Weekend on the Farm

We had a beautiful weekend on Megan and Keith's farm. Thanks again to Megan and Keith for sharing themselves and their slice of heaven with us. We got quite relaxed and cozy there, sharing in each other's leftovers from Thanksgiving. Megan always has lots of fun stuff around for the kids to play with and we enjoy sleeping in the Hawthorne Room and the River Room. We were super-spoiled, as usual, with yummy cocktails and mocktails at cocktail hour and homemade treats such as biscuits Megain whipped out on Sunday morning. Saturday night Arlene made the most amazing pizzas (using Megan's secret recipe). I'm going to try to reproduce them soon. Richard taught Lucy to make Japanese lanterns out of paper. You can see in the last picture that she has mastered this skill. The lanterns are now decorating our Christmas tree, set over the white lights as Richard had suggested.

Pictures coming soon of our tree, which the kids picked out on Sunday after we got home. Jasper and Lucy were so happy last night as Rob brought down all the Christmas decorations and they cranked up the Christmas tunes as they decorated the tree. Jasper kept wondering when we were going to "trim" the tree...

Jasper is covering his ears in the first couple of pictures because we were near the guys who were using chainsaws to chop up dead trees for firewood. Lucy helped them unload.

A Happy Biker

Perhaps Lucy was a little late to this game, but now she's a player... Up and biking on two wheels. It was literally as if a switch were flipped and she suddenly got it. Last Saturday, after less than a minute of Rob holding her shoulders, she just said, "Daddy, you can let go." End of story. Rob called me at home, I ran over the park, Lucy came around the track on her bike with the biggest ear-to-ear grin I've seen on her face ever...

Vashon Pictures

Today we played outside, we bought some clothes, I recovered somewhat from being awake yesterday for 19 hours! Megan woke me up at the farm at 3:45 am on Saturday morning, with the coffee already brewing so we could catch our 5:30 train in Wenatchee. Bless Keith and Megan for not only hosting us for three days but also having to rise that early themselves. Yikes! Anyway, then we had the other Browns for dinner on Saturday night, which I'm glad we didn't cancel, because we really needed to hang out with them, drink delicious red wine, eat yummy cheeses, pulled pork tacos, did I mention brownies? All Rob's doing, by the way... But we were all a little wiped today... Rob has picked up lots of slack, letting me sleep in until 8:30 and then go to Nia dance class too... And then we're back to it this week with the school and work schedules, lunches to make, playdates to have, hello mini-van.
Here are a couple pics Rob took during our Vashon day.

Fun

Lucy and Jasper, giddy with sunshine. No one can say these kids don't know how to have a good time...

What it is

I have been down the rabbit hole for the last few weeks, really, trying yet again to sort out what to do for school for Lucy. The date is coming to sign up or not for Waldorf school again. She has had such a wonderful year in Waldorf kindergarten, but so far, what I've decided is that it is over, Grover. Lucy and I are both intrigued with the idea of homeschooling and we want to give it a try. I would not be flying blind on this: I will buy a curriculum called Enki. It is inspired by many Waldorf principles, but adds in a more conscious focus on multiculturalism and old-fashioned skill building - two areas that have always felt lacking to me in Waldorf. If we choose to bail out of homeschooling, chances are very high we'd head right back to Waldorf. The Steiner school's holistic view of the child, the "slow school" phenomenon of spending more time learning deeply than teaching to a standardized test, cultivating a love and reverence for nature and imagination; that stuff and more really fits our family's values. This decision could, and very well may, change at a moment's notice too... So that has been my obsession; the rest of the family is going about their usual business. Here are some pics: