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.
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