little sister, big sister

Vivian, taking a call at the "office" at the Children's Museum. Looks like it's someone she doesn't want to talk to...


Vivian, with a plate of "pillows" (thin sliced ham wrapped around cream cheese...my grandmother Mimi used to make these for us).


Sabine, sitting on a big rock at the coast...


Sabine, up in a tree at librarian friend Deb's house (we were over there for an awesome music making party).

Random fun and creativity

It seems the whole family has been having bursts of creativity:

These are little bags I sewed to sell at the Untrepreneurial fair at the upcoming Life is Good conference (can't wait!). The original purpose is that they can be sewn onto people's conference bags, so that it becomes a little handy tote (like this) that you can keep in your purse/backpack. But I realized that they can also be used as a little bag to put a gift in, or keep safe a special treasure. The photo isn't the best, as most of these are still inside out (serged thread ends still need to be sewn in), but the girls helped me pick out the fabrics, and I must say, they are really cute!


Vivian had a friend over to play the other day and Sabine asked if they wanted to play Twister. I thought "hmmm...we don't own Twister" but (thankfully) kept quiet, and Sabine proceeded to make a twister board out of fabric and books, then the spinner (pictured) out of cardboard and wood.


As you may know...we live in the Pacific NW...and we get our fair share of...the wet stuff. Bret found a container suitable for making into a rain barrel (except that it was clear-ish plastic, which lets in UV rays, or something like that) so he painted it brown. The white circle will be artistically designed later (it looks like a giant bottle of peroxide, no?). When Bret told the girls he was making a rain barrel, they heard BRAIN barrel...so there it is, our barrel of brains.


The orginal slice and bake cookie - one of the things I remember my mom baking when we were growing up. They are Belgian Ice Box cookies, see recipe at the bottom right hand side of the blog - under "What We're Eating".


The girls received a present of two matching Pixie dolls from our friends Kristin, Al and Acacia in Wyoming. They've been busy here in Portland...climbing trees...


...and babysitting at night.


The girls have been making good use of the hand rings from IKEA.


Apparently the doJump lessons are working.

Bird festival, upcoming stuff

The other day while I was volunteering (and drooling at all the cool stuff) at Crafty Wonderland, Bret took the girls to a Bird Festival in Portland. The girls got to see several birds, climb trees and get their faces painted.

I heart Portland. Always fun stuff going on.

Also getting so very excited for the upcoming Life is Good conference. This will be our 5th year attending! I went to look for some photos, but apparently we are usually having so much fun that we don't remember to take pictures! Will try to remedy that this time. It is truly one of the highlights of our year.

In other news, we are getting ready to have our main floor bathroom remodeled. This is the last "big" project inside the house (still lots of "little" stuff to do...all in good time)...more pictures and details to emerge soon. Bret already did some demo to prepare for it: removing a tiny closet that will be replaced with a big one, and also re-hung the bathroom door. It's nice to get to do some of the work ourselves (that is, the "ourselves" that means Bret).

I've joined a bookclub here, which I'm very happy about. It's one of the things I really missed about Wyoming (hello any Bluestockings who might read this!). We had a fantastic meeting last night and voted on a year's worth of books (thanks, Nancy Pearl) using the method here. I'm lucky to have landed in a place with so many new fantastic women friends!

Shameless plea...

We've entered a Rejuvenation contest for our kitchen remodel (we used several of their lights, and drawer pulls)...the grand prize for the people's vote is a $1,000 which we would LOVE! Since the kitchen is done, we're now working on the bathroom...call us crazy.

Here is the link to the contest.

You can quickly find our entry by doing a "find in page" search for the word "Carolyn" -- or look for this photo:



Thanks!

And yet another reason to love Portland

Vivian and I had meandered up to Faubion School (right up the street from us) on Sunday afternoon so she could practice her training-wheel-less bike riding. We were getting ready to head home, and I noticed a person in a bunny suit riding a bicycle towards us. (It was Easter, so I wasn't too surprised...) but then I noticed another, and another, and WOAH -- about 60 of them! And one bunny on a tandem with a guy in a chicken suit in front.



Vivian and I left the playground while they were still waiting for all the bunnies to catch up. They then biked down our street -- Bret was already out front, and I was able to run in the house so Sabine could come see them too. It was a riot!

Apparently it's a Portland tradition. We'll have to catch it next year.

No more training wheels...

for Vivian! She's very excited.

I'm baaaack...

...in blogland. I think this has been the longest time between posts since I started. But I'm not going to go back and verify it, I'm just going to dig in.

Got the great news the other day that my dad's cancer appears to be gone! At least that's what the x-ray showed...he will still need to get a cat scan in 4 months, but it looks like the treatments he underwent at Vanderbilt were successful. Great BIG wahoo!

Back in January the girls and I had a fantastic trip up to Seattle with another homeschooling family. We took Amtrack, and it just might have ruined us for plane travel. What a difference it makes being able to get up and walk around, mosey down to the snack car, go to the restroom whenever you want...It's not a terribly practical (or inexpensive) way to travel cross country, but to buzz up to Seattle and back it's perfect.

While in Seattle, we got to see the Harry Potter exhibit that was at the Science Center, go up in the Space Needle at dusk (this was a group favorite!), swim in the hotel pool, and go to the aquarium. We also got to visit with Aunt Jan.

(...somewhere I have a photo of Bret and me in this same spot...wayyy before kids!)

The girls with Aunt Jan -- in front of a totem pole, note the space needle in the background.

I like how this picture juxtaposes the needle and totem.

We've been playing a lot of music with friends, attending weekly Wednesday potlucks hosted by another homeschooling family, having visitors (Bret's mom Joan and brother Kevin were here for the crab and beer festival at the Kennedy School in February - yummmm!), and enjoying our new kitchen/dining/living rooms (just the kitchen is new...but it now opens up to the dining and living rooms).


We went to Great Wolf Lodge in Washington for a 3rd time with a homeschooling group (we get a great discount), painted our living room and hung pictures, and cooked 16 new recipes in 4 days for a friend who's an author and needed the recipes photographed for a Pacific Northwest cookbook she's writing (she also needed photos of kids helping with the recipes...which sounds easier than it was!). The girls have taken lots of things apart...and put them back together again.


Bret and I started the C25K running program (thanks to our friend Allison in Wyoming!). It's been good to get out there and see more of our neighborhood, and exercise...rain (or hail!) or shine!

I re-organized my sewing room, and Bret has been working on several projects, including making a model surfboard.




And that's about it.