Snoopy has had good days and bad days health-wise. One day, after he got a bath, he was particularly eager to go out in the front yard and spend some time wandering around, so we put the leash on him to make sure he didn't wander away and get confused about where he was and become lost. For a few minutes, it was like he was a much younger beagle on his daily walk.
He is a good boy and gets lots of cuddles (at least for the few minutes he is not sleeping).
In February, Lydia's Girl Scout troop went ice skating at a local outdoor rink set up in the middle of a shopping plaza. Tanja and the kids were brave and put on skates to work their way around the rink, while I braved the cold on the sidelines and took pictures. Here's Karina:
This was around the time of the Olympics, and Lydia decided she loved ice skating with possible dreams of being in the Olympics herself. The girls watched recorded programs of the Olympic figure skating competitions with a new appreciation for how hard those athletes work to do their routines.
They had a few "sliding whales" to help new skaters with their balance, as well as to give kids something to sit on and scoot or be pushed across the ice. It was tricky to get your hands on one of these, and once you did, you didn't want to let it go. Derek liked being pushed around.
Lydia had a turn too.
Poor Snoopy is patient enough that he doesn't complain about being dressed up as Princess Snoopy.
Derek turned 6 in March and was understandably excited and impatient for his birthday to come.
One of his biggest excitements was that he got to go to Target and pick out one of his own presents. After months of saying he wanted a pirate-themed birthday party (and after we had bought many pirate-themed activities and supplies), he threw a curve ball and wanted dinosaur stuff instead. He was ultimately satisfied with a few dinosaur accents and made sure to pick out a toy Jurassic Park pentaceratops at Target for his present that he chose for himself.
The girls were great big sisters and he loved having a day when everyone wanted to play with him.
Here's our happy Pirate Derek birthday boy.
He had a chocolate cake with M&Ms all around - the perfect cake for this six-year-old.
Derek also invited a few friends from school and the neighborhood over to our house for his pirate-themed birthday party. For one of the activities, since he insisted on having dinosaurs incorporated too, the kids went on a treasure hunt to find treasure where each clue was guarded by a toy dinosaur. I had fun putting it together, but it's hard when you have kids as old as Karina (since some of the kids came with older siblings) as well as young as Derek.
As much fun as the planned activities and crafts were, honestly I think the kids liked the unstructured time where they could just run around and play more. At the end, we brought out our big tug-of-war rope and went through several rounds with different teams pulling each other and that was a big hit.
Above: Derek with Samuel behind him. Below are Aydin and Elinor.
Silly Lydia making a mask out of a tortilla.
I had a good birthday too (turning much older than 6). Tanja made a delicious coconut cream pie for me, and the kids thought it was tasty too (to my pleasure and dismay as it meant that they learned to like something new but also less for me).
In April, Tanja got to go with Karina's class on a field trip to Mount Vernon (George Washington's restored plantation). Fifth graders get to do cool field trips! Orly, Karina, and Mabel squished themselves into one seat on the long drive both there and back.
Below is the group that Tanja and Mabel's mom chaperoned at Mount Vernon, with George Washington's house in the background. The building toward the right was the kitchens.
School pictures for Derek in Kindergarten and Karina in 5th grade. Lydia never came home with her school picture.
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