Random Stuff

Charlotte has been studying about the native American Indians called the Coastal Tribe, who live on the west side of the Cascade Mountains. She made her own totem pole that she started in class but finished at home. And for the fun of it, she drew some symbols on her own fake animal skin for the plateau tribes.

She wrote a story with the symbols. The big symbol on bottom she made up herself and calls it "The End".

Jack had a band thing where he performed in an ensemble (the thing we had to reschedule his party for). I don't really know if it was an actual competition or how it worked but they did give advice to each group after their performance. The song they picked out was a difficult piece but they did well.

He's playing the French horn and wearing Curtis's black hat.

Last week I took the girls to the store to pick out Valentines for their classmates. We wanted to get it done while there was a good selection and before we went to Idaho. They found some fun big stuffed animals. I wouldn't buy them, but they wanted a picture all the same. Alice also wanted to pick out a gift for me since Charlotte had got me something the day before. Charlotte picked out a small box of chocolates and Alice picked out a purple orchid. I love that they wanted to give me something.

I did buy the suckers for the girls but not the stuffed animals. 

She knew purple was one of my favorite colors.

Alice finally decided to try brushing her hair for the first time. She did a good job but she hasn't tried again since.

I was teaching her to bring her hair to the side to brush.

After celebrating Jack's birthday on Sunday the 4th, I decided to start my new puzzle. I can't believe how big it is! It went to the very top and bottom edges of my puzzle mat. Because of that, I couldn't roll it up without it falling apart and some pieces falling out. We had it on the mat on top of a folding table in the living room for about a week. I covered it with a sheet to protect it from the cats while we went out of town. After we returned, the girls forgot it was under there and scooted it over to place something on the table. I finally decided that maybe now wasn't the right time to start this puzzle. I feel like I don't really have a lot of time to work on it. I can easily do a 100-500 piece puzzle in a day or two but a 2000 piece puzzle is going to take a lot more time and I feel like there's so many other things that take priority right now. I bagged up all of the edge pieces to put together later so I wouldn't have to dig them out again. Milo tried to eat one piece that fell to the floor but luckily I got it out of his mouth before it got damaged.

Maybe I'll have to take this puzzle on vacation this summer. We're renting a cabin near Couer d Alene and will be going to Silverwood and looking to do other things as well. This will make up for having to cancel our cabin at Christmas.