Snowy Morning

We woke up about an inch of snow this morning. More accurately, Anya screamed "Mom! Dad!" as she ran into our bedroom early this morning, jarring us awake (I thought her jelly fish had finally succumbed), but no, she was excitedly screaming that it was snowing.

As soon as a parent was willing (early in morning, that's usually Chris) they went outside to play and start a snowman.

Here is the proto-snow man Dad and Anya managed before Dad left for work.

Here's the snowman Anya and mom finished about 45 minutes later when it was light outside. We played in the snow, threw snowballs at the (equally excited) dogs, and lazed a bit until we walked to catch the school bus and continued the fun with a snowball fight with school bus stop friends. School was delayed for 2 hours, so many a gleeful kid/family got in some play time before it all melts this afternoon. What a treat. :-D

Nutcracker

Ever since Anya was a baby, I looked forward to the day she was old enough to go to the Nutcracker at McCaw Hall. I had never been (to any performance) and taking my daughter seemed like the perfect opportunity to go for the first time. As it turns out, Lynn had never gone either.

It seemed like this year was the right year to take Anya. Because I wanted it to be special, I bought tickets for good seats for Lynn, Anya, and me for this past Saturday. Lynn managed to book a night at the Camlin hotel downtown for Friday night. So we planned to make a girls adventure out of it. That we'd go out to dinner, spend all Saturday morning doing the downtown Christmas activities, have lunch, and then top it all off with the Nutcracker performance. Lynn and I kept it all a surprise for Anya beforehand. I know I was very much looking forward to it - excited about it, even. I think Lynn was too.

The weekend was kind of a bust. Certainly not terrible. There were good times, but it wasn't the weekend I had envisioned. I think we tried too hard and hoped for Anya's excitement too much. It served as a reminder that I need to have low expectations for activities when children are involved -- less disappointment that way. And that Anya will be interested in what she's interested in. As it turns out, there will probably be no "right year" to take her to the ballet.

It started off fun. Lynn came by the house and we surprised Anya at the bus stop and swooped (or as swooped as the traffic would allow) her off to the hotel downtown. Chris and Steve picked us up awhile later and we had a lovely dinner at Ivar's on the waterfront. Afterwards, we girls hung out and read books (The Nutcracker being one of them) until kiddo's bedtime. Unfortunately, I forgot to pack Elephant, so Anya completely lost it and tried to bolt from the hotel a few times. Once it was apparent there was no calming her down (it's usually great that she can be focused, but no so much in cases like this), Chris, Father of the Year, drove Elephant to us (thank you!!!). She was asleep within minutes of being reunited with her lovey. Crisis averted.

The next morning, after a quick breakfast, we headed over to Westlake Center. Anya rode the holiday carousel and we took a picture (which hasn't been posted yet) inside a giant inflatable snow globe. Afterwards, we walked to the Sheraton to see the gingerbread houses. Anya was unimpressed at best. Had lunch, and then took the Monorail to Seattle Center. Anya would likely consider the few minute Monorail ride to be the highlight of the weekend. That, and a pretty pigeon she spied.

We hung out at Seattle Center for a bit (Anya wanted to play in a toddler room while Lynn and I kicked back and listened to a high school jazz orchestra). Then we headed to see The Nutcracker. Anya's behavior wasn't great (from about mid-morning on), so it took away some of the enjoyment. But the performance, set, and costumes were beautiful. I loved it. It was too long for Anya by about 1/2 hour. Even with the intermission. I don't know whose young kids could possibly sit through that long of a performance, but there sure were a lot of kids younger than Anya there. Mine sure couldn't. She was very fidgety and only moderately interested in the whole thing.

So, once it was over we took the monorail back (excitement again from the kid) to the hotel, picked up Lynn's car and went home.

It was nice to have girl time and do something special for just us. But I don't think there will be a repeat of this particular outing. A bit of a bummer, but now we can all say we've seen the Nutcracker.

Thanksgiving Break

Seattle Public schools was on break all week, so Anya got some time off from school. What a great week!

Sunday to Monday, she spent the night with Lynn and Steve (thank you!) and played while Chris and I attended a parent-teacher conferences. Anya's teacher says she is doing well, loves science (duh) and is excited about reading.

 

Here is a candid shot of the kidlet and her "sneaked" reading material for the evening.

Teacher goals for our kiddo are to know her 3-D shapes (I was surprised they have to know those at this age), consistently write her 3's the correct way/not backward, and know her sight words without having to think about them or sound them out. She's on the cusp of reading fluently and knowing those sight words will help get her there.

We went to the park and on a few "adventure walks" (Anya randomly picks direction, marking the sidewalk or landmarks with chalk so we don't get lost). Also had a playdate one day. Chris took off work for 5 days, so there was lots dad-daughter time. One day, they went to Carkeek Park all afternoon and watched the salmon run.

This salmon died at Anya's feet moments before this picture was taken

Thanksgiving was nice. Lynn and Steve hosted this year. Tons of food, Anya ran around a lot with cousin Will and played a little with the other cousins. And while on our way home, Anya says she saw our Elf on the Shelf, Peter, flying through the sky and jumping down into our chimney. When we walked in the door, he was sitting on the fireplace mantel :-)

I can't fully remember what we did Friday. I think Chris and Anya started watching Star Wars movies while I decompressed from all the cooking I did. And we went on another "adventure walk" with the dogs and there was visiting with Eloise and family in the afternoon.

Saturday we randomly decided to go to Bloedel Reserve on Bainbridge Island, so we hopped on a ferry. As it turns out, our friends Brian and Melinda (who live on Bainbridge) were around and invited us over for lunch first. So we got to visit with their family - Anya was thrilled to see Cora and Brooks and we got a nice visit with Brian and Melinda. We don't get to see them often, so it was a treat. While there, they mentioned that Islandwood happened to be open to the public that day (they usually aren't), so we scrapped our idea of Bloedel Reserve and checked out Islandwood. It was awesome - such a good decision. We hiked around through the trails, climbed a tower, discovered the tree houses and neat little natural attractions, and generally wandered (or in Anya's case ran) around the grounds. (Anya's favorite feature was the Bird Blind in the marsh). We all fell in love with the place and can't wait to go back when they next open it to the public for an afternoon. I hear they have family camps in the summer, so I'll have to look into it.

crawling through a hollowed-out tree

Sunday, we brought the dogs and a kite to Magnuson. Anya wanted to fly a kite up at Kite Hill. Unfortunately, by the time we got there, the wind died down. So kite flying was only semi-productive. So we did a long wetland walk. Anya hunted for frogs while the dogs hunted for sweetgrass. In the afternoon, we went to our annual PEPS kids joint birthday party (all the kids were born around the same time, so we have a PEPS birthday party). This year, it was at Om Culture, which was a great space for our group.They had various fun contraptions for kids and adults to play on (mini-trampolines, balance beams, aerial harnesses, suspended silk rope-sheets for aerial acrobatics, giant cushions, etc.). The kids had a blast. And we had a drum circle too. The adults got way more into it than the kids, but the kids took turns dancing and being conductors, having us all drum certain beats. Fun fun. Kids opened presents (Anya got a solar system science kit, which she loves) and we all had cupcakes and snacks. A great time. Then about half of us went out to a brewpub for dinner to end the evening.

6 year olds, posing for their annual photo. This time on a trampoline

Now we're all back to the grind, but it was a fun week that allowed us all to recharge.