Work Day

Today was work day around the yard. John got the front and back yard mowed (so many dandelion flowers that they stopped up the mower!), I got two new sprinkler heads put in, John fixed the main line leak/break in the sprinkler line. I got a start on the weed bed that has popped up next to my vegetable garden. The kids built a fairy teepee, and planted all sorts of seeds around it. No pics, but I'll get some soon.

Yummy pesto pizza for dinner. That was the last of last summer's pesto. Come on , basil!!!!!

Here's some pictures of the kids with Oliver:

And some unusually dressed people walked into my dining room:

That's all for now, so here's some pics from February - March 2003:

Garden, end of May

My garden got off to a slow start this year. Prime planting time I was out of town, then things got busy (end of school week, tons of things going on), then Elise got sick, then I got sick. Not much got done, then we went camping. SO that's why, anyway.

I finally put in my tomatoes and peppers today. two Mama Mia roma tomatoes, one heirloom variety called Health Kick (plum type), one roma from Tanya, one Maghrebi (red regular type?) from Tanya, and one Japanese Black Trifele (purple fruit) from Tanya. (BTW, Tanya has funded my garden this year, with tomatoes, potatoes, and onions. Next year hopefully I'll start some seeds and can share.....) Got 4-packs of peppers, so I put them all in. I have 'Mild' jalepenos in the front, Red Beauty bells in the back, and 'Big Jim' green chilis, anaheim type in the back.

I have enough spinach and lettuce to make some salads, the potatoes are coming up, I have tons of nasturtiums and marigolds all around.

Put out assorted kid's projects - including sunflowers, pumpkins, peas, and three sisters (beans, squash and corn). Hopefully they'll all survive....

Big project this weekend is to get my sprinklers going - I needto replace on sprinkler head, and John will fix the main line that cracked this winter. Sigh.

Next photo album is Owen Bday 3 - Butterfly themed:

Poetry reading

Well, it's not original (to us) poetry, but Owen was reading this to his sister, and I just couldn't resist. It's from a book of poetry called "My Dog Does My Homework" by Shel Siverstein, Jack Prelutsky, Eve Merriam, and Many More! The book is a gift from Owen's teacher.

Since it is still today, I will post more pics from the January 2003 folder. Still so many cool photos!



Grandma and Grandpa with Owen and Elise:



Brrrr!! It's cold out here!



And yes, this is January too!

Memorial Day Weekend

Okay, it's been a while since I posted, but that's because we were camping! And then recovering, iykwim.

5 little princesses all in a row......

Golden Gate Canyon SP has been our destination for Memorial Day for several years now, well we switched it up last year but we have been there 4 years in a row now. First year it rained like crazy, the next two were beautiful, this year, well, we were due for some nasty weather. It mostly came in the form of colder temps, but it was snowing for a few people's set-up, and first night at campfire it snowed a bit too. Overall it was a great time! 8 families, 17 kids, 13 adults, beautiful weather. The kids found "the pit" which provided hours of amusement. Alliances were formed, some new, some old, clothes were exchanged, food was traded. I love that when we are camping, we are like a village, and you know that wherever your child is (did I bring children?) there is a parent willing to help out, feed someone hungry, give a bandage, pick up a crying child.

I took about a million pictures, to see them all check out my kodakgallery photos. But I'll post a few of my faves here :-)

Fisher people...... Marshmallow mayhem.......

Girls in a tree......

A Family...... Boys up high.........

Murph........ Snuggles........

Around the campfire (John telling ghost stories)......

And then this amazing sunset......

SO the bad news is that it rained all night the last night. Not hard, just steady, all night. It cleared up enough in the morning to get packed up and out, so we stopped for brunch on the way home :-)

The new tent - well, the new tent was fine. I actually think it's a nice tent. I love the size and design. BUT - some water did come in that night. Mostly I'll admit due to not staking the fly out on the sides - they didn't give us the right number of guylines, but there was still a bit of unexplained wetness. Not enough for us to get wet, but in a brand new tent, I didn't expect that. And the fly/vestibule design didn't work for us. Opening the vestibule literally allowed rain to drip into the tent. That is NOT okay. It is fine when dry, though. So I'm exchanging it for the Basecamp 6. Just had to do it. It's on order - and of course it is BACKORDERED. I'm hopeful it will be here for our next trip.

This next folder is one of my favorites, so many good photos, I'll just pick a bunch. January 2003:

And this is about as good as we get for family photos!

End of school year

So, the end of the school year is here. Elise had her last day on Tuesday, Owen's is tomorrow. WIth that, is the bringing home of massive amounts of paperwork, artwork, folders and notebooks. That will take a while to go through. While it's out, I thought I would share some of Owen's work. Elise didn't create as much as Owen at school. More of her stuff later :-)

Owen's last Art Start project, a Georgia O'Keefe inspired petunia:

Owen's most recent writing evaluation (all spelling and punctuation copied as best as I could ;-)

Spring

It's spring! It's spring! My sister yelled jumpping on her bed. But I wus still sleping until crash! my sister fell off her bed and in to the fish tank. I ran doun the stars and saw my cat jump out the window. Then I jumped out the window and I fell on the roof. Sumer salting off it toword the padyo. Crunch I landed on the back of a deck chare. The deck chare flue up and ther was a swosh and the deck char fell doun the chimny. I looked around. The yard cenpleetly changed over night. The trees sprouted leevs and flours. The grass was as green as a souer apple. The dandylions wher as gold as lemons. The creeck was cristle cleer. Then my sister thrue the house geco out the window. It scrried doun a holl in the ground the day was so warm I drue a picsher of all the things that made me happy on the first day of spring.

And on a general writing assigment (earlier in the year) he came up with these riddle gems:

Silver cristels on the graoond. Youed lite a fire in a fire plase. It is winter.

Colors of gold, red, yellowe on the ground and pumpcins are carvde. Fall.

Coton candy spilde frum the milcky waey and wipt crym from the micsing bole of the moon. Ice creme dumt from the freyzing lande of snow and ice. Cumulostratus clouds.

My flower fairy:

And her flower fairy creation:

The completed Teacher Bag #2 - the pattern is called Romantic Ruffles:

From the November 2002 folder (it was out of order):

New Stuff

Today we got our new tent and I finished up two of my felted bags. Here are the bags pre-felting:











And here they are post-felting: Both are drying, so are stuffed with whatever will help them form their shape. I will post later when they are dry and have straps.














Front and back:












The purple bag is Teacher Bag #2, an end of the year gift for Owen's teacher. She said she liked purple in her teacher survey ;-) It is a pattern I got for free from the yarn store.
The other one is a pattern from the book Modular Knitting, I am calling it the Star Bag since I can't remember it's name. I'm thinking a big round button as a closure on this one?


And here is our new tent. I went with the Kelty Grand Mesa 6, after much deliberation. I am very hopeful :-) It was very easy to set up, I did it myself in 5 minutes, even feeling yucky with a cold. Another 2 to get the fly on. It is definitely smaller than our other tent. but that one leaked when it rained, and we had more room than we needed. The rain fly on it was not very helpful.

With and without rain fly:










From December 2002 - One messy boy and one skeptical girl:

Field Day

Well, I don't actually have any photos of field day, I forgot the camera. But it was great fun for everyone. 50 yard dash, obstacle course, games, jump rope, frisbee, ball throwing contest, and everyone's favorite - the parachute. After all that and lunch, was the 1/2 mile run, the Runyon Ramble. Owen ran most of the way (ahead of us) and Elise ran/walked the whole thing holding her friend Breana's hand. I stayed with girls, but still got a good workout (I even wore my aerobics shoes this time, rather than my Chacos like last year!). Popsicles afterwards for everyone!
Grandma Bertie went home yesterday. The kids had a good visit with her. Elise threw a tea party for grandma and great-grandma Monday - it was quite lovely. Owen showed his book from school, as well as what he is currently reading, and Elise wore her ballet costume for everyone. Owen ate too many chocolate cookies.....

The kids built a fairy house down on an island in the creek on Sunday. It is all covered with dirt, but apparently seeds were planted all around it, so it may be beautiful soon.

My weekend was nice, our conference went well. I didn't go to many sessions, being stuck in the bookstore most of the time, but I loved the atmosphere. Seeing so many children playing happily with their families, and babies in slings (and other carriers) with their mothers, and sometimes even fathers. I love seeing all the new slings out there now. There were even grandmas and grandpas there. It was so beautiful up in Estes Park, even with the off-and-on rain and snow. It was good to see friends again that I hadn't seen in a while. I even got a whole bed to myself! But I did need a rest after the weekend, what with the work, and the late nights ;-)

Well, since I am posting so many pictures, and I just can't pick one from the next folder, here are a bunch of fun ones: Elise and daddy, holiday parade lights, and the sheer joy of friends.