Author: becandkyle

Valentine’s Day is coming, so I made a mailbox for school. The Bigs made me put hearts on it. Not sure why.

I made cards for my teachers from a shiitake mushroom:

It has been warm here, really warm, end-of-days warm, but the skiing is still good.

I’m back to skating on my too-short classic skis.

My friend from school, Quinn, came over to play Saturday afternoon. We did some archery, some trapeze swinging, and here we are making lego lugers:

Our culinary travels took us to Greenland (!?) this week. Baked cod loin and hot potato salad:

This week, I made African peanut stew.

The picture does not do it justice, it was very good.

I have some complaints about my wardrobe. My underwear aren’t right, the pants mom bought me are for toddlers, and I am SO over the sneakers without LACES.

That’s better. Now about my underwear…

We did not have school on Friday. Why not? It’s not like The Bigs have jobs or anything. Mom took Hazel and me to the rock gym.

I climbed to the very top every single time.

I did some cross country skiing on Saturday. I said I was tired, but I just kept going.

And then on Sunday, I did some ‘pine.

We were all having fun, until…

I decided it was time to conquer my last lift. NORTHWEST EXPRESS. The Bigs conferred. They felt confident there had to be one reasonable run off the lift. Incorrect.

So, we chose this one.

Oh, yes, it was an icy black diamond.

Even The Bigs admitted it was terrible. They said it was a ‘character building experience’. I guess that is another way to say BAD PARENTING.

I made it down and was all smiles. Maybe, just maybe, they were right.

Some other things we ate this week:

Teff waffles:

and injera bread.

Self-efficient man gets a snack. M&M’s on the top shelf are no problem.

Mom forgot my nordic boots on Saturday, so The Bigs rented me skate skis! I skied 9.5 miles over 3 hours!

Here is a video of me attacking:

It clouded up on Sunday. Maybe it will finally snow.

Our country this week was Brazil. We had Brazilian fish stew.

I made fancy drinks to accompany the stew.

We also made kalua pork. It was steamed in banana leaves

and served with cabbage and rice.

Guest blogger this week. Everything (except for this bit) was written by this guy:

we are just going down olympian it’s one of my favorite trails.

this is my ski class.

this is me and my dad. we are measuring pipes for my fort.

I am building my fort .

this is what it look with no roof.

this is wen the fort was finished .

this is broken top

ski ski as fast as you can you cant catch me i’m the skier man

sunny lunch that was to day .

I drew this guy I call him Evan Callistrictor Jeff Bezos

this is smoke salmon

Ethiopian lentil stew .

mom made lentil m’eat’ balls

roasted portobello mushrooms millet pilaf

Some things I have been up to lately.

Cleaning those hard to reach places – only requires a stool on a stool.

Making my own snacks (and the recipes). This one is 1/2 cup dried goldenberries, 1/4 cup dried apples, and 1/2 cup dried figs.

And skiing. I knocked off another lift this weekend. First ride on Outback.

I also put my nordic lessons to work and hit the trails on Sunday.

It was warm enough for a tailgate.

This week The Mother decided if it could not be made in a crockpot, we couldn’t eat it. Lazy, I tell ya!

Our country of the week was Morocco. We enjoyed Moroccan lamb stew.

Tortilla soup.

And creamy cauliflower soup.

We were out of school for a 10 day quarantine, went back for 4 days, then went on the two week Christmas break and then after only being back in school for 6 hours school was closed for snow.

This week’s country was Japan, so we had ramen.

This was a big week as it was my first time on red chair.

After lots of snowy days (Batchelor received 66 inches of snow in the last 7 days), Sunday was a sunny day

check out the trees…

Here I am working on the scratchables Uncle Jim sent. It took lots of quiet concentration. I really enjoyed it, but I think The Bigs enjoyed it even more :).

I tried to keep busy this week. I went ice skating,

built a race car,

learned how to solder,

and used my new skills to build a Christmas tree,

built a few log cabins,

shot all The Bigs’ frozen peas with my new slingshot,

learned how to play mancala, checkers, chess, and Monopoly,

this is what I look like when I take all your money,

helped Mom make dinner (shelling pistachios is boring so I threw on a podcast to listen to),

and skiied.

Uncle Martin sent us fish for Christmas, so this week we had mahi mahi with capers and tomatoes,

salmon with sauteed cabbage and roasted kabocha squash with maple and sage,

and bass with roasted veggies. Yum!

Our country of the week this week was Costa Rica, so we had gallo pinto (beans and rice) with tostones (fried green plaintains).

And for New Year we had roast chicken, roasted red potatoes, and brussel sprout salad.

I have to make my lunch for school, but I get rushed. The Bigs are always saying ‘finish up, time to brush teeth’. But now that I am on break, I’ve had time to relax and create some culinary magic.

One day I had a smoked mozzerella and salami sandwich, fruit salad, and some pita chips.

Another day I decided to make a ‘board’ with some smoked salmon, cheese, and cuties.

I also decided we should try a recipe from a different country each week. This week? Mexico. The Bigs made me make the dinner – chimichurri cauliflower bowls with Mexican slaw.

Dad and I made a gingerbread house too.

I don’t just cook for myself. I made our neighbors granola as a Christmas gift.

I even designed the label.

I don’t spend all my time in the kitchen. Lately, I’ve been hanging out in the garage a lot. Why? Because Dad built me a trapeze.

I also produced a few works of art.

And made a Christmas display for us to enjoy while we opened our gifts.

We also did some skiing and Santa brought some powder.

After all that skiing it was nice to have a warm bowl of smoked eggplant soup for Christmas Eve dinner.

And I was more than excited to have lamb shawarma for dinner on Christmas Day. The mashed potatoes and root vegetables and roasted butternut squash and red onions were less exciting but ok.

I am so in the lamb.

I left a teeny tiny bit of room for fresh fruit topped with mango and raspberry coconut creams.

We got lots of snow this past week, so I finally did some ‘pine skiing.

and then I hit the nordic trails.

I also posed for the stocking picture. I do not find this amusing but I humored The Mother.

2021

2020

2019

I don’t know why The Bigs always grumble about the mail. It seems like every time I check the box there’s something special for me…so I think it’s pretty great. This week Nana sent an awesome book.

And Nan sent Christmas cookies. What Bigs? You can’t eat gluten right now? Guess I’ll eat them all.

A Big, who will remain unnamed, accidentally forgot to upload half last week’s pictures. So, going back in time a little bit to December 1.

I normally don’t care about the date. Unless it is August 14 or December and I have an advent calendar. Thank you Great Auntie Cheryl. It’s good to have a little chocolate to look forward to after the weird things The Bigs make me eat for dinner.

I also was working on some disguises last week. See if you can tell it is me (they get tricker).

OK. Now we are back to the present week; the week of the SECOND kindergarten quarantine. I do NOT like missing school and I make sure The Bigs are aware of my displeasure. They try to keep me busy by giving me their jobs to do.

I decorated the tree.

And even made some of the ornaments, including a star for the top, gingerbread men (and friends)

and a few reindeer. I am a whiz with a hot glue gun.

I think the tree looks pretty darn good.

I got over my grumpiness this weekend, because it snowed. The Mother made it snow. She waited and waited for snow to make the Christmas card and finally gave up on Thursday. Then it started to dump. So, the Christmas card will be late and lame, but I’m happy!

Here we are getting ready to head out in our matching hats!

It was pretty good and snowy, but they still need a lot more as you can tell from the height of this chair…

as you can see from this picture Mom took on April 2021.

It snowed in town today. Again, I did The Bigs work for them.

It snowed at the mountain too. Look how high it comes up on my legs!