Vivaldi's Four Seasons: Winter

See the Spring post for an explanation.....

Movement 1
Frozen and shivering in the icy snow. In the strong blasts of a terrible wind to run stamping one's feet at every step with one's teeth chattering through the cold

Lina

Caleb

Movement 2
To spend the quiet and happy days by the fire whilst outside the rain soaks everyone. To walk on the ice with slow steps and go carefully for fear of falling.

Lina...she often chose to copy what Caleb was drawing, so I was happy to see this....complete with a guy that had fallen on his head!

Caleb, he chose to highlight spending time by the fire

 Movement 3
To go in haste, slide and fall down: To go again on the ice and run, until the ice cracks and open. To hear leaving their Iron-gated house Sirocco, Boreas and all the winds in battle: This is winter, but it brings joy

Lina

Caleb

Vivaldi's Four Seasons: Autumn

See the Spring post for an explanation....

Movement 1

The peasant celebrates with song and dance the pleasure of the rich harvest, and full of the liquor of Bacchus they finish their merrymaking with a sleep.

Lina

Caleb

 Movement 2
All are made to leave off singing and dancing by the air which now mild gives pleasure and by the season which invited many to enjoy a sweet sleep

Lina

Caleb

Movement 3

At dawn the hunters with horns and guns and dogs leave their homes; the beast flees; they follow its traces. Already terrified and tired by the great noise of the guns and the dogs, and wounded it tries feebly to escape, but exhausted dies. 

Lina

Caleb

Vivaldi's Four Seasons: Summer

See the Spring post for an explanation....
Movement 1
Under the merciless sun languishes man and flock; the pine tree burns, the cuckoo begins to sing and at once join in the turtle doves and the goldfinch. A gentle breeze blows, but Boreas joins battle suddenly with his neighbor, and the shepherd weeps because overhead hangs the dreaded storm, and his destiny.

Lina

Caleb

 Movement 2
His tired limbs are robbed of their rest by his fear of the lightning and the heavy thunder and by the furious swarm of flies and hornets

Lina

Caleb

 Movement 3
Alas, his fears are well founded. There is thunder and lightning in the sky and the hail cuts down the lofty ears of corn

Lina

Caleb

Vivaldi's Four Seasons: Spring

Last month the kids and I were driving around and heard Vivaldi's Spring Concerto on the radio. They really loved the music and we talked about what the music sounded like to them. I knew that there was some poetry that went with the piece, so I looked it up and it inspired a pre-dinner ritual for the past few weeks. Every night before dinner, I'd read one of the sonnets and we'd listen to one movement of the concerto. Caleb and Lina then illustrated what they heard or what was in the poem. Here are the results from the Spring Concerto

Movement 1
Joyful Spring has arrived, The birds welcome it with their happy songs, And the brooks in the gentle breezes flow with a sweet murmur. The sky is covered with a black mantle, Thunder and lightning announce a storm. When they are silent, the birds take up again their harmonious songs.

Lina

Caleb

 Movement 2
And in the flower-rich meadow, to the gentle murmur of leaves and plants the goatherd sleeps, his faithful dog at his side.

Lina

Caleb

 Movement 3
To the merry sounds of a rustic bagpipe, nymphs and shepherds dance in their beloved spot when spring appears in its brilliance.

Lina

Caleb

Ice Skating

Ever since the Olympics, the kids have been begging to go ice skating. Since Randy doesn't skate and I'm not that strong of a skater, it's a pretty daunting task. I took Adelina last weekend and thought that she did well enough for us to all go together today. It was actually a pretty successful trip to the rink!

Adelina's good balance seems to be paying off....we were pretty impressed with how well she did on only her second trip to the rink.

Caleb and I skated a handful of times last year and he was fairly independent today as well. 

Levi really wanted to go out on the ice and had no idea how hard it was to really skate. We gave it a go without a milk crate and it was pretty much impossible. Here's me saying "I can't do it"!

We finally got a hold of a milk crate and were a little more successful. 

Two Peas in a Pod

One interesting thing about having three kids is the relationships between the siblings. Adelina and Caleb are really great playmates, but there seems to be something very special between Levi and Adelina. It actually makes me sad to think about how much Levi will miss Adelina when she is at school all day next year. 

One great benefit of Adelina being able to read is that Levi always has an eager person to read him books. 

 The other morning I came home from the gym to find our bed looking like this! Randy gave up trying to sleep and moved on with his day.

 Adelina really wanted her nails painted this week, and of course Levi had to join in on the fun.

After everyone had fancy nails, Lina and Levi changed into their dancing clothes and put on a little performance for me,

 A little more reading with dress-up clothes on!

Happy Birthday Levi!

In typical third child fashion, I'm pretty late posting about Levi's birthday. On the morning of his birthday, my computer crashed and I've been slowly getting adjusted to have a new MacBook. I digress...

Adelina had made Levi a very special birthday crown for his big day, complete with lots of dinosaur stickers. He was very excited and wore it all day long. 

 Levi's favorite food in the world is shrimp, hands down. We thought he would enjoy having shrimp and grits for dinner and he was eager to help pull the tails off the shrimp.

Some dinner time conversation...

Finally time for the birthday song!

And time for presents! Levi has really been interested in dinosaurs this year (as you may have guessed from the cake), so he got a book all about dinosaurs and some dinosaur figures to play with.

It definitely feels like we've entered a new era in our house with the kids now at 3, 5, and 7 years of age. Levi continues to be such a fun-loving kid and brings a great energy to our house. He's truly the all-American little boy, with his love of sports, big trucks, firefighters, and super heroes. We can't wait to see what this year will bring!