The girls enjoy a rare snow day. In the morning, Bree and Liya go into the backyard and find a hummingbird on the snowy ground. It doesn’t seem able to fly. We look up what to do on the internet, and find a recommendation to close up the bird in a box and bring it inside for an hour. We do this, then put the open box back outside. We’re relieved when we come back to find the bird has flown away.
(Later identification suggests this is a male Anna’s Hummingbird.)
Jan is interviewed by local NPR affiliate KUOW for his work on Presterity. It’s the first time he’s been in a radio station studio since college. It’s pretty fun. Radio interview: http://kuow.org/post/presterity-reference-desk-resistance
Bree nears completion of a diorama for her school class. Each student is supposed to depict an important scene from a book they’ve read. Bree choses a pivotal scene from, “Anne of Green Gables”, in which the Anne’s classmate, Gilbert Blythe, teases Anne about her red hair. In response, Anne breaks her slate over Gilbert’s head.
Anya completes her Confirmation class at Mercer Island Presbyterian Church.
Moxie is watching you.
Lately Anya and Bree have been conspiring to do their after-dinner chores together — while Anya carries Bree on her back. Anya’s arms are full holding Bree up, so Bree acts as the arms of the combined Anya/Bree unit.
It takes them a long time to do their chores, because they’re laughing so hard.
Bree and Jan bring his Digi-Comp wooden marble calculator to her 3rd grade class, and together give the class a 20 minute lesson in binary numbers and binary math. The lesson ends with a fun series of questions about whether the marble calculator can be said to be thinking, and whether there’s a difference between a computer and a brain.
Liya makes an elaborate Valentine’s Day gift for her kindergarten buddy, Vivienne. It includes a “pencil” filled with Hershey’s Kisses, a beautiful handmade and hand-lettered card, and a friendship bracelet with Vivienne’s name woven into it.
Happy Birthday, Angela! To celebrate, Jan takes the family out to eat at Poppy, a nice Indian restaurant that serves prix fixe thalis. The girls are old enough that this sort of restaurant is now feasible for celebratory occasions — although Bree still opts for buttered noodles off the kids menu. The meal is quite good, especially the desserts.
We return to Big White, BC, for a week of skiing during the girls’ mid-winter break. (It’s a small miracle that both their schools have the same week off.) On the full first day of skiing, Bree’s hair gets frosted with ice crystals. Jan calls her, “Greybeard”.
This year, Bree feels comfortable on some of the easier Expert runs. She’s getting faster, too. Liya is now as fast or faster than both Angela and Jan. Anya’s probably better than ever, but we have no way of knowing — she spends every day skiing with her friends.
A beautiful sunny morning!
Happy skiing family
Angela among the “snow ghosts” at the top of Big White.
A group photo of all the families the came up to Big White — all connected through our girls’ K–8 school.
Family ski day: Anya, Jan, Bree, Angela, Liya
Jan takes Bree and Liya ice skating.
Jan: “Hey, Bree, would you rather play ‘Snow Fairies’ or ‘Ice Monster’?”
Bree: “… Um … what are those?”
Jan: “I don’t know. Pick one and I’ll make it up.”
Bree picks Ice Monster, which is basically tag on skates, but the person who’s It has to make a yeti howl periodically. Snow Fairies is trying to daintily pirouette in place.
There’s a narrow path of ice from the main frozen pond to a smaller pond. Liya invents a third game: “Fish in the Way”. This involves lying down across the path, flopping around, and trying to prevent people from getting past.
Our cat, Moxie, is sweet but doesn’t like to be held for very long. Oddly, however, he really enjoys being put into any kind of bag, especially a cloth bag. If you put him in a bag, he’ll usually start to purr. Jan capitalizes on his preference for being suspended in an enclosed space, and makes a pouch out of the bottom of his pullover. Moxie happily stays there for a good long while.