Letter to Teacher Erny

Fiona is writing a letter to her kindergarten teacher while on vacation. It has been cold but wonderful. After almost a week now she is just about getting through the jet lag. We should be just about getting used to the southern hemisphere winter when it will be time for Hawaii. So good to visit with family even if we're mostly huddled by the fire.

Hanging out

Fiona enjoying a bit of post bike television in kapunda.

And the salmon swam on....

Fiona on the home run today.

Post kindergarten life.

A good start to summer.

Last Day of Kindergarten

Fiona has finished kindergarten today! She is now enjoying her first official Summer Off. We are all looking forward to first grade but also to sleeping in and having some fun adventures. High marks!

Girl Scout year end

Reading

All the time reading and reading...sometimes on into the night.

Backpacking

 Here we are all fresh at the beginning of the trail in the Santa Cruz mountains

 Here is fiona helping filter water in the creek

 Here are Fiona and Devon at camp in the morning

 Fiona only needed to be carried a couple of times.

 Devon helping fiona across the log...she would have done it solo but I insisted on the hand hold.

 Fiona and Devon at the top of Silver Falls.

And Fiona took this picture of Devon and I

Will play for candy

Fiddle practice has been a bit trying for all involved lately, so rather than face it head on we turned and ran. We have instituted a rigid system of bribery which leads to happier practices all around.

A happy mother's day

I had some silly company for a post shift breakfast. Apparently mothers day isn't always like hallmark expects. Silly faces with breakfast followed by a 5 hour sleep, a quick flit around the boardwalk including Fiona as the red baron. Life is good....
Love
Louise

Almost healed

Apparently radiologists are more optimistic than mothers but they assure me that the collar bone is coming along well. They look at minute shading as a good thing, whereas I was hoping for great streaks of new bone. But we are down to two more weeks until we can break out the two wheeler out again.

Work

A six year old's work is never done. Calculator is a phone and while caring for her baby horse she's multitasking well.

Watch This

Fiona got her first watch today and is learning how to tell time. "I am so happy" she says. "I know all the o'clocks."

The final act.

The candles have been blown out and after the birthday extravaganza we are finally finished with the celebrations marking Fiona's sixth birthday. If I don't look happy to see a cake in the next few months please excuse me. Fiona had a wonderful time though and was gracious and polite despite all the sugar and partying. Thank you for all your food wishes. Love
Louise

Birthday celebration in the fog.

Despite a scorching hot Saturday yesterday, today we has a cold foggy Sunday for the birthday celebration with Fiona's friends. The cold wind was fine for kite flying though, and all the kids seemed to be fine. What a wonderful party though. Six is a great age for kite flying...connection to the sky and the wind.

Parade of horses

Parades of horses are a theme at the moment. The waning days of five are on us and the play is beautiful and creative and peaceful.

We are planning the birthday party for the upcoming weekend, the shoulder is still healing so we're planning on kites at the beach. Of course you're all invited...

Easter Birdie

The Easter bunny came in my house and he left jelly beans! He or she also left chocolate and said "share your candy."

Hello family, I was wondering if you would like to see this big bruise on my shoulder? This is Fiona. I'm feeling really good. Thank you and good bye.

Healing Magic

Magic doesn't begin to describe how fast Fiona is recovering from her broken collar bone! She is still careful of her shoulder, and we are giving her some pain meds, but four days after breaking it she is running around acting like she is fine and refuses to wear her sling (which the doctor did say was optional). She has been sleeping in our bed, but during the day when we aren't looking she climbs in and out of her bunk bed one handed for fun, sometimes while carrying some baby animal she is taking care of! And its amazing how well she does everything she needs to on her own, getting dressed, getting in and out of the car without help, etc.

I thought we would be in for weeks of very quiet activities, and now it is clear that the challenge is going to be keeping her calm and minimizing the leaping for at least a week!

D

Clavicular magic.

The doctor says Fiona Has about 3 weeks to go with the sling...and might be able to skate on her birthday...she's doing super well. Apparently kids bones heal very fast, there might be a bump at first and then that will disappear after a few months. In the meantime we are still having extra ice cream and movies...

Kindergarten is catching up

Fiona still needs naps but her sixyearold self doesn't usually agree. When she actually agrees to a nap now, she REALLY needs it. Good or bad naps are still part of our life. I think sometimes now it makes the evening a bit crazy but it's so worth it for the warm naptime cuddles. Life is good. We are balancing our work and home chaos pretty well. Fiona is a twowheelin' fiend and got a great kindergarten report card too. Still our goal is a kind, happy, and healthy existence. Right now if you don't count coughs and boogers we're doing OK.

Playing

I am playing horses in my room under my bunk bed. The game is about California horses. They are helping their babies. The babies were born a second ago.
Love
Fiona

Artistic crisis

Sometimes fiddle practice is more difficult than you would want.

After Nap

Fiona still has naps sometimes. Other times she has quiet time, which usually turns into loud time caring for the menagerie of baby animals in her room. Today After nap she was going to watch something but instead got distracted by drawing, A wonderful use of the TV table.
And this is what she was drawing:

An Apple Right Under the Tree.

Fiona's room: She spends a lot of time playing school with her animals in here. Putting the little ones into the crib to sleep. Hours at her little desk drawing. Reading until her tired parents exclaim "no more reading!" (which somehow feels wrong)
Not quite enough room cleaning. Plenty of changing of outfits to be suitably fancy for whatever occasion. Posting this to remember these fun times.

Birthday Season

Well it seems to have hit us again....Birthday Season. This year there have been a few already and after each one Fiona says, "I want to ________ for my birthday! be it rollerskating, gymnastics, skating in the park or this weekends flavour, a movie date. It was to celebrate Amelie's 6th. Just the three girls and looked really tempting to me as a quieter less messy party option. The birthday thing is tricky...there is a lot of planning to have a herd of kids over, food, games, goodie-bags, etc. If you're not careful you could be working for days to have a three hour gathering. Thus I am really tempted, and may be lobbying hard for this weekends style. But who knows, by April there may be something we haven't thought of yet. Here are some pics of fiona out on the town without her parents.

Being silly with Amelie

I always wondered who they made the blue ice-cream for...

Febuary things

Febuary is screaming by but we have captured a few pictures along the way.

Playing Pac Man with her dad at the brewery. Wholesome upbringing!

Showing her Girl Scout pin at her school Gym.

Saying her girl scout pledge where she substitutes "God" with "our good Earth"

A picture for her teacher: A mother and father bird bringing worms to the nest.

And a middle of the night picture she drew in bed...i think the upper panel is the monkeybars and the lower the door to her classroom.

Water Cycle

Here is Fiona explaining her water cycle bracelet that her class made this week.

Fiona at play...

Here is fiona practicing Fiddle last night...she took her fiddle to show and tell on tuesday and played so well...what a proud mum was I .

Our practices have morphed to using instant rewards...one m&m per song. The instant reward has saved countless whining episodes and made practice fun for all.

New Years Came and Went

(Midnight at the town clock)

Christmas came and went and new years already seems like a long time ago...better have a post for January...

We had a flurry of activity over the holidays: Visitors of many sorts: Real, magical, and infectious. Christmas chaos left in time for us to have friends visit, family stay, our dreams of a snowy holiday dashed on the rocks of la nina, and a flu. Now with that behind us we are back at work and school and January is halfway over... or at the very least Febuary is around the corner.

Here are a few pics of our new year fun.

(up a tree in san francisco)

(King Lyle and Queen Fiona)

(Christmas tree on the beach in San Francisco)

(Almost like snow! on a North Coast beach)

(Mavericks Mural, Half Moon Bay)