Eleanor and Henry had spring break this week, and we used the days off to head out to Aspen for some skiing fun! The first day on the slopes took a little getting used to – Henry’s first run down was firmly gripping the instructor the entire time. But, after a day on the bunny hill, they were back to mastering the lifts and a few blue cruisers. Henry especially made a lot of progress this year – and we thankfully didn’t have any “runaway Henry” incidents. He was especially excited to tell us all about the “hoggy stop” that he learned to do (which is really a hockey stop). We didn’t bring as many games with us this year, and as a result both Eleanor and Henry invented their own card games. Eleanor’s had a consistent set of rules and featuring “marriages” with kings and queens, and was quite playable. Henry’s was new every time and amounted more to game of follow the leading using playing cards. He had us all rolling during one “hand” when he spend a few minutes arranging the cards into a neat 4×10 square only to immediately say, “OK, next we mix all of these up into a big pile…”. On our last day, we didn’t put the kids into ski school, and instead had “family ski day”, and spent the whole day together letting Eleanor and Henry lead us around the mountain. It was very impressive how well they knew the runs, even taking a few excursions into the trees!
Before we left, both kids had a fun school event. Eleanor had a “Polar Exhibit” where she showed us her recent work on an assigned polar animal. Eleanor was given the emperor penguin, and in addition to the diorama that she made at home, she had a clay penguin from art and a book about penguins that she had written and illustrated. It was very fun to see her work. Henry had a field trip to Garfield Park Conservatory, and Mom was able to go along as a chaperone. Henry was particularly interested in cacti, and likes to tell people about one particular type of cactus that flowers only once in 100 years, and when it does it shoots up 30+ feet. There is one currently at the conservatory and they had to remove part of the ceiling to let it keep growing!
