Coastal camping

Very delayed photos from our all girls camping trip to the coast with friends Kat, Marley and Ember. It was the first time I did all the camper stuff -- from backing it into our site, to setting it up (with Kat's great help!) myself. Felt really good to be able to do it!

I promised Kat I wouldn't publicize the camping spot...but suffice it to say, it was amazing! There's nothing like falling asleep to the sound of crashing waves. The girls had a great time exploring on the beach...







This is a place I want to visit again, and again, and again...

It's not Disney...

The girls and I joined in a homeschool group outing to Enchanted Forest a couple of weeks ago. It was a fun day with friends. Vivian was not so into the tall costumed chipmunk (I think that's what it is...).


This was the ferris wheel in the little kids area (not sure you can see the bored look on Vivian and friend Ava's face...but it was kind of funny!).


Here are Sabine and friend Hailey turning away from the camera on the kiddie train.


I didn't get any photos of the bigger rides -- but the lines were really short, and the girls got to do laps on many of the rides. It was small enough that we could get around easily, and completely shaded by big beautiful trees, so it stayed nice and cool.

Here's an article about EF from the Oregonian. While it doesn't have the glitz and glamor of Disney, it was old-timey fun.

We are cyclist...

Our friends Dave and Karmin just returned from two weeks in Japan. They brought back all sorts of interesting treasures...including the following shirt for Bret:


[In case it's not legible, the tiny words on the bottom say "we can run without gasoline"]

Karmin also got to dress up like a Maiko (an apprentice Geisha) and they brought back darling cotton kimonos, socks and shoes for both girls (Vivian had a melt down and thus is not pictured here...) but I think Sabine looks pretty darn cute!



Karmin said she was told to not show her teeth while posing...



Not the best photo, but sabine's "toe socks" have a picture of a dragon on them, with the word DORAON. Might be a special Japanese lizard???

Birthday!

I suppose I should say BirthdayS! but it's really not all about me any more, is it? Oh well, we had a fun party for Sabine's 8th...fruit on a stick, pizza, cake, water balloon fights, face painting, and of course, general kinder-mayhem.

(Oh, and we finally found a living room couch -- look how many kids fit on it! and they could have added more!!!)

Pumpkin Carving Fun

Must have been a fun party, as we forgot to take very many photos! But here are some of the jack-o-lanterns that were created.

What we've been doing...

...instead of blogging...

Lots of pattern block designing...




Visiting with friends young (little Eileen Cunningham-Maloney, or is Maloney-Cunningham???)...


...and old (well, compared to Sabine and Vivian)...that's Chloe on the couch (younger daughter of Frank and Ronnie, they and their elder daughter MJ came down the following day), Seth (token boy...) and Qaci (daughter of Zenmomma and Jon) all came to town to see the CSI Exhibit at OMSI, and other Portland delights! Vivian and Sabine were delighted with having teens (and other grown ups) around, as were we!














Building with Kapla Blocks (marbles make a nice addition)...

Keeping cool during the heat wave (Bret's birthday canoe made a really nice (if expensive) wading pool, but at least we didn't need to run out and buy a wading pool!)...














Finding scores like this one at Goodwill ($8!, but we did have to spend $7 on mallots...but it's an amazing instrument -- has beautiful tone!)...














And finding/tying up just the right pony for the Portland Horse Project. (We have a ring in front of our house)...














I like this one because it shows not only Cicso (friendly neighborhood ambassador cat) but the chalk board where we were writing/reading words (and drawing pictures) with Sabine.














Oh, and I almost forgot -- saw the Indigo Girls in concert at the Oregon Zoo...an amazing evening, made even nicer by Dave's offer to babysit so Bret and I could go sans-children...Zenmomma was in town the night before to hear a speaker, and we talked her into going with us. Very fun!













Photo credit here, since I didn't even bring our camera with us to the concert!

Now we're making plans for the fall (including DoJump Classes for Sabine and Vivian), playdate swaps with homeschooling friends, park days, OMSI visits, and more...stay tuned!

Music nights

We spent many nights (and one brunch) in April and May with new-found musical friends...These photos were from a dinner party we had...

LOVE little Ben with his 1/2 size banjo (and tie dye shirt)


Not the best photo, but you can get an idea of the parties here...


And Sabine, helping Daddy on the bass...

More canoe play...

This is from Kat and Marley's visit for Handmade Nation...(I'm linking to Kat's post, as it's likely I'll never get my post on that done... :) )

The girls are playing on a slack line (don't worry, they don't walk on top of it...) Bret improvised with our hammock stand...we got rid of our (rotten) hammock when we moved, but kept the nifty metal stand...




And a few photos of the under-represented 2nd child.

Poor man's hot tub

So the hot tub we bought with every penny of our wedding gift money (plus a little extra) finally died our last winter in Jackson...with minimal problems, it gave us 10 years of excellent service. It's one of the things I would like to add to a house when we get the opportunity to buy again (anyone wanna buy a cool house in Jackson, Wyoming???). However, we are nothing if not resourceful, so we put the cooler Boopy (Carolyn's dad) gave us to good use over the past several days...

Axel and Vivian enjoy the restorative waters...



Vivian solo...


Sabine actually fit in it too (by herself) but we forgot to take a photo when she was in it...

Wyoming comes to Portland

The Klomparens Crew (Julie, Shawn, Birch and Axel) came to see us over the kids' spring break. We've known Julie and Shawn since way before kiddos...went on a sailboat trip with them to Key West about 10 years ago, Julie and I had our first babies about 3 months apart, and we traded kinder-care for the first year or so our our girls' lives...Birch is the reason Sabine misses Wyoming so much! I wasn't sure how it would go with them having not seen each other for so many months...but I needn't have worried. Birch and Sabine basically picked up where they left off...and PLAYED for 4 straight days. They even made a LIBRARY in the basement. It was very sweet.


At the zoo with Vivi, Axel, Sabine and Birch.


Bret's new canoe was the object of much backyard imaginative play.


We celebrated Sabine's (and my) birthday a little early...


Even the grown-ups had fun (that's Karmin's back to us, Dave in the grey shirt, Julie, Shawn, and me). We were supposed to go out that night with Dave and Karmin to celebrate their April birthdays, but our babysitter got sick. So instead we got (sensational!) take out from Mai Thai and celebrated at home...

They Won!

Congrats, Anne and Pete! Prairie Home's site says it will be listed on their website on Monday (4/13).

Our brush with fame

We've been keeping busy since March 24th with a welcome stream of visitors -- first Kat and Marley from Corvallis (we met them at the Life is Good conference last year) -- Kat and I went to the Portland premiere of the movie Handmade Nation -- and then the Klomparens family from Jackson. We've been having so much fun that I haven't made time to blog about it!

I'll post some photos from those visits soon, but first had to share that our good friends and musicians extraordinaire, Anne and Pete Sibley, will be playing on Garrison Keilor's A Prairie Home Companion's Great American Duet Sing-Off live, tomorrow night (Sat. April 11) at 6 pm eastern. You can vote for your favorite act (Anne and Pete, of course) online -- click here to vote.

I dug up some photos from our past musical adventures with Anne and Pete...


Pete's one of those guys who can play ANYTHING...and make it sound good. He also knows how to trap a monkey with a banjo.


There's Sabine enjoying music as a baby, and later on at about age 4, I think, joining Anne and me on guitar.

Hopefully you'll get a chance to listen to them!