The Curtis Clan - Winter 2011

Winter Solstice to Spring Equinox

Holiday Season

Our sixteen days of Holidays had a mix of our standard family tradition mixed with a healthy dose of “no deeds to do or promises to keep”. In the battle of things around the house that could use attention versus reading and movie watching (including annual White Christmas screening), the latter won out for the most part. We enjoyed the various days of Sagemis (Christmas with Bethany’s family) as the out of towners came in so the girls could have cousin fun and we could meet the newest niece/cousin Julia Sage. The holiday also marked the 11th Anniversary of R&B’s first date. St Louis got a few inches of snow on the 24th giving the holiday a beautiful and magical White Christmas feel, without being a hassle as most everyone had the day off.

Christmas Eve at 602 Tuxedo	and at Tuxedo Park station

Bethany and the girls outside Holy Redeemer before mass	Christmas Eve Family photo of the Curti

Cate & Jane wait at the top of the stairs to go down and see their presents

Sage tribe at the Zoo on the 27th

St. Peters' Sagemis - Cousins

St. Peters' Sagemis - full clan

January

Modern Family - Curti 2011

Bethany, Elisabeth & Maria

Celebrate E's B-Day

Cate, Li and Jane enjoy a

Play Date Dance Party (Lilly too!)

Snow, Snow, Snow

In January the girls got 2 snow days where school was called off a week apart as we got a couple significant good snow falls along with several others of less significance. The first was a welcome “fun” day to play in the snow. The second one on the 20th we got a good six inches over night. Randy and Jane got up in the predawn to do a quick shovel around the house, followed by a couple predawn sled runs down the local “Suicide Hill” at Deer Creek Park in the moonlight. February started off with two more snow/ice days with school closed for what the media hyped as Snowmagaden. St. Louis dodged the worst of it by about 50 miles but still got several inches of sleet and ice causing havoc on the roads. Randy’s commute home the day it started lasted over 2 hours as Metro link’s train were stymied by the ice on the electrical lines, which gave of the prettiest sparks as it shorted out. Four inches of snow a few days later hardly raised an eyebrow but it did allow for more snow fun and Cate’s first trip to Suicide Hill. She insisted on going down by herself. While the snow was great, the packed ice underneath made it nearly impossible to walk back up the hill. It became hard to recall what home looked like without least some snow on the ground as it didn’t ever totally disappear since the gift of the White Christmas. The winter of 2011 will go down in our memories forever.

Jane and Cate frolicing in the snow

Cate treking back up Suicide Hill

February

Randy multi-tasking with a vengence

and doesn't see his shadow on Groundhog Day

Science Fair

This winter Randy decided to help the girls with a Science Fair (SF) project. The idea for the project came from last year’s movie Up and a Myth Busters episode: how many balloons would it really take to lift up a person? Both girls loved the idea of playing with helium balloons and a Polly Pockets figurine but they had no understanding about doing the science and how much work writing it up would be. After going to the SF information night in 2010, Randy decided waiting a year seemed like a good idea. In retrospect maybe a couple years would have been better given the girls lack of familiarity with so many topics: weights, measuring distances, multiplication, division, converting everything into metric (a SF requirement), not to mention typing it on the PC, along with using Word and other program’s to cut and paste pictures into the write up. Despite being at the “Computer School, they have not developed keyboarding as a separate skill. Then again they are only in 1st and 2nd grade. Randy didn’t learn to type until junior high (also at Steger). Dad tried to make it fun, taking the tasks in bit sized chunks to match their interest levels and attention spans but it was a chore for all. They both got second place ribbons, which they felt pretty good about and have subsequently suggested ideas for next year’s projects so fortunately it wasn’t too bad of an experience. However between the SF and all the snow days, it is abundantly clear that home schooling is clearly not for OUR family. How Balloons To Go Up?

Polly Pocket is lifted in the name of science

2011_01_17 Science Fair Polly lifted.jpg

Valentine’s Day

2011 Curti Valetine's Day Card

We sent out some V-Day cards and Randy took the girl’s to their 4th Daddy Daughter Dance at the Webster Groves RecPlex. For the second year in a row, the girls won one of the large stuffed animals during the raffle and we’re quite pleased. It been a lot of fun but has become somewhat routine and the girls may be past the ideal demographic.

Ready for our 4th Daddy Daughter Dance

As is typical during mid-February, there were sporadic day(s) of unseasonably warm weather. Fortuitously one of these days coincided with a Friday early dismissal for the girls and Randy actually taking his bi-weekly day off for working 9 hour days. We took the girls for a visit to the Science Center to see the IMAX show of Sea-Rex which did an excellent job of introducing the girls to Continental Drift and evolution of the sea “dinosaurs”. This was followed by a trip to the Baskin-Robbins in Rock Hill to enjoy 4 of the 32 varieties of ice cream and a pint of boiled peanuts next door at Bandera’s. While we noshed in the outdoor in the courtyard in the sun the girls played tag.

Cate, Jane and Bethany enjoy 3 of the 32 at Baskins-Robbins

As Randy was questioning if it got any better, we got back home and the girls (mostly Jane) cheerfully cleaned up a winter’s worth of dog doo-doo in the yard (yeah we’re having trouble believing it too, even with the picture). Joy!

Jane cleaning up the yard

March

March’s personality is tied to the changing and unreliable weather, though it trends toward ever growing warmth and happiness. Warm days trigger a lasting good mood that allows one to shrug off the less frequent reminders that it is still winter. On one day you can be outside on the porch knocking off some tele-work on a day off as the girls gleefully play in the yard with the crocuses and daffodils sprouting up, give you the feeling that all is right with your world. The next day can be a gray, damp cold day best suited to curling up inside. Poor weather encouraged us to stay in and watch movies. with Dad indoctrinating the girls with Buster Keaton’s The General, Doris Day’s Calamity Jane and How the West Was Won.

Cookie baking playdate

The month also saw its share of play dates and birthday parties with the girl’s classmates and the school having a crazy hair day coinciding with St. Patrick’s Day.

Crazy Hair for St Patricks Day

1st Grade Poetry Café

Cate’s teacher Mrs. Jauer celebrated the completion of month’s worth of poetry writing by turning her classroom into a 1950s era Beatnik Coffee house to showcase the 1st graders efforts to their parents. As with Jane’s class it really seems to have sparked the kids to write. Cate started the Café off with a few lines scripted dialogue.

Cate at the 1st Grade Poetry Cafe

Among Cate’s poems were:

C-A-T-E
C. . . Creative
A. . . Animals
T. . . Terrific
E. . . Explorefull

Summer
Hello new swimsuit
Goodbye puffy winter coat

Hello lemonade
Goodbye hot coca

Hello sunny day
Goodbye snowy day

Hello my sister’s B-Day
Goodbye my B-Day

Black
Black as a cat and
Black as its whiskers
Black can be hair
The feeling of Black is the feeling of dark
Black is lonely
So lonely people forget it

The last few months have seen us make even more frequent visits to the library, particularly on the weekends since the temporary location is only a 12 minutes’ walk away, which is palpable even on snowy days. On the last day of winter with temperatures in the high 70s, we took a different route home with the girls crossing the creek at Newport and Brentwood in order to visit a small park there, That lasted about 3 minutes as the girls decided that the exploring the creek and the storm tunnel under the parking lot and climbing up slopes was far more interesting than the swings. Such moments of watching them grow are a true joy.

Jane and Cate exploring the creek

2011-03-19 Jane and Cate in Creek at Newport.jpg

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