Portia's Five!

I kept putting it off. We didn't have a party on Portia's first birthday, or her second, or third or fourth. I'm embarrassed to admit that this year--at five--was the first birthday party Portia's had in her entire short life. But since we waited so long, I decided I'd make it a good one.

I let Portia choose where we'd have the party, and she decided on an aquarium party at the Living Planet Aquarium in Sandy. We decided to call it a sea turtle party. Since I was paying for a pretty large party as the minimum size, we decided to go all out and invited most of the kids from Portia's preschool. Plus a couple good friends from the neighborhood.

The day before, I slaved over these sea turtle cupcakes I found on pinterest. They're not perfect but  really turned out cute, if I do say so myself.

I've never seen Portia so excited in my life. She just couldn't get enough--running around (thank goodness the party was in the sunken ship at the aquarium and not at my house); ready for more and more candy and treats; ready for present after present.

Portia and Naomi

Portia and Aowyn

Portia and Rowan

Portia and Addy

Portia and Jenny

Portia and Savanna

Portia and Ava

Portia and Emily

Portia and Gloria

Portia and Isaac

Portia and Xander

The aquarium hostesses took the kids on a scavenger hunt around the aquarium so they could see the sea turtle, sharks, sting rays, penguins, and otters. Here's Portia with some of her friends:

Happy Fifth Birthday, Portia!

School Days

As Bianca's gotten older, her classroom really focuses a lot on project-based learning. It's everything from learning how to write a compelling history fair project to using research to learn both sides of an argument, in order to debate and retaliate an opponent's argument. At the same time, it seems like since they're in the learning-stages, there's not a lot of follow-through.

In history fair, Bianca made it to the Regionals and got third place. She would have gone to State if she had been a sixth grader, but she's not. So it ended there. A lot of work for what seems like a dead-end.

For debate, everyone had to argue the same confict--Should the state of Utah give incentives for people to buy local produce? Bianca's team was assigned to the affirmative side. On the first night, Bianca and her partner Maren did a pretty well, although Bianca didn't really get the point of the rebuttal on the first round. We had a nice little talk after that and on the next round, she had a much better idea of what her job was. They argued against the other teams in their class as well as teams in the sixth-grade ALPS class. Bianca and her partner were selected to go on to District.

Over the weekend, Bianca had an intensive session with Eric (who was really into debate long, long ago) about how to do rebuttals. At District, Bianca was prepared with all sorts of ammunition. She knew she was prepared and was very confident. They had three rounds, all of which they competed against sixth-grade boys from Jordan Ridge (the other ALPS school in the area). Bianca and Maren were awesome. They couldn't move on to the next level though, as they were fifth-graders. Turns out, they won all three debates. They would have definitely gone on, if they had been allowed. I don't see what the harm is. If they can hold their own with the big boys, why shouldn't they be allowed to move on? A little disappointing, I know, but at least they got their feet wet.

A not-so-typical night at the Symphony

Last night, Eric, Bianca and I went to the Utah Symphony to hear the music of John Williams (and the music that inspired John Williams). It was pretty cool to hear the music of Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and Harry Potter music performed. They even had "characters" out in the lobby during intermission.

Easter 2012

This is the first holiday since my kids were born that I didn't put up decorations. When your house is on the market, you have to keep clutter down to a minimum. The Easter decorations stayed in their box. In fact, that makes it easier to transport it over to the new house. Thank goodness these plastic Easter baskets were still in the pantry or I don't even think we would have had Easter baskets to hold the goodies on Easter morning.

Since we'd pretty much been on a complete spending halt for the last several months and the fact that we're having to pay mortgages on two houses, I'm glad I had the foresight last May when we were in England to pick up these matching dresses for the girls. They turned out perfect for Easter.

Portia looking particularly impish

Bianca added her own touch (the scarf) so as to not be too matchy

This spring has been wonderfully spring-ish so the Easter egg hunting was just as it should be for Easter (which I can honestly say that it usually isn't).

Sisters

I was reading a book recently in which a sister was described as a built-in, permanent friend. 

Last weekend, my sister Susannah came for a short visit from California. She brought her son Aidan and some leftover tiles (from her recent kitchen remodel) so that we could start working on tiling the laundry room in the new house. We went skiing and boarding at Brighton. We took load after load of things from my old house to my new house. She came with me to my book club and read the book to participate in the discussion. When she first arrived, we went outside in the dark of my new house and we sat on the bench near the basketball court and were overwhelmed with remembering how we had run and played as children in our wooded backyard. Then we pulled out the sleeping bags and slept over.

We really had an awesome weekend. It's amazing how much I depend on my sister to accept me for who I am and always be there to talk when I need someone and the embarrassing truths I can admit to her that will never change anything. Because there's no one in the world (besides my husband maybe) who I can be just that honest with.

When I observe my girls acting out and fighting with each other, I always remind them that they are so very lucky to have a sister. They don't usually listen. Someday they'll get it.

Bianca and Aidan before lunch at Brighton

Bianca and me snowboarding

Bianca and Aidan on a home-made bench they made

Mad Hatter's Tea Party 2012

I'm sad to say the Mad Hatter's Tea Party is the last of these elaborate preschool parties Portia will attend. I can't believe Portia's two years at Kinderprep Academy are dwindling down. Next stop, kindergarten.

Due to all the construction in Herriman and increasing commute time, the morning of the Mad Hatter's Tea Party was rushed and I found myself muttering, "We're late, we're late, for a really important date" all the way to school.

Portia was escorted to her seat by a gentleman again. This year, she requested a certain gentleman by name.

I'm afraid Portia can be really silly about boys, this one particularly. I wonder what she says at preschool. Eric's concerned already that Portia will be our boy-crazy girl. We don't have to worry much about Bianca in this department; she's ten already and still quite indifferent about boys.

Here are the kids eating their meal. Portia definitely isn't as proper as she should be, kneeling on her chair like that.

The kids played games.

And they played some violin numbers. The violin instruction was the main thing that drew me to this preschool in the first place, but we've since decided Portia will play cello. She'll start next year with private lessons. Still, it will be good for her to have the basic knowledge of how a stringed instrument works.

But here is Portia, reading. I am really so impressed how fast Portia has picked up reading. She's always picking out words on signs as we're driving and even words in books while I'm reading. She's definitely ready for kindergarten, if not first grade!

Here's Portia with Miss Melissa. 

I know Portia's gonna miss these kids.

Especially these two girls, Aowyn and Naomi who are Portia's best friends.

The photographer spent time with Portia alone and wow, I think this girl is gorgeous!

But alas, all good things must come to an end!

Our First Night

Bianca's Island

So, we officially own a new (but not really new) house. The plan was to spend the weekend there, but we found out Eric had to leave for India at the last minute so we wouldn't be able to bring anything over to the new house this weekend--beds or chairs, etc. Still, I was on my own and decided the girls and I would go over Saturday night anyway for a sleepover.

Bianca and Portia have become official "explorers" when we go over to the new house--they found treasures inside the shed (the previous owners left a bunch of horse stuff in there), they named several islands along the creek, Bianca even found a dead raccoon in the creek (hopefully this isn't an omen). Bianca and Portia have come up with explorer clothes--khaki and white, sunglasses, and some other stuff they saw in a "Fancy Nancy Explorer Extraordinaire" book. I love seeing them having so much fun out there.

When we arrived on Saturday afternoon, Bianca came running up to me. "Our new house comes with horses!" And sure enough, there in a little corner on the edge of our property that does kind of look like it should go with our yard were two beautiful horses. It was so sweet that she thought that the house could just come with horses. I had to break it to her that they weren't ours. But it's much better this way--we get to look at them, pet them, feed them even (the nice lady who owns them told them the next morning), but we don't have to take care of them or pay for them.

Because we were staying overnight, I hated to leave our animals at home where they couldn't get outside to do their thing, so we brought them along. Tigger was fine. He mostly stayed in his kennel. Jillyboo doesn't like change though, and spent half of the night cowering behind the boiler downstairs, getting dust and grime all over her. After a while, she came up and slept with us where we all had our sleeping bags spread on the floor in my room. I had wanted to start a fire in the fireplace but Eric thought we should have the chimneys professionally "swept" first, just in case a family of raccoons was living in there. We played games and went to bed early. The floor was so hard and I slept fitfully with Jillyboo sleeping on top of my legs all night.

Early the next morning, Jillyboo wanted outside (she goes to the bathroom outside) so I wrapped a blanket around me and ventured outside. It was crisp and beautiful and the sound of rushing water met me as I stepped outside. It felt like I was stepping outside from my tent after camping. I breathed in the fresh air, followed the cat as she explored a little herself, and then went back inside for pop tarts for breakfast.

I'm overwhelmed when I think of what we just did--bought a house and still need to sell ours, discovering everything that needs to be done on this big house that seems like it's falling apart in little ways, and the cleaning--oh, the cleaning that needs to be done in the house. But I realize what I gave my kids is the gift of nature. And a backyard I wouldn't have thought was possible to have in Utah. With the trees, and the birds (we heard owls that night), and the creek, and the exploring still to be done. 

And I even found a treasure of my own--the old stained-glass front door (matching the stained-glass window in the front of the house) that was thrown behind the back house inside a clump of trees. It's  now weathered and shabby but still very cool. I hauled it into the garage and have plans to do something with it; I'm just not sure yet.

I feel a lot of joy (and projects) in my future.