unexpected sunshine

I'm pretty sure unexpected should describe all sunshine around here right now. It has just been the coolest and wettest spring. Sunshine is hard to come by (especially if you want it to show up with warm temperatures, seriously a big expectation). But, here it is and we are taking full advantage. I filled bird feeders, watered our newly planted plants, planted some green beans, etc. The girls moved their mini dollhouses to the back deck and have been enjoying the sun as well. Their little bodies really needed to soak up some Vitamin D too. Thank you, sun.

Sophie is going to have a birthday in just a couple weeks.  We finally agreed on a plan for her party (she really wanted a picnic in the backyard but it's just too early to expect sunshine AND warmth on that one day (not to mention that we still don't have a fence and whenever kids come here for the first time, they are always very disappointed that they can't play on the neighbor's play structure).  So, a gymnastics party it is!  And she is thrilled because they have a giant foam pit that she loves.
These pictures make me smile like crazy.  Sophie just loves, loves her Charley so much.  Everywhere she goes, she wants Charley there with her.  I think Charley loves her just as much. 

20 Things to Do This Summer (edited)

1. Go to the beach. - been there, and we're going back
2. Go for a hike (or two or three...). - Wildwood Rec. area and Mt. Hood
3. Help the girls complete their first embroidery projects.
4. Make 2010 stepping stones with the girls. - they are out of the molds and curing for a few more days
5. Play in the snow. - hard to believe, but we did this!
6. Pick berries. - it was a disappointing outing (for berries) but the girls had fun.
7. Eat ice cream. - yep! Last day of school we went to Ben & Jerry's to celebrate.
8. Finish my knitting project.
9. Read 3 good books.
10. Make lots of art.
11. Teach Emma to ride a big girl bike.
12. Go to the zoo. - twice already, and more to come I am certain.
13. Go to the Japanese Gardens.
14. Go to the A.C. Gilbert Museum in Salem.
15. Take a picture of Mt. Hood from Trillium Lake.
16. Clean the pantry.
17. Make lots of pesto using basil from our garden.
18. Find a praying mantis in our backyard.
19. Make our own hammock.
20. Sleep in a yert.

Obviously, this isn't a complete list of all that we will do this summer. And look! We have already gone for a hike, on Mt. Hood, and played in the snow. How great is that? Oh, and we have four gorgeous basil plants in the garden ready to become pesto. So, what's on your summer to do list?

It's finished!

My sweater, the Big Montana Tunic - I finished it last night. Since I know you are excited about that, you will have to come back this evening to see the finished product. A picture will have to wait for Andy's return home (okay, the picture had to wait a few days, but they are here now. Oh, and sorry for the booty shots, those are the best close-ups of the lacework). But in the meantime, I can say that it's great. It fits well. The blocking went well and the lacework looks really nice. So, I'm really glad I found this pattern and decided to trust my skills. It's good.
If you click on the link above, look at all of the good projects in this magazine. I love so many of them. I think the Tunic was the most budget friendly, but I can't wait to make others. It took me just about a month to make (and you should know that I never worked on this before 8pm, after the girls went to bed - except one day when Andy and I had something suspiciously similar to food poisoning), and that includes finishing about half of the lacework and then ripping it all out and starting over fresh. I'm so glad I did that though. This is my first big project, other than Barbie's shawl, which was a lot of fun to make.
I do have a next project in mind (actually from a different publication), but before I start another knit, I plan to prep some fabric for pj pants for the girls. I am trying to get those finished before Emma completely bursts through her current lineup of sleepwear. She is growing, you know.

edit: All of the details about this sweater and what I did, etc. can be found on Ravelry if you click here. This is the first project that I detailed there, but it will be so helpful to me in the future.

http://www.ravelry.com/projects/bootypackgirl/big-montana-tunic

The first day

Sophie went to school first. She has morning preschool in the same class that Emma had her first year. And it's green, which makes her happy. Nearly everything green can make her happy. She was such a big girl, we were all amazed. She had the whole family there with her for the drop off on the first day. When we picked her up, she was really excited and told us "Ben wouldn't sit down for storytime". She still talks about that. At bedtime tonight, she told me she likes her teacher and that she is excited to go to school again. (I should mention here that Sophie is holding a photo of our family in her hand. I stuck it in her backpack that morning so that she could look at it if she got sad or worried. Her teacher said she put it away when we left but went back to look at it a couple of times and she thought it was a great idea. Sophie checks to see that it is still in her bag everyday.)

The first day for Emma was a shortened orientation style day. We were all there with her for the first 30 minutes, then we left (she actually looked a little nervous) and she got to experience a little bit of kindergarten. It was really good - she has a couple friends in class with her - those are them, sitting next to her. She likes her teacher a lot too. She is so ready to learn. They both are really, but the interest in learning is just crazy big with Emma. When my tutoring students come over, she usually gets her notebook and a pencil and sits down at the table with us so that I can make her some addition or subtraction problems to work on. She loves this. She has asked to have a desk in her room. She said she needs one because sometimes she likes to work where it is quiet.

Wow! They are really growing up. Darn. And, yeah.

Lovely

I found a blog today - The Lovely List - through another blog (the usual route). I quickly got sucked in and had to stay a while. It is lovely. It didn't take me long to discover the giveaway too. A cruiser bike - every month. Oh yes, please enter me.
I once had a bike. While I was at Ohio State, I started with a car. I sold it one year to pay for tuition, and bought a bike. I biked to class every single day. In rain, snow, even across ice - yes, I looked really ridiculous, but I made it to class in the worst weather that year. One night while I had it locked up outside the library, someone came along and claimed it as their own.
I replaced that bike with a new one pretty quickly - I had to, it was my only transportation. That bike stuck with me all the way to Portland, and through my first several years here. When I was in school at Lewis & Clark College, I finally decided to sell it to a classmate. It was a good decision, especially at the time as biking actually wasn't very friendly to my hip. It seemed that I would always get a sore hip during a ride of any length.
But now, I have two girls who love to ride their bikes. Right now they are young enough that they are limited to our driveway and the sidewalk within a few houses of ours, but someday they are going to be ready to explore further and it would be so fun to go with them. So, now I really want a bike again... so that I can continue to explore with the girls...

It's a wiggler!

Ahem! Hello?

Tooth Fairy, are you paying attention?

Good.

Last night Miss Emma was eating some carrots and began complaining about a front tooth hurting. Coincidentally, she had a dentist appointment this morning. A new set of x-rays revealed that she is going to lose this tooth. It appears that she has almost no roots left with that tooth. And the tooth next in line - it's HUGE!

So, Emma is a bit excited and a big bit nervous about losing her teeth. I am just so, so glad we got this photo of the girls last weekend. It may be the last great pic before we get toothless grins around here for a while.

And, tooth fairy - we're going to avoid money for teeth (at least for now) and instead, Emma will find some cool new pencils for school. But wait - the tooth is still intact, so let's worry about that stuff when it actually falls out. Though - this is one of those things you can't think about at the very last minute.

Something I don't plan to do (and know where to send the girls should they ever want this done): last spring my neighbor came over looking for a good pair of pliers to help her son's tooth come out. Apparently he was tired of waiting.

PS: I think this blog will be back in action. I have been in a bit of a blogging rut the last few weeks... getting ready for house guests, having house guests, saying goodbye to house guests, etc. But - I have tons of pictures, projects and stories... I just need to get to it. See you soon.

Ready for Monday

We.had.such.a.busy.weekend...yes, we did.
Saturday: one early morning (had to set the alarm) portrait session followed by two birthday parties. Oh, and it was very, very hot.
Sunday: one early morning (again!) portrait session, some laundry on the clothesline, and another early evening portrait session (Oh, the heat). Today was even hotter.

So... how does Monday look?
It looks like this: one lazy morning, some time on the slip n slide before the real heat kicks in and finally: our babysitter is coming in the afternoon (this is the first time in soooo long, and I am ready)... I plan to knit or sew or read or do more laundry or something. Yea!
So, yes - I am looking forward to Monday.
edit: I just have to say that today was really H.O.T. - wow, wow, wow!
We ended up beating the heat (and avoiding bedtime in 90 degrees) by heading out back for some time with the slip n slide for the girls, and the neighbs. It was so good, and Sophie eventually begged to go to bed.

Emma reads.

We always knew it wouldn't take long once she was interested.
I bought the first set of BOB books forever ago. She just wanted to stuff them in a bag and carry them around. They were only read (aloud, to her, by me or Andy) a few times. Little interest (I get it, they aren't much for storytelling).
Last night, Emma picked out one book for bedtime (she selected "A Frog Thing", which is one of the books Sophie got for her birthday). So, I suggested she pick one more. She pulled out a BOB. I decided to gather the whole set, organize them, and offer that we start at the beginning.
Within the last page of the first read through, Emma was reading it with me. Three readings later, Emma read it to me. Then to Dad, who beamed the most "I am so proud of my daughter" beam you could ever imagine.
She kept the book with her when I said goodnight. A few minutes later, as I walked down the hall, I could still hear her reading the story aloud to herself, in the almost dark of 8:45pm: "Mat sat on Sam."

Baby season...

At least it's baby season in the woods around here.

This little beauty, and her mama were hanging out around our house, eating the leaves off the cottonwood trees. Or whatever else is in this area that they like.

First Harvest

We have had some mixed results with the garden this year.

1. The slugs are eating all of the strawberries.

2. The slugs destroyed the broccoli.

3. The slugs attacked one of the tomato plants.

4. The slugs attacked our beans.

5. The spinach was the first victim to the slugs.

There were a few other surprises too, like which way the water would drain in the lettuce bed and just how incredibly moist one of the areas stays. We are also surprised (pleasantly) to see the raspberry bushes really thriving (we will have our first harvest next year). We are excited about the lettuce and green peppers which look pretty nice.

We spent most of today outside, working in the garden, and clearing weeds all around. But, when it was time to go in for lunch - a sweet little voice said "mom, can we pull some carrots to eat for lunch today?". There is no resisting these little voices around here, so pull - we did.

The girls devoured all of these carrots (sure, they are small). But first, they climbed up on the stool by the kitchen sink and worked together to clean these little carrots. It was really sweet to see.

Even with so much of our garden falling victim to the slugs, we love being out there in the yard, in the garden... working, playing, planning. Currently, we are considering our next attack on the slugs...

Happy Birthday God!

Andy explained the history behind fireworks on the Fourth of July to Emma. He talked about the Founding Fathers of our country.

Today was a very cold, damp and dreary day. It actually felt like Fall around here. The girls brought down a bunch of their dolls and soft toys and set up some "fireworks" in the living room.

Then, they sang "Happy Birthday" to God. That's right.

So, Andy asked Emma about it and she said we do the fireworks on Fourth of July to celebrate God's birthday.

She is so smart, but sometimes the facts become a little twisted in her amazing brain. She did go to Day Camp at Creator Lutheran Church just before July 4th.

finally!

It has been a while.
My last pair that really fit, and made my feet happy were purchased and worn for a long time until the birth of Emma. Something horrible happened to my already large feet. They grew.
Fortunately, I was able to still purchase the same shoes - in a bigger size (just half a size bigger, thank you). I wore those for a long time, but strangely they just weren't quite right. Eventually, I allowed them to get icky, icky and icky - in the yard, the garden, on muddy trails, etc. I stopped caring for them as they stopped fitting me (my thought - my feet were going back to normal).
I replaced them a couple times but that is a bad sign since good shoes really ought to last. None felt so good as the first. None could compare in comfort during extended use.
Eventually, I got to this place where I didn't even have a pair fit for wearing - except for a pair of casual tennies that couldn't hit a trail if I cared for my feet - ever.
I have been looking. Always disappointed in the end. But, I never stopped looking. And - Tuesday it happened. A visit to REI with happy girls who love to crawl through the tents and stare dreamily at the canoes and kayaks (we really need to do both, camping first of course). I found some shoes (in my old size, phew!) and after a few minutes in them I decided to bring them home with me. Aaahh! My feet are happy. I wore them for a short Charley walk that night just to test them out and it was good. But yesterday - I wore those babies all-day-long and my feet tell me they are having flashbacks to the good ol' days. And guess what! These new shoes of mine are even the same brand as the old loves of pre prego days. I think I know what my feet like (asics). I am happy to report that I now have a great pair of tennis shoes intended for walking, hiking, playing and my feet are happy.

s m o o c h

Today is our anniversary - Happy Anniversary honey! It's the 7th one, to be exact. Andy was looking in need of a smooch, and Sophie took to the task. I love this picture. He is rather smoochie, don't you think? For our anniversary day - Andy got up and headed off to work for the day. The girls and I went to pick some more strawberries this morning. We are home for lunch and then we are planning to go to the water park down the hill. Then, after Andy gets home from work we are taking the girls to their gymnastics class. Our babysitter left for a two week stay in Hawaii on Monday, so we are limited to a family style celebration for now. Love that picture...

a very special bandaid

The girls went to the Japanese Gardens yesterday. Nana Barbie included. It was amazing and beautiful and about 10 degrees cooler than out in the backyard. We took lots of pictures. At some point, Sophie needed a bathroom and it took us a little bit of searching - during our search, Sophie fell down and skinned her knee. She was upset, and tired and hot. I took her to the bathroom while Emma waited with Nana Barbie. While we were in the bathroom, Sophie started whining about her knee and water and being carried. She asked for a bandaid. I offered that we could check at the desk on our way out, or I had one in the car. She replied: "But, it has to be a Hello Kitty bandaid." I explained to her that the Hello Kitty bandaids were at home and she would need to wait a little longer to have one of those. She wasn't pleased and continued whining. We exited the bathroom stall and went to the sink area to wash our hands. I had Sophie in my arms. I look down at the counter - to figure out which sink was the least messy and gross. I see a dry spot, and right in the middle is a brand new, untouched, unopened Hello Kitty bandaid. We know it is for us. There was one other person in the bathroom when we went in, but she was already gone when we came out. Whoever you are, "Thank you" - you cheered the little monkey right up... and made our trip home a little more peaceful. How amazing... such a funny little thing to be so upset over, and even funnier that it would happen to exist in the purse of the right stranger at the right time. Love it!