Will and Hugh Glass

Last month, Will had to write a report and give a presentation on a mountain man or Indian tribe.  He chose Hugh Glass, yep - the guy from the movie The Revenant which for the record, Will has not seen.  Mr. Glass had a very interesting, but pretty bloody history.  He was kidnapped by pirates as a kid/teen and lived that life for a while before escaping and traveling up the Mississippi where he was captured and almost killed by Indians before being released.  Then he joined one of the fur expeditions and eventually was attacked by a grizzly, left for dead, crawled 150+ miles on his own to another fort and then went looking for the men who left him for revenge.  He was eventually killed by another Indian tribe.  So an interesting story for a 4th grader to recount.  But Will rocked this project.  He worked hard on the research and found some interesting facts about Mr. Glass.  He spent a lot of time on his poster board and practiced his speech at home.  

Practicing practicing 

Practicing eye contact.  

He also had to make an artifact as part of the project.  Glenn, I mean Will, picked out a powderhorn out of some mountain man catalog that we (inexplicably) get at our house and off they went.  

Working hard on some part of the powderhorn that is confusing to me but makes sense for them. 

Not a pirate...

So in conclusion, Hugh Glass was an interesting person, powderhorns were used to carry gunpowder and Will is carrying on the enthusiasm for all things mountain man-y on to the next generation.

The Real Babysitters

I was cleaning out my camera and came across these pictures from last Fall that I don't think ever made it on to the blog.  We were babysitting the Baby Cousins for the day.  Now I have a lot of help when the cousins come over.  Reina does a great job of keeping Toddler Cousin entertained, in fact, I hardly see her unless she needs a snack.  Glenn feeds Baby Cousin and Will helps keep him entertained, although I tend to hog all of the Baby Cousin time.  In looking back through these pictures, I realized I have some other babysitters who help out in their own special way.

I can't say that Trigger is keeping watch here but at least he's not laying on the baby.  

Ditto.  

A letter to the birthday girl, one day late again

Dear Reina:

Yesterday, you turned 8.  Eight!  You were so excited for your birthday.  You've been counting down the days since at least mid-January and the countdown got pretty serious on Feb. 1.  Yesterday morning, you came in our room at 4:45 ish and you were ready to get up.  The rest of us were not surprisingly - not ready.  I convinced you to go back to sleep and I got up a few minutes later for an early morning exercise class.  When I came home at 6:30 a.m., you were still the only one awake.  You quickly made sure everybody else was up so that it could be present-opening time.  This year, you opened up more dollhouse stuff, including another little girl to be a friend for the dollhouse girl.  You named her Lisa.  You got some new clothes, some Legos suggested by big brother and Daddy picked out a sparkly cat pendant on a silver chain, your first official piece of 'fancy grown-up' jewelry.

For your birthday, you requested going out to dinner.  Your first choice was McDonald's (naturally) but we talked you into a place with actual silverware so you chose Red Lobster.  You didn't think you'd been there before but I know for a fact that you were there the night before you were born, it was my last big meal before baby. You'd probably been there since February 2009 but you definitely enjoyed your dinner.  Pop-Pop and Grandma joined us and showered you with more presents.

Today, we hosted your birthday party at the movie theater - just like last year.  You and eleven fr or iends and relatives,watched Lego Batman and had a great time.  I might have enjoyed the movie more or at least just as much as all of the 2nd and 4th graders.  I sat next to Toddler Cousin and she told me a few times to stop laughing.  I was also stealing her popcorn, according to her.  (I was.)

Reina, you are watching me type this so it's making it a little hard for me to talk about how cool you are.  Okay, you just left to go get a bedtime snack so here we go.  You continue to be a delight.  You hate getting in trouble (at school, home.... well), you work hard and are reading like a champ.  You have a great sense of humor that veers towards the toilet variety (I blame your dad and brother) but you remember jokes and aren't afraid to make up your own.  You greet many things with unbridled enthusiasm, including dentist appointments.  Last week, you had a meltdown when we figured out that the next day's dentist appt wasn't actually yours, but your brother's. You have to wait until May for another check-up and you were very disappointed.

You are a busy kid.  You are finishing up the basketball season, taking piano lessons, swimming and ballet.  You are a little overscheduled but you are hanging in there and we are lightening up your schedule soon.  I am so proud of your piano playing - it's amazing how much you've learned in less than a year.  You can read both treble and bass clef and are playing with two hands.  I love to listen to you play.  Sometimes we'll play a duet and I'm the one making the mistakes.  You love listening to the radio in the car and singing along.  You have a sweet voice and I hope you'll keep singing.

Reina, I could say more about your kindness and how you seem to make friends where ever we go.  You are a sweet to your little cousins and love when your bigger cousins come to visit.  You are excited about going on trips and have a big list of places that we should visit.  Let's do some of those in your Year 8.

Happy birthday, dear Reina.  We can't wait to see what the next year brings.