spring days

long time no blog! my intention was to post more frequently but what can i say but life remains full. so this blog entry will be simply a few highlights from the past month.



gardening:

it's spring and that means lots of time in the garden. lucy is always very keen on helping in the garden.




lucy (and the chickens) helping to plant the asparagus.....

...taaadaaa!! she may be the most stylish gardener i know!







earth day:
we celebrated earth day in hood river with a 'procession of animals' which was basically a parade of little kids dressed up. riley was an 'eagle' and lucy was a 'kitty with butterfly wings'.

spring ball:

riley started t-ball and so far the games have been rainy (gotta love spring sports) but he is having so much fun....and he's a good little ball player too!

ballet:

this is actually funny. we were telling people in march that riley was signed up for t-ball and lucy would always pipe in saying she was going to start ballet ...???(no idea where she got this idea as the word ballet was never mentioned in our house). then serindipitously the dance studio in town does this intro ballet for 3 year olds just for the month of april...so she ended up starting ballet, and loved it!

jazz fest:

the last weekend in april was a trip for me. i met up with my college girlfriends for the jazz fest in new orleans (our not quite annual trip). it was so much fun and as my former college roommate lisa said "jazz fest never disappoints".

the girls (lisa, lauren, hava, me and renee) on bourbon st.

so that pretty much sums up the last month for us. hope you are enjoying your spring days as well!

easter bunny fun

my first draft of this blog entry was a little down on easter, but todd said it was too grinchy, or whatever the equivalent of the grinch is for easter, so i have edited a little. and really we did have a good easter, chocolate bunnies and all.

we dyed the eggs a couple nights ahead of time. this may be my favorite part of the holiday.

...and put our eggs in the basket on the night before (don't you love lucy's new 'smile for the camera smile')

on easter morning the easter bunny did come and brought some books, and puzzles, but not alot of candy (way to go easter bunny!).

we had a little egg hunt around the house making sure we counted to ensure ALL the hard boiled eggs were found so no stinky surprises in a couple months.

then we headed down to portland for the campbell family gathering hosted by my aunt and uncle. the kids had a great time with their cousins (evidenced by the sugar induced photo session).

....lucy and makena

...riley (on sugar) and max

all in all it was a fun day....hope your easter was good too!

spring break road trip

home sweet home, but man we had a fantastic 9 day road trip through 4 states (yes you can be impressed that we did this with a 3 yo and 5yo). we got home last night (and dorothy was spot on...there is no place like home), but we are still smiling from the series of great visits we had with dear friends. so wanted to share a little of our trip with you.

stop number one- missoula, mt.

our friends aaron and caitlin with their little ones emma and wilson. aaron and i were in pa school together and both todd and caitlin had gotten environmental type graduate degrees. needless to say we hit it off. we had our first kids at the same time (riley and emma are a month apart) and then went on to have the second set (wilson is 9months older than lucy). caitlin left the office world when the babes arrived and started her own business making baby slings which i will shamelessly plug www.sproutpouch.com (hers are not the kind involved in the recent controversy). the kids had a blast playing together and the adults got to hang out. great visit, great friends.

stop number two- bozeman, mt

todd's life long friend julie and her boyfriend mike landed here recently and are caretaking a sweet pad (we had our own wing to stay in practically).

it was great to catch up with her and get to know mike. the kids had a great time exploring and julie even took them fishing in the pond in front of her house.

....and proved herself worthy of the rod she was tossing around by landing a little trout much to the kids delight.

we took a gamble and schlepped our skis but it paid off as we had a super ski day at bridger mountain just outside bozeman. lucy went up the lift for the first time and riley cruised the blues with confidence. beautiful sunny day.

lucy up on the lift with mom....

....then cruising down the slopes

and riley showing us all the way down...

stop number three- coeur d' alene, id

our friends erik and myrna with their kids kylie (19yo), makena (9yo) and keilani (4yo) are always fun to visit.

erik is a friend from our africa days (he was not in the peace corps, but was working as an attorney in south africa and let us crash at his pad in durban). he met myrna when he got home and the rest is history. the kids had a fantastic time. the big ones hung out, played soccer and catch (riley was smitten with makena and would follow her anywhere!) and the wee ones spent hours playing dress-up (super cute). the grown-ups got to hang out and chat.....which we so enjoy.

stop number four- othello, wa

we of course had to stop to say hi to our good friends the shelbys. grace, abby and jonathan were the hardest part of leaving othello. always good to see them. just a quick overnight, but worth the stop for the yummy grub grace makes and the hugs.

home stretch of the drive and all worn out....

so today it was back to work for me. back to school for riley. todd spent the day unpacking and putting order back into our home.

waahooo for road trip 2010!!!! happy spring breaks to you too.

almost spring

Spring hasn't exactly sprung, but it's definitely thinking about it. We are getting ready as well and most of our attention has turned to getting the garden prepared. We expanded the garden, doubled it really.

Below is the view from the upstairs window of our backyard. The two large garden plots in the back and over to the left is the chicken coop and yard. The middle of the yard has the remnants of a recent soccer match (Riley I'm sure won).

We found that we needed a fence since we like to have our chickens free-range and they like to bathe and scratch in the lettuce. So fence we made. Sunk the posts, put the fencing on, and Todd built these great gates recycling some old lathe from the walls of our house.

Then Todd recycled the old pump house from the irrigation system (the county redid the system last year and now we don't need the pump), and bought an old window at the rebuild-it center. Voila a cold frame. Ultimately we want to build a green house, but that is realistically a little ways off, so the cold frame will work well for now.

Most exciting was that we planted our seedlings. Lots of everything, (tomatoes, broccoli, greens, peas, beans), oohhh its really gonna be a spectacular garden this year. Lucy loves to water the little seedlings.

oh and look!! The garlic I planted in the fall is looking good so far!

The daffodils bloomed late last week. I didn't get a picture of them because Riley picked a bouquet of them for me. We had to have a little talk about which flowers mommy likes in her bouquets and which ones she likes to leave in the garden.

So next week we are off for spring break. Road trip!! We are visiting friends in Montana, Idaho and a quick stop in good old Othello, Washington! We had to find babysitters for our chickens and for our little seedlings! (so thankful for good friends)

Happy (almost) Spring to you!

I heart...

I heart so many things. The sound of new snow. Rain. The smell of fresh ground coffee. 80's music. Cheese (particularly goat cheese). Little old men. The belly laughs of babies. Fall colors. Pickles. Musicals. Cool sheets on a warm night. The symphony. Hiking. Candy corn. Books. Brews. Skiing. The smell of onion and garlic sauteing. A good massage. Sleeping in a tent. Girlfriends. My family. The blue-eyed smile of my husband. Then there are the babes. Someone once told me that having a child is like watching your heart go walking around outside of your body. So true.

Today we celebrated Valentine's Day with the love of our family. We made a fabulous fondue of artichoke hearts, red pepper and monterey jack cheese......

....we all got new trowels cause a family that gardens together, eats together. True that.

....and then finished it up with chocolate fondue

oh yeah!!......

pure chocolate bliss.....

....the grown-ups enjoyed raspberry liqueur martinis made from our homemade hooch

We all agreed that fondue is definately a Valentine's Day tradition. We heart it.

Happy Valentine's Day!

winter days

After the craziness of the holidays I always welcome the return to a normal rhythm in our home. Work, school, cooking up yummy meals, ...our evenings spent doing puzzles, reading books, or having our weekly game night (we got several new games for X-mas and birthdays which have been fun). I would say the word quiet but that never describes a home with two small children, and certainly there is an element of being cooped up in the house that can have the kids bouncing off the walls. This of course is when you head outside depite the weather (we are Oregonians and don't let a little thing like rain get in our way). We have managed to get some good sledding and skiing in depite the paltry snowfall this year.

A few photos of the past month to share. First we made and canned some applesauce. Remember when we bought our winter supply of apples from our favorite orchard in October?? Well the apples were getting to be not so crunchy and before they actually spoiled we made them into sauce. We each had a heaping bowl of warm sauce and to my heart's delight Riley exclaimed "this is way yummier than the applesauce from the store!" Exactly.

Riley peeling the apples.....

...peeled apple corkscrew

lucy's apple glasses....

daddy cooking and canning the sauce....

.....and a bath to finish off the night.


We've been having some great ski days with both kids. Lucy spends her time (and really we are lucky to get an hour out of her before she starts asking for hot cocoa) on the "magic carpet" which replaced the rope tow (my gloves give thanks!). She screams the whole way down in part delight and part fear. She is having fun and we hope to get her up on the lift by the end of the season.

Lucy riding up the magic carpet....

...then squealing down the hill!

Riley is becoming a great little skiier. He can easily get down any green run and is now turning solidly enough to tackle the blues. He loves going fast (we've had a couple of talks about skiing in control), is into jumps, and generally is having a ball skiing.

Riley getting ready to ski...

...and he's off! Wait for me Riley!!

look at that form...solid!

.....and of course posing for the obligatory picture at the top of the mountain. What a gorgeous day to spend on the slopes with my little ski buddy!

The kids have also gotten in a few sledding days. Here they are playing in the snow with their friends Lani and Mel (and dad Steve).

We have been keeping warm and busy and having fun. Hope your winter days have been warm too!