A Send Off.

One of the families in our circle of friends is headed to California this spring. Ryan recently was hired by the DEA and had to be away from his family for five months for their version of boot camp, and now they're being "deployed" to San Diego. Some other friends rented the fish and game building a threw a little shin-dig for them this weekend. It was a nice time and the kids were certainly happy to see each other! I was given the job of coming up with kids' activities. Can you guess what they were?
Cape-decorating (yes I was somehow convinced to sew 15 capes ahead of time for this party!)


By the way, you know what's cuter than one baby in a kilt? TWO!
There was no shortage of sugar, and Madelyn was definitely not holding back:) Right out the of the bowl!
Coordinated t-shirts~!


And of course the face painting crayons were broken loose too!

So Much Going On

Our lives have been pretty full lately. So many things to write and show, but also warming weather which turns my attention quickly from an indoor focus to an outdoor one. We had a day near 70 this week, and I wasn't interested in sitting at the computer on a day like that. And even today, in the upper 40's, I spent an hour cleaning up the yard (so much yard work to do!!) and am headed back that way to work on some compost-spreading in the garden (already!) I'm trying to resist the urge to go spring crazy and be mindful of the fact that I don't need to have everything started in the greenhouse just yet, and that there will be many many beautiful days and ever warming windows of time to get the unlimited list of projects slowly pared down. To take it slow and enjoy things like Remick's face upon holding his first worm (REALLY wasn't so sure about it!) or Makili being fascinated with birds' nests and eggs, and collecting sprouting buckeyes. Here are some highlights of the week:

Makili's first sleepover:

Remick's obsession with rainboots. Never mind they are two sizes too big. If big brother has them, he NEEDS them!Renewed interest in the potty and face-painting crayons.



Finding a skateboard hidden in the junk in our yard!Getting laundry on the line

Digging in the compost pail (this has not been a highlight of my laundry pile.)
Looking for worms!!!
Makili's love for "his" garden, where he has already planted peas (a bit early, but can't hurt, right?)
Shrinking snow and gardens unleashed for the work of the season to begin! Happy SPRING!

Did it really happen?

My mom was here for a week and I almost feel like it didn't happen. This is a busy time for exchange student work and I had a huge training yesterday. I pretty much ignored my children all week since she was here and I feel like I barely spent time with her:( I think my iron must be low, cause I barely feel capable of functioning lately which doesn't help. My kids loved having Grammy here, and Remick in particular would completely ignore me if he didn't get the answer he wanted and turn directly to Grammy to get what he wanted. Sneaky little thing. We also we lucky enough to get a quick visit from my Aunt Suzanne who came up to spend a bit of time with us. It was SO nice to see her. I am such a lucky person.

I'm feeling a little down and sad this morning. I'm tired and my day started off with Makili crapping on the floor (he was naked and thought it was a fart!) and Remick coloring all over the couch while I was upstairs doing laundry. I'm trying to clear out the greenhouse but we still haven't built any shelves so I feel like I'm just moving mess from one area to another. And on top of all that, my mom is gone.

I'd pay money to see this.

She's a natural. That's all I have to say.

The everyday

At our house, waiting for the snow to melt, we spend a lot a time doing a few things:

Getting into stuff like mom's pin cushion.Whacking pillows with hockey sticks (thankfully not so much whacking each other.)
Some cheering each other on (mostly for the whacking but occassionally for other stuff.)
And a lot of dressing up, which I admit is my favorite.

I'm excited for the snow to melt and our focus to turn back outside. If only the snow melting didn't mean that I could see all the yard trash again...

Kid Parade

Some of our friends are moving to the West Coast later this month. We've been trying to help them move their entire lives, sell their house, etc by offering to watch their kids. They had a big garage sale last weekend and we watched their daughter Kili, and our other mutual friend, Phin, while they were working. It was a lot of fun. Raph made fun of me, because I had a case of little-girl envy. I was following Kili around cause she was just so damn cute and I just wanted her to play with me!

Like Old Times, But Bigger

We had a skate date with the McCall clan on Friday. It is unbelievable how big those kids are. It seems like 10 minutes ago that I was watching them - Morgan at Remick's age and Sam at Makili's age. They are like mini-adults now. So CUTE!