The bright side of cold climates...no ghosts!

With Halloween fast approaching, Cedric and Blake have been thinking (and worrying) about ghosts, goblins, and witches.  I overheard them talking about ghosts while driving home one day.  Blake and Cedric made up their mind that ghosts only like warm weather and since it was cold here, there were no ghosts.  

No ghosts = nothing to be afraid of!  

Cedric's stitches are out!

Cedric is all smiles today.  His stitches are out!  Yea!  It looks like the scar will be minimal too!  Double yea!  :-)

The Three Amoosegos

At times there have been four bull moose in our backyard.  Mostly, these three have been eating, fighting, and generally hanging out in our neighborhood for the last 3 weeks.  I just can't believe how lucky we have been.  It is very unusual to see bull moose and they are usually solitary creatures.  During the rut, which is now, obviously, moose are known to give up eating. These three have been eating plenty.  In fact, today, they nibbled on our bushes, dying flowers, and the carrots that I haven't fully harvested.  They only ate the greens, I'll just have to dig up the roots.  

The next two pictures show the two larger moose deciding whose in charge.  Guess who won? Here the bigger moose is pushing hard against the middle sized moose.  I got some of it on video and will be adding it later.   Video of the moose battle: A few weeks ago, it was warm, sunny and nice.  I was home because we were having a window repaired.  I'm soooo glad I HAD to stay home.  :-)

Mugging for the picture are the smallest and the biggest of the three moose.   This was before the little moose realized he didn't have a chance.  LOL 

In this picture, the Big moose gave the little moose some rut lessons.  First you lock horns, then you push.  The big guy wasn't really pushing hard.  I think he knew this young bull wasn't a threat.  

Big moose takes a rest.  It's hard work being a teacher.  

Blake is 4!!!!

My "baby" is now 4!  He is so proud of being 4.  "I'm big now because I'm 4!"  "I can dress myself now because I'm 4."  etc etc.  

It's all good.  :-)  

Blake's birthday party was at Arctic Gymnastics.  Imagine 16 kids running around with crazed excitement.  It was really hard to get good pictures and I was using the fast setting on the camera.  This first picture captures the mood of the day perfectly.  See the first blur...that's Blake.  LOL Running on the trampoline "path". Video of the trampoline "path": Foam pit wars.  The older kids ended up here the whole time.  The kids wore the parents out.  Mission accomplished.  LOL

Cedric "burried" in foam.  

One of Blake's friends testing out his "climb the rope" skills.  Well, he perfected the "hang on the rope" technique.   Same friend also perfecting his balance beam routine.   And another friend tested out his bouncing and jumping skills on the ever popular trampoline.  Bounce bounce bounce...

We played a few parachute games to settle the kids down right before cake time.  

Blake was shy and didn't want to play parachute.  The teachers at Arctic Gymnastics did a great job to get him into it.  They let him play "shark" where he went under the parachute and touched someone's leg bringing them under the parachute, then both of them become sharks and so on until everyone is under the parachute.  Fun fun fun.   Video of the shark game: Ah yes...cake time!  Jumping, running, and climbing is fun; but this is what it's all about.  

Grandma Pat thought it would be a good idea to put groups of 4 candles all around the cake since it was such a big cake.  As you can see in the next picture, Blake needed some help to blow all those candles out.  

Everyone had a great time.  Blake is 4.  Next stop 6, so he can be just like his brother.  :-)  

Emergency Room Visit #432

Ok it's not the 432nd time we've been to the emergency room.  It just seems like it.  We are becoming so familiar with the ER it seems we could find our way with our eyes closed.  

So anyway, why were we there?  A picture speaks a thousand words.  Below are the before stitches and after stitches pictures.  Yes, stitches.  Six of them.  Three inside and three outside.  Poor guy.  

How did he hurt himself?  He got into a fight on the playground and ended up pushed into a metal post.  The moral of this tale for Cedric is fighting ends up with someone getting hurt. Hopefully, this lesson will sink in. 

Cedric's first day at Rilke Schule

Gutan tag!  Good day!

Cedric is now attending Rilke Schule an Anchorage School District German Immersion Charter School.  Cedric loved Bayshore and his teacher was really nice.  He just needed more of a challenge and we think Rilke Schule can provide it.  Still...the first morning was a little hard.  I took this picture of Cedric in his new school.  The second picture is the look I got when I asked for a smile.  LOL  By the end of the day, Cedric was all smiles and talking excitedly about what he had learned.  I took Cedric to say goodbye to his Bayshore teacher.  She was very excited that he enjoyed his new school.   Cedric told her what he learned.  He learned that "mit" in German means "my".  Mit Mama, Mit Dada, Mit brother!  :-)   Needless to say, I will be taking the German adult classes because I don't want my children speaking a language I don't know.  

Nelson experiences caught on video!

Blake and Cedric play on a see saw at a Seward playground. Peppy and the wrist band. You fierce hunter you. Mama moose and baby moose in our backyard. The baby moose came running up to investigate us. I took this video through the window because I didn't want to scare them off. I just never get tired of moose in the backyard. I don't even mind sharing my lettuce and snap peas.