What We Loved About Today

Lucy:
1) Getting up to her neck in Lake Washington
2) Scooting out on a low branch that hangs over the lake and swinging around on it
3) Burying herself in the blackberry brambles and shoveling blackberries in her mouth
4) Playing on the playground
5) Climbing higher in the willow tree than she's ever climbed before

April:
1) Hiking in the woods on a beautiful day with my kids and my friend and her kids
2) Watching Lucy do the above things that made her so happy
3) Playing "Peek," "Get you," and "Tag" with Jasper around the hollow tree trunk by the lake
4) Watching Jasper, Shale, and Ryder hanging out together by the lake and realizing how rarely Jasper gets to hang out with other little boys his age or older, and seeing how much he loves it.
5) Feeling Jasper fall asleep on my back as we hiked up the hill
6) Watching Lucy and Shale in front of me as they hiked up the hill, hand in hand
7) Having a nostalgic moment as I realized that life will be changing for us and our little ones when big brother Shale and big sister Lucy both start kindergarten in a few days.

Heading East for the Weekend

Well, before I tell about our weekend to Central and Eastern Washington, I wanted to show you a beautiful little pepper that came from our garden. I used it in a veggie and leftover roasted chicken stirfry with coconut basmati rice. YUM! Which brings me to a minor aside: the reason I am happy being a stay-at-home-mom (usually happy at least) is that I get so much pleasure from food and cooking. I can happily occupy myself the whole day long planning meals, shopping for food, cooking, of course, and researching food and health issues. Otherwise, I think I'd go nuts from boredom (or maybe just go get a job...)

And another aside: here is a rough recipe for a cabbage slaw I made yesterday. Both people who tried it wanted to know what was in it. I am infatuated with our friend the cabbage right now. Not terribly seasonal of me, I know. But here is the recipe:

Pink Thai Cabbage Slaw
1. Shred about 1/2 head of purple cabbage
2. Add salt and 1 - 2 cups of boiling water to the cabbage, stir and drain.
3. Add to drained cabbage: 1/4 cup coconut milk, juice of 1 lime, 2 tbsps tamari, 1 tbsp finely shredded ginger, 1 tbsp finely chopped garlic, 1 tbsp brown rice vinegar, 1 tbsp maple syrup, 1/4 cup chopped cilantro.


Last weekend we took off for warmer climes over the mountains on the other side of the state. First stop was Odessa, Washington, where Uncle Mackenzie (Rob's brother) and Gunlis live. For a town of around 1000 in seemlingly the middle of nowhere, it actually has a lot going on. A great little park and pool, an espresso shop that sells beans roasted nearby, a brew pub, a shop that makes their own sausage, a very lively quilting shop. Mac and Gun picked a cool place, which is not surprising because they are very cool people, as you can see for yourself. Their sweet home is on the edge of town on a big chunk of land. They have lots of benches and outdoor seating so they can enjoy the big sky, the birds and the trains going by - Jasper especially loved those too. The slip Lucy is wearing down below was a gift from Gunlis who dyes vintage slips and sells the hither and yon.

Then we went from there back towards Seattle and spent the night at Megan and Keith's farm again. They fed us and sang to us and thrilled the kids with all their critters: dogs, a cat, chickens, goats, and now Fletchers - the bull calf who is only three weeks old. They sent us home with squash, a pumpkin and some lovely apples. Megan and I have lots in common - including a skirt, turns out, as you can see below. It was a nice getaway weekend with something for everyone. Now we're back in rainy and chilly Seattle - where is our summer?? At least we don't have to water the garden...

At the ballgame

Pic #1 - Lucy and Uncle Mackenzie, #2 Cousins Marlei and Wade, #3 Grandpa Ian, #4 Granny, #5 The Mariners at Safeco Field (they won on a homer in the 9th inning against the Minnesota Twins), #6 View from the 300 level

Where does the time go?

I know I haven't posted anything in over a week. I find I'm not super-inspired to post a new entry until Rob has downloaded some new pictures. As most of you know, we had an exciting weekend because Jasper turned two! We can't believe what a big guy he is now. Tonight, Rob and Lucy went to the Mariners game with the Brown Clan and friends. Lucy tasted her first cotton candy, which she declared delicious. Jasper was at first upset not to go with them, but as soon as I had him in the jogger on the way to the park, he just turned back towards the house and said Bye Bye, Da Da. And then he proceeded to ooh and aah over all the "big, huge, and enormous" trucks that drove by. He's pretty much a fan of any moving vehicles from tricycles to dump trucks, scooters to skateboards. Then he chased around bumble bees, trying to give them food (Jasper says hood - rhymes with dude), which was a little dandelion Jasper had picked. Finally, he actually made it to the playground...

He also went to his very first library storytime today (with Lucy and me of course). Sad, because when Lucy was his age, she'd been to a million or so library storytimes... Not so for Jasper. He didn't seem all that impressed at the time - for starters, they didn't get that he prefers to sing 7 or 8 rounds of "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" rather than the 3 or 4 they seemed to think adequate - but he did reminisce enthusiasically later in the day. We had taken the bus downtown to the fancy Central Library and I think the excitement of the busride trumped the excitement of storytime.

Anyhoo, here are the promised pics of the week. I'm not going to put any more commentary in for now because I'm too tired. If you have questions, feel free to ask!

The Weekend in Pictures

Jasper started out the day still our fuzzy-headed little chickadee.
















A few snips later...

... and he was transformed into, well, sort of a Christopher Robin looking fellow.

Meanwhile, Lucy was having her own fun. Below she is fishing in a fish pond at her school friend George's 5th birthday party. I can't say enough about the huge hit of fish ponds at parties - where little gifts are wrapped and then fished for by the little ones. They love it. Good ol' fashioned fun, I suppose.

We have been having dinner with the (other) Browns since before these two were born. Amanda Brown is quite the sophisticate and she and Lucy obviously share some interests...

Our Sunday in the country... Lucy and Jasper playing a game whereby Lucy puts stones down Jasper's onsie - he runs around with them and eventually stumbles to the ground. Repeat as needed.

We biked in the company of Mt. Si and hiked up to a series of waterfalls called Twin Falls. Jasper snoozed through some of the scenery... but he would wake up occasionally to say "more river, pease."

Odds and Ends

We took Grandma Gloria to the airport last week as she departed for her month-long journey of discovery in France and Scotland. A sleep-deprived Jasper had nodded off for the drop-off at the airport. When he woke up, he asked me "Grandma Gloria go?" with his little hand palm up in the air. When I explained that she'd taken an airplane, he said "me airpane too pease" (trans. I want to go on the airplane too please). A case of the fruit not falling far from the tree... By the way the little guy also says please (pease) and thank you (hank you much) and no, thanks (no, hanks) all the time and it still just about kills me. In this case, the fruit is nowhere near the tree...
I've been reading Alice in Wonderland to Lucy and it is quite something. Lucy and I are incredibly entertained. She deals with the weirdness of it all even better than I do. In fact, she hasn't even let on that she finds it odd and she is definitely tracking on it. I tested her comprehension by asking her how they played croquet and she reported that they used hedgehogs instead of balls, flamingos for mallets and the hoops are made of soldiers bending over. And the queen runs around the whole time saying "Off with their heads!" And Lucy now knows the meaning of the word "execution." Can't wait for that to come up in kindergarten...

Tourists in our own town

We've had guests from Scotland the last two days and we've been siteseeing like mad - the Woodland Park Zoo carousel, REI flagship store, Pike Place Market, Space Needle.

The days have been so beautiful. The fun culminated with dinner at Salty's on Alki and a sunset walk on Alki Beach. We wished bon voyage to Valerie and Andrew, who are heading back to Canada and then home to Scotland, and also to my mom who off on a European holiday.

Lucy and Jasper (of course)

I found this beautiful dress for Lucy at a consignment store.

What do little boys without big sisters do for fun??

He does look good in yellow...