega Garden initially was going to be a flat bed garden,

but due to my need for sectioned spaces,

my husband's intense drive to work on his days off,

and a small problem I had with the straw

(turns out it was not seedless after all)

the Mega Garden is now the

Three Really Big Raised Beds.

It all started with an idea on a little scrap of paper,

some measurements I made with a scarf that I guessed

was about 8 feet long (I had no tape measure

and I love the thrill of potential inaccuracy problems),

a sunny day, and, of course, a dedicated project supervisor.

We kicked the day off with a completely illegal trip home

from the Home Depot with 16 feet of lumber

sticking out of a 6 or 7 foot truck bed.

Once we got the wood unloaded it was time for some cutting,

some assembly,

and some arranging.

The ground we were working with wasn't level,

so it required custom-building each box

in the space it was meant to go.

Not an easy task, I might add.

But the first box came together quite well

which made the project supervisor happy.

The second and third box were completed soon after

leaving just enough time for them to be used

as a baby obstacle course.

While the kids ran around,

we added a small wall to hold the gravel in the walkway

(coming soon)

and another wall to hold in the blueberries.

The next day we picked up a truckload of soil

so that I could plant some early season crops.

We got the soil at the perfect time

because Orin had just acquired

a new shovel, rake, and hoe,

and the light fluffy soil was perfect to break them in.

He even demonstrated proper shoveling technique

which he learned at school.

Finally, the beds were done and the plants were planted.

In a couple weeks, we are going to line the walkways with gravel

and fill in the other two planter boxes

(so exciting!)

But for now, it is time for some much needed rest.

See you soon.

An Attention Grabber

Orin has devised a new way of getting attention.

If you find this a little scary,

you are not alone.

Crazed Ashes Child

One of Orin's new favorite activities is playing the game

"Ring Around the Roses" which he refers to as "Ashes."

Ever since I mistakenly taught him the game he has become

completely obsessed with it.

Now whenever someone comes over, the first thing he will do is

try to lure them into playing the game with him.

They inevitably fall for his tricks and play a couple rounds,

which in Orin's book means that they will play with him immediately

and for as long as he would like

every time they visit on subsequent occasions.

I swear he has a running record of victims.

Chris is on there. So am I.

But when all else fails, Orin is not above playing Ashes by himself.

After all, the game can go on forever if you never reach the

verse about how "we all fall down."

Who knew a seemingly harmless nursery rhyme

could do this to an otherwise normal child?

Yard Work

At some point last year, we came to the general consensus that

from the outside, our house looked like a large white cube.

Ever since then we have talked about projects we could do

to make our house look less cube-ish.

During the winter is was too cold for yard work

so our discussions were confined to the kitchen.

But now that Spring has officially set in

(I define the first day of Spring as the first day I spot wildflowers blooming)

it was time to end the procrastination stage and begin getting to work

fixing our cube problem.

Here is what we were starting with:

The first step was to plant some trees,

but in order to do that, we had to dig some holes.

Orin helped by standing in the holes after completion.

He would then assess each hole for shape and depth

before giving us the okay.

We planted 4 trees.

Then it was time to plant some ornamental grasses.

Once again, we needed to start with a hole.

We are hoping that the grass ends up looking

slightly more appealing than it does now.

Next it was time for a slight sprucing of the side of the house
with the addition of a couple of bushes
and an entire packet of wildflower seeds.
We then ran the RotoTiller over our grass/moss/ dead grass

combo, which some people refer to as our lawn

and planted a bed in the front yard, which we lined with rocks.
And then, for good measure, we repeated the process
on the other side of the walkway.
Feeling that we needed more rocks, we decided to build a wall.

It was tedious, sweaty work but it paid off nicely.

And presto!
we now had a rock wall around our cube.

Hummm... more to come.

Samson

The other day we went to OMSI to see Samson,
one of the most complete T-Rex skeletons in existence.
Orin has had a growing fascination with dinosaurs
ever since I attempted to cure his inability to take
reasonably-sized bites of food by teaching him
to open his mouth "as wide as a T-Rex".
He was all about it.
Dinosaur later became his first 3-syllable word
(followed closely by "bicycle" and "ah-jah-da."
which is Orin's word for water)
So Orin was understandably excited
when we told him about Samson.
However, like any good thing, we made him wait to see the
dinosaur until after we had toured the space exhibit,
where Orin got to sit in a rocket-ship
and weigh himself on Earth, the moon, and Mars
(he is still 20 pounds on this planet).
But eventually, we found ourselves climbing the 3 sets of stairs
leading to the T-Rex exhibit.
When Orin first saw Samson, I am not sure what he thought.
Compared to his dinosaur magnets and his brightly-colored
wall hanging, this 40 ft 6 ton beast
was in a whole different category of awesome.
The skull you see in this picture isn't even the real skull
(the real one is in a case off to the side) because it is too heavy
to be supported by the metal frame holding the other bones in place.If anything, the trip to OMSI that day changed Orin's status
from a dinosaur enthusiast to a dinosaur fanatic.
Who knows what will be next.

School Days

A couple of months ago, Orin started going to school.

I wasn't planning on starting him so early, but a friend of mine

knew a Montessori teacher who had just started up her own school

and was enrolling new students.

Orin and I decided to go check it out and fell in love with the place.

Here it is from the outside:

And the inside:

This is the classroom (angle one)

(angle two),

the kitchen,

and, most importantly, the fish tank.

It might have been the fish tank that sealed the deal,

or it could have been the fact that we both instantly adored

his teacher, Ms. Jessika, but either way, we were sold.

Orin has been going a couple times a week ever since.

The Montessori style emphasizes self-directed
(the children get to pick which "station" they would like to work at
and the amount of time they would like to work on a particular task)
learning through movement
and focuses on teaching children "real world" things
like cooking, gardening, and problem solving.
Here are a few pictures of Orin and his classmates in action:

I decided to finally post about his school today because

a. it was the first time I remembered to bring a camera

and

b. this afternoon was the class Valentine's Day party.

As soon as I arrived I was greeted by the
usual swarming mass of children

led by Orin, who later became way too interested in his pink cupcake

to sit for the class picture.

After we ate our cupcakes, there were valentines to share
and more candy to be eaten before we collected our little paper hearts,
washed the pink frosting off our faces, and headed home.

While Orin is not at school,
he spends his time monkeying around

or just hanging out.

More to come...