Lake trout VS baby grayling

Fishing is one of the main activities that we engage in at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Grandpa was out waiting for a client and caught two beautiful lake trout, which the kids were fascinated with. After seeing the large lake trout every grayling was deemed a "baby fish".

Gramma giving a tutorial on lake trout cleaning, with extraordinarily attentive students.

Love the face of fishy-adoration!

Many fishing adventures await us this summer. Can't wait to hear Jade's next description on our catch!

Enjoying the moment

After 10 days on the road we are home. The kids had a great time, but didn't get the sleep they needed and last night they crashed. At about 7:30 this morning I heard Jade muttering and went to grab her.

Her warm little body cocooned against mine, she snuggled and twitched for a minute and then contentedly settled into my arms and fell asleep. Half of her blond head was wild and tangled, the other half silky soft and emanating a baby fresh scent. Her dark lashes brushed against her rosy cheek and seemed to extend out impossibly long. With eyes still closed a smile broke across her face and a giggle escaped her lips - what was this happy dream she was having? Everything about my baby seemed so little girlish, could her body really be half the length of mine already? This sweet little thing has been mine for nearly two years now and I am so grateful for these moments of bliss where I can hold her in my arms and memorize every feature - I will never get enough of them.

This morning I had nearly an hour before the "big" kid joined us and proclaimed his sister "a cutie sleeping baby." Even with the invasion she slept on completely relaxed and trusting in my care. When she finally succumb to her brother's commotion it was with a sweet and contented look that said everything was just-right in her world.

To more mornings like this one!

Father's Day Fun

The day started with a fabulous meaty-"Dad"-kind of breakfast. Then it was decision time, since it was a gorgeous Sunday in Fairbanks we decided that the best way to celebrate Dad's day was a trip to Chena Lakes with the kids. We rented a canoe ($6 per hour!!) and paddled all over the lake. We visited "private" beaches, re-learned how to paddle in-sync and saw geese and ducks families out everywhere. Lunch was a little less deluxe: PB&J on the beach. No trip to North Pole is complete without a visit to Santa Clause House, unfortunately Santa didn't come in until later so Jade kept saying - "Yeah, Santa needs a little break Mommy." Then we rounded things off with ice cream cones and got home in time for Jado's nap. Hope the celebrated Dad had a much fun as the rest of the family :)

Reflection on our private beach front.

Canadian Geese out for Father's Day :)

Kids on a mission

Dad in charge!!

Happy kids with cones

Potty Boot Camp

The little one has shown a definite interest in all things bathroom related. Sign's of being ready:

Interest in everyone else's bathroom experiences
Telling us when she needs to be changed
Interested in wearing underwear
Staying dry for long periods of time

So we have decided to give it a shot! So far it has meant that Jade sits on the potty, jumps up and claps for herself (all without having done anything). She has big girl underwear with Disney characters on them and she is very proud of them, but we still have not had any actually on-the-potty success - my floors are looking shinier and cleaner than ever.

Constructing a House (& Storm Troopers)

This summer we have been doing pre-school activities on all the weekdays. These include checking the weather, talking about the date and day of the week, looking at letters, numbers and colors, and a variety of craft projects. Most of these are super simple and yet adorable when finished. We have made ice cream sundaes with sprinkles, frames for Father's Day, colored, glued, taped and generally made a giant mess with cute results.

This weeks theme is construction and today we were to make a house out of a paper bag and use construction paper to add a brown roof and green grass. Slater wanted to use the green paper for the roof (our roof is green) and brown for the yard ("The yard is brown Mom") **sigh** To begin with he was not excited about doing pre-school today, currently his world revolves around Storm Troopers, R2-D2, space-ships and light-sabers. So I asked him to build a house for his Storm Troopers and he really got into it. We even had to cut out the windows and doors so they could get in and out. At the moment he is happily playing with his new houses.

The pre-school wall, this months themes are dairy, construction and fruit.

Sundaes, counting, and construction. Of course Jade is not operating scissors yet so Mom and Dad get to have a little fun too ;)

The craft table with two Storm Trooper houses.

The house with a green roof and brown grass **sigh again**

The happy construction worker.

Sweet girl with her critters

Swallowtail Butterflies

On our first trip camping out the Chena River we encountered hundreds of swallowtail butterflies. Since the kids were thrilled with the sight of all those butterflies, we only got close-ups of the brave ones.