Friday, December 23, 2011

RIP Fifty

We came back from the cabin last weekend to find Fifty the fish lying on the bottom of his tank. Fin was determined that he should have all the funeral rites so took charge of the arrangements.


Fifty was buried under the path, with a short but moving ceremony. The eulogy was read by Fin.



A rose will blossom
a flower will fall
but this fish is better than them all
kittens will run
kites will fly
but 50 was good
rest in peace.

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Strike up the band


Both boys performed in music concerts at school last week - so we got the chance to hear Adam playing the trombone with the entire Brass ensemble. Adam is back row third from left.


He had previously told us that it sounded a lot better when all the brass instruments played together - and it was true - the effect was actually pretty good. Interesting demographic - out of the 30 or so 5th grade brass players, there were 3 girls.


We also got to see Fin lip-sync some songs with the 3rd grade.  He had told us in advance that he was not going to sing - which is a shame as he sings all the time at home.

Fin is far left on the 2nd row, in grey and white striped top.



Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Eleven in eleven


 There are eleven days left in 2011...and we recently celebrated an 11th birthday! Adam requested being woken early to start the celebrations.


He was thrilled with all his presents and immediately set off to school on his present from us. Yet another scooter (apparently this is different from the scooter he already has - but looks pretty similar to me!)


Once they got back from school we had the obligatory cake.  Eleven  candles generates quite a blaze!


I did give Adam a free pass on his homework - but he decided that he would rather complete it - proud mother moment there!  However it didn't take long and he was back outside on his scooter until dark.

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Timber!

Its that time of year again: We went to Castle Rock Christmas Tree Farm again, but this time they were only harvesting White Fir - so in addition to choosing a nice tree, we had to select only from the white firs (and also identify one!).  This is the tree we chose, and Adam and Fin cut it down.



It appears that white firs are a more dense wood than Douglas Fir, and it was hard to cut, and also heavy.  As the trunk was almost sawn through Fin said he would hold the tree while the final cut was made. This photo taken just as he was saying "I've got it!"...



 This was the tree they had their eyes on..luckily it's not a White Fir - so we were not able to harvest it.


The eagle eyed will notice that Fin is wearing 2 different checked clothes items and a pink cashmere scarf...apparently it was colder than he expected...

Monday, December 12, 2011

Eclipse

Fin, Nigel, and I got up at 5:45 on Saturday to watch the Lunar Eclipse. It was actually rather marvellous, we watched the moon disappear behind the earth's shadow and glow a large luminous, rusty, red.

I do think I need lessons with my new camera. This was the best photo I got: 


The moon is there at the top of our street - as you can see we had an excellent view of the eclipse.
Most of the photos I took looked more like this:



Tuesday, December 06, 2011

Nine

Fin celebrated his ninth birthday. It was a fun-filled day.  It coincided with the town's annual Christmas Parade in which the scouts push each other on go-carts. They always enjoy it - and it was a lovely sunny day so the crowds were out!

We had lunch at our favourite restaurant - Nigel and I are drinking Margaritas purely for restorative purposes - all those cubs are tiring you know!













When we got home Fin tried out the Chemistry set he got for his birthday and created a physics experiment with the results! 



Finally - there was cake. Banana cake this time.
Fin shown here modeling the chef's coat he got as a gift.

Friday, December 02, 2011

School spirit

Adam thoroughly embraces the concept of 'school spirit'.  The school had a crazy hair day last week and Adam is here modeling his creation: the 'po-hawk' (portmanteau word combining Pony tail and Mohawk*).

Fin appropriately enough chose 2 'horns' of hair!



*Interestingly (or maybe not) this hairstyle was always called a Mohican in my youth - or maybe just in the UK - but here it's called a Mohawk.