Navigating the hilly terrain of motherhood
The school year is winding down — only two days left! — and today Grace brought home a bunch of school work. While we were making dinner, she prepared a "real-life slideshow" of her work. It was organized by categories such as "math" and "poems/comics/spelling." She excitedly went through each piece of work, proud to show off what she's learned this year. And she should be proud — we now have a super reader/speller/writer/math girl in our midst!
Tess got to go on a field trip yesterday with her preschool class, as a way to celebrate the end of the school year. They went to Maine Audubon, just down the road from the school. They watched a red-tailed hawk, a turkey, and several groundhogs (with babies). They hiked up and down hills and through the woods and ate their snack in the grass. Best of all (at least for me) was the visit to the frog pond. The kids had nets and tried their hardest to catch bullfrogs and minnows, but had to settle for a couple of huge tadpoles. It was pretty fun. I'm going to miss preschool.
One likes to catch and hold huge toads — and name them (this one is "Jimmy Johnny") and study them thoroughly before releasing them.
The other likes to help Daddy mow while wearing her "high heels."
Our life is most definitely not boring.
Last weekend we went on one of our favorite family walks — Wolfe's Neck State Park — but this time we encountered something entirely new. We came across two native Mainers out clamming, just for fun, digging clams for their dinner. The girls were fascinated, and lucky for us, those two guys were more than happy to pass along some wisdom.
How do you prepare the clams? Cook them up in some buttah, get yourself an english muffin, some chips, a soda, and slice of pie.
Do you two always go clamming together? A-yuh. We go together like root beer and ice cubes. Some guys go to bars to meet women, but we go clammin'.
We also learned that as residents of Maine, we're allowed to to dig for clams at any state park. How cool is that? I love living in Maine.
[Special thanks to Grandma Sheryl for the photos!]
This is a "sorry card." It's what your newly-minted five-year old makes when she is sent to her room — again — for not listening (after she was already sent to her room once for not listening, whereupon she immediately left her room and did some more not-listening). You see, a five-year old is just starting to push at the boundaries, and when she pushes too hard, she feels bad (note the sad face in the picture). I have to admit, the sorry card worked. I just hope I don't have to see too many more of them.
When you live in Maine, you sometimes get excited about somewhat odd things, like the time of year when the horseshoe crabs come to shore by the hundreds to lay their eggs. And if you're Grace, you love meeting the scientist who counts them, and you sit very still and listen carefully while she teaches you the name of every body part of the horseshoe crab. Did you know they are related to ticks and spiders? And that they have 10 eyes? Oh, Grace knows.
Meet Marshmallow, a one-year-old guinea pig that Tess picked out at the animal shelter for her fifth birthday. She chose a guinea pig because, a) she can hold it on her lap while watching television on weekend mornings, b) she can keep it in a cage in her room, and c) it's not a rabbit (one must be different from one's older sister, you know). Marshmallow has a surprising amount of personality, squeaking whenever Tess enters the room. But then again, of course she's happy to see Tess — that extremely proud new pet owner strums the guitar and sings to Marshmallow every morning, and reads to her every night. That is one lucky (and content) little guinea pig.
This is what happens when the girls are quiet and out of sight for a few minutes, and you're so happy that you can finally hear yourself think that you don't go looking for them to see what they're doing… And, lesson learned.
Today was "Commute Another Way" day at the girls' school. Families were encouraged to carpool or bike to school (hardly anyone lives close enough to walk). For those who live too far away to actually bike the whole way, a group met at the mainland side of the causeway and biked across together. A few kids walked with the group, and Grace chose to rollerblade to the island. On the rollerblades she got less than a week ago. And did I mention it was raining? She is one tough — and determined — kid.
Travelingjenny 