February started out very cold and Bryan despaired of getting his one basketball game in for the month. However, after a ferocious two weeks of winter, spring decided to start making itself known and we had enough consecutive days in the 40s to melt the snow on the driveway. A few brave souls bundled up (and one foolish soul (Bryan) wore shorts) and played a gratuitous game of basketball at 5:30 on a warmer-than-the-rest-of-the-week Thursday. Now it's a year round basketball league.
In the midst of the snow, school got canceled several times. There was one week where the girls only went two days, and one of those was a two hour delay. The school has used up 8 of its 5 allotted calamity days so far this year. To compensate, they've added three days to the end of the school year and have started having virtual learning days instead of canceled days. We've only had to do virtual learning once, and it went reasonably well. Third grade was very well prepared for this -- they have chromebooks on which they access Google classrooms regularly at school, so they all know what to do. Second grade was less well prepared, but Gretchen and I muddled through finding her assignments and getting them properly submitted.
Kaitlyn went to Rudy's house for a sleepover one day and then got an extra day as a bonus because of the snowstorm happening right when we were supposed to pick her up. She was very excited and told Keshia, "It's like I live here now!" We did get her back eventually.
Theodore knows a few more words than last reported. I don't think he's really acquired any new ones, I just forgot to record these: tickle, hot, ow, ball, open.
Theodore is in the shoes and buckles age. He spends much of his day wandering around in shoes several sizes too large and buckling all the buckles he can find (generally the two booster seats) as often as he can get someone else to unbuckle them for him. I dug out the buckles from underneath the changing table pad and he also buckles that while I change his diaper. He likes being outside, especially if it involves a basketball or soccer ball. Oh, and his answer to every question is, "Mmnope."
Kaitlyn has kind of sort of started violin. She came into my room one afternoon with one of our tiny violins and declared that she was going to practice with me. I showed her how to hold the violin (like I've showed three of her siblings before her) and rather than being discouraged and giving up (like the aforementioned siblings), she spent about 10 minutes practicing open strings with me. So I taught her the string names and told her which string to play while I put down fingers so that Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star issued forth from the instrument. This served to increase her excitement and now we try to work on a little bit every day. I ordered her a shoulder rest, a new set of strings, and a bow with all its hair, and we're off.
The weather has been in the 30s-50s most days recently. It tends to bounce back and forth. I was able to take the little kids to the zoo on Wednesday and we had a lovely time wandering around looking at animals. It was warm enough for spring coats, but cold enough for hats and gloves. Masks are useful for keeping faces warm in the cooler weather. :)
We sent the kids to Sidney this weekend. We get them back today and tonight is our Happy March card club.
Pictures:
Gretchen is a moose:
Having a one-year-old means sometimes your house gets rearranged in entertaining ways:
Our trip to the zoo. The polar bear wasn't very cooperative for pictures:
...but a very cute moose. Make all the boy mooses go hwaaaa. :)
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