I took the kids to the playground tonight while Pam went for a hike. Rowan and I had a fun time hiding while Berit and Griffin counted and then found us. When Berit boasted that the reason she found us was that she peeked, I gave her a hard time, told her that it was cheating.

Rowan's drawings are getting better and better. She's actually doing people in her pictures, and it's really interesting to watch. Also, her letters are coming along nicely.

Berit made a "Sell Phone" with pen and paper this evening. One piece of paper is the cradle, and the other is the handset. The handset has buttons numbered from 1 to 27. :)

Everybody is really enjoying Pam's recent acquisition of the Baby Beluga CD... there's an awful lot of dancing and singing to this Raffi collection, and Griffin knows all the words to the title song. He's a riot.

Just home now and checked on the kids asleep in their beds. Well, almost in their beds. Berit is sleeping in Rowan's (bottom) bunk, as usual. But where's Rowan? She's asleep under the bed. I pulled her out and placed her next to Berit.

As I'm leaving the room, I hear Berit sleep-talking with urgency, "Mommy! She needs paper!"

Griffin came running in here just now exclaiming, "The bug is all gone!"

He found a bug scurrying around on the sliding glass door and immediately ran to the bathroom to get some toilet paper. Evidently, he managed to hunt and kill the invader and flushed its remains straight down to watery bug heaven, where it belongs.

Griffin is so proud of himself, he's beaming and throwing his fists in the air.

Berit and Rowan and I tried to fly a kite in Chautauqua Park today. This was after they were making mudballs at home (kids really do make mudballs!).

There wasn't much wind, but Berit still enjoyed running with the string in her hand to keep the kite aloft. Rowan felt a little left out. I probably should have let her try to run with it.

At the bookstore, Berit noticed that there were a lot of Easter items out, and speculated that Easter must be coming soon.

"I hope the Easter bunny remembers to bring us stuff."
"Of course he will, Berit. He always does."
"Yeah, but since we moved, he might not know where we live."

I told her he'd know where we'd live, but she countered by pointing out that the leprachauns didn't bring us anything for Saint Patrick's Day. I told her that leprachauns don't usually bring presents for Saint Patricks Day, and she reminded me of the leprachaun-bear bookmarks they brought last year. I'd forgotten all about that, but decided it wouldn't be to bad a tradition for leprachauns to bring a little something each year. :)

I took time off for spring break, but then Vail was just going to be warm and rainy so we didn't go. Instead we're taking our vacation at home, which actually has been pretty nice. We've maintained a good balance of time for Mark and Pam and time for the kids. We've also separated the kids a bit - ie: Pam takes Griffin, and I take Rowan and Berit. That tends to keep it a little more peaceful.

6 am comes early, and Griffin is up spreading Keri Lotion on the carpeted steps. Now they're moist.

I can't handle him inside, so we go outside and walk past the houses under construction and then up to the climbing wall. It's pretty nice.

Last night around 10 pm while we're reading in bed, Berit comes down to tell us her plan of opening up a lemonade stand to raise money. This morning she drew me a plan so that I could build it.

I came home to find Rowan and Griffin digging in our yet unlandscaped yard. It was quite nice getting shovels for all three of us and digging with abandon. They were unduly fascinated with the game also.

Now they are locked in Rowan's room purportedly cleaning up a mess before allowing me to come in. Who is in control here?

Griffin climbed into bed with us this morning. He was wet. I changed him, and he went back to sleep fairly quickly. He was funny, though... growled at me in his sleep... and then laughed.

Berit was unbelievably sad about the broken little play piano yesterday. I guess she's quite attached to it. Maybe that 's a good project for us - to try to fix it together.