Music From the Kids

Alden and his violin are making progerss. 

Elliott is also interested in making music, not quite as focused however. 

Snow

We went sledding today. I had to dig out a pit to contain Elliott while Alden and I went down the sled run. Alden called it the waiting room. The weather has actually been too cold to go sledding so it is nice to have it be above freezing for the past few days.  

Elliott is Now a Toddler

Baby Elliott graduated today and is now officially toddler Elliott!

Elliott has actually been toddling for quite awhile, however at daycare he was still in the baby room... doing baby stuff. Last week an opening in the toddler room was made and we prepared for the transition.

This is Elliott on the last day in the baby room, eating breakfast with his friends. The table has holes in it where the babies sit.

Here is Elliott walking around the backyard yesterday. Unlike when Alden was this age, Elliott does not like having his hand held when walking and he HATES being picked up and carried when there is an option to walk by himself.

Violin

Alden is now a student of the violin! We found a Suzuki school near by (by Maine standards) and are doing our nightly music exercises and listening to the Suzuki CD every chance we get.

Currently he is studying how to carry and hold the instrument, perhaps by this time next week he will be playing something!

Swimming 2

It is back in the pool for Alden! His swimming lessons resumed this January.

The first lesson was canceled due to freezing rain conditions. This week the weather was fine so we were able to be reintroduced to aquatic sport.

Alden loves swimming, but we were not able to stay late and splash in the pool because of his birthday party schedule. Maybe next time.

Alden Day

Alden had his birthday at the Children's Museum in Portland. He always has a great time there. We like it because after the kids arrive parenting is not very difficult. Folks just run around doing museum stuff. 

Alden has four pools of friends to chose from for birthday guests. I think this is amazing for a six year old. Friends from Harbor Children's Center, friends from Stepping Stones school, friends from his current school, and friends from aftercare at the Boys and Girls Club. Despite this the turn out for the party was low. I think Portland is a ways to drive from Gardiner and it snowed all day so roads were poor.

I think the gathering was just the right size in my estimation. Good quality interaction, sweet kids that were genuine friends and we had quite a bit of extra pizza left over. 

Alden received a bunch more legos, following the trend from Christmas, and was very gracious in opening them and thanking his friends. 

While the older kids ran around Elliott and I hung out in the toddler pin/ coral/ zone/ and worked on our stair climbing and wall biting skills.

Capricorn Ball

This was the 20th (and final) Capricorn Ball. For the bonfire Karen and I collaborated on the goat sculpture. I built the inner armature and Karen applied the straw.

The event was small this year. There was freezing rain forecast and the roads were already icy. But we made the trip to Skowhegan slow and steady.

Despite being in the rain all day the sculpture burned very well. The underside was dry enough to light and the wet straw created some very dramatic smoke. 

At the party (inside) Alden found a chess set and wanted me to teach him how to play, so that is what we did. For most of the pot-luck we just ate cake and played chess. Very nice. There was also a 30 minute power outage which called for flashlights, Alden really enjoyed this. 

Here is an early picture of the armature

Birthday

We did a bunch of things after Christmas, which always blurs in my mind as birthday-ish time. The birthday shirt I am wearing was designed by Alden and is bees in a beehive. 

 

We all went bowling, although Elliott mostly watched and ate pizza. You can also note the winter beard filling in.

We played checkers, on of Alden's favorite pass times, and he is getting pretty good.

Holidays

Here are some holiday pictures

We went to Kaen's house for Christmas morning. The big gift hits for Elliott were some bath toy egg things and a toy car that plays music. His favorite song is pop goes the weasel (the red button).

Alden also liked the musical car and would hassle Elliott about song selection and driving rights.

What really impressed Alden was the lego set, which made everything grind to a halt for about five hours while he assembled the beach- house. He Still had gifts left to unwrap, but was so excited went off and started to build. 

In the evening we had a fantastic seafood super.

Ice Storm

So we got behind on the blog updates  due to the holidays. We lost power for three or four days (23 to the 27th-ish) which was inconvenient but no major issue. We kept the wood stove burning and were able to go over to Karen's house on Christmas (she had her power back by then). We still had (cold) running water and our stove-top is gas, and since it is winter we put our refrigerator food in a box on the porch. 

The birch trees were the most dramatic with the ice weight,

We did not get too much damage, a few lost branches, but they were far away from the house and rather small.

Everything was beautiful encased in ice

Not sure how the bees are doing... too cold to check.