Mama and Piper

We’re kinda cute, I admit.

Celebrating Dwayne’s 44th

I attempted a fun adventure day for the family to celebrate Daddy’s birthday, so had rented 4 inflatable paddle boards for the day.  Then we had the crappiest September on record, weather wise, so I postponed 3 times before I realized that we had no more free weekends until mid-October.  So we took our chances and went to a lake in Lynnwood.  Nice lake nice day, with enough wind to make paddling really, really hard.  Being who she is, Piper was the only kid not crying after an hour, and just put on her determined posture and got herself to shore.  I dumped my board on the sand, then swam through lots of waterlilies to reach Wesley, who was pretty much sobbing.  I pushed his board in while he steered.  Dwayne was doing the fatherly encouraging of his son, but managing not to actually encourage or help him.  Sigh.  This is why kids need more than one option for parents.  But we wrapped the kids in blankets and towels, and let them warm up while we took care of the equipment. It could have been an awesome day, but we spent more time inflating and deflating the boards than we spent in the water.  Lesson learned.  We’ll try again on a hot August day with no winds!

Beautiful Food

The fine print says that all blogs must contain some food posts, so I submit for your drooling pleasure…..

…..Dwayne’s fish tacos! 

They taste even better than they look.

First Day of School

Luckily I carry a camera in my pocket—there’s so much to do on the first day of school I often forget to snap a picture until the kids are walking into their classroom…or after school.

Or, if you are a middle schooler, that night at dinner.  Uh, sorry, Kyla.

Happy 3rd, 5th, and 6th grade, darling kids!

Cabin Project: Phase II

We left you in suspense mid-July with Dwayne’s itch only half scratched.  Well, it was fully scratched but the project was only half done.

July 20th-Sept. 1, we left the cabin like this:

Arriving yesterday, we had 24 hours to install the four 12’ 6x6 posts as the foundation of The Pergola.

The auger was pretty useful.

 

For posts, and boys!

This little guy came out to inspect us wearing what all dinos are coveting this year—a jet pack!

To celebrate our accomplishments this weekend, we went to Emily and Matt’s, because, well it’s Emily and Matt’s!

Wes and Daddy enjoyed swinging together.  Well, one of them enjoyed it.

Have to wait for the end of the month for the next installment of the Pergola Saga!

She’s 12!

She woke up a dozen years old today! She is generally into experiences more than things, so she started the day with 3 Audible credits and Mama & Me pedicures.  Yeah, totally unselfish of me, I know.

We followed that with a trip to Haggen to, um, “make” her birthday cake.  It was lovely!

Grandma invited everyone over for dinner, and we all got to celebrate this beautiful girl.

But she’s not too grown up to wrestle Daddy with all the other kids!

Kyla, you are such a treasure in our family!  You are kind, affectionate, thoughtful, empathetic, intelligent, curious, compassionate, and introspective.  You’re not going to become a lovely person—you already are one!