Playground Decathlete

One of the downsides to life in Wisconsin is that we can't go to an outdoor playground from mid-October until Mid-March (or later). In Washington, unless there is a downpour or freak snowstorm, playgrounds are a year-round affair. Anyway, I was surprised to realize that Sora now believes that all playgrounds are inside malls and she has literally forgotten how to play on a playground. We went for the first time last week, and she just kept asking what to do and how to do it, then claiming that she "couldn't" do many things she could easily do in the fall. Bizarre!

Kyle and I took advantage of our 80 degree weekend to help retrain Sora in the wonderful world of playgrounds. Hopefully she will soon forget that her poor mother resorted to the mall as a source of playground entertainment during the winter. Hopefully next winter, the children's museum will be up and running and that will replace our mall excursions.

Sora's favorite things to do right now include swinging, especially when accompanied with spinning (yes, the tire swing was a favorite) and balance beam walking. She sings "Balance Beam" by Laurie Berkner Band every time she does anything remotely resembling a balance beam. She is currently a fan of sliding (as long as she can see the bottom and doesn't think it's too dark or scary). We are encouraging more climbing, as these are the type of things she seems to have forgotten about. Yeah for parks!

A spring afternoon at camp

Spring Preview

With all the grandparent visits over and with cousin Dylan gone, Sora has some mixed emotions.

We are cautiously optimistic that spring has arrived. Last year after we thought we were in spring, we still had 3 big snow storms. I'm hoping this year will be different. It has been nice enough outside to play without heavy jackets and Sora is enjoying exploring all of the trees and camp again.

We also brought out the Tinker Toys! I had been saving this toy for Dylan's visit but the girls were so busy with other toys that I forgot all about this surprise. After playing for the evening with just the 3 of us, I'm glad we didn't have it out when Dylan was here - it makes a big mess! This toy won this toy study that I was watching the other day, since it elicited the most interaction, vocabulary, etc. than any other toy. Sora loved creating (here she is with a variation on her original salt shaker) and so did Kyle. I'm not sure who like the toy more!

 Kyle's dog (Sora helped him in his creative process)

Hopefully spring is here to stay and you'll be seeing more outdoor pictures soon!

Weekend of Fun

 The long anticipated visit from Sora's grandma and papa Barney and cousin Dylan is now, sadly, over. We all had a great time while they were here. Sora and Dylan got along well and there was relatively little fighting for two 3 year olds spending 3.5 days together. Here are a few highlights of the trip:

The girls went sledding and exploring in the snow (as seen in the last post). Dylan also went ice skating for the first time! Sora chose to watch - I think she's a little skated out. My hopes of turning her into an Olympic skater will have to wait until next winter since this was really the last weekend to skate outside.

The girls played at home a lot. Sora has a ridiculous amount of toys for an only child, and Dylan was excited to explore them all. Here they are making up rules to a game. Apparently one rule is that you must only wear panties and one sock.

 The girls had a tea party, complete with fancy cucumber sandwiches, cream puffs, and of course real tea, sugar and cream! This was adorable and the girls loved playing with the playdough cupcakes and blowing out their birthday candles at the end of the party. In true opposite cousin style, Sora chose to "dress up" by wearing pajamas (rather than just panties as most of her around-the-house time is spent) and Dylan chose to wear a fancy dress.

 Of course, both girls loved playing with Kyle. Here is is giving them both a helicopter ride.

 All this playing wore them both out! Sora even napped 2 of the days they were here!

Fighting over Sharing grandma's tablet.

There were other adventures as well: restaurants for Friday Fish Fry, breakfast, lunch, and coffee - all the major eating times of the day. The girls each got to pick out a toy at the toy store courtesy of great grandma (Dylan chose a pink doll and Sora chose a kick ball). There was a visit to the candy store (where both girls were extremely well behaved) as well as a playground.

Overall, it was a great visit - Sora had a hard time last night knowing everyone was leaving today. Dylan was a lot of fun and her and Sora wore all of us adults out with all of their running and screaming!

Poppa, Grandma and cousin Dylan

Escape to the U.P.

Kyle and I were a little stressed out this week. We finally got the first real snow of the winter which just dumped snow on camp. The snow was great, but it shut everything down, including our power for 3 hours, and with Kyle super busy managing things at work (especially without some staff due to the snow) and me managing Sora and our 18 mo. old friend Walker for two days, we were ready for a break! Luckily for us, we booked a hotel in Marquette, MI a month ago and totally forgot about it. I received a confirmation email from our hotel mid-week and was reminded of the trip. Kyle and I dusted the cobwebs off our snowboards, prepared Sora for the concept of child care, and drove 3 hours to the northern reaches of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. We had lift tickets from an event we volunteered at in the fall, and the mountain happens to have an uber cheap day care. During the week, whenever we talked about the upcoming trip, Sora would always reply "But I'm going to cry" about going into the day care. We have been trying to get her used to the idea of not being with me every waking moment and using the tot watch at the grocery store and the YMCA, but it hasn't been going very far (ie: we've only been successful once in the past 4 months).

We got to the mountain and it was snowing hard (they got 15" in 24 hours). Sora took one look at the other kids in the day care and instantly ran off to play - even happily going back after lunch. Kyle and I snowboarded all morning and into the afternoon. The snow was so heavy that after lunch, the previously groomed trails were like fresh powder all over again. It was amazing! I haven't snowboarded since Leap Day 2008 (thanks to pregnancy and then mommy guilt), but was amazed that both Kyle and I seemed to remember our mad skillz like riding a bicycle. It was the greatest day! Of course, there are no pictures to document this occasion. It was snowing so hard, we decided to leave the camera in the car.

We did manage to get pictures at the local children's museum today though. Sora had a lot of fun, as predicted.

 This is an alien, since we are doing space theme right now. This junk bin area totally reminded me of my old job at Pacific Science Center! I hope to do something similar with Sora when she's a little older and can do more of it herself (rather than me doing most of the project for her).

Have I mentioned how much Sora loves to read and be read to? Seriously - we can be at the most fun place (like a children's museum) and if she sees a book area, she will want to read. We bought her a book this weekend and we had to read it to her 10 times after we got home (in 2 hours) before we decided that we couldn't stand the book anymore and banned it for the evening. I am still counting down the days until the museum opens in Green Bay and we can go to a children's museum on a semi-regular basis.

The weekend went so well that Kyle and I are already plotting our next ski vacation next year!

Crazy Yoga girl Sora