Liya needs to retrieve something from her school locker, and Jan happens to be with her. He snaps this picture of the inside of her locker. The strip of lined paper just above the small green-bordered whiteboard has a series of glyphs on it. The glyphs are a code Liya uses to remember what classes she has on any given day of her middle school’s two week cycle.
All three girls have now joined Jan in playing the video game, “The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild”. While Jan doesn’t normally endorse long periods of watching TV, running around collectively solving puzzles in the game feels like a qualitatively different experience. A bit of post-dinner Zelda playing becomes a regular evening activity.
We finally have a nice spring day, so Jan goes for a short hike up Little Mt. Si near North Bend, WA.
Moxie found a sunny spot on the stair landing between the 1st and 2nd floors.
Jan and Bree are on their own for dinner, and go out to eat at Vendemmia, a great Italian place in Madrona we keep forgetting to go back to. Jan keeps making Bree laugh, eventually making her laugh so hard that she keeps dribbling water down her chin whenever she tries to take a drink.
As each of our girls has passed through 3rd grade, we’ve tried to bid on a school auction item offered by their 3rd grade teacher: a day of sandcastle building. The teacher’s a competitive sand sculptor, and we’ve thought it would make for a fun day. We’ve always been outbid. This year we assembled a bidding syndicate with the families of three of Bree’s friends, and finally won the item. Siblings are invited to join, so Anya and Liya get to participate as well.
As luck would have it, we have perfect weather for the event at Seattle’s Golden Gardens Park.
The most interesting sand sculpting technique we learn is how to build arches. We build lots of them.
Anya’s girls Ultimate Frisbee team finishes their season with an afternoon party. Parents are encouraged to attend — and join a series of pickup Ultimate games. Jan joins in, and is exhausted after five minutes but keeps playing. After 20+ years since last playing Ultimate, he’s very happy to not collapse on the field.
Anya’s frisbee technique has come a long way in the past year, and she’s a much more consistent thrower and catcher. She runs well, so she’s usually assigned the role of running deep down the field in hopes of catching a long throw.
Jan’s sister Skye comes up for the weekend from Oregon with Jared, their son Leif, and their new baby boy, Auden. We’re delighted to meet Auden for the first time — he’s 8 weeks old!
We make a visit to the Seattle Aquarium. Leif’s favorite spot is the touch tank.
We take a walk through the forest in Seward Park, then along the lake, ending up at the large playground.
The crossing flags at the Madison Street crosswalk give Leif the power to stop big cars.
Liya gives a lot of thought to what she’ll do for today’s Crazy Hair Day at school. She settles on a large top braid that pulls most of her hair back except for three pony tails in front — two on the right side. One of the right pony tails then crosses over her forehead, where it merges with the left one and hangs down. It’s pretty crazy.
Liya eventually consents to photo documentation of this hairstyle as long as the photo is not shared online. You’ll have to use your imagination.