Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Three

Oh my goodness, we crammed a lot of fun into this day.

Opening gifts...


Playing with new toys and wearing new clothes...


Trying on new moustaches...


Blowing out candles in oatmeal sweet potato muffins without the interference of wind...


Lunching in a softball dugout...


Hiding under mysterious trees...


Bouncing around a playground...


Climbing walls...


Eating strawberry ice cream ("Cohd!")...


...and several more things I didn't photograph. They raced around the ball field, did an art project with David, ate pizza for dinner, and attended an open house at the elementary school. Whew. We're all worn out from the fun of turning three!

Sunday, May 25, 2014

Merrily

We invited three little friends to join us in celebrating Vincent's birthday party. The kids fished, had boat races, and dug in the sandboxes for buried treasure. It was fun, low-key, and novel. 

I am writing this with the help of the children. Zoe supplied the word "novel." She explains that it was novel because we got to do boats, which we have never done before. As you may have gathered from the last blog post, the boats are made from cardboard boxes. Fruit boxes from Costco are the best!

Vincent says his favorite part of the party was eating cupcakes. "And the wind blowed out the candles," he noted. He didn't like that. We will try again with the candles indoors on the actual date of his birthday. 










Friday, May 23, 2014

Celebration Of Three







Boating party in our back yard on Sunday. There will be cupcakes!

Monday, May 12, 2014

Blueberry Laundry Lessons



Our five 'Sunshine Blue' blueberry bushes are covered with unripe berries, and we've each tasted a ripe one. In May!

However, Vincent can't resist sampling the not-quite-ripe ones. Phoebe thinks the row of bushes is some kind of obstacle course set up just for her to carom through. Even Zoe likes to handle the berries over-much, hoping to find a good one. And everyone accidentally rolls balls and hoola hoops and scooters into the bushes, unripe berries falling like rain with every bonk. So I built a fence. David wondered if I was also planning a moat full of alligators. Only if necessary.

The fence is working well to protect the berries, and also to hang the laundry to dry. Our old dryer has been fussy over the last few years, prone to shutting off a few minutes into a cycle, but restarting after a few tries. Finally we decided to go ahead and upgrade to new and energy efficient laundry appliances. I ordered them five days ago, and delivery should be within two weeks. None too soon, because as of this morning, the dryer is flat out dead. Nothing happens when I push the go button. (I did check the breaker box.)

Of course, you don't find out the dryer is kaput until you have a load of wet clothes that needs drying. We have no clothes line, as this is a pretty damp climate. But I have a wire fence perfect for hanging towels on! The weather is as good as it'll ever get here for line drying. Still, the towels are not dry at the end of the day. They'll go out again tomorrow after the fog lifts and when I can guard against the dog playing tug with the towels and the wind tossing the light items around. I do see at least one trip to the laundromat in my near future. I'll wash everything at home, and only dry at the laundromat.

In other wet news, Zoe and Vincent had their first swimming lesson, and it went great. We couldn't get into the class for their age group (it's full...forever), but private lessons were available. For less money! Weird, but fine with me. Zoe was all set to go first, but chickened out and clung to me. Vince went willingly with the charming Brittany and had a grand time. His laughter echoed around the pool. Since he was enjoying it so much, Zoe plucked up her courage to leave my side. She had fun, too, of course. The teacher is a winner.


Monday, May 5, 2014

Frozen Blackberry Mess

All the sunshine makes the kids think we should eat cold sweet things. It's not quite as hot as they think it is, but if they want their fruit smoothies frozen, okey dokey! We made blackberry popsicles this week from frozen berries, vanilla yogurt, and mint leaves. Delish, but I had trouble getting them out of the popsicle molds. Only the very last one came out correctly. The rest were eaten with bowl and spoon. Either way, what a mess.