Beachin’ it!

We took our first trip to the beach today! Well, the lake anyway. Welcome summer! I have lots to say and lots of photos, but it’s late (again) and I’m tired (always) so this will be brief.

Eve and I picked Lex up after school and we went straight to the beach. First things first, snack!

snack

Happy children!
lex digging

lake

Eve named this the "Laka pino Johnson"

smiling boy

happy swimmers

splashing

Tired children, heading home for dinner and baths.
tired

I was playing with camera settings and “continuous” photo shoots. I have lots to say about that. Also I’ve been thinking a lot about the seasons of parenting. Thoughts on that. Right now I’m tired though. I can’t wait for summer vacation. I’m really, truly excited for it. Possibly more so than the kids :)

 

I just linked this post to a blog hop (my first!) from another local blogger, Rub Some Dirt On It. I don’t know her, but I know lots of the local areas she talks about. She’s super crafty and into photography… I’d love to take some of the e-courses she has taken.

Photobucket

New bike

I’m so excited! I found Lex a new bike at a yard sale this weekend. I’ve been thinking about it for awhile, but not taking much action (that’s how I roll!). Friday night I got an email saying there would be a multi-family yard sale one street over from me! The kids and I walked over at 8am on Saturday morning and found not one, but two bikes just his size! What luck! He chose a blue one with a bell and we brought it home. Someday my kids may have shiny new bikes, but for now I pride myself for never having spent more than $5 on a bike for them :) Lucky for me they both love their bikes! Lex has been practicing without the training wheels, but he tires quickly and reverts to his old bike. I reassure him that it takes lots of practice! Today he went out to practice with Alan.

new bike

Lex practicing on his new bike, without training wheels!

alan on bike

Wait, who got a new bike?!

This is just a picture I took at snack time today. I was bored and trying not to eat their snack, so I started snapping pictures :)

feet

Ahh... summer!

Happy Memorial Day

image

Here’s how we are spending our day. Maybe some ice cream if the temps hit 90°!

PM PS – I posted this from my phone, on the swing set, obviously, but in hindsight I’m not sure that “happy” was quite the right word to use. Perhaps something more appropriate would be “Thoughtful Memorial Day.”  We remembered and thanked our armed forces for protecting us and allowing us to spend a beautiful sunny day doing absolutely nothing. I was thinking of soldiers at dinner tonight, and my children, and found myself filled with a mixed emotion, half hoping they will serve our country one day and half hoping they never leave the protection of my strong arms. Ah, a parent’s dilemma. Anyway, to those of you who have served and those of us who love you – Thanks!

Waste of time?

We had a busy afternoon today. Alan and Lex worked together to put in the air conditioners while Eve and I did some gardening. I read in a magazine that cats don’t like the smell of lavender, so I thought I’d plant some lavender around the yard and see if that reduced the amount of cat poop we are always cleaning up. I got two packs of seeds awhile ago but failed to read the directions or do anything with them. Then I thought it would be easier and more immediately effective to just buy lavender plants instead of starting from seed. I haven’t made it to a plant store though, so today we decided to just throw the seeds in the ground and see what happens. You are supposed to plant them indoors, wrap them in a plastic bag for awhile (humidity, I presume) and then slowly acclimate them to the outdoors. Or put down some dirt, drop in a few seeds, watch what happens. A total waste of time? We’ll see!

lavender around the tree stumps

Fresh dirt, seeds...

watering - p1

Water, water, everywhere...

watering - p2

This was her favorite part of the process.

After that I prepped the old iris garden in the back yard, right next to our raised bed garden, and we planted some pumpkin seeds. Also potentially a waste of time. I’ve tried them in the past but we’ve never actually gotten pumpkins. This year they are in their own bed, with more space, and were more properly planted. Once again, we’ll see :) That seems to be my philosophy on gardening. Toss in some seeds and see what happens!

planting pumpkins

happy girl

Something that is not a waste of time is our CSA this year. Look at what we had for dinner! Sesame tofu on a bed of romaine, spinach, and tatsoi. Soooo yummy!

dinner

One healthy photo per dozen cakes/cookies photos. That's a good balance, right?

The kids are in bed so I’m going to bake some Alaskan Sourdough bread (KAF mix from their overstock sale today!), try hard to stop eating animal crackers (though I’ll probably sample some fresh bread tonight!), and crash. I’m tired! Hoping my voice comes back tomorrow. Eve insists their is a frog stuck in my throat and my voice can’t get out. I love how kids hear expressions and run with them. At some point in time I’m sure she heard someone say “there’s a frog in my throat” and now she thinks the one in my throat is so big the voice can’t get past. Sweet silly girl.

Party at the bowling alley!

We culminated a week-long birthday celebration with a “class party” at the bowling alley. Fortunately (for me and my wallet!) Lex was happy with just four classmates and not the whole class. Even still, four classmates, plus Lex and Eve made for a hectic party! To make it even more fun I lost my voice on the way in to the bowling alley (seriously!) and then, halfway through the party, a huge crowd of high schoolers came in and they turned on cosmic bowling, which means lights out, disco ball and music on. It was fun, but chaotic! Thankfully we were wrangling just six kids! I think Lex had a great time, but I’m ready to be done with birthday parties for awhile.

snacks first

The bowling alley provides pizza and I brought some snacks. The kids were all hungry and polished off the snacks pretty quickly!

tokens

Alan doling out tokens for the arcade. All the kids say they love bowling, but I think they really mean they love the arcade. I'm pretty sure it's the only arcade in our area.

bowling

Lex and his master technique. It payed off for him though because he ended up with the highest score! His friend is trying to explain a better bowling technique.

boys

Boys! Sometimes it hard to tell fighting from fun. I broke this up but they both insisted they were having fun.

eve

Eve got a lot of help :)

shirt

The bowling alley also provides a t-shirt the kids can color and the birthday boy gets to keep. I don't expect to see Lex wearing it anytime soon.

laughing

They were laughing hysterically at a birthday card. His friend said, "It's a monkey with a cake wearing a hat!" and they both cracked up. Silly kids.

cake time -p1

Cake time!

cake time -p2

I think they liked it :)

girls

Eve made fast friends with the one other girl there.

lex

This isn't a great photo but I love it because lately Lex has switched from duck-and-hide when he sees the camera's orange glow, to smiling automatically. Here he was drinking and watching people bowl, but when the orange glow hit his face he smiled. I LOVE IT!

I had something else to say here, but I forgot! I’m hoping my voice returns quickly. The boy is throughly six now and has had enough partying and cake to last him through the year!

Today in photos

riding to school

Lex rode his bike to school this morning. Alan ran along. I took pictures :)

snack

Snack under the "club house"

on the swing

Chillin' on the swing, waiting for someone to push her :)

planting

We transplanted some flowers the kids brought home from school last week. Lex's is a sunflower and Eve's is unknown. She can't remember. I'm hoping they grow just so we can find out what she planted!

lex planting

He was really interested (for a few minutes anyway) in learning how to properly transplant a flower.

lex

We decided to decorate the club house with the plants. Lex carefully placed them and watered them.

plants

Looks good to me.

slide race

Slide race!

cake 1

Cake for tomorrow's bowling party!

cake 2

I rock! :)

CSA

We went today for our first CSA pickup. I had to bug the kids to get them in the car (they are whiny today!) but when we got there they loved it so much I had to bug them to get them back in the car. (I’m kind of whiny today too!) The farm is just beautiful, the owner is super nice, and we had a great time exploring. As an added bonus, we came home with TONS of veggies! Standard stuff like romaine, spinach, and mesclun, but also some fun stuff like asparagus (so tall!), rhubarb, parsnips, radishes, and tatsoi. We’re going to be trying new recipes this week!

chickens on the hill

Chicken coop and water cube

chickens

This is a blurry picture, but don't those chickens look funny? See all the naked pink butts? Is this because their feathers haven't grown in yet? I didn't have the heart to tell the kids that those chickens would be in the freezer pretty soon.

water cube

We were all interested in the water cube. There's a hose attached and it runs down hill to the greenhouses.

sheep

These are the baby lambs we saw in March, all grown up.

broccoli

Broccoli and more!

on the trail

Following the trail up to the swings.

swings

Do these look familiar? Still fun, even in the summer.

flowers

I like these flowers. What are they?

veggies

Oh yes, this is why we went. I think we will have enough veggies to tide us over for a few days!