Book worm

Last fall, Gabe started learning how to read in earnest and he made great strides.  Then in the beginning of the year, he become more and more of a fluent reader--reading all the street signs and store signs everywhere.  And then, all of a sudden, he picked up a novel and never looked back.

Now, instead of playing with Legos or drawing, we often see him immersed in the pages of a book.

He is a voracious reader and will sit and read for hours.

The location does not matter.  Even on the stairs is fine with him.

Often while eating a snack.

And now sometimes, he will keep company with his book worm older sister.

Sledding in Sunriver

Last year for Spring Break we had a staycation.  This year we decided to head out to Sunriver near Bend, Oregon.  (We also headed out in order to vacate our house--contractors were doing a little bit of remodeling at our house.)

The kids tolerated the four hour drive by listening to books on tape.

On the first day it was a little rainy and so we went to the local indoor pool, which was fun.  We played ball, and swam around too.  Karina can pretty much swim by herself without a life jacket.  Gabe has not progressed much in swimming because he's not willing to put his face in the water!

We also went to the local park and played, of all things...tetherball.  It was definitely a blast from the past for Emily and Elvin who have not played it since they were in elementary school.

Because it is at a higher elevation in Sunriver, there were still quite a few ice chunks left over from the many inches of snow they got this past winter.

The kids also got to play on electronics (the iPads) which is a special treat.

We had stopped at Costco on the way in and dinner was made up of various Costco items.  The pre-made scalloped potatoes is one of the kids' favorite.

And for dessert, they were allowed to pick out ice cream at the local market.

The next day we drove about 20 minutes to a higher elevation on Mt. Bachelor.  There was an awesome sno park with a very looooong sledding hill.  We were able to pick up extraordinary speed on the sleds!

At night we watched some Jeopardy and also had a movie night--we watched Greatest Showman and the kids are now addicted to the soundtrack of that musical.

The third day we checked out of the condo we rented and headed back up to Mt. Bachelor again, this time to a ski resort.  It was actively snowing up there and there was fresh powder on the ground.

We got passes to the inner tube hill and went down that lots of times.

And then the kids wanted to play in the snow.  We read that there were hundreds of inches of snow up there but didn't believe it.  Until we saw this.  This is a wall of snow on the edge of the parking lot of the ski resort.

But it was not snow anymore but mostly solid ice.

There was a mini-crevasse in there, which the kids thought was fun to go into.

In the crevasses, apparently some of the ice was melting but then re-froze into icicles.  Karina found a long one and wanted to bring it home.  We told her that was pretty much impossible.

She also made a pear out of snow and wanted to bring THIS home.  Also not possible.

Xiao Yu took advantage of the snow on the ground to make a snow angel.

After that, we got into the van, changed clothes, and then headed home!

Tom Sawyer the Musical

A few months ago, Karina and Eliana tried out for the musical Tom Sawyer, and they both got parts.  This was Karina's second musical.  Eliana's role was as a townsperson.  Karina was also a townsperson, and also a bat and a star.

Leading up to the musical, the girls hung up posters around the community to get the word out.

The kids do rehearsals for 6 weeks.  And then the week before opening night, there is rehearsal every night.

Here is a group picture with the entire cast, dressed in their Tom Sawyer-type garb.

Because Karina was also a bat, here she is as a bat.  In the story, Tom Sawyer gets stuck in a cave, and a group of bats come out screeching and fly around Tom.

Karina also got to be a star...these girls wore little LED light strings and posed in the dark to simulate a night sky.

Elvin got to see one of the shows with Gabe.  He really enjoyed it.

Because this community theater group is mostly volunteer-run, the parents have to help out and do certain roles or jobs.  This time, Emily was in charge of ushering and taking care of guests' needs.  So she got to wear a button saying "Usher", and a fancy earpiece connected to a walkie-talkie.

The kids performed really well.  Karina is in the blue dress and Eliana in the second row, wearing the red dress.

Here you can see Eliana fake crying, during a sad scene where the townspeople are mourning Tom Sawyer's supposed death.

Great job girls!