Kids on Vacation, Day 37, I mean 3

- The lack of napping may be starting to catch up with Jack; he's a little bit sillier and today he befriended a foam dart that he found in our back yard. He named it Sodo. No, I'm not making this up.

- It was beautiful today; I think we saved about 50 bucks on our monthly heating bill today alone. The plan was to have a "school at home" day, in which we adhered to Jack's schedule from school. He was kind of into the idea (at least until complaining about it roughly 10 minutes after waking up), but it didn't really work. We had "Circle Time" and "Music class" directly after breakfast, at which point Jack said it was time for snack. Unfortunately, what takes until 10:30 at school only took us up until 9 a.m., which is a little early, I think, for snack.

- Highlight of the day -- the week, really -- was going outside into the backyard. It was warm and sunny, and the kids greeted the yard as if they hadn't been outside in months (which it may have felt like, although actually we were out in the snow about a week ago, but whatever). I have pictures on my phone that I have no idea how to download of them running about like crazy people, throwing their arms over their heads like George in the Seinfeld episode where he briefly achieves success and happiness as a hand model. That was playing in the yard: me standing in one spot (or sitting at the table) while they ran circles, back and forth, around the tree, up onto the neighbor's yard. There was one patch of snow/ice about the size of a pizza in the entire yard, and both of them naturally managed to find their way onto it, slipping and soaking their pants in the process. Kate sat there for a few minutes, clearly confused by the whole thing. "I...was running...and now I'm sitting down?"

- Jack made a little lego car with wheels and a steering wheel and helicopter blades on top ("It's a flying car", he explained) that was so impressive I can scarcely believe it. He likes my idea for careers for him and Katie: he can be an architect, designing tall buildings, and she can be in demolition, knocking them down. Because that's pretty much what happens in our house on a regular basis: Jack builds, Katie destroys.

A pretty good day.