Quote of the Week:
Me: (showing a puzzle piece). This piece with the polar bear on it is Alaska. That’s where Grandpa grew up.
N: Did the polar bear eat Grandpa’s hair?
On Sunday, we went for a family hike at a former ferry crossing called Cleo’s Ferry, which has the estimable designation of being one of the strangest and loveliest places I have yet visited. The ferry no longer runs, but this whimsical property and nature walk is filled with strange statues, scenes from the life of Jesus, a tiny chapel, a giant rainbow, and other unique touches that put it outside of my powers of description.
The wind was howling and still the kids pressed us to climb the overwhelming hillside to reach the rainbow at the end. “There’s no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothes!” we repeated in chorus — while wearing a range of clothing ill-suited to the gale force winds. (I am trying to adopt this motto from our Swedish heritage, but my Hawaiian upbringing is battling for dominance and inwardly cheering the 70 degree days forecasted next week.) We paused in the single-person chapel for warmth about halfway up. I thought the wind my blow us off the hillside completely, but the kids insisted on following the trail to the rainbow at the top.
One the way, we noticed the ground littered with deer tracks and eventually spotted six deer grazing below us before the kids’ excited yelps frightened them away. We followed them through a gnome-littered fairy garden and past still scenes of children playing, a ceramic menagerie, park benches with famous figures, and an abandoned ferry town back to the parking lot swarming with peacocks in full display.
Our favorite sign (there were MANY) was the one indicating how much Cleo’s late husband had loved the solitude of his walks on his property along the river. So naturally, his grieving widow filled it with oddities and opened it up to the public to draw as many visitors as possible. We had a good time musing about the nature of their relationship.
We headed home and warmed up by snuggling on the couch and watching a National Geographic documentary on the Grand Canyon (did you know they have swimming rattle snakes?).
This week was a bit rough due to another flare up of my autoimmune disease, so we mostly took it easy, playing our 50 states matching game, decorating for Easter and doing Easter crafts, practicing fractions with our fraction chart, and listening to Peter Rabbit, the Magic School Bus, The Velveteen Rabbit, and The Magic Treehouse audiobooks.
We also played in the rain and got out to a nature preserve with friends one morning, gathering snail shells, crossing streams and beaver dams, and cracking the thin ice remaining on the pond.
We have 3 different US puzzles and the kids have all spontaneously gotten them out multiple times this week and are beginning to memorize the map through play, which tickles me in how much this activity has exceeded my expectations for them.
We had one magical morning of candlelit morning time (we call it “tea time”), and no one lit themselves on fire or burned down the house (not for lack of trying), which I consider a success and will be repeating. C was late to the party several mornings because she was up all night devouring Junie B. Jones and The Picture Bible (separate books, but not a bad title idea!). Hard to want to punish that one, but we will be waking her at 8 am from here on out.
We also implemented “Fun Friday” this week, where we begin by selecting a piece of famous artwork to copy and follow with gameschooling, popcorn storytime, and TV school.
Now that I’ve listed it all out, the week doesn’t sound like such a loss after all. It was, in fact, quite magical.
