Moose...ARG!

Monday evening this young male moose was munching down on the green grass in our yard. I'm rather protective of that patch of green because it's about the only sign that it's going to be spring soon. The leaves haven't even leafed out on the trees yet. Lincoln was fascinated with the moose. I was not. I threw small logs at him. It took five throws to get the moose to leave. The first three I didn't hit the moose, but he would not budge, so I had to get more aggressive. Moose do a lot of damage to decorative shrubs. The lilac bush behind the moose has had three blooms in the four summers we've lived in this house. I hate moose. They destroyed our raspberry patch. They chewed our white Sitka roses down to nothing. The 101 shrubs (cotoneasters) that line our driveway are puny things because every winter the moose trim them back severely. Why can't all the moose go live in Canada?!

Photos: The Five!

Here's the best of the group shots:

And a few shots of Evan with his many brothers:

Photos: Bentley, Jake & Viva

Bentley and Jake were good sports; Viva not so much.

Photos: Lincoln and Evan

Two weeks ago Kara asked Mark to take some photos of the children. Here are the best photos of the younger two from that photo shoot:

 

 

More Snow! More Mud!

I am so DONE with snow. I want warm weather. I want spring flowers. I want the end of mud on the road. 

The lake in the road that I wrote about last month is all dried out. This is a new problem at a different location on our road. This problem is much worse--a very long (and growing) stretch of deep mud.

The road is such a mess that if you own a vehicle that doesn't have high clearance and 4 wheel drive, you must park it at the start of the street in the church parking lot and hike in. Unbelievable. We are trying to resolve the matter but we have two different home owner associations on our street. The older association would like our neighbors to take the blame for the road problem because they run an assisted living facility out of their home and the handi-capped bus comes down the street a few times a week to pick up and return some of their clients. (I told Kara they were going to point a finger at us next because of all the UPS, FedEx, and USPS delivery vans that come to our house.)

Mark and I are pretty sure that the problem is related to all the digging done last October when the well system that the older association shares sprang a leak and needed repairing. The company fixing the well tore the road up twice and now the soil mix is too high in sand. It doesn't help that spring in Anchorage is two weeks late this year. All-in-all it's a miserable spring on Nickell Circle.

Before this new snowfall all the snow in our yard was gone. (See the photo of Viva below biking earlier this week.) We have grass in our lawn that is starting to turn green. My iris and trollius are putting out new leaves. I and Viva planted sweet peas in pots on Tuesday. GRRRRR!

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Update Saturday morning:

Viva's Week

I tried to interview Viva, but she wasn't in best form. She was being silly and not really answering my questions, so I'll have to give you my recall of her adventures this past week while Bentley, Jake, and Lincoln were in South Dakota and she was home "alone".

She went biking with opa and I while we took a walk.

She went shopping with mommy and came home with a new dress. She thought the shopping trip was too long and wanted to quit part way through and go sit in the car and read a book. (She was reading a princess book. Princess books are always a big hit with our Viva.)

She went to art class without her brothers. She painted a lovely rainbow.

She and her mom attended the last Daisy meeting for this school year. They went to a ceramics studio where Viva painted a sparkly white and gold angel ornament. 

She spent the night at Grandma Karen's and had a great time. She went to work with Grandma Karen the next morning rather than come right home.

She ran errands with Kara and I and Evan. She came home with new tights and tap shoes and acro shoes.

She took a long bath by herself in the jacuzzi tub. That girl is part fish. 

She ate lots of ice cream. Ice cream is still her favorite sweet. Maybe her favorite food.

She watched a couple of hours of dance show tryouts with me. She did her version of some of the dances. I feared for the furniture and windows when she got a little too wild.

She took a complete break from schoolwork. She slept in really late some mornings.

Viva is quite content to be on her own, but I know she'd be sad if her brothers took too long to get back home! 

Evan & Lincoln

Here the duo was last week.

Here they are this week.

 Although they may be thousands of miles apart, they can still hang out together on face time.

Funny Face Jake

I was looking through some old pictures and found this treasure of Jake, when he was about the age Lincoln is now.  The funny thing is that Jake still makes this same face!

I've been trying to catch 5 year old Jake making the face on camera, but no luck.  He's just not working with me.  So we'll have to leave it with just his 2 year old cuteness.

Museum Field Trip

Last week we went on a field trip with our charter school, Raven, to the museum.  The kids were quite excited at yet another day off from the arduous grind (I am convinced they really do believe I overwork them!).

We took in a show about Alaska at the planetarium, engaged in a scavenger hunt involving geometric shapes in artwork, and listened to a presentation about Alaskan Natives given by a very engaging tour guide.

Genevieve was not happy that her favorite picture (featuring sirens luring sailors to a watery death) was no longer there.  She did not like the new traveling portrait collection.  I didn't much care for it either, but it didn't bring this expression to MY face!

Bentley, in the center of the picture, showing off some Native garb:

Jake evaded my camera, drat!  He was the *star* in a play about the Raven and the Crow.  I believe I was discussing how to politely decline participation (snarls = bad!) with his charming sister Viva at that point and missed capturing his acting debut on camera.  I did hear him give a good maniacal laugh when cued and some of the other parents were impressed with that useful skill.  You just never do know when you'll need your evil henchman laugh, right?

I'm glad we went.  The kids had a fun time and it was a nice change of pace.  Even though it was our 3rd big outing in the space of 5 days - almost enough to send this home cave happy Mommy into her bedroom to hide under the covers and recharge!! :)