Skipping Through Spring

Fun to make, though Sailor ended up with a 2nd degree burn in the process :(

Indoor cheer

These are from an animal tracking event at the library

Yay!  First signs of spring in our yard

Building a force field

As a person always a little homesick, having split my life between countries, I love to think of this poem by Robert Browning about spring in England...while I'm wrestling mud season in New England...

Home Thoughts, from Abroad

O, to be in England
Now that April 's there,
And whoever wakes in England
Sees, some morning, unaware,
That the lowest boughs and the brushwood sheaf
Round the elm-tree bole are in tiny leaf,
While the chaffinch sings on the orchard bough
In England—now! And after April, when May follows,
And the whitethroat builds, and all the swallows!
Hark, where my blossom'd pear-tree in the hedge
Leans to the field and scatters on the clover
Blossoms and dewdrops—at the bent spray's edge—
That 's the wise thrush; he sings each song twice over,
Lest you should think he never could recapture
The first fine careless rapture!
And though the fields look rough with hoary dew,
All will be gay when noontide wakes anew
The buttercups, the little children's dower
—Far brighter than this gaudy melon-flower!

Hot tubbing it in a snowstorm

But, it's with mixed emotion that I greet spring this year.  The kids, having finally reached an age where we feel there's a possibility of fun when snowboarding (as opposed to much complaining of cold and wasted lift tickets), enjoyed a major treat in the form of a vacation to a ski resort.  There I found that despite the "elitism" of snow sports I've referred to before, I am smitten.  And so it is with a certain amount of sadness we say goodbye to winter, and somehow I'm not embracing spring with my usual enthusiasm...it's very weird.

Kitten going Norwegian :)

Resort experiences ;)

Being a camping sort of family, staying at a resort (complete with a kitchen in our suite), was blissfully easy and I can fully understand friends with kids who go on all-inclusive holidays!  The icing on the cake is that this was a "Staycation".  In other words it took us 1.5 hours to drive to the resort, so barely any travel to wipe us out.  Dodger really picked up snowboarding and Sailor is close behind...Kitten and I will be bringing up the rear ;)  My husband, in another chapter in his life, got his credentials while working as a "liftie" at a resort in Lake Tahoe and he is our patient teacher.

Learning to stand up!

Back at home, while we were buried under a March snowstorm bringing 16" of fresh powder to the ski resort, our duck eggs were quietly turning in the incubator.

Duck eggs

Our spring projects are under way.  The duck eggs began as a homeschool project but have quickly evolved into Dodger's 4H regional entry.  He has kept a journal about the incubation, created a poster based on his research, and is planning an illustrated talk.  The problem is...no ducks.  We lost quite a few early on, we checked again yesterday and we're down to two eggs with movement.  Today is day 29, they are supposed to start hatching on day 28.  I'm very sad.  I haven't given up yet...but I'm losing hope.  Why did we fail so miserably?  Right now our guess is humidity or possibly a bad batch of eggs.  My husband pointed out that we can try again but I'm feeling apprehensive.  There's something so incredibly sad about these little guys not making it.  Man, life is precarious.

Starting seeds

On a happier note Dodger finished setting up my grow lights for our seedlings.  We've planted the usual tomatos and peppers but we also added eggplants, white coneflowers, none-so-pretty, and perenial lupine to the batch to get a head start on flowers too.  This year the kids are designing their own gardens.  Sailor has made a garden to hide in and Kitten is all about flowers.  Dodger will be planting a garden but is also part of the 4H gardening program so his will be more veggies.  If they grow well he'll show them at the county fair in August.  I have confidence he'll have a good haul...I'm not a novice in this area-unlike ducks :(

Sailor's garden plan

Dodgers Sunday chore completed

Chickens prepping the garden for us

Along with spring comes the inevitability of summer which represents swimming, sunshine, late nights, ice cream, and composing a HOME-SCHOOL PORTFOLIO-gasp!  Our lovely state employees will peruse our work and decide whether we've met the curriculum goals we set for ourselves..I made my bed now I have to take a nap in it!

I wouldn't say I'm "stressed" about it, but the end of year growing closer is causing me to look carefully at what's been covered and unconsciously I find myself ticking off tasks and thinking, "Oh, that will work well in the portfolio".  Below I have added a link to my 2012/2013 curriculum (as promised months ago).  It's almost word for word what was submitted and approved by the state for Dodger's 5th grade.  Sailor's looks very similar.  And, as I've said before, the resources for the curriculum were another home schooling mom, the Common Core Standards, and my own imagination!  Shockingly, mainly to myself, we've hit on just about every goal save for a few that should be relatively easy to add in like boat safety and learning about a local artist...here it is...


https://docs.google.com/document/d/11RXvVj7tCekDPZX2rGQYxI4cyyqicsR5XrMdH1iMWYE/pub

Dodger art

Learning about our backyard birds-painted by Dodger

Painted by Kitten

Sailor art completed

To finish up I'll add the announcement that we have let our local school know that Kitten will be attending kindergarten in the fall and the boys will also return to school for 2013/14.  To the kids credit this information was met by much enthusiasm from the staff.  It's a small town and I feel as if we've barely severed any ties if you consider running after-school LEGO club, painting the backdrop for the K-4 play, being on the library board (our library and school are in a combined space), basketball, and now Dodger is in the 5-8 play and at practice a few days a week.  We spend a lot of time at the public school.  It's glue that holds our small community (of young families) together and it'll be nice to be back in the swing of things, though this time as a family is/has been so special.  It's been a great year so far, and I'll go into our choice in more detail later, but for now I am going to go and stand watch over our duck eggs and mutter prayers...I think I saw a wobble.