What a Saturday should be

There are no hard and fast rules about what makes a good Saturday, but I would  definitely put today into that category. We slept in and enjoyed some early morning quiet. There was coffee and english muffins for us and shaped pancakes and juice for Calvin. There was a fire, some chess, a little family time. Around eleven we struck out for downtown Ann Arbor, the wind still howling but a bright sun shining, with the intention of getting a book from the library there. I thought I'd just jump out and run in to get the one book we needed—the next in the Oz series—but Calvin wanted to go in too, so since we had to find parking anyhow we first stopped at my favorite book seller's (West Side Book Shop) and then at the little toy store nearby (which is Lexi's, but it turns out Calvin is too old for them now). We found the book we needed at the library and also noticed the sign for their book sale going on in the basement (turns out they're open every weekend, so next time we're hungry for a sale we can just go there). That sale turned out to be pure magic for us today.

Back at home it was all Legos all afternoon. Well, Legos and we painted some more on our pictures (which are almost done), spent some time exploring the new books, watched City Lights (Charlie Chaplin), did some chores, counted birds, took naps, and read three chapters in the book we checked out from the library, the next Oz book in the series.

A truly diverse train station.

Jon's creation—the zoo. Note the elephant, snake, skunk, and turtle. I don't know what the red and blue thing in the back is, though.

But the celebrated moment of the day, the activity we've looked forward to all week, came this evening: after the wind had died down, and before the arrival of tomorrow's winter storm clouds, we went on a snow moon night hike at our nearby county park. We love our county naturalist. She taught Calvin about making maple syrup and she's the one who guided our owl hike over a year ago when we actually met a screech owl. Tonight's weather, chilly but perfectly clear, was ideal for the bonfire, Native American folk stories, star gazing, and owl hunt. No owls found us this time, but as the little girl in Calvin's most recent picture book, Owl Moon, says, "sometimes there's an owl and sometimes there isn't." The stars were phenomenal, though, and we got hear two packs of coyotes communicating across the lake and the sonorous tones of the lake ice shifting and giving way to the (slightly) warmer spring air. Don't forget the marshmallows, either.

It's now ten o'clock and we just go Calvin tucked into bed. I think he may have been asleep before his head hit the pillow and if I wasn't so enthralled with the new books, which I now absolutely must skim through, I might be there myself.