Ice Skating, Birthday and Christmas!

Campus Park is just a block from our house.  In the summer it's a fun little playground and baseball field.  In the winter it's a fun little playground and an ice skating pond!  Z, being born and bred a South Dakotan, has decided to take up the northern sports and recently insisted that he be taken to the skating pond.  Now, I am not a good skater at all, so Nathan gamely took Z down to the park.  I expected them back within half an hour, but when almost two hours had gone by I was ready to send out a search party.  But they finally came back, bringing pictures with them. 

 They also took video, but blogger is being annoying and not letting me upload videos, so we'll have to save those for later.

Then, of course, I had my 40th birthday.  Yikes.  But it was great fun.  Nathan and Z prepared a lovely repast of cheeses, meats, bread, and this delicious cake.  We all had fun eating and celebrating.  Then Lisa came and took the kids for the whole night while Nathan took me to Sioux City to see Cirque de Soleil.  Amazing.  I had never seen it before, either in person or on tv.  I think it's best described as a grown-up circus; a combination of acrobatics, dance and music that is stunning.  The strength of the performers was literally almost unbelievable -- they seemed to defy gravity and the laws of physics.  After the circus we went to a bed and breakfast for the night.  I have such a wonderful family!

 

And just a couple of days later we celebrated an early Christmas with Amah (Lisa) at her house.  It was the wonderful chaos of Christmas breakfast, Christmas presents, and happy family.

Books

Eden is learning to love books, which of course is thrilling to both Nathan and me.  Her favorite right now seems to be Harry the Dirty Dog, which is nice because Phin actually looks quite a bit like Harry.

She also likes to pull books off the shelves and thumb through them with a serious look on her face.  This is the one I found her with today:

The Lights of Christmas

Christmas has come to the Hitchcock house.  And it is very pleasant.

Busy Learning!

Children's Museum

Several of our friends have recommended the Children's Museum of Brookings, SD, and since Ann and Evie and Libby were out for a visit this past week, we thought it would be the perfect time to check it out.  What a fun place!  Full of information and hands-on activities, there's more than enough to keep children and parents busy for a whole day.  And downtown Brookings is very nice.  After 11 years as a South Dakotan, this was my first time there.  I was impressed, and a good time was had by all.

We spent at least 20 minutes in this construction zone:

Then it was on to the indoor water fun, with balls, waterfalls, steam and lots of splashing:

The girls (especially Eden) loved the giant light-bright:

Upstairs we discovered big, blue blocks:

Then on to the deli and icecream shop where the kids served us up lunch (and charged quite a price for it, too!)

Painting on the glass:

And Eden's back to the light-bright.

End of the day:

Autumnal

Autumn is here in South Dakota, and it's quite beautiful this year.

 I planted 48 tulips and 10 hyacinths with great hopes for the spring.  Sleep well little bulbs, wake up beautiful!

 Z, Eden and Nathan carved pumpkins.  Z drew the face for the big one, and Nathan carved it out.  Z makes his scariest faces in honor of the occasion.

 Nathan gets in on the fun.

And Eden and I enjoy just watching.

Kindgarten School Picture