playdates and basketball - in which I Cheer At The Wrong Time

Once, when Linnea was two years old, she got really mad at her big brother.  We were in a woman's living room, enjoying a "play date" -  that is, a bunch of moms had gathered together, young children in tow, longing for fellowship.  The children were placed at one end of the room with some toys and told to play nicely.  The mothers talked at the other end, thankful to be with adults and hoping their children might behave in front of the other moms.   

Linnea was angry.  Aidan had something that she wanted (probably something that was hers to begin with) and she marched at him, said, "No, Aidan!" and grabbed the toy from him.  Now, grabbing toys from each other is a common play date practice.  Moms are constantly getting up and solving 'he-took-my-toy' disputes.  So when Linnea was aggressive, the moms all naturally looked at me because it was my turn to get up and sigh and go reprimand the grabber.  Indeed, I did jump up to be closer to the action.  But I was grinning big.  "Good job, Linnea!" I said.  "You sure told him, didn't you!  Yay!"  I gave her a hug and a hearty cheer.  When I returned to the moms, they were all staring with mouths open.

A similar thing happened last week at basketball.  We had gathered together.  The kids were told to play with the ball.  The moms wanted to chat.  And everyone was secretly hoping that their child would impress the crowd. 



At the game, as Linnea dribbled the ball down the court, the ball was stolen from her by a guy on the opposite team.  She sped up to steal it back.  She missed.  She tried again.  She blocked him a bit, she got in his way a bit, she tried harder... and then the whistle blew!   She was being called for aggressive behaviour!

 "Aw.  A foul.  It's the White team's ball now," went the murmurings around me.

But I was on my feet.  "Bravo, Linnea!  Wow!  That was great!"  I yelled from the stands.  Seriously, I had tears in my eyes.  My daughter.  Called on a foul.  I was just so proud.

Perhaps I deserved the strange looks.  But when my rule follower, my gentle, sensitive soul of a daughter pushes for something, I'm startled into exuberant praise. 

Wihoo!!  You go, Girl!

Some pre-game chatting!  We're so thankful that she's
on the same team as her friend!

PS - She also can run and run and run and not get tired.  Whose gene is that?

My Scientists

 air tainted smoke rings

windows on the second floor

science center lab

wet lab vortexer

instructions on a flip chart

acid, base, glass rod

We extracted DNA from a plant!
It was such a cool experiment, but I'm afraid I forget what the plant was...

DNA spirals

acrid tang of vinegar

explore science here

educational potential

We were browsing one day in a museum gift shop.  As we admired the items for sale, the kids came upon a calligraphy set.  It was lovely, with different nibs and tiny glass bottles of ink.  All three kids admired it for quite a while.  I agreed that it was beautiful, as were many of the items in the shop.  And then one of the children said, "But Mom.  We would use it for school.  It could be for our Afternoon Studies."

And then, the calligraphy set was no longer just an item for sale.  It held educational potential. We could study calligraphy, and fonts, and the history of ink, and natural sources for pigment, and Chinese history, and the story of parchment.....

I bought it.

My children saw that the words "It's for our Afternoon Studies" had power.  And they have often given the phrase a try!  Tickets to the Nutcracker?  It's for Afternoon Studies!  Playmobil sets of Confederate and Union soldiers? For Afternoon Studies!  Magnets?  A big bag of popsicle sticks?  A CD of African lullabies?  But of course, it would be perfect for our Afternoon Studies!  

I've even used the phrase myself, I admit, to persuade my husband.

We were planning a lengthy Afternoon Studies unit on The Netherlands, since I felt it important to learn more about the country of my parents' birth and the home of my husband's family.  I started gathering books about wooden shoes and canals and dikes.  I found websites where we could learn Dutch phrases and Dutch history.  I printed maps.  I timed our studies to correspond with the Dutch celebration of Christmas - Sinterklaas.  I had quite a few resources, but there was something missing.  Something a little more personal.....

"My dear."  I said.  "It's for Afternoon Studies.  We need to go visit my family."

And we drove up to southern Ontario to celebrate Sinterklaas with people who know how to celebrate Sinterklaas!  My parents are so wonderful! 

We played Sjoelbak, or Shuffleboard.

(I really love it that when an adorable toddler does anything,
everyone gathers 'round to watch.  So cute!)

We ate Dutch treats!  (Calories don't count when it's educational.)

We sang "Sinterklaas Kapoentje" and Mom threw pepernoten.  The kids scrambled with joy and collected big handfuls!  (I bet my parents are still finding some of those cookies under couch cushions.)

We were all given a chocolate letter!

It was so GEZELLIG!!!!!!

(That's a Dutch word meaning a cozy time, a nice atmosphere, a sense of belonging.)  Thanks to my awesome family for helping us celebrate Sinterklaas - for the sake of the children's education.  Twas noble of you.

I especially treasure our visit with my grandfather.  I absolutely love that we were able to sit at Opa's feet and hear some stories.  Stories of the tulip farm he grew up on, and stories of the Flood of '53, and of immigration to Canada and his years as a pastor in the Netherlands and in southern Ontario.. 


 


What a treasure.  This man is wonderful!  And we miss Oma so much.  We come from a rich, rich history and it's been a joy to have the opportunity to share this with the children. 

It's their education.

Winter - In Which The Waters Freeze and We Make Marshmallows

When we said, "We're looking forward to experiencing an East Coast winter!" Marylanders responded, "Oh, we don't get much snow here.  We tend to have mild winters."

Well, it's been mighty cold and mighty snowy here for several weeks.

First, the temperatures dropped a little below freezing and our front yard wetland became a frozen marsh.



The cold weather stuck around, and the ice started spreading across the big river.  Aidan moved out of his slightly-insulated bedroom in the porch at the side of the house, and set up camp on an upstairs bedroom floor.






Soon the whole river was ice!





And then came the snow!  And the wind!  And a deeper cold!  The landlords asked us to keep the taps dripping so that the pipes wouldn't freeze.  Our furnace burned through gallons of oil, the poor old thing.  It runs constantly.  ('Poor old thing' is soon going to be a description of us.  That's quite a heating bill.)

The first snowfall swirled with the sand of our beach in such interesting patterns, thanks to quite a blowing wind!

A snowman blew in....

And one day, when we couldn't see much past our mailbox, we declared it a snow day.

We had been wanting to make homemade marshmallows for a while, and this seemed a perfect day...

We followed this recipe: Alton Brown's Marshmallows


We got some gelatin soaking in cold water (aren't you just aching for a photo of that?) and we heated up a sweet concoction of corn syrup and sugar.  (Ah!  That should be accompanied by three photos!  Then you could see exactly how the thermometer in the pan eventually moved up to 240 degrees!)  After combining those two, our dear Kitchen Aid mixer whipped a whole lot of air into the mix (on high for fifteen minutes!).

What emerged was a sticky white liquid pile of goop that we quickly poured into a prepared 9X13 pan.  (It had to be quickly poured!  Who has time to take pictures?)  It sat overnight (we sampled a little bit here and there to make sure all was well).  The next day, we could lift out the marshmallow sheet and use scissors to cut strips.  (I will give you a picture of that, because Jon was home and his hands weren't sticky.)

The strips were cut into pieces....

Each marshmallow needed to be dusted and sifted with a little icing sugar/cornstarch so it wouldn't be too sticky.

It's sticky work!






The marshmallows are so very good!  More substantial, and yet more airy and light than store bought ones. 

You should try it!

Happy Winter, Everyone.