wwwweeeeeee!!!!

it is most definately looking like spring around these parts....a little less rain and a little more sun which is calling us out of the house to bask in the warmth. AND the cherry blossoms are out! (we in the hood get excited about this because it means the cherries are coming!)

to celebrate the outdoor season todd made a tree swing for the kids. its been on his 'to do' list for awhile and finally inspired by lucy's giggles while swinging at the park he spent an afternoon rigging this one up. the kids love it and the giggles can be heard echoing around the yard.

spring also means baseball season and riley is playing little league 'coach pitch' this year. as you might guess from the name it means the T from T-ball is gone and the coach pitches to the kids. they also can get out which makes the games a little more fun and exciting to watch. all the players rotate positions but riley likes putting on all the catchers gear. its still overall pretty cute to watch.

and in BIG BIG milestone news...lucy learned to ride her bike this week!! she is pretty pleased with herself.

they really do grow up so fast!

happy may!

hoppin down the bunny trail

we celebrated a fun little easter this past weekend.

the kids love love love dying eggs.....so we now have 3 dozen hardboiled dyed eggs to eat. egg salad sandwiches anyone?

the kids put their dyed eggs in their baskets with a carrot for mr. bunny....

....and wouldn't you know it but the easter bunny managed to find our house again! he brought both kids a new book, a very small chocolate bunny and a new travel bingo game for the car.

i made my traditional cinnamon rolls for easter brunch (they only come once a year and they are so yummy!)...

then we headed down to portland to celebrate with the campbell family at large. my mom hosted (this being her first event since becoming betrothed) and it was a lovely gathering. the little kids (and there are alot of them) had an easter egg hunt and then enjoyed all the loot!

i managed to get my kids to hold still long enough for one nice easter picture.....

now we are back to looking at the sky and trying to duck out into the garden between rain showers!

springtime

long time no blog! we have just been plugging along...no big events to report... but here is a quick update of life this past month.

spring means time for planting our seeds! lucy loves to help. we are trying something new this year...potato towers! those are potatoes in the wire not eggs ...the chickens are certainly interested. theory is to keep adding soil as the potatoes grow up and hopefully they continue to put out more baby potatoes and we get a better harvest. we'll let you know how it goes in the fall. lucy loves to help feed the chickens....



we also recently bottled our fall apple cider. we made two different batches. one was a dry apple wine and the other a sweet spiced cider. both were delicious! next year we plan to make 3 or 4 batches!

reptile man made his annual visit to little feet pre-school. its amazing how interested and not freaked out the kids are with the big snakes....many an adult would react differently!

we've had a couple of fantastic spring skiing days. both kids are great little skiiers. lucy has a solid snow-plow down and is cruising down the green runs with an occasional blue run for challenge. riley can get down any hill and is all about finding the jumps.

last weekend we took a trip to seattle to visit my friend molly and her husband mark and the kiddos jack (4yo) and grace (6mo). molly and i have been friends since like 2nd grade and hadn't seen each other in awhile. both my kids loved the baby. we also had fun visiting the zoo and playing on some great slides. i forgot my camera but molly shared a few

thats it for now.....

denver visit

we got back last week from a visit to denver. we had a wonderful time with family and friends. i celebrated my birthday there and todd's mom judy was kind enough to invite the whole family out for dinner. a very fun gathering to celebrate with everyone.

we had several 'playdates' at parks in the morning. we would just let folks know where we would be and then have an oppotunity to chat for an hour or two while the kids played. riley and lucy both love 'dinosaur park' and here is a picture of them seated on high.

unfortunately we didn't take a ton of pictures but here are a couple documenting sword play in grandma judy's front yard.

todd's dad jim and step mom lynn gifted us with a ski day at vail. what an amazing day!! having two little kids i don't get many adult only ski days and certainly this day was epic in so many ways. several inches of fluffy new snow, bright blue skies, wide open terrain in the back bowls and fantantic ski buddies.....i'm still smiling. lynn took a picture but i don't have a copy of it...i'll post it if i get it.

overall a wonderful visit. now we are back into the swing of life in the hood.

ski day

i have been meaning to post these pictures for awhile. we had a great ski day a couple weeks back...my dad skied with us and took these. lucy and todd quit early but rileys little legs lasted longer than mine....he is really getting to be a great little skier!

...actually it was our last ski day as right after that the snow turned to rain and rain and rain....so sad to watch the snow base shrink and shrink and shrink. it is a la nina year so we expected the precipitation we just wanted it in the form of snow!!! the rain has stopped finally, though it hasn't snowed since.....we are all trying hard to THINK SNOW so we can hit the slopes again!

hope you are getting some winter play in!

lucy is four

what a day of celebration as we end the holiday season with lucy's fourth birthday. she started her day with chocolate chip pancakes (shaped like a princess), then opened some gifts. she got many calls from family wishing her a happy day, and her brother tried his very very hardest to be kind to her (he mostly succeeded).

then in the afternoon she got all dressed up in a princess dress with her new "up" shoes. she had her best little buddies over (also dressed up in their princess dresses).

...riley even got into the spirit and put on a dress!

....we had pizza and then to top it off a pink princess cake!!

....then we busted out the glow sticks and had a little dance party.

....she was smiles (mostly) all day!

happy birthday lucy!

a new year

happy new year!!

we had a great new years celebration.
we spent the new years eve day up on the mountain skiing. it was one on those perfect snow condition kind of days, crisp, clear and cold... the snow was squeaky and smooth (skiiers you know what i'm talking about)...great ski day


then back at home we celebrated new years eve with our good friends steve and janet and kids mel and lani.


so our new years eve tradition is to make a bunch of different appetizers for dinner. this tradition has roots from when todd and i were in the peace corps in lesotho and were spending thanksgiving at my site. now when you live in a remote mountain village in a small african country you don't get many visitors, but as we were just starting to make samosas (cause that sounded good for thanksgiving abroad) we got a knock on the door. to our suprise we had two visitors, one australian and one american who were mountain biking through lesotho. they got off track and needed a place to stay. and as it turned out the australian woman was of indian origin and so taught us how to make samosas!
we used to make them every year around thanksgiving but as this is a holiday with its own food traditions the samosas migrated and ended up being our new years tradition. we added other appetizers to round out the meal and a tradition is born. we look forward to them every year.

we all had a wonderful celebration complete with a game of charades (the kids really got into it).

happy new years!