Pretty much the whole house is sick. This is the first time since having kids that both Jan and Angela have been sick at the same time. “Ugh… Can you get the kids.” “cough Ugh… No, can you?”
Liya gets a chocolate Easter bunny with extra-long ears from grandma.
Anya’s class made a huge hallway mural depicting a village called Golden Valley. Anya added a snow-covered mountain with a ski resort, complete with a ski rental shop and a fondue restaurant.
Liya and Anya have discovered that they can scramble up into the magnolia tree in our front yard. They can go very high.
Sabriya attends her first ever birthday party to celebrate the third birthday of a co-op preschool classmate. She’s not sure why she’s allowed to eat jellybeans before lunch but is completely okay with that.
On a gorgeous spring morning, Jan and Liya get to enjoy a nice brunch together downtown at Etta’s in Pike Place Market.
Angela’s parents E-moon and Cheng-nan are visiting us for a week while Anya and Liya have spring break. Sabriya loves her A-gon (grandfather) and insists on sitting next to him at every meal.
Jan’s brother Chris comes up to Seattle for a short weekend visit. Jan, Chris, and their mom Lyn enjoy a nice hike at Tiger Mountain in Issaquah.
Sabriya is “Star of the Week” at her co-op preschool down by the lake, which means she gets to invite people as guests. On Tuesday she brings her friend Towa Nakanishi. On Thursday, she brings… Jan, who otherwise hasn’t made it to her co-op preschool this year.
Bree gets to pick a song for the other kids to hear. Most parents just bring a CD of their kid’s favorite song. Bree requests that Jan sing one of her current favorites: “The Monkey and the Engineer”, a folk song about a monkey who takes off with his owner’s train. This surely makes Bree the only kid at co-op who has requested a song covered by the Grateful Dead.
Bree’s preschool celebrates Earth Day by going into the park to clean up litter. Being Madison Park, the park is nearly spotless even before we get there. Undeterred, the teacher dutifully hands out little latex gloves for all the kids to wear as they collect trash.
Amount of trash collected: about 1/4 lb.
Amount of trash created by large pile of used latex gloves: about 1/2 lb.
We share our nanny Siri with our friends the Daltons, who leave their boy Jack with us twice a week. Sabriya and Jack are great friends.
Today’s schedule is a little unusual, and we have to drop Jack off at his house, which we’ve never done before. Angela parks in front, then Jan goes up the stairs with Jack and rings the bell. Jan and Jack are waiting there for a minute, when Jack mentions, “This isn’t my house.”
Oops. His house would be next door.
Anya and Liya have spent the last few days digging worms out our backyard. Angela points out that a 1 pint Tupperware container is not a proper home for worms, so we decide to assemble a real composting worm bin. Jan finds some do-it-yourself plans off the Internet, takes the girls to the hardware store for parts, and oversees the construction. Anya is concerned about making sure both girls get the same opportunities to use the cordless drill to drill holes in the bins. Even Bree helps a bit when it comes time to lay down some wet shredded newspaper for bedding. We finish before dinner, and move the worms into their new home!