Spring Break 2.0

This week is Spring Break for Geneva's school, and it was meant to be a week of outings and friends and adventures. Unfortunately our pinkeye adventure has more or less negated the option of outings and friends. I had to take a moment to look back at last year's Spring Break pictures and mourn the loss of sunny gatherings before moving on and appreciating what I've been handed: a week at home. With my kids. And no one else. 

Guys, it's so awesome. 

We may not get to take a day trip out to Granger to look at the dinosaur statues, but we can read about dinosaurs and practice biostratigraphy (dating fossils relative to one another based on the layer of dirt and rock in which they are found). Taking friends with us to the museum is out, but writing letters to J. K. Rowling is so in. Today we painted using the pointillism technique (which Geneva calls "dottillism," to my immeasurable delight, considering she doesn't mispronounce many words these days besides fjord). We baked appelkaka and brewed glogg. And dear little Ari-- sweet, sick-again Ari-- has been able to nurse and cuddle around the clock. The best part, though, is the dress code: I haven't even considered wearing a bra today, and it's four o'clock in the afternoon.

I'm kidding. That's not the best part. But it's not the worst part, either.

This was Geneva's response to my question, "Who do you think Hermione would pick for a partner when she grows up?" I transcribed her answer, then she wrote out the first sentence herself and illustrated it.

I think Hermione would pick Ron for a partner because he's funny, like when he said "why couldn't he say 'follow the butterflies'?" He is brave. He went into the Forbidden Forest and he followed the spiders even though he didn't like them. And he's nice. Like, he likes his friends and is kind to them. He sent Harry a sneakoscope. All these things she might like and want to pick him for a partner. She doesn't have to. She can if she wants to.

We decided to mail the picture, with her entire answer on the back, to J. K. Rowling. Recently she admitted that she regretted pairing Ron and Hermione at the end of the Harry Potter series. She might be happy to know that there's a four-year-old out there who thinks she made a wise decision.

And here is Lavender's biostratigraphy puzzle! Each dinosaur was "found" in layers of colorful sediment. She matched up the sediment layers to figure out which fossils were oldest and which were the most recent. Considering I designed this activity with Geneva in mind, I was very impressed. Jordan, if you're reading this please forgive the extremely crude nature of these, ahem, fossils.

And here's the creepy crawler! He's back on a couple of different medications to help his breathing, but is still such a trooper. And I think if he were any cuter my head would explode.