camping at the lake

Hello, Hello. I have such a backlog of photos on the computer and posts floating around in my brain, I have a hard time jumping back in here. So I will start by posting photos from our little camping adventure which we just returned from a few hours ago. We went with my mom and aunt and cousin who are up for a visit, and had this lovely lake to ourselves (well, us and the 30 thousand black flies that is. The other campers obviously had got the memo on where the fly-less sites were located. Oh well. We had fun anyway.) Playing and crawling and nursing in the tent to take some breaks from the critters. Both boys were rather thrilled with tenting, and slept pretty well in there. And it was a nice cool break from our overheated bedrooms at home. Because it has been so hot here! It was 37 degrees up on the farm yesterday. That never happens here.
So swimming in the lake was a treat. D. would have happily sat in there all day. And A. enjoyed feeding black flies to the minnows. Good fun.
We took turns walking the baby, who suddenly wants only to move about this way. He is so very proud of this new trick.

Board games and reading bedtime stories with a lantern and my mom's yummy gourmet camping food. We've decided camping is fun.

4 years and ten

friends breaking bread at our wedding.

At the river a few days after the big party

It has been ten years we've been on this journey together, (and four years since we made it "official"- though we felt married right from the start,) and I am endlessly grateful to be sharing it with my best friend and love. Kind soul, gentle companion, confidant, beautiful partner, patient, loving papa to our beautiful children. How lucky, how blessed I feel to share this life together. Here's to many more decades of beauty and love and fun and adventures. I love you P. Now if only we could slip away long enough to manage a real, live date...

leaving on a jet plane

We had a fun weekend at a music festival and we fly out tomorrow across the country to visit friends and family. I'll try to pop in here if I can. See you all soon!

good eats

I remember this stage with A. A few rice crisps can keep a baby entertained for a good while. I love watching those chubby little hands move with such careful intent. One by one they make it to that sweet mouth.

bunny

Meet Benny Bunny, Baby D.'s new friend. He's made of organic cotton sherpa, and is ever so snugly. I looked all over for a just the right pattern to make a special softy for D. and found one I loved. Only it was in Hebrew, which I do not read or speak. Minor detail. I bought the pattern anyway. There were diagrams, so guesswork was minimized, though there was still plenty of it. But the process was kind of fun- figuring things out as I went along. I skipped the fancy girly clothes and went with a simple shirt made from an old velour shirt of mine (it seems I wore a lot of velour in the day, I have made a few projects from old shirts...) with a sweet bluebird patch.And D. is pretty fond of his new friend. Especially when Benny gives him kisses, which he likes to do a lot.

new sand

This is our newest completed project. A sandpit for the kiddos from wood rounds. These pictures are from last week- Papa P. had shovelled in some sand after the boys were in bed, so it had to be played in straight away, before getting out of PJ's or eating a proper breakfast. Since then we've added more sand and had a bunch of kids over to break it in. The kids love it a lot.

Mmm. Nothing like a mouthful of sand before breakfast. He's not quite ready for the sand pit yet, clearly. If it wasn't for the sand eating though, it would make a great playpen. And, while we are looking at this photo, I'll do a quick craft catch up and say that his hat is the pilot cap from the little turtle knits pattern. Knit in a really soft alpaca I got locally, but way too small. He is clearly more toddler-sized than infant. I have some brown alpaca that I plan to take with me on our upcoming trip to knit up a larger size with the same pattern because I love the shape and he can't pull it off his head which is a big plus. Alright. Back to the sandbox.

We planned to have the sand covering up the landscape fabric, but realized we didn't want it nearly as full as we thought once we got the sand in there. So it sticks up and is ugly. Maybe we'll do something about it. More likely we'll not get around to it and it will just get dirty and start blending in with the sand more. None of the kids complained about the aesthetic.
I also went to the Sally Ann and got a bunch of metal kitchen tools- ladle, spoons, a pie plate, a bowl, for a dollar and this has meant there has been a lot of culinary masterpieces being created around here. The pies get made in the sandpit, and then carted over to the straw bale play house (which I have been meaning to post about since we sort of won it last fall... I will soon...) to be cooked and then brought back to be served up to all the customers. And D. could tell you just how tasty they are.

my baby-o

Dear baby.
You are just growing up so fast. Couldn't you just slow down a wee bit? Look at you standing so nonchalant. You want ever so badly to be able to catch up with your big brother, whom you adore, and you are working so hard to get there. You are fully crawling now- and you can sit yourself up from a crawl to say, dig in the houseplants, or chew on a bit of thread you've found on the floor. And that diaper-less stair climbing trick? Pretty impressive (and you can thank me later for not posting those shots.)

You are a radiant, lovely, joyful little fellow, an absolute joy to be around. You wake up smiling that big sunny smile, and keep on smiling and chatting cheerfully nearly all the day long. And you have settled on a first word- one that makes me ever so wonderfully happy. "Mama." yup. you say it. And I love it. And I love you, dear baby, as big as the sky and then some,
love Mama.

just like Papa

Helping Papa with the mowing. Wearing matching hat and ear protection. This is serious work.

snapshots

Having a hard time getting here- life feels full right now, in a good way. Taking lots of photos. Maybe a photo-a-day sort of time?

all in a day

We headed outside early this morning, and A. led us straight to this fort in the woods. "Come to my ice cream stand." He called. He had mango and strawberry to choose from. I asked if they had any mint, but no, someone ate that one up.I ordered a strawberry cone, and a small mango one for baby D. "Three hundred dollars, please." I give him my money, he gives me back money and change. "But don't eat the change," he reminds me helpfully.

We head over to the raspberry patch. Everyone has planted new canes this year (a row for each family on the property,) and ours need a good soak after all this sun. We spend a long time with the hose playing with the "waterfalls," but I am worried about how little of the water is sinking into the soil. We load up straw in the wheelbarrow and work together to mulch the canes. I try to take a picture of myself pushing the loaded wheelbarrow with D. in the sling, but I don't quite pull it off.

We work together for a good long time with A. busy with his own wheelbarrow, until it is clear from the fussing that D. needs his nap. After a nurse in the sling I pop him in the chariot and A. grabs his bike and we head down the driveway.And to the "property creek" a little seasonal stream that we visit almost daily. A. collects things in his bucket for throwing in the water. The bucket is full of rocks and leaves and bark and sticks by the time we arrive. I park the stroller in the shade and A busies himself with creek play- throwing and splashing and playing in the mud and making up songs about throwing and splashing and playing in the mud.

Sitting on the bank I try to remember the story I made up for A last year when the creek dried up. He was so disappointed and confused by its disappearance. I remember being please with the story, that it explained things to him without being too heady, and described the natural phenomenon in the way Enki nature stories are meant to. I can't remember all the details, but I think I could manage a passable facsimile, and I'll need to soon, as this creek is drying up fast.

I make lunch when we get home. D. wakes up and is cheery. I start some supper prep and A. helps for awhile. I am making french bread for supper from refrigerated dough that I mixed up yesterday. A. rolls his dough into a sticky blob on the counter while I shape the bread beside him. He gets tired of "cooking" and wants to go back outside and agrees to stay in the yard or garden where I can see him. Baby D is happy playing on the floor beside me.

After awhile I meet A. outside with popsicles. We talk about the dance concert he is going to attend with his Dedo this weekend. He wants to know about the theatre, where it is, if it has curtains that open and close, if the dancers will be wearing costumes.

We head inside for quiet time when the popsicles are done. These days A. will take some time by himself at this time of the day without a fight, which is a relief. I put on his quiet time CD and he brings in some toys and books and lays on his bed while I put D. down for a nap. There is quiet in the house for a short time and I relish every moment of it.

There is more outside time in the afternoon. A. comes in with a tiny asparagus -one of only three we've seen this year- and I swallow my frustration at it being picked too early and direct him towards the chives. After bringing in a basket full he asks if I can set up the CD player on the deck for him to listen to music while he eats a snack. He does this and I get the rest of supper ready. He is there when Papa P. gets home with our organic grocery box. We assemble a salad and sit down to eat the yummiest roasted veggie sandwiches of all time. A. is too tired too eat much, but we'll try this supper again because it was so good.

And then there is bath and bedtime and some time to chat with my husband in the evening. And staying up too late on the computer. And grumbling that the house gets so out of control on these days of being outside so much. And looking through the photos from the day, feeling thankful for this life we are living, wanting to record a bit here to remember later on.