Happenings

Last week Dash was given an award in the All-School meeting for his accomplishments in math.  Mrs. Walk praised Dash and his partner for discussing math like "little scientists" and always completing their regular math assignments, plus daily enrichment projects.  

Dash getting his award at the All-School meeting.  The picture is fuzzy, but in my defense, I was sitting in the back of the auditorium and Sissy was helping me hold the camera.

 Dash isn't the only math wiz in the family.  Colt has been knocking our socks off with his number sense lately.  (Oh yeah, and Brandan is kinda good at math too.)  A couple of weeks ago Colt alternately added 2s and 3s up to 100.  And last week, Colt came to me and explained that because he knew 5+5=10 and 6+6=12, he could figure out that 7+7=14 and 8+8=16 and 9+9=18 by just adding to more to each sum. Child genius, right?

The boys like to keep up with the various sports seasons, but this time of year it gets complicated, what with football and basketball overlapping.  We make do though.  

See the blue painters tape lines?  These mark out a football field that starts from one end of the house and goes to the other.  The big lines mark every 10 yards and the little hashes are every yard.  You'll also notice that Dash is playing basketball on the football field in a football jersey.

The rest of the football field.

In preparation for the Winter Olympics, we also enjoy some outdoor sports.

The porch jump event.

3 tens!

Nothing feels better than a hot bath after playing outside in the cold.  Most of the kids even got their clothes off before getting in the bath.

 Sport's writing skills have really taken off in the last couple of months.  He loves to color and can form a couple of letters.  Sissy is following his example, except she doesn't confine her art to paper.  Breeze can hold a pencil, pen or marker better than any of our children at this age, but I forget to be proud of her in the midst of scrubbing scribbles off of EVERYTHING!

Sport and Sis and their art.  Some of the markers have a faint fruity smell which often causes Sissy to forget herself and bite the tip clean off.  We have lost packages of markers to this fate.

In addition to drawing, Sissy is also honing her climbing skills.  Actually, I think she has pretty much perfected the assent, but her repelling could still use a little work.

Sissy climbed up on the flour bucket and helped herself to an apple.

Sis climbed up on the table and helped herself to an apple.  The table is her favorite climb.  I think she enjoys the shocked response she always gets when we walk in and find her relaxing up there.

Sis might be an athletic little monkey, but like any girl, she likes to look good and she often dresses herself with clothes she finds in the laundry baskets.  One day I backed Sis up against the wall so I could take her picture without having her wander off.  Ever since then Breeze poses herself when the camera comes out.

Getting ready to go to the basketball game.  Sissy found this jean jacket and was so proud of her outfit.

Breeze pulled this dress over her head one night before bedtime.

One Sunday morning, I had a meeting before church.  When I came home, Sissy met me at the door in a dress she had picked out and put on herself.  Brandan had thought I left this little number out for her to wear.

Breeze found her brother's clothes in the hamper and added her own flowered shoe.  Throw this all over a pair of footsie pjs and what you've got is the always popular layered look.

Finally, Brandan is currently drowning in his last semester of Masters courses and I'm deep into Young Womens.  So, life is going great!