New Toys

Emily has the two-wheeled version, and both girls
love whizzing around the block on them.

A Day Out

Back from the zoo with Jenna and Kate. Emily is at a classmate's house playing as I type this. This evening she is the Bring-A-Friend guest of said classmate at her dance school. Jenna and Kate felt a bit lost without their big sister this afternoon, so we drove to the zoo to check out their new playground.

For our own sanity, we've become members of the zoo this year. This enables us to make silly, short trips at weird times during the day to just "pop in". When we were unmembers previously, we used to make a whole day of a zoo visit, and try to pack as much in to make it worth the entrance fee. Good stewardship of our money, yes, but otherwise not at all smart. Or else we'd wait in line at the library to get the nice free passes. Now that even Kate is old enough to enjoy outings like these, we've decided that short, frequent visits are the way to go. Especially since the zoo is only 10 mins away. Today we didn't even actually plan to see the animals. We headed for the playground, looked at random primates on the way in, random aquatic life on the way out, and spent a leisurely half-hour over ice creams. Tomorrow, if it's a nice day, we'll come back and head to the farm section to observe the piglets.

And as I never bring a camera with me, I have no photos of our Minnesota Zoo adventures to share. To make up for this, I will share photos of our March adventures at the Singapore Zoo, at which a camera was present, and thankfully wielded by the Good Photographer (husband).

The kids enjoyed getting really close to the animals. The tram rides were fun, because you never knew what random animal might be out on a walk.

And, it being Singapore, there had to be food.

What a treat to pat a giraffe!



More food-centered activities.
My hand is on Emily's arm for moral support, since she tended to recoil at the rhino's tongue/general mouth texture and drop all her bananas.
Now off to sit on the deck and enjoy the rest of the afternoon!

Careers Du Jour

When I grow up......

Jenna: "I want to be a ballet dancer, a doctor and a baseball player."

Kate: "My be princess!"

Emily: "I want to be a ballet dancer, a nurse and a caterpillar catcher."

Spring Training

may be over in the major leagues,
but in our backyard, it's just beginning.



The girls are just starting to enjoy baseball, with the
help of outdoor toys and (in Emily's case), regular
games with her friends in preschool. Today we spent
a good number of hours outdoors, hitting
the ball around the backyard.




I pitch left-handed and right-handed. You?

Kids Creating

Jenna's first embroidery lesson - the running stitch.
What is she making? Stay tuned to find out.


Here's a book by Emily, age 5, titled,
"Things You Can Be When You Grow Up" -

Cover:

Page 1:
Top: Nurse and Mom
Bottom: Artist

Page 2:
Top: Travel Agent
Middle: Photo-taker
Bottom: Sewer

Page 3:
Top: Singer
Bottom: King and Queen

Page 4:
Fisher

The End.

Just Before We Head Off To School

Spent the morning listening to ABBA. This is how we counter too much Miley Cyrus-Taylor Swift influence. Hurrah for itunes and the advent of MP3 players in general. How else is it possible to listen to ABBA, Mongo Santamaria, U2, Bebo Norman, Rich Mullins, Margaret Becker, Madeleine Peyroux, Tchaikovsky, Ennio Morricone, Phil Keaggy, Hank Williams, Abraham Laboriel, Helen Baylor and Old McDonald Had A Farm in rapid succession?

That said, I want to say I am forever a fan of Sweden - if nothing else, for their two supreme exports, ABBA and Ikea. Ten cheers!

Random Spring Updates

Spring is off to a lovely, warm start! The pollen/allergen levels are at a record high so I have, for the first time in my life, been popping those little white Claritin pills.

So much has been happening but we've just been too busy to take pictures, edit them, upload them and blog about them. So no photos in this post. But some updates so our family and friends far away will know what we've been up to.

The girls are growing up! And we are enjoying them even more now!

Emily is having a blast in preschool. Her small, close-knit class is dynamic, smart and fun to be with. Last Friday they went on a field trip to Orchestra Hall to participate in the Minnesota Orchestra's educational program for children. After a week of in-class preparation, the kids sat on the concert stage and listened to Jack and The Beanstalk, narrated and interpreted in music. They learned about acoustics, rhythm, how to listen to music, and different instruments. It was an impressive program and the kids (and parents) loved it. Emily was especially impressed that her dad once played the trombone. Her favorite (after trying out some of the instruments) was the violin and she has asked for one for her birthday. Hmmm. Better than a plastic Barbie, but even then..... we shall see.

Emily also lost one of her teachers, Mrs Duffy, to cancer a fortnight ago. Mrs Duffy was Emily's board-game buddy, among other things, and much loved by all the kids. Everyone had a very emotional last couple of weeks and while things in school are very much back to normal now, we know the kids miss her and much of the unsaid grieving will go on for some time.

Emily and Jenna have also begun dance classes, which will culminate in a recital in late May. This is Emily's third year with her teachers, but Jenna's first. Jenna is very excited about dance, and will, when she thinks we are not watching, announce, "run, run leap!" and practice her moves in our living room. Kate is not impressed that she has to wait a year (or two) before it is her turn.

Jenna and Kate are playing together a fair bit now. They have fallen into a routine of entertaining themselves, sometimes raucously, while Emily is at school, and their closeness in age also allows them to mutually enjoy the daft antics of the very young. Jenna also plays with Emily in more structured scenarios of dress-up and pretend play, and really relishes being able to flit back and forth between extreme levels of developmental play. Jenna continues to entertain us with the wonderfully funny things she says - just this morning, she asked me, "why do ladies use the computer before breakfast?". We are continually enamored with the solemn, purposeful, kind, generous and all-of-a-sudden-wacky person that she is.

Kate is still Kate - the affectionate, slightly zany, earnest 4-year old trapped in a body half that age. She is mobile now in a safer way, and communicates with her words more than with screaming. Hurrah! She is also quick to remind us, "I not baby. I big girl now." One of her favorite things to do is dress completely in pink and sashay around the house with her tea-party hat, her little purse on her arm, and her Aurora heeled slippers, calling Daddy on her flip-open cellphone.

With the prematurely good weather, we have been visiting parks and enjoying the outdoors. I have also not felt like sewing for a while, and instead want to do a lot more crafting and baking with the kids. We dug out our electronics components box the other day, with the intention of making new toys, and Emily and Jenna got to play with LEDs and optic fibers. I think we are going to have some fun with these in the near future, especially since I have discovered a local source for these components. Not as cheap as wholesale Sim Lim in Singapore, but the parking is better!

We have just finished some home repairs - a new master bathroom, a new furnace system and cleaned carpets in the basement. The work is never ending!

We spent the Easter weekend in Moorhead with Grandma Karen, Grandpa Arne, Uncle James, the extended clan, and Nathan and Joy's family. The summer is already looking several levels better than previous years', simply because the girls have their five cousins in town! And the Twins have a brand new ballpark! We are making plans spend some time there.

The girls still talk about their recent trip to Singapore. They will, out of the blue, say, "it's breakfast now, but its dinner time in Singapore", for instance. And they will talk about swimming and the beach. And Grandma Mae and Grandpa Desmond. And aeroplane rides. I am still missing curry but my palate is almost fully readjusted back to Minnesota food, particularly the burgers. Mmmmm.

And now, off to bed!

Emilyism

Emily, in great wonder after reflecting on her age,

"Hey! I've been alive for five years!"

Lurid

That's not paint.
That's cake batter.

We made lurid cupcakes today.

The magazine called them rainbow cupcakes,
but we thought rainbow was a bit modest.



Kate picked out the frosting in the supermarket -
pink with sprinkles. The little tub of frosting was
very precious to her. She fought her sisters off when
they wanted to even look at it. She would have gone
to bed hugging it if we had not wrest it from her little hands.

When we were done eating the cupcakes,
the crumbs on the kitchen table looked
as if playdoh had just happened.

Photo of the Day

Jenna started dance lessons on Saturday. The first thing she said to me when I met her after class was, "I did everything the teacher said!" Here she is sans shoes, when we got home. Gerrrrrram!