The value of saving

I have started "bank accounts" for Max and Darwyn.  Gus and I administer them.  They pay very high interest.  I hoped this would help to instill the value of saving in my children at an early age.  But I'm coming to feel as though nature has more to do with saving than education.  Max spends very little, makes very little, and most of the time, forgets money even exists.  Darwyn wants to buy everything she sees.

Last week Darwyn was in the store with our new Au pair, Trudy.  She saw a very life like doll and instantly wanted to purchase it.  It cost $40.  She does not have $40 dollars because she tends to spend her money.  So, I told her if she wanted to buy this doll she would have to work to earn money.  She immediately started pestering everyone in sight for jobs that they would pay her to do.  She pulled weeds, stacked logs. emptied the dishwasher and picked grapes up off the deck.  But after lots of hard work she was still nowhere near $40.  Trudy had the bright idea that she could look for a similar doll on kijiji.  She found one for just $15.  Darwyn had $15.78 in her bank account.

Darwyn danced happily around the house singing "I'm going to buy it, buy it!"  Then she and Trudy left promptly to go buy the doll.  When Darwyn returned home she showed me the doll and beamed.  "Mom," she declared, "I'm finally getting good at saving my money."

Well....I suppose money isn't worth much if you never spend it on what you love.  Hopefully she loves this doll.

Differences in perspective

Also, I've been meaning to post this cute video of Ada and Jose singing in Spanish for a long time:

Pigs and Pinecones

Darwyn and Max both recently participated in their school science fair.  Both kids indicated enthusiastically that they wanted to sign up for the science fair, but when it came time to do the work for the project they were less than enthusiastic.  In the end, I was exhausted and they both had projects.

Darwyn decided she wanted to do her project on pine cones and came up with a list of questions that we set out to answer.  One fun thing she learned was that jack pine cones open in forest fires.  We had a fun backyard fire and tossed some jack pine cones in to see if they would open.  They did.  They also burnt.  The end result did not make a very good science fair display.

Dar and I collected a variety of pine cones and needles for her project.  I scurried from tree to tree enthusiastically showing Darwyn the needles and explaining how to tell them apart.  She did not seem interested in actually identifying them and simply collect copious numbers of pinecones.  Come science fair day we had enough pine cones to plant a forest of unidentified trees.  Many a passer-bye at the fair asked Darwyn which pine cones went with which trees and she would just shrug and cheerfully say "I dunno!"  But she is only in Junior Kindergarten and, in fairness, she answered all of her original questions...which did not include identifying pine cones. She was very proud on science fair day when she got to stand next to her completed project.  She especially enjoyed showing it to her friends and to her teacher.

Max did not choose a project until the last week before they were due.  Gus and I brainstormed many different project ideas, but none ever met his standard.  In fairness, they were mostly things Gus and I liked.  He wanted something original.  Something none of the other kids would do.

Finally, the crunch came and we still had not decided on a project.  I told Max he had to decide NOW.  It so happens that a mom on the home school network had bought fetal pigs in bulk for dissection and was looking to get rid of some.  I declared to Max that we should dissect a fetal pig and he reluctantly agreed.  He decided his project would be on bodies and we could look at the pigs organs.  He also came up with bringing some animal bones that we have collected over the years and putting a few tissue samples under our microscope for people to look at.  The result was a pretty impressive project...unfortunately, most of it was by me.  Max did type up the text himself and (mostly) make his own poster.

The day we went to dissect the pig, I could barely tear the kids form the computer.  They wandered over, looked at the pig and declared that it was cute and that it stank (which was true...it smelled strongly of formaldehyde).  Then they wandered off again.  Project finished.  But they did get interested when we saw the inside of the pig and made a valiant effort at identifying things.  Max was especially excited to cut into the brain (which wound up looking like indistinguishable mush), and the eye.

On the day of the fair Max's project received lots of attention.  People were very interested in staring at pig intestines and asked us repeatedly if we had really dissected a pig.  The school arranged for a "judge" (there weren't scores or winners) to come ask Max questions about his particular project.  The judge was very impressed and asked Max what had inspired him to do such a cool project.

Max: Welllll....I couldn't decide what to do and finally it was the last minute and mom said I needed to do something NOW.  So we just had this pig in the freezer and mom said, 'why don't we cut it up' and that I didn't really have a choice because there was no more time.

....hunh....so much for presentation.  I think the judge thought I was a little strange for randomly storing fetal pigs in my freezer.  Upon hearing Max's explanation he asked me, "Oh!  You must be a biologist"  thinking, I'm sure, that I would have supplies from work.

Me:  No.  I just got it from this other mom that ordered them in bulk.

The judge left quickly.

Max with the judge and certificate

Darwyn shows her project to her teacher

Trip to Teela's

We recently visited Aunty Teela in Virginia and enjoyed some AMAZING weather.  We even went to the beach, although Darwyn was the only one brave (crazy) enough to go in the water.  Besides the beach, the kid's enjoyed botanical gardens, multiple children's museums, an aviary and a zoo.  We took lots of pictures (see below).  For half the visit, Dad, Jose and Teela watched all the kids on their own while Gus and I frantically renovated our kitchen.

This book was a real page turner.

Darwyn goes swimming in February!

The botanical gardens were actually quite beautiful given that it was winter

The botanical garden had a neat kaleidoscope display.  You pointed it
at a turning pot of flowers and watched the image change.  The video below
shows what the kids saw in the kaleidoscope.

This might get the picture of the year award.

This bird was named Gus.  The kids found that very exciting.

Can you feel the love?

I was sitting with Max and Darwyn on the couch.  Darwyn said something nice to Max...I can't remember what.  Max was lost in thought.

Me:  Max....what do you need to say to Darwyn?

Max:  (staring blankly into space) 19....plus...

Me: Max!

The distant look clears momentarily from Max's eyes and is replaced with an "oh crap...what did I miss?  What do I say?" look.

Max:  (hurriedly and with little expression) Ummm... I love you Darwyn!  Now 19 plus....

Sigh....like father like son.

Christmas 2016

Sorry the Christmas update is so late.  Christmas proceeded in its usual fashion:  We saw lots of family, we were overwhelmed with gifts and we were exhausted.  Gus asked me when the holidays would be done so he could go back to work and relax!  Nevertheless, good times were had by all.  Gus gave Max a huge box of magic cards and they have spent a great deal of time bonding over it.  I gave Darwyn a homemade set of boxes for building dollhouses, complete with different flooring and wallpaper materials to be added to each room.  Gus and I teased each other that we liked the kids presents more than they did.

My favorite moment from the holiday season was when Gus opened the present the kids had made for him.  It was a mug (that they had decorated) and this was rather obvious even when it was still wrapped.  Gus picked up the wrapped present and said " Geez, I wonder what this is....It's aaaaaa...."
In an attempt to keep from completing the sentence and thereby telling daddy what was in his present, Darwyn clamped both her hands over her mouth.  From underneath her hands came a muffled and tiny "mug" that instantly melted Gus's heart.  Merry Christmas daddy :)

I've included a few videos and pictures from Christmas and the holiday season.  Enjoy!

Grandma Sandi and Grandpa Lee visited for Christmas with the "kiki".
Kiki was especially popular with Ada.  Kiki got MANY treats (as pictured here)
during her visit to Waterloo.

Darwyn and Max enjoyed making mini ginger bread houses
from kits sent by Aunty Heidi.

Mandatory pose in front of the Christmas tree.  Max is not impressed

Better

Too much

Max and Gus putting the star on the tree.
For those of you looking at Gus's facial hair and thinking "woa..."

here is a close up.  Not to worry, he has returned to clean shaven.

Max reads to Ada

Christmas Eve feast

Not at all Christmas related...but cute.

The kids with our Christmas "fireplace"  

Winter fun

The whole family got out a couple of days ago for some winter fun.  The weather was perfect for building with snow and we really took advantage of it.  We built some snow men, a couple of great snow forts and, of course, we had a snow ball fight.  All Ada wanted to do was the same thing she does all summer, go down the slide.  Anyway, we got some cute photos that I thought I would post for everyone to enjoy.

Darwyn and her snowman

Dar peeks out of her snow fort

Ada LOVES the slide

Look out mom!

Look out again mom!