NHS Talent Show

Every year, the SoHi National Honor Society puts on a talent show for middle school and high school students; the show features live performances and art. Oscar worked hard and submitted three pieces - a pencil drawing of a moose, a sculpture of an angler fish, and a painting of a couple of figs. Violet has been hard at work creating "trading cards" for another competition, so she submitted her painting of avocados for the show. Their pieces looked amazing and Oscar was thrilled to win prizes for his angler fish and moose. Way to go! 

Wildlife in your backyard

Sometimes people ask if we ever see moose. The answer is, "Yes!"  Here, for instance, a moose decided to bed down right next to our front stairs. Another day, I received a picture of a caribou from Violet and Oscar who were walking home. I can see the corner of Oscar's coat which means, he was right out on the road by the kids. This is growing up in Alaska! 

Valentine's Day

This year, Valentine's Day fell on a Saturday - which is perfect. Mike and I were set to attend a group date with the Moms' group I attend. The kids were all set to have a romantic night at home when Violet abandoned her brothers to attend a masquerade ball with her friends. Mike and I had a blast at our date night and Violet had fun with her friends at the dance.... though I was a little skeptical of the dance when I saw two police cars in the parking lot when I picked her up. 

Winter at the Wildlife Refuge

This past Saturday was gorgeous. It was too good to stay in, so we headed to the Wildlife Refuge to take a walk. When we reached the lake, the kids discovered Olaf's cousin just waiting to be sculpted and launched into the world. I have to say, he's not nearly as cute as Olaf... 

Living Room Updates

Our new chairs arrived at the end of January thereby completing the process of updating our living room. The chairs read a bit more pink than I anticipated, but the color works well with the "copper" tiles of the dresser. We laid down a new rug, switched up the shelving, brought in the dresser Oscar and I redid, and Mike fixed a plant stand that he inherited from his Great Aunt Rita before we moved up here 15 years ago. I have to say, I love it. 

Snow Tunnels

For sure, the best part of winter are the plowed snow piles that are ripe for snow tunnels. Violet in particular loves to dig tunnels. They had quite the spread going this year.... they were nearly ready to move in.

Country Roads, take me home

Last week we had our friends over for dinner. After dinner, the kids donned their winter gear and set out to explore the fort they have been building in the snow piles. They returned a while later and reported that they were having a neighborhood sing along while outside. When asked for details, they told us how they had taken a little walk and were on their way back home when they all linked arms and started to sang Country Roads, Take Me Home. Apparently, after they sang a verse, from a distance on top of the ridge, came another group singing the next verse. Back and forth they went, each group singing a verse, until all of a sudden, the ridge went silent. At dinner on Monday, Simon confirmed that their mysterious singing partners were a classmate and his family who lives on top of the hill and happened to be out on their patio grilling steak. It's a small world.