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!

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. 

Celebration Of Three

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

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.

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.

Pup Pup Pup Pup

We have a puppy. She was born in late February. Her mother is a purebred yellow lab, and her father is apparently 3/4 black lab and 1/4 border collie and 4/4 amorous fence jumper. 

This puppy dog came with the name Sprinkles, as voted upon by a preschool class. Happily, puppy was not conditioned to the name. She comes to "pup pup pup pup" and she is already starting to respond to Phoebe, the name we chose for her. We often see a black phoebe in our back yard, and of course we're bird nerds. 

Phoebe is doing well with potty training, and she comes when called. She is very responsive to physical affection, and loves to snuggle up. 

We have been talking about getting a dog for some time now. We have a good house and yard for it, and the kids are growing up. I wanted to have Vincent potty trained first (nope, not yet), but all other stars seemed aligned for us to take this dog. A breed we like, a female, a puppy with an easy going and calm (for a puppy) personality, and she seems to have gotten a good start in a caring home. It's clear she's been handled from birth.

Phoebe was auctioned at a fundraiser for Zoe's preschool, thus the name Sprinkles. I'm not a fan of auctioning animals in this way, since getting a pet should not be a spur of the moment thing. We found out about the auction the day before, so had time to talk it over some more. After we met the puppy and the current owners (not breeders - the litter was unplanned), we decided to go for it. We were the only serious bidders. There was one other bid, made just to raise the price! The money goes to a good cause, and it was far less than the cost of buying a labrador retriever puppy from a breeder. We are not concerned about purebred bloodlines, and in fact are happy our dog has a touch of genetic diversity.

Zoe and Vincent are interested in and excited about their new dog, but we're all going through a big adjustment. They definitely do not like being jumped on, nor do they like it when Phoebe tries her baby teeth on them or their things. We're steadily working on a "down" command, and the kids are also getting calmer, which helps. They spent a lot of time yesterday, our first full day with Phoebe, perched up on the sofa (where she is not allowed, and can't quite get to by herself). The kids are also keeping their bedroom doors closed, to protect their toys. They have both had a turn feeding Phoebe and holding her leash.

In many ways, having a puppy around is like having a tiny baby to care for. I have to wait for her naps to get things done, and I am planning my outings with her schedule in mind. We have a crate for her, but she is not yet comfortable with it. When I took Zoe to school this morning, I took Phoebe with. She shivered in fear when I first put her in the back of the car (with her towel and toy), so I sat back there with her for awhile. She was fine while we were driving (mostly), but cried when we left the car. It was a quick drop off!

Before she came to live with us, Phoebe spent a lot of time in an outdoor kennel with her mom and siblings. She had inside time, but her home was outside. We may have to replicate that set up while her bladder is still puppy sized and her teeth are so chompy. Already I've had to tell the kids we couldn't go swimming yesterday or to the zoo today. And no yoga for me. Luckily we have plenty of groceries in the house, and farm share pick up is today. I'll have to make that quick, too.

I have so much to learn. It's a new chapter in our lives!

Goggle Eyed

They're new, and they're pink, so she's not taking them off. She had a bath for the express purpose of trying them out in water. She wore them while paging through the potty book with Vincent. She wore them for snack time. Will she ask to wear them to bed? Probably. 

Vincent has a pair of goggles on the way, too. His are blue. Each child chose their preferred color. The goggles are a bri...I mean motivation to try swimming lessons. May 5 is the scheduled start date, with month to month commitment. We've watched the teacher work with other children, and she seems very nice and quite able to adapt to the level of each child. The classes may have up to five children, but I've never seen her with more than one at a time. 

Zoe has trepidations about lessons with someone she doesn't know, but I think once she experiences how much fun it is to have someone playing one-on-one with her in the water, she's going to love it. I hope!