We're sure you've noticed that our updating took a hiatus. We've been quite busy, and our household has been in a bit of flux after a rough patch through the holidays and the start of January. To say it nicely and in brief, Michaela is currently taking some time to focus on her health and what she wants her life to look like, and she's doing it while residing elsewhere.
In our online absence, and despite some family troubles, the kids have still been having plenty of fun. Avonlea Jane was glad to start both pre-school and ballet/tumbling after the winter break. Both kids enjoyed Salem's annual Twelfth Night bonfire at Dead Horse Beach.
We didn't happen to take our camera this year, but here we are last year.
The Kings' Day fun continued when we hosted a kids' Epiphany fellowship hour at church. Avonlea Jane and David spent time cutting out several paper crowns to use as decorations and we made lots of spiced, gold-colored, and star-shaped food for the occasion, which was a big hit. Also on the church front, David joined the choir, something he's wanted to do for a while.
Our little chickens have taken to sleeping with each other on occasion. They have a hard time falling asleep next to other, because they get really chatty, but Will often asks Avonlea Jane to come to his bunk in the middle of the night. It's been a real shift to hear him call out "A'Jane!" in the middle of the night instead of for us, but she loves it. We always hear, "I'm coming, Willie. I'll snuggle you."
The rest of January was full of play dates, Show and Tell, and new classes.
In the middle of the month, Avonlea Jane took a class at the Joppa Flats Audubon Center in Newburyport on Paws and Claws: Tracking Animals in the Snow. The class started with the kids tracking a mother fox in the back yard of the center. Then they went inside and played a matching game of tracks and animals and talked about different animal gaits and paw types.
Playing a game of hibernation vs. deep sleep--Will is hibernating in downward facing dog on the back right.
The little ones all colored raccoon masks, made their own animal tracks in bins of cornstarch/cornmeal, watched a little movie on winter animals, had a paw print-themed snack (a plate of whipped cream with two round chocolate wafer cookies with raisins around the top to look like a pair of paw prints), and sent all the kids home with animal coloring sheets and a wildlife tracking guide. Both Avonlea Jane and Will had a great time and we're already signed up for another one on owls.
Despite it being 19 degrees outside, both kids were chanting, "Beach, beach, beach." Once we got out to Plum Island, they both quickly realized how cold it really was.
Less than ten minutes later, they were both clamoring to go back to the car.
The following week was super cold, so we stuck to more indoor activities like the story and art time at the Peabody Essex Museum.
"Please take my picture by the fountain," Avonlea Jane requested after leaving the museum.
Holding the paper mittens he made after reading Jan Brett's The Mitten
Will also just started a new weekly tumbling class while Avonlea Jane is in pre-school. It took him a little bit to warm up to being around so many other kids, but after about twenty minutes, he was excited to be doing assisted somersaults and wall handstands. Every day since then, he's asked about flips and "do Spiderman on wall."
