Field Trip: Campbell Creek Science Center

We returned again to the Campbell Creek Science Center for a field trip. This is such a fun activity, and it's different each time we are able to go so it's an easy repeat for us.

I love the way our schooling approach and our associations through homeschool are so friendly to siblings. Alina was the youngest sibling there (other than a couple of infants in carriers), but she was just as welcome as any of the older children. After sitting on my lap for most of the circle time, she finally ventured over to sit next to her brother. It was a moment for me--that she trusted her brother to be there as her security, and he didn't mind having his little sister around.

This time the kids learned about plants. The guide took them in to the (very small) green house, and identified different plants with something special about each of them.

The seed lab was a hit--these microscopes are tough little things. The school district donated them to the Science Center 20 years ago, and they are still sturdy with good focus.

Once we were outside on the nature walk, this was the only sign I could get that David was around. If David doesn't know how to do something, he shies away from trying it. The group was told to run to a tree, run around the leader 3 times, then do 25 jumping jacks. David didn't do any of it because he couldn't remember how to do a jumping jack. But once he saw some of the kids substituting snow angels for jumping jacks, he was happy to participate. It's just David's style to only do what he is totally confident with. We continually try to stretch him into new things, and occasionally he figures out that he can do it after all. 

This littlest snow angel wanted to walk almost the entire way (we were outside for a good 45 minutes to an hour, traipsing through woods and snowy paths). It was only the last few minutes that she finally asked to be picked up, but for the most part she was a real trooper as the caboose of the group.

She kept doing this, and I thought it was so funny--she didn't appear to be licking the snow, but for some reason she liked touching her nose to it.

We don't have a lot of snow on the ground right now--just a few inches. The day for this field trip was perfect. It was in the upper 20's instead of the single digits that we had the week prior. Alaska is definitely a rugged winter wonderland.

Bottle her Up

I so wish that we could bottle this little girl up right now. She is so sweet, and we constantly watch her interact with her world with a smile on our face.

Please notice Teddy positioned to enjoy the fresh air and a view while she colored at the table.

Alina has taken after her brother when he was 2, and constantly says "thank you." In Alina speak, it comes out as "nay-nou" with a little sing-song tone, but it is immediate, without prompt, and sincere. And just for good measure, when we say "You're welcome." she'll do her best to say it too.

She is such a nurturer--she even wanted to cuddle the honey bear in the middle of breakfast. It had a cute face looking back at her, and I guess anything with a face could use a good morning hug. Alina was happy to oblige.

Alina hugged the honey bear, David hugged his favorite sister.

Sometimes I look at Alina and think, "Well, I must be doing something right. She is so sweet to her dollies!" Much of it is the nurturer in her finding expression, but some of it has to be what she sees, right?

Today she was on the couch, with a dolly on her lap and the blanket spread over both of them while she sang songs and had lots of happy jibber jabber. She puts on her high-pitched voice any time she talks to her baby.

When we come home, she runs to where she left her dolly and I can hear "Mama home!" in excited and sweet tones. She says it over and over, giving kisses, hugs and pats between her reassurance that the Mama has come back to her baby.

Some days her pigtails have a little more pizzazz than other days. Today after church she was ahead of me in a long empty hallway, and she kept turning around, cocking her head, pointing her finger at me and saying, "Beat you!" Then she would add a little squeal of delight and run a few more steps down the hallway to stay ahead of her Mom.

On this particular morning, she was playing in the kitchen sink, filling up pots with water. I took it as a wet activity, but also a chance to get a few things done. When I turned around, Alina had added water to each of the three pots and was climbing between them for a little swim.

At Thanksgiving, Alina approached Daddy with a very sweet look on her face. She had her lips all puckered, and acted like she wanted to kiss him. So Sam bent over and got with an inch or two of that sweet kiss when Alina spit juice all over his face. It was so funny, I could hardly stand it. I was the only one to see it besides Sam, but it was a real humdinger of a trick by such a sweet girl.

Alina's first flower from the man that she loves.

I have a feeling that we are in for a ride with this one--our sweet, tender, mischievous Alina.

Halloween 2015

We had a ghoulish good time this year at our ward's Halloween trunk or treat.

We took along our fierce Ninja fighter

And our sweet Care Bear.

Fierce.

Sweet.

Alina quickly decided that even a sweet good luck bear needed a few ninja moves to protect those cute cheeks.

The conundrum of choosing costumes is always a bit tricky for me. As a parent, I don't subscribe to specific brands and somehow our pattern of bringing toys into our home has never lent itself to my children latching on to one brand or another. Alina likes her care bear, but she also likes her no-name teddy and her Cabbage Patch doll. David was happy to be a super hero again this year, but he was indifferent between Spider man and Super man.

So we went looking for costumes with a wide range of possibilities. When David saw this light-up ninja costume, he was sold (the yellow edging all around the shield part blinked lights). It was the lighting feature, not the ninja, that was the selling point. But while he wore the lights, he played Ninja very well.

Sam and I were perusing a pop-up costume store on one of our date nights, and we came across this Care Bear costume. It was labeled as being for a 10 year old girl. Ummm. No. I would never let my 10 year old girl wear a costume that reaches the knees of my 2-year old. For our toddler, however, it was perfect. All of her cozy snow gear fit under the costume, and you have to admit that those round cheeks finish off the costume perfectly. I brought it home with a plan to alter it a bit. But once we put it on with the snow gear, we didn't need to alter it. Alina rocked the costume just the way it was.

After the trunk or treat, I let David knock a few doors while Alina warmed up in the back seat and I drove along with David. I thought Alina had fallen asleep in her carseat, until she passed up a piece of candy that she couldn't unwrap by herself. Upon turning around, I found that her fingers were capable of opening most of the sugary goodness on her own. Alina, didn't your mother ever teach you to let her eat all the best stuff sort it before you eat your halloween candy? Apparently she missed that part. She was happy as a sugar plum fairy in a cozy green care bear suit.

As for David, he was his independent self at the trunk or treat. Daddy stayed home with a stomach bug, so I was on my own. Passing out candy, hanging on to my care bear in an ice skating rink of a parking lot and keeping up with David proved to be too much. I finally handed my candy bowl over to be passed out by someone else, and held tightly to Alina after she took a nasty slip (good thing she was so well padded, or that fall from feet to back would have ruined our night). When it was time to pack up, I put Alina in her carseat, turned the car on for warmth, and went to find David. After several minutes of going from car to car (and a bit of a panic, wondering whose trunk he had climbed into) I finally found him inside the church hallway, with his candy spread out all around him. Apparently Alina wasn't the only one that missed the message of my lecture on saving the candy for the house. Thankfully, the trunk or treat is a group of friends that we associate with so their bags were safer than if we had just been going around to strangers.