small wonders

We had a busy weekend- sledding party, ski race, DJ gig, and Perry was teaching a workshop too. The ski race is the end of the season event with their Jackrabbit ski classes, and is thankfully pretty low key, with no winners announced or anything, just the kids trying as hard as they can. Parents ski with their kids and Ari sailed through his 3 km ski with Perry, loving every minute of it. It was a bit of an adventure with Dori and I-he, not quite ready to take on the uphill bits on his own,and me, pregnant and not a great skier anyway, but we laughed a lot and he ended the 1km race beaming and feeling very proud of himself, so all was well. 

And then, well past the boys bedtime, the boys had a DJ gig. I don't know if I've written about it lately but Ari has kept up his weekly radio show with Perry on our little community station- he absolutely loves it, and has learned so much about music and radio, and he looks forward to every week's show. The radio station has put on a dance as a fundraiser for the last couple years, and Ari and his DJ sidekick have been the opening act. They did so well, and were totally enamored with the lights and disco ball and with being out late. They both dressed up- Dori in a "musician hat" and Ari in a cape and crown. Cutest little DJ's around if I do say so myself!

And so we've been laying low after all that excitement,  and the boys have been spending the last few days playing lots of games and immersing themselves in long uninterrupted periods of play. 

And book reading of course. Dori and I just started a new Milly-Molly-Mandy book together. And I just finished reading Charlotte's Web to the boys- it is such a delight to revisit the books I loved in my childhood, and this was the first time we read a book that engaged both boys equally. 

We managed to squeeze in a little homeschool time too- math games and reading together in the afternoons and a short morning lesson time with fairy tales and word families. 

The snow just keeps coming down (so. much. snow!) and we are thinking and planning for a family adventure coming up- hot sun and beaches, thanks to Perry's parents who have been coaxing us to use their condo for years now- we can hardly wait! It feels like a wonderful way to celebrate this last bit of time as a family of 4 (with big kids who travel so well!) before the new baby adventures begin. And so we are packing and reading and spending lots of time with the globe. The boys have been carting the suitcases around for days, loading them full of all sorts of items, coming to ask if we can bring the periscope? the kapla planks? the whole collection of Beatrix Potter books? We'll pare it down to the essentials over the coming days, I'm sure.