Right up until I wrote my 2014 Christmas letter, these two goofballs were not getting along—with about 90% of the fault lying at Piper’s feet…or fists.  And then a corner was turned.  She no longer whined about not being an only child and she spent more and more time playing with each sibling.

Dwayne and I were thrilled.

Until we were not.

Turns out Piper playing well with Wesley causes more chaos, strife, and negative consequences than ignoring him.  These two wind each other up like a Tazmanian devils on cotton candy crack. 

But they take memorable pictures.  Piper wanted to know if she looked like she was smiling in this one.

 

The eyes say aye!

After a year of Vision Therapy, Kyla graduated today! Technically, I don’t think she would have graduated if I hadn’t already stated we wouldn’t continue another unit (12 week session), but she has mastered all the skills except horizontal tracking, which seems to be a dyslexia problem, not a vision problem.  Her eyes getting tired really easily, too, but we might as well wear them out reading than doing eye exercises.  Regardless, I’m really proud of Kyla.  The girl has an impressive work ethic and, with her fantastic therapist, gets full credit for achieving this one! (I’ll be taking the credit for any improvement Wesley shows—at age 5, he’s not exactly a self-starter for things he should be doing.)

A few years ago, I unwittingly started a tradition I can’t keep up with—April Fools “jokes” for my kids, usually involving food that looks like another type of food that my kids LOVE…except for the eating part.  So I’m kind of over it.

But the kids aren’t.

So after registering their disappointment upon my forewarning of no surprises, I ended up doing some last minute shopping at 10pm to come up with something.

 

This is what it is supposed to look like:

This is what it looks like with 10 minutes at Target to find a wheat-free substitutes:

But is basically cookies and candy being held together with frosting.  Party on, Kids. 

Dwayne’s parents, Dick and Darlene, were finally able to stop by for a quick visit this evening!  With Darlene’s brother, they drove up from CA and made a quick stop on our side of the mountains before going to Spokane for a few months.  We’ll get them longer than 5 hours in June! 

But the generations quickly reconnected.

See you this summer, G & G!

It’s spring, which mostly means my winter quarter is over.  It was only one class, but it was an extra 10-20 hours a week since January.  Most of the 11 hats I wear at school had to be put on during this time, as well, including Book Fair Chair, Literacy Night Chair (cleverly done at the EXACT SAME TIME!), Book Club chair, and then lots and lots of little things that are small enough until they have to be done.

My favorite part of today is that Kyla had her vision progress report and in two weeks, she’s going to graduate from the program!  This is great news, because we were going to be done regardless of today’s results, but Kyla gets to feel that all her hard work paid off.  It’s also one more thing off my plate.  Which is good, because I have lots of possibilities lined up to jump right back on said plate!

Over the next week, my goal is to fill in some of the empty spaces of winter, 2015, so expect random back-dated posts for a while.  I’ll move forward soon!

3.1415

[Dwayne demonstrates to Kyla how pi was calculated before calculators.]

 

 

 

I at least know pi out to 4 decimal places now, thanks to this particularly special Pi Day!  To celebrate, Dwayne and I tackled an American Test Kitchen recipe for Chicken Pot Pie…and it was scrumptious!  (Full disclosure, I did not make, nor do I intend to ever make, my own pie crust when I can so easily buy it in the refrigerated section of any grocery store.  For the kids, I used gluten-free biscuits.)

 

We invited Mom, Dad, and Jim over to celebrate with us.  For being NPR listeners, my parents somehow did not  know about Pi  Day, which really means they need to stop listening to the jazz part of their preferred station.

I am no idiot, because my mom came with one of her famous homemade pumpkin pie, and a crustless one for my GF kids, and Jim brought the wine. 

Seriously, Pi Day should come around more often (Saturdays work particularly nicely!).  What a great evening!

 

Hmm, was the camera stealing nips from my wine glass?  This is the only picture I got of our tribe.

We were efficiently celebrating Piper and Wesley’s birthday, when I turned the camera around and snapped Mom and me.  She didn’t notice at first.

 

So I tried again.  She noticed.

 

Dad is a much better sport!

As of 8:30 this morning, my girl has braces!  Well, at least 4 braces.  More importantly, she has an expander behind those teeth that I use a key to widen a notch every night.  The next 6 weeks will be fun for both of us!

Back in January, on Wesley’s birthday in fact, we were at the cabin to celebrate.  We brought Parker and Cecily (ages almost 4.5 and 2.5, respectively) along since the cousins love spending time together.  We spent hours at Castle Park on a fairly mild winter day, doing our best to wear the kids out. 

Wesley and Parker amused me by putting a slide show.  It took me an embarrassingly long time to stop thinking PowerPoint and start thinking PlayGround.  Here are some of their favorite slides:

One of their favorite slides is the Skate Park.  The concrete is smooth, but still concrete.  Here’s a shot of Piper’s favorite pants after a rousing game of “Tiger Escape” on the skate ramps:

Well, we bought them used and Kyla had already gotten full wear out of them long before Piper got them to this state.

Cecily is no longer “Baby Cecily” as she keeps up well with all the shenanigans the other kids get into.  She still needs help from Uncle Dwayne to escape the tiger cage.

Look, Piper is letting Kyla hold her hand!  I consider Piper physically affectionate, but that’s mostly towards me. Usually, she is just physical. 

 

Parker and Cecily fell asleep in Dwayne’s car before he even got to the ferry, slept through the transfer to Julie, the transfer to bed, and slept until morning. You’re welcome, Keith and Julie!