May Pictures in the Sun

Cocoa can now reach the top of this little hill in our backyard, but he can't get down.  He's calling for me in this picture :)

The edge of the woods is a magical place for the kids right now.

J has been slowly re-barking the yard.  Handsome man!

Ernie is so close to being a big girl.  She goes between shutting herself in her room to read or cry depending on her mood, and playing dress up and pretend games in the yard.

Selfie group shot!  The kids and I stopped at Snoqualmie Falls to see the waterfall.

We had gorgeous weather in May- the beach is a favorite place for the kids .

May 28, 2014

Praise everything, all three kids slept all night !  It's been at least a week since that happened, we all feel so much happier today.

I taught one student I the early morning- she is probably not coming back next year I think she gave up trying years ago. We had a good lesson, she is making progress on her songs right now.  The kids and I cleaned up the playroom and our house cleaner came around 9:00.  She brings her little daughter who is the same age as Cocoa.  She doesn't speak a bit of English but she and the kids get along famously.  

I made lunch for us all- jam sandwiches and cucumber slices for the kids and a mint chocolate chip yogurt for the kids.  (Yogurt with mint and spinach for color, a bit of sugar, blend it, then throw in a few chocolate chips.  Yum!). I took the rest of a cucumber-tomato-onion salad and whizzed it in the blender into a gazpacho type of soup for me.  Leftover tzatziki sauce drizzled on top made it extra delicious :)

Cocoa went down for a nap and I sat down with Ernie to finish her math for the week while Mimi played Littlest Pet Shop and practiced her reading.  I found lots of reader e-books at the library website and loaded them into my Kindle for her.  I am assigning points to books this summer and the kids can earn prizes by the points they get.  Ernie is reading The Ordinary Princess today and will probably finish it tonight. (That's a grade 6.5 book.). I am going to steer them towards classics this summer to help them break out of an unchallenging book rut.

Math took approximately 3 hours to complete 12 problems.... Oy.  We cut loose and put together a pan of French toast to bake later on for dinner and the kids scattered to play and read.

The baked French toast turned out amazing, not surprising considering it was kind of creme brûlée made with old bread, and I served bacon and cantaloupe on the side.  Go figure, the kids practically licked their plates!

My aunt came to discuss the next stage of planning our kitchen remodel- she and my uncle have been amazing to work with.  We have most decisions made now, we need to pick a sink and faucet and then pack up about half the house.  Whee!!

Picture Dump

Cocoa got his summer cut from J- I love it!

Cocoa also thinks that headbands are headsets- "Beep beep!  Got a job to do!" he says.

Progress in the backyard- grass is coming back in.

Ernie is getting so big.... So different from her little girl body.

The girls and I are painting seascapes to go along with an artist study in school.  

Mimi decided she desparately wanted to be in my piano recital, I taught her two simple songs and we will start piano lessons this summer.

Cocoa drinks my smoothies.  Turkey.  

I snapped this picture of Mom piled under all the kids, reading stories, Sunday night.  I hope they remember how much she reads to them when they are grown!

Monday May 26

We took a holiday on Memorial Day- I moved lessons to teach two hours in the morning,  J rode around the lake with a buddy, and the kids played outside all day.

J got some projects done- replacing a rotten board in the back deck and replacing finishing nails with screws on the master bedroom deck (!!) and I got some weeding done.

This neighborhood has a great habit of trading bikes around on our Facebook page- Cocoa woke up from his nap to find this beauty waiting for him.  He kept saying "it's my first bike!  It's green!" all night long :)

The kids rode their bikes to the dinosaur park and J and I walked- we had a picnic.  Falafel in the park is a pretty great way to end the day!

I have successfully grown a radish- in the past they have bolted, failed to germinate, or been eaten by slugs and ants.  This was gorgeously juicy and so very spicy!!

April 18

I got home late last night from an evening of my piano lesson in town and visiting teaching two sisters on our route.  I made a pasta salad for the family's dinner in the afternoon, and they watched "Duperheroes" and "Duper Dog."  Cocoa chose the movies- Superheroes and Super Dog are of course The Incredibles and Bolt.  Funny boy loved those movies as soon as he saw the covers :)

Ernie finished all her schoolwork for the week by Wednesday so our Thursday was spent on Legos, Snap Circuits, finding more Lego sets to aquire online, going through old and hand-me-down clothes to make sure everyone had full drawers of clothes that fit, and cleaning out the bedrooms.  Bedrooms have a habit of filling up in the corners and I wanted those corners cleaned out!  I vacuumed again, even though our housecleaner came the day before.  We might need to get a new housekeeper,mor we might need to fix up our house so it is actually cleanable.  Everything seems to be turned inside out right now, at least downstairs.  

Our bedroom still has six boxes of choir music that I don't know what to do with, along with J's box of childhood memories.  We have them pulled out to scan and cull right now.  Lots of photos and old certificates that can be digitized.  

Spring Break was full of random illnesses, so this week has been all about getting our lives, and house, put back together.  

Boston Day Five

Last day in Boston.  We packed up and checked out in the morning and checked our bags behind the counter.  We had until 4:00 before we had to head to the airport.  We did as much as we could!

A train ride took us to the Freedom Trail- we had seen parts of it but wanted to walk the whole thing.  We started in Boston Common and the State House.  A "fried dough" cart set up shop as we arrived, and we split one.

That line of red bricks marks the trail to follow through the city.

Old cemetery- this is Samuel Adams.

It was a beautiful old cemetery.  Oddly, markers have been moved at least twice to make rooms for paths, etc.

We saw this statue outside of a government building.  A Democrat donkey and a pair of shoe prints in front engraved with elephants and "Stand Firm."  

Faneuil Hall and Quincy market had a good selection of lunch options- J chose a pizza bagel that is the best representation of those words we've ever seen!  I had a little cup of clam chowder and we split a fresh orange juice.

The trail goes through the North End to see Paul Revere's house- Mike's Pastry was still there waiting for us.  I chose a Boston cream puff this time, and J went for a black and white.  I expected them to be like sugar cookies, but they are soft and pliable.  The chocolate frosting was super fudgey.... It was great!

We walked down Commonwealth Avenue- the houses are gorgeous and the middle of the street is a tree-lined walk.  Extremely genteel, yes?

We walked back to the Boston Public Library, I wanted to show J a map embedded in the floor- Boston was originally much smaller and hillier.  They slowly filled in the bays to make more landmass, the map showed that process between the 1600's and now .

We walked through Chinatown to find a snack to take with us on the plane- we found a holographic Simon Dewey pirated print. 

After Chinatown we walked back towards the hotel to get our bags, caught a train for the last few stops, and headed to the airport.  Security was slow, the airport is just fine, and the flight was nice.  We got home around 11:30 local time and gave my parents a huge thanks for taking up our slack this week!

We loved Boston- it's well designed with great public transportation, and beautiful to boot.

Boston Day Four

When J joined us for dinner last night, he was officially done with his data conference.  Today was the first day I didn't leave the hotel solo- a different kind of day!  Love it.

We caught the train out to the museums again and walked through the Isabella Gardner Stewart museum- she was an art collector who opened her home to the public a few days a week and left her home as a museum in her will.

She had wonderful taste, and showed a good sense of humor in how things were displayed.  There was absolutely no photography allowed, but our favorites were water colors by John Singer Sargent (she gave him working space in her home, they were good friends), ballerina pictures by Kronburg, a self- portrait by Rembrandt, and I loved some early (4th century) Italian religious pieces with periwinkle blue and metallic gold accents.  

We bought lunch at the museum cafe- I had chicken salad and he had a quiche.  We ended with beignet.  Very different getting meals with J- I've been either getting really fast meals or skipping them entirely.  Sitting down to a plate and a napkin is a lovely thing!

We took the trains back towards town and visited the First Christian Scientist church.  Kooky church, but they have a tour of a three- story stained glass globe you can walk INSIDE of.  That was worth it for J :). Again, no photography.

Afterwards we walked up to Charlstown to see the USS Constitution ("Old Iron Sides.")

It had way more rigging than we expected.

Cannons, and lots of them!

Bunks, below deck.

Low clearance- right about 5'5" :)

We took the ferry back down to the north end .  Beautiful ride!

I told J I wanted to find cannoli in the north end (basically Little Italy) and he said sure!  He didn't realize until we walked in that it was a dessert... Well, it made a nice start to dinner :).  The cannoli was nice and crispy, the filling seemed to be a heavily flour-thickened vanilla pudding filling.  He ordered a cream puff filled with Bavarian creme and coated in a chocolate shell.  (Mike's Pastries)

We walked across the little street to a seafood restaurant, The Daily Catch.  It was the smallest restaurant I have ever seen.   This picture shows almost the entire space, including the kitchen.  Fantastic homemade squid ink pasta with olive oil and garlic for me, and a plate of calimari prepared four ways for J.

We saw this enormous flag in a retail building entrance... Has a flair for the dramatic!

We walked home from dinner- this is the view from a bridge by our hotel.

We figured we walked about eight miles this day, and I know I walked at least that much every other day.  I thought I brought great shoes, but my feet hurt terribly.  It's a shame since I know I am going to be walking no matter what they feel like, it's too pretty NOT to walk everywhere!