Lena is SEVEN!

Lena was not the only one thankful to have a much more "normal" birthday this year. While last year's birthday quarantine was certainly memorable, it was so nice to enjoy the day in accordance with the birthday girl's expectations.

And expectations did she have! I have always appreciated Lena's decisiveness (mostly because I'm usually indecisive), and in the case of her birthday, it took the guesswork out of how to celebrate. Her first grade sense of justice coupled with her adherence to "how things ought to be," dictated that we follow our typical birthday rituals with little deviation. And that was perfectly fine with me.

Speaking of first grade, Lena is doing great in school. I love hearing about all the goings-on in her classroom, like who sits at whose table and what books she got to check out in the library. She is fully a reader now, magically moving from merely sounding out words to devouring chapter books in a flash. She recently described her personality as "reading and art," which make it clear where her interests lie.

One of the arts that she continues to participate in is ballet. This year, she got to join her sister on the big stage for Nut Remix where she made her debut as the cutest mouse ever. Lena also graduated to a bigger bike and can move pretty fast on that and on her scooter...when she wants to, of course.

January 19th landed on a Thursday this year, which meant that Lena got to celebrate with her friends at school. But first was the customary special breakfast and the annual socks-and-underwear gift. After school, she convinced me to take me to take her to a favorite bakery and insisted that we eat our treats outside just like we did last time (two years ago). The girl has a good memory.

Birthday treats in the sunshine

We then snuck in a quick sheep photo shoot, lest we forget that sacred tradition. Again with the good memory, Lena made sure to get things set up exactly right. We went to dinner at a new(ish) barbecue joint in our neighborhood, which was a great birthday meal for our little carnivore, and then came home for cake and presents from family.

In all her birthday glory

The celebrating continued into the weekend with a birthday tea party on the deck. Elsa and a friend were excellent hostesses, leading the girls through a craft and joining them for hot chocolate (in fancy tea cups, of course) and snacks. Fortunately, the rain held off that afternoon, so the girls--in all their tea party finery--were able to play at the park and burn off some of the energy they gained from the butterfly cupcakes.

Everything about the occasion was simply lovely, much like the birthday girl herself!

 

Erik is THREE!

For the third time, we have a "three-nager" on our hands. Erik is definitely living his best toddler life right now, although he detests it when we call him "Todd" for short when he gets into one of those moods. He is growing more into himself every day, and it truly is a delight to be a part of his world.

While he is certainly growing into his "tackle guy" genes, he is also growing socially, emotionally, and intellectually. His language has exploded, his memory is impressive, and he is legitimately funny. As the youngest, he knows how to work an audience (and maybe get away with more than he should), but he is also teaching his sisters the futility of arguing with a toddler.

Erik has continued attending Parents Day Out/preschool two days a week, and we have settled into our schedule of school, DeNeuville (Learning Center, where I continue to teach adult education classes), "adventure day," mom-and-me exercise classes, and errands. He is very laid-back--except when he's having one of the aforementioned toddler moments--and is happiest when digging and driving trucks. One of the highlights for this year was getting to "drive" a real-life excavator when the house next door was torn down.

Another highlight, of course, was his birthday, which was a big one. Erik turned three on the third and truly lived it up on his Golden Birthday. The day began with much celebrating from all members of the family and a special breakfast of pancakes with whipped cream.

November 3rd fell on an adventure Thursday, so once we hustled the girls to school, we were free to indulge Erik in his favorites. We started with some digging time, of course, and then headed to the botanic gardens for...more digging. There is literally a giant pile of dirt with trucks and shovels, and is one of Erik's happy places. While there, we explored some new areas and even serendipitously ran into some friends.

Erik in his natural habitat

We then met Jon for a patio lunch on that beautiful fall day and made it home with plenty of time to frost a birthday cake and have a sheep photo shoot. Since Biggest Sister still had ballet class in the afternoon, we planned a birthday dinner--another outdoor meal--at the pizza place next to the studio. We closed out the day with cake and ice cream and reading/playing with some of the wonderful gifts from family.

Who is this big boy?

But there was more celebrating to be had! For the first time, Erik got to have a real birthday party. On the following Saturday, some friends joined us at the house for hot dogs, park time, and "dirt cake" (complete with gummy worms) made lovingly by Elsa and Lena. The party was even more special because Erik's birthday twin was an honored guest.

I think it's safe to say that Erik will be basking in the glow of his Golden Birthday for a long time to come!

Salvaging Fall Break

We all know that the "best laid plans...often go awry," and our fall break this year was no exception. We had hoped to take one last camping trip before the weather got cold, but fortunately we had not yet gotten so far as to actually make those plans when we were struck with the flu. All of us, one by one like dominoes.

It all started about a week prior when Elsa came home from school complaining of a headache. She clearly didn't feel well, but since she had a playdate scheduled, she tried valiantly to carry on. We spent as much time as we could outside, but ultimately ended things a little early (just to assuage my own guilt, I will assert that had I known Elsa likely had the flu, I would have ended the playdate immediately).

The next morning, Lena joined her sister on her sickbed. It wasn't until later in the week when Jon wasn't feeling good that we began to suspect the flu. Early October is very early for flu season, but I guess we're just advanced.

My body waited until the kids were out of school Friday to succumb to my inevitable fate when I quickly realized that Jon and I couldn't both be sick with three kids at home, who by this point were feeling better and stir-crazy, so I had my suspicions confirmed at Urgent Care and started Tamiflu right away.

All of this to say that we were not going camping.

In our experience, the flu this year was brutal, much worse than our bout(s) with Covid, so even after we were "better," we were still pretty tired and not up for an intense vacation experience. However, we still wanted and needed to get out of town, so we took off for a couple of days and found a cabin in our family favorite Mountain View, Arkansas.

I still had to teach on Wednesday (which would have limited our camping plans anyway), so on Thursday morning, we headed west. We have stayed in Mountain View a couple of times, so we revisited some favorite activities and tried some new ones.

After our arrival on Thursday, we immediately went and checked out a bridge because duh, that's what Jon likes to do on vacation. 

First stop: Historic Swinging Bridge over Sylamore Creek

We went out for dinner at a restaurant on the White River and got ready for adventure the next day. On Friday, we did a cave tour of Blanchard Springs Cavern. We had done this tour before, but many years ago, and it was just as impressive. The tour guides were great, and we even got to see the elusive cave salamander. 

I promise this is not photoshopped and actually us in a cave

We took advantage of the nice weather and hiked around Blanchard Springs for a bit before our next adventure of the day: horseback riding. Both Elsa and Lena are old enough to ride on their own horses, so Jon accompanied them and a guide on a wooded trail while Erik and I relaxed and checked out a petting zoo of sorts on the property where the trail rides began.

Erik got to ride a horse too!

As if that wasn't enough excitement for one day, we headed into town to walk around and enjoy some ice cream. Mountain View is known for its folk music, and it did not disappoint. There were multiple "jam sessions" scattered around the cute downtown square, and it was fun to sit and listen for a bit. Some of these groups were organized with the same musicians playing together often, but we definitely saw more than one person with an instrument just show up and ask to play.

 

We spent our final day in town at the Ozark Folk Center. The Craft Village was full of small buildings dedicated to a number of different types of crafts. Our favorites included the apothecary, the pottery studio, and the Old Time Print Shop. All of the artisans were more than happy to share their skills, which was both interesting and important to preserving these crafts for future generations.

 

It was time to head home after that, which we did, tired and happy to have salvaged fall break after all. And if we're lucky, we got our flu season out of the way early!