Madie finishes first grade

Madie has successfully completed first grade. She really liked her teacher, Ms. S. In a report card today, she found out she will have Ms. Sp. for second grade. Here are some of the transcribed items from her report card:

Reading

• Strengths: Madie is reading independently at level 24, which is the expectation for about mid-year second grade. She reads with expression and meaning, paying close attention to what is happening in the story. She can both answer literal questions about the text and infer from subtle clues. She can retell the story in broad strokes and remember small details. I celebrate Madie's skills and how much she has learned this year. 
• Challenges: In second grade, Madie will continue to learn how to write books. She can talk very sophisticatedly about what she has read, but we need to help her capture her thinking in her writing. Please make sure that Madie reads every day this summer to maintain all the progress she has made this year. 
• She exceeds expectations for comprehending fictional stories

Writing

• Strengths: Madie writes imaginative and creative series books about fictional characters. She invents funny and interesting problems for her characters and imitates the styles of authors that she has read. Her use of dialogue, details, and "sparkly" words make her stories come to life. Madie's spelling and phonics are also strong, and she is experimenting with different kinds of punctuation to convey meaning. 
• Challenges: I hope Madie will continue to tell and write stories over the summer. Her work this year exemplifies the connection between reading and writing: her strong reading skills support her ability to write compelling stories. I am truly impressed with Madie's writing, and look forward to reading more of it as she grows.
• She exceeds expectations in Message/content

Mathematics

• Strengths: Madie is a thoughtful and confident mathematician. She is a creative and sophisticated problem solver, and is flexible about choosing the most efficient strategy to suit a particular problem. She is solidifying her understanding of place value, and can efficiently add and subtract numbers on the decade (for example: 20+4 or 70-20). She can interpret graphs and tell time, and is working on identifying coins and adding them together. 
• Challenges: Sometimes, Madie thinks she knows a math fact, and so she tries to reason about it, but since she has the fact wrong, her reasoning goes astray. For example, she might say 8+5=14, because 8+4=13. This summer, keep practicing the basic facts, and have her double check by counting on or back to make sure that she knows what she thinks she knows. 

Social Studies

• Narrative: Madie was engaging in learning about migrant farm workers and how we can help. She posed thoughtful questions and ideas during our discussion. Madie's connections and insights definitely raised the level of our class discussions. She wrote part of her group's presentation and shared it with other classes with poise and confidence. She was also able to answer challenging questions that the older students had. Great work!
• Exceeds expectations in Social studies content

Learning Habits and Skills

• She consistently worked independently, seeks help when needed, shows respect for others, accepts responsibility for self and belongings, strives for quality work, actively works well with others, actively works well with others, listens responsively, and expresses oneself effectively.
• Strengths: Madie is such a conscientious and mature young person. She cares deeply about doing the right thing, both in the sense of following the rules and being a good friend and student, but also in a moral sense. She is also a very sophisticated thinker and her thoughtful ideas and questions help us all think and understand better. And for all that, Madie has a great sense of fun, and knows exactly how to be silly when it's appropriate. She has been a joy to teach and I will miss her next year. 

Areas of Focus

• Madie is an incredibly well-adjusted and mature child. I don't anticipate that she will have any challenges as she transitions to second grade. 

Great work, Madie!

Happy Birthday Mr. Finn!

Our little man is officially four years old. We hosted a friends of Finn party last Saturday at our house. The original plan was to celebrate at the Northeast Harbor playground, but it was threatening rain. We called an audible at the last minute, and just invited everyone over. Surprisingly, the parks around here don't really have pavilions like they do out west. It would be nice to have that, considering how fast the weather can change here. Anyways, Mal made an Italian butter cream cake, which she wasn't satisfied with (she nailed it a week later for our family celebration). Finn seemed fine with hosting it at our house, mostly because we had just gotten our chickens. He was so eager to show everyone. He had been telling everyone and anyone, wherever he was, that we just got chickens. He is one proud farmer. 

I love this photo. Finn got a spyglass for his birthday. Madie was showing him how to use it. The conversation went a little bit like this: "Okay, what you need to do is close one eye, and look in with the other. Here, let me show you." 

Mal, Finn, and BW look at aunt Alexa's gift to Finn. 

On Monday when Mal went grocery shopping, she asked Finn what he wanted for his birthday breakfast. Finn said he wanted cereal, Captain Crunch to be exact. We don't normally buy that kind of cereal, so it was a special treat. He ate it for breakfast and lunch, until it was soon gone. I got up with him to get breakfast early on Thursday morning and asked him what he wanted. He said he wanted cereal. I looked in the cupboard...it was empty. "Finn, I'm sorry buddy. Your cereal is all gone." The saddest look came over him. He sulked his shoulders and looked at the ground. Yeah, he really likes that cereal. 

Since late last year, Finn has been asking me to take him fishing. I'm not sure what started this thirst for fishing, but he has been consistently wanting to go. Every year, I take off the day of or the day near the birthday of everyone in my family to do something fun for/with them. For Finn, I hatched an idea. A camping and fishing trip! He loves camping, and has been wanting to go fishing. This will be perfect! On Friday, we packed the car and got ready to go. We had to run a few errands in Ellsworth before we headed to Donnell Pond. After we ran all of our errands, we headed to Finelli's for pizza before our trip. He said, "We are still going camping, right?" He was worried we weren't going to have time to go camping with all the time we were spending on errands. "Of course we are going camping still! I just thought it would be fun to take you out for pizza before our trip!" And Finelli's is always a good choice. New York pizza, right in Ellsworth, Maine. 

After pizza, we headed to Donnell Pond. We were actually able to launch from the Daltons camp, which shaved off a few minutes to our trip. I loaded up the canoe, woke up Finn to get in the canoe. I would estimate the distance from their camp to Redmans Beach is about 1.5 miles. It was pretty choppy getting there, especially when we got into the middle of the lake. When we got to the beach, there was an employee there cleaning up the latrines. Other than that, we had the entire beach to ourselves! That's actually what I was hoping for. Complete privacy, nobody to mind. Just play, and enjoy. 

Since it was overcast when we got there, it was a little chilly. Finn liked to sit on his chair and wrap his towel around himself like a blanket. 

We packed swords, dump trucks, baseball/bat, fishing poles...you name it! And we did all of those in a circuit that we did 5-6 times before dinner. 

And the food! S'mores, hot dogs, and muffins. Those are a few of Finn's favorite things. 

Although we didn't catch anything, we got to practice casting and using the equipment. Hopefully we'll be frying fish by the end of the summer. 

The sun came out in the evening, and it finally warmed up! The bugs weren't too bad either. It could have been much worse. 

We hung out in the tent for a while, playing Go-Fish, and playing "What's your favorite...". A few questions into the latter, I decided I needed to start writing these down! Here is what I got: 

What's your favorite....

1. Color: green
2. Pizza: pepperoni
3. Ice cream: blueberry
4. Breakfast: Captain Crunch cereal
5. Lunch: Captain Crunch cereal
6. Animal: Crocodile
7. Movie/Show: Octonauts 
8. Shirt: Dog shirt
9. Thing to do in the snow: Snowball fight
10. Thing to do at the beach: Camping
11. Thing to do on the water: Throwing rocks
12. Thing about camping: Sleeping in the tent with Dad, playing "little" games
13. Place to camp: Donnell Pond
14. Drink: Water, "...because it's so healthy!"
15. Thing to do outside: Look at the chickens and pretend games
16. Thing you want to do this summer: Learn to swim under water
17. Fun place to go: Playland Adventures
18. Thing about Elvis: "Snuggling with him. I miss him because he is all alone by himself at home."
19. Place to go on an airplane: Nana and Papa's (he was a stow-away in Mal's belly when we visited Saipan...)
20. Thing about Nana and Papa's: The cold tub (hot tub that isn't heated). "I like it when you and Mumma go to the temple and I stay with Nana and Papa."
21. Transportation: airplanes
22. Best friend: Logan
23. Thing about Primary: Treats, "...but raisins are not some sort of treat."
24. Thing about Family Home Evening: Treats
25. Book: Calvin and Hobbes
26. Sport: Basketball, baseball, soccer
27. Vegetable: Carrots
28. Fruit: Blueberries, raspberries, blackberries
29. Camping food: Muffins
30. Bird: Bald eagle
31. Time of year: Summer
32. Instrument to learn: Violin
33. Toy: Wooden boat 

When Finn started to stir in the morning, I leaned over and said "Finn, today you are four years old!" He had been asking pretty much every day "Is today my birthday?" He replied to me, "Ugggghhhhhpppphhhh, I got a hair in my mouth." Nicely put, Finn. We got up, ate some blueberry muffins, played some baseball, then broke camp. We headed out with our fishing poles, ready to reel. What an adventure! When we were paddling near some boulders, there were some boulders that barely breached the surface, and looked like alligator heads. Finn pointed to them with a really worried look on his face. "Dad, what are those?!" Leading up to this trip, he seemed concerned about sharks, alligators, and crocodiles being in the water. We reviewed again and again how they would probably die in Maine, because they don't like the snow. I suppose you can't help but think about it with a young imagination. 

Later that day, we had some family celebrations. Finn opened presents, and we had cake and ice cream after dinner. 

Finn trying out his sun glasses...he was looking at everything through his new sunglasses from Grammy and Grampy!

And he loved his lava lava. 

This has been in our closet since Christmas. We were going to return it, then tried to re-sell it. Finn's had his eye on it for months. The other day, I just said, "Let's just give it to him." This was his reaction!

For the win!

And we topped off the day with some amazing cake that Mal made. Happy Birthday, Finn!

We have chickens

We did it! We finished the coop and run. We did it with mostly scrap materials as well. The kids love checking for eggs and feeding them too. Soon enough, they will be cleaning the coop. There are eight in total.

Nell

Petranella is far and away our busiest baby. Madie and Finn were both early talkers--they listened to what people said and it always marveled me to listen to them--at 17 or 18 months--start to mimic the influxes of our voices and even piece together two-word sentences.

Nell isn't so much that way--don't get me wrong, she chats it up all day long with anyone who'll stay around long enough. But the mimicry isn't there. Nonetheless, she observes her siblings closely as far as the things they do. She doesn't necessarily follow suit, per se, but rather, these observations put ideas in her head. One morning, Finn pushed a chair up to the counter to help me with some cooking (one of his favorite activities). Petya had never done this before, though she has climbed up on many chairs and stools that were already at the counter when her older brother or sister took off to the bathroom. This particular morning, I had been up a lot the night before--I can't remember why now, but kids is a safe bet--and told Finn I was going into my room to rest for a few minutes after breakfast. I had cleaned up the kitchen and was lying with my eyes closed (but very much awake--go figure) on my bed. I heard a chair being pulled across the floor in the kitchen and I thought it was probably Petya pulling it out from the table to climb up. No big deal--I had cleared all but a couple of plastic cups from the table and from it she could reach nothing. She mostly liked to sit on her knees and slide herself forward and backward across it; unless, of course, there was something more interesting up there. 

Nell observes me through a magnifying lens.

After a while I decided 10 minutes of "rest" wasn't worth wondering what all the silence in the kitchen was about, so I got up and went out to find Nellie had pulled a chair from the far end of the table to a counter, upon which I had set a mug and an almost-empty honey bottle to let the last bit of honey drain. Before I had lain down, I had checked and seen 2 inches of honey in the bottom of the mug with not much left in the bottle. Now I found approximately an inch spread over the chair, counter, and Petya's face and only about 1/2 an inch in the bottom of the mug. I'm guessing the last 1/2 inch was somewhere between her sticky fist and her esophagus.

Watching Madie learn a dance in gymnastics.

Despite her climbing upon everything and her early toddlerhood being filled with bloody noses, bashed heads, broken dishes, and a lot of maternal anxiety, Petya has finally developed some sense of caution. Yes, she does go up and down the steep, slippery stairs to our playroom on her own--and facing forward no less--but she has learned to take it slow, that sometimes it's safer to do it alone than with a well-meaning older sibling's help, and that if she feels unsafe at all, turning around and going down backward will get her there in relatively the same time and with fewer bruises. Still, I have not witnessed many panicked expressions on her face. (Except for that time she messed in the tub. THAT was a panicked expression, accompanied by truly terrified screaming.) 

Petya accompanied me to the grown-up section of the library one day. Here she is checking out a book on French cuisine.

This isn't to say we don't keep a watch on her--on the contrary, although she has developed caution for some circumstances, she continues to display an age-appropriate lack of respect for the dangers of others. As a case, take animals. Nell loves animals. Much more than either of my other two at this age. I remember walking with Madie and any time we saw a dog, I would try to point it out. Complete disinterest. Finn was a similar story. Not Nell. Any animal, be it the woodpecker that comes to our feeder every day or a crow at the park; the neighbor's dog she's seen and pet a hundred times or a cat crossing the road--if it catches Petya's eye (and trust me, it will catch her eye), she points it out. "'Ook! 'Ook! 'Ook!" over and over until I do and respond. Because of this, we do have to watch her around strange dogs and cats. Unless we hold on, she will run right up to them. 

For the record: they are also worth being abandoned for. 

"Come, Petya. Let's go. Nell, come on. Petranella. I'm leaving, Nellie. Nell! Come on, now! Bye bye." 

Enjoying a blueberry smoothie.

Of course, she does speak some recognizable words. Most of her chatter is gibberish, but she clearly says Mumma and Dada, and even a couple friends' names, like Anna and Caroline (although I think I'm the only one who can tell she's saying Caroline--it's a big name!). And she says, "Pop! Pop!" when we sing a child's song, "Popcorn Popping." She says look, watch, and dog, all fairly clearly, and please. 

And tonight I got her very first, "I-uh-you." 

Spring Time

Spring has been pretty typical this year. A warm spell, followed by a cold spell. We had flurries on Monday, followed by a 70 degree yesterday. We are still waiting for most of the trees to pop, but have been busy prepping the garden. As of right now, we have planted nine tomato plants, basil, turnips, green beans, romaine lettuce, spinach, swiss chard, arugula, corn, peppers, broccoli, and brussels sprouts. Then we have our herbs that come back, like cilantro, lavender, chocolate mint, spearmint, and lemon balm. We still have room for a few more things. Historically, we have had some success and failures with our garden in Maine. California's garden seemed so easy. I had a 15'x20' plot of land I had in my organic gardening club at Lawrence Livermore. I feel that I usually got more out of that then we have in any single summer here in Maine. We are hoping that this is the year we change that! We are determined.

We have also been making a chicken coop, and a run. It's been busy getting things ready for the chickens, but we are excited at the prospect of having them in our backyard. I have never owned chickens before, but I really like the idea of giving the kids meaningful chores and opportunities to work and build character. Also, what a great experience! Growing up in California, I never had these opportunities. We had very small gardening opportunities with our limited land. I feel that we can do so much more with the land we have. Having this land is a lot of work, but I'm hoping it will eventually start to pay off with getting chickens, having a productive garden, and lots of activities.

One thing I love about our life here in Maine is how much time the kids spend outside. They are always outside doing something. We rarely have the TV on (maybe once per day). Madie stays very busy reading many chapter books, and even starting/finishing one chapter book in a single day. She is a very impressive reader at 6 years old. I'm always looking for fun things to add to our backyard to make it even more enticing to be outside. For example, last Christmas we got a slackline. Madie loves this thing! Finn is still a little too young, or just indifferent. We also finished our climbing wall on the side of the garage. Which, as it turns out, is probably rated a 5.13c, and I can't even climb it! I'd like to get a zip line and a trampoline at some point. Really, anything to keep the kids outside. It's especially fun when they have friends over.

Madie training on the slackline

A Sunday evening, after the kids go to sleep. Mallory and I squeeze onto the couch together to read our own books and enjoy the sound of silence. 

A couple of weeks ago, I took Madie and Finn camping. These kids love camping, but they equally love everything that goes along with camping (or that should anyways). They love the camp fire, s'mores, the food in general, playing games, sleeping in a tent, etc. Well, because it has been such a dry spring, there have been fire bans throughout the state. The fire department wouldn't permit any campfire burns the particular night we decided to camp. Needless to say, this eliminated half the joy. No camp fire, no s'mores, no way! Madie accepted and understood the news, but Finn wasn't getting it. He was very argumentative, and ready to fight somebody for a camp fire and s'mores. "Dad, we can't go camping without s'mores and a camp fire!" Even after explaining to him that we would be in trouble with the fire chief, he was still insistent....you can't camp without a fire. Yes, this may be true in some cases. Camping is certainly not the same without a camp fire. But, we did make the most of it. We played 'Go Fish' in the tent, which was a huge hit. I let them stay up a bit later, which was also well-received. In the end, it was fun. It even got close to freezing temps that night.

Madie had her Spring Concert with her school a week ago. I think it's great that she goes to such a music-oriented school. She sang with her class.

Petranella is such a goof ball. She is still obsessed with grabbing and snuggling ears. She is also turning into quite the jokester. She is very playful and loves to be outside. Whenever we are outside playing or working on a project, she can be found somewhere in the yard pushing her infant stroller around the yard. She is very dedicated to pushing this, along with all of the other stuff she collects inside of it. A few typical items she will tote usually include a helmet, some rocks, Elvis's tennis ball, and a soccer ball. She loves to push that around the drive-way loop, but isn't afraid to take it into the fenced in garden, greenhouse, or even the back woods for that matter. She is starting to say more words, but doesn't seem interested in mimicking anyone just yet. A lot of her conversations do involve Elvis (whom she refers to as Gog-gog-gog). Elvis takes it all like a champ.

Mr. Finnman has just started playing T-ball, but has been doing a lot of batting with me at home. I think he generally has fun going to T-ball every week, but he especially likes to bat. He was pretty proud of his new T-ball shirt he got this last week. He really has incredible hand-eye coordination. He has great form when he is batting, and can occasionally hit it over 20 yards. He is pretty consistent too. One of the first things he asks me when I get home from work is, "Can we go play baseball?" Music to my ears. Finn has also been into playing with his small plastic animals, particularly his alligator. I guess he found it abandoned at the playground, and has been playing and sleeping with it ever since. Mal has even got out some pie tins and filled them with water so that he could have a little lake for the gator.

Every kids favorite part about Home Depot. 

Hands in the pockets. I love it when they discover these. 

I can't remember if I have written about this before, but the kids love reading about Calvin and Hobbs. LOVE. I get a kick out of it too. Finn will even randomly recite certain lines from something we have previously read. 

We are excited for summer. We have some camping trips being planned, along with a visit from Nana and Papa, and many other exciting adventures in this beautiful area of the world we live in. 

Willy Wonka

Well, it's done. Finally. And sadly...a little. It's always fun doing plays, but musicals in particular keep me up at night. The music gets stuck in my head and I lay awake playing it over and over. It drives me nuts. Even Les Miserables did by the end. 

This particular production was messy at the end--paint was drying behind me on our opening night. Yep. But it seemed to be a big hit with the viewers. We got decent turn outs each day on our first weekend, and then the second weekend (when we'd moved to another theater) we had more than 530 people our first night there, and another good crowd at the matinee the next day. 

Me and "Chalie"--Harlan--after our closing show. He was a sweet kid, and did great in his first big role! 

My biggest satisfaction comes from how much Madie loved it. I don't mean just being in the play, but actually being on stage! She is pretty shy, and it took quite of bit of convincing on my part to get her to even try out--she wanted to do it, she said, but she didn't want to have to sing or talk in front of anyone...

During rehearsals, she was asked a couple of times if she was enjoying being in the play. Her response was, "I don't like to sing. Or dance." So naturally I figured she was sticking it out because a. in the beginning I told her that after a certain point she couldn't really back out, and b. she had lots of friends from school in the play as well. 

Well, it turned out that when we got around to the actual performance, she was loving it! She was hesitant about her makeup--orange face paint and a green wig--but at the end of dress rehearsal she said she didn't even notice it. She even said, at the end of the last show, that she "can't wait for next year to see what the show will be!" I told her there aren't always children's parts. Regardless, it looks like the Drama Queen may actually have a future with her natural talent. Fabulous!

On stage. Look at that smile! Photo credit: Christopher Dougherty.

Madie at the end of dress rehearsal.

Easter

Last weekend, I planted some corn in the garden. And a couple rows of carrots. I was prepped and ready to plant more this weekend, but instead we got about a half-foot of snow the day after spring. Everyone (including myself) kept saying, "Oh, it won't last. It'll be gone in a day or so." 

Here we are, Easter day, and we still have snow on the ground. It's been in the 30s all week and overcast. Thankfully, the snow on the gardens has pretty much melted and the sweet little crocuses in the front are out in force.

For the record, they were here last week too--they arrived ON TIME. Spring just decided to ditch them. Lucky for us, they don't care much what Spring thinks.

Mike and I figured we'd at least take advantage of the snow since, really, we haven't had any this winter. Mike has been able to get out to ski three or four times this winter--all in the morning--but I hadn't gotten any. I usually only manage to get in one ski a year anyway, but with the bad snow this year, I kind of figured I wouldn't get any. It was nice to get out, and the full moon looked phenomenal as usual on the fresh snow and the lake water.

Here's a shot Mike took for @_Campfour_ from his early-morning ski after the spring snowfall.

To keep Easter Sunday more sacred, we do our egg hunt on Saturday. Here are the kids waiting in our bedroom until I tell them to come out. The youngest wasn't having it, so we called her stand-in.

Madeleine and Finn jumped to it, obviously. Petya was excited and laughing but really had no idea what was going on. I handed her a basket and showed her an egg behind the piano. She shook it, which was fun, so she shook it some more, and a little more. Finally she put it in her basket and I said, "There's more, P! Look over here!" I pointed into a shoe. Oh, that was fun too! Hiding things in shoes is one of her favorite activities! She took that one out and shook it too.

Saturday morning we had chocolate milk, fruit, and cheese tarts for breakfast. It's a pretty quick meal to get together, really, but nothing is quick when you've got a toddler growing on your front half. Mike took care of her mostly so I could get breakfast going, but he was also trying to get the house to look at least like we try not to live in a slum. Every time he tried setting her down she fussed. So he did what I always do when I'm in that situation: he set her next to Mr. Nuzzle Muzzle. 

The only other being in the house P regularly turns to in even the most critical moments.

We also spent Saturday dying eggs and hanging a paper-flower garland the kids made. Madeleine and I didn't have play rehearsal, so she was able to join Dad and Finn for swim. I even got a good session of writing done at the library. That night I went to the church for a potluck with the Relief Society before Women's Conference (more on that later, hopefully). I came home early though to get a little more work done before the Sabbath. 

Our original Easter plans were to attend sacrament meeting (the first and foremost of three periods of church for Latter-day Saints) and then head to my grandmother's for a family gathering. On Friday I found out my sister and Gram were both sick and my aunt and cousin wouldn't be coming. So we postponed until next weekend, which works perfectly, and we started talking Easter dinner at home. Mike called the missionaries and found out the Elders had nowhere to go, so he arranged to have them come here.

Mike requested pork tacos--a surprising request I thought, since Mike is something of a traditionalist. I asked him today, as he chopped cilantro and I rolled tortillas, why he chose this particular meal. 

"Well," he said, in a way that made me think the next words would be something like, I know you don't love ham, but I'm not wild about lamb, so I was thinking pork, and that took me to tacos--or something like that--but he continued with, *chop, chop, chop* "I think about eating tacos every week anyway, so I just thought we could have them today." 

Truth.

Dinner went well, despite the wonkiness of the carrot cake--it tasted great--but I was lazy last night and didn't flour the pans, so...

Madeleine had the treat tonight (for Family Home Evening), so she helped to make the frosting and decorate it. We didn't have enough frosting to do flowers like she wanted, but she did like the idea of Jackson Pollocking it with food coloring. We topped it with dyed blown eggs and stuck candles in it so we could sing Happy Birthday to Elder Schwartz, who turns 20 tomorrow!

I hope your Easter was fun, like ours was. Mostly though, I hope you and I both remember the significance of the day. Christ the Lord is risen. And because of that, I can be raised from sadness--despair, even. Because of that, I have hope to overcome my sins and find freedom and peace in the Lord forever.

Hallelujah.