Parentheticals

On Tuesday Alison and the kids went up to silver lake for their nature group. It was rather cold down here, so Alison rustled up all of the cold weather layers that weren't packed away and put them on the kids. Then they got up there and it was snowing, and she realized that it was not enough. Sara has not outgrown her inability to deal with cold. Despite her warm clothes and carrying around a hot sweet potato she was miserable within half an hour. Then Timmy started whining too, and Gideon (just because everyone else was.) It was not the most successful nature group ever. On Wednesday Alison came down with a cold, and in an attempt to get better faster before the primary program she tried to eat no grains nor dairy the entire time. She got better in two days, so it seems to have been successful (or maybe it was just a blessing). On Friday we went to the Stromberg's house for dinner. The kids played, and the parents talked, and it was very fun. I dropped off the 3d prin

We missed posting last week, so this post will cover two weeks. Last weekend we went up to Silver Lake for a hike. We saw a moose in the wild, climbed on rocks and trees, took a nap in the woods, and generally enjoyed ourselves. Timmy really wants to go canoeing on the lake. I can't imagine dragging a canoe up there, but maybe one day... The kids did really well, and they hardly complained at all. After going to silver lake, the rest of the week we had a lot of meetings - Alison's calling, Mike's Board game design guild (BGDG), and Alison's writing group each claimed a weeknight. Mike tried to get his "Grab the Loot" game played with 6 players at BGDG, but there were not enough people there for that to happen. He has been preparing this game for submission to a publisher, and it wants some more playtesting at that player count. He is also trying to fit the game into a mint tin for the mint tin design contest. So far it is fitting, but he will perhap

This week Timmy has started drawing things that look more like things than like scribbles. He usually draws people and robots, and they have faces, limbs, heads, and other body parts. Sheila was gone until Wednesday, so we volunteered to keep babysitting Petra Monday and Tuesday. It's very easy to have her when we're at home; she plays happily with our kids and doesn't take much effort. Monday we picked up Grandma Julie at the airport and went to the zoo. We always love the zoo. However, this was not the best visit the grown ups have ever had. It was very hot, and Petra would wander away constantly and didn't like to hold hands. We saw the bird show and the elephant show, though, which was great. Rea finally got invited to participate in the bird show; she gave a water bottle to a cockatoo at the beginning so he could drink it and drop it, and then the trained raven picked it up and put it in the recycle bin. Rea has always raised her hand when they asked for volunt