Early March 2015

Every year the kids at Naomi and Annika's school board a "plane" (which is the stage in the gym, complete with structure shaped like the Denver airport) and fly to another country that they have spent a lot of time researching and learning about. This year they went to Tanzania. Here they are enjoying the in-air entertainment, a documentary made by the fifth graders. I'm still waiting for beverage service. When that is over, they get off the plane and step into Tanzania...

They hop into their safari vehicle and start exploring.

Annika by Lake Victoria, a hippo, and cichlid fish. She brought her unicorn. Because they are native to Tanzania.

The kids learned about mud huts and the Maasai culture.

They used these super high tech gizmos to look for some wildlife.

...including giraffes, wildebeest, and zebras.

They were telling me something about Jane Goodall here. I wasn't totally listening worried that Sarah was going to pull down the entire display.

And of course the elephant... 

A parent made this very awesome floor puzzle of Africa, which will be inaccurate in about three months. There was a time in college when I was given an outline of Africa and had to draw in the countries and label them. This made me realize how long it's been. Relatedly, what happened to USSR?

Jess's parents came over for dinner one night. I don't know, do you think the kids love them?

Sarah being Sarah

And girls being girls. Naomi loves showers but cannot pass up tub time with sisters.

Soccer started up for spring. Clifton's coaching Annika's team again. After being the only girl on the team last season, Annika's thrilled to be one of four girls this time around.

And scoring a goal which eluded her all last season? She got her first goal the first time she took the field. So the season could end now and she'd call it a success.

And, oh, can you believe it? Naomi turned 7. Instead of having a big birthday party she opted to have her three best friends spend the night.

First I put them to work making their own cake. Naomi had found a recipe in one of her coloring books. I mean, how could that not be high quality?

While the cookie cake was baking, we went to Crackpots where the girls painted pottery. I was prepared for disaster bringing five kids into a pottery place. But they did great.

 Naomi picked this horse and took it very seriously.

You can tell because of the tongue.

Annika picked an owl piggy bank. (Horses and owls, Aunt Sara... They must have been channeling you!)

 

Taking a quick break with her buddy Mac.

And then Clare wanted a picture with the birthday girl.

The kids with their projects. All kinds of fancy.

Then it was back in the party bus...

...for dinner at Red Robin. They had their girls' table which was lots of squealing and giggling.

Knowing they had their birthday cookie cake waiting for them, they split one dessert. Amelia (wisely) wanted nothing to do with this chaos.

Okay, so the recipe from the coloring book is a total keeper. That was a good cookie.

The next morning (after waking at 5am), they wanted to know what was next... I had mostly thought we'd lay around, drinking coffee and recovering. But apparently kids don't drink coffee.

So they made these toilet paper tube penguins.

Another change this month? The red stapler. Suzi and I have taken over a more administrative role in the office. So instead of being 2/3 of a doctor, I am 1/2 doctor and 1/6 of an administrator. Or something like that. I still have the same number of patients, so it's more like cramming more clinical work into less time. Or working more time for the same pay. But I get to do it with Suzi. And there's the red stapler. And that's worth something.

Oh, and the other thing that's gone unmentioned for months is our fishtank. I am awesome at killing fish. Sometimes they make it really dramatic and die on the stairs to the castle. So plants aren't my thing. And fish aren't my thing (although that doesn't keep me from trying). The girls haven't died on my watch yet, so I guess I must be kindof okay at that. 

And summer. It's here. Officially. It was 83 the other day so Sarah and I did what every other person in Longmont did and walked around the lake. I'm sure this is going to stay. So sure that I packed up the winter coats. Not bringing them back out. So take that May snowstorms.