Non-stop Birthday Action: 8

On Ida's birthday we went out to Gino's with these salty, pensive characters.  So fine.

They gave Ida a very sharp knife that she later cut herself with.  The girls got all dressed up for dinner...

Sunday was the big party with this fancy darling cake.  All the childrens wished to eat the dog.  Weird.

One Gigantic Weekend

Whoa. Busy days, here. So full. Well, first of all, on Friday, we had an excellent visit with our excellent former (2007-2009 (?)) nanny, Chandler:

Who's that?! Why that's young Dinah, Chandler's young daughter!  Is Chandler going to have another one?  Stay tuned?

A glimpse into the past:

And then we went down to Alsea.  A glimpse further into the past:

Yes, we were back down at Leaping Lamb Farm !

Two years since we've been back here (June, 2013 ).  Meanwhile:

Peacocks!  That's P Diddy.  And Dutch Boy, our old friend the turkey.

Special new friends were the orphaned lambs Cocoa

and Marshmallow:

We got to carry them out of Scottie Jones's living room to the barn:

Ella fell in love with this dog, Gilly:

She says dogs are okay if they have farms.

Up in the hayloft, all kinds of action:

Mostly we just spent a lot of time trying to get Cocoa and Marshmallow to drink some milk:

Will they survive?  Miki made Scottie promise to text us to know for sure.

Rising, Risen

Hanging out at Joy's the other night, Miki and her Aunt Maggie got in a set-to about who could outlast the other at the old "wall-sit."

These are what Cat Stevens would refer to as "Hard-headed Women"

And so they went at it:

After Miki had dispatched with Maggie, she took on the challenge from "Big Elsie"

Again, her strength was superior, and so she challenged her mother:

Even though they were laughing, it was dead serious.

It lasted over an hour!  (And then they both kind of collapsed or pulled each other down.)

Easter AM headstand practice.  I've known Ella for about twenty years and she still surprises me.

Then the girls and I rode off to an egg hunt:

Later, we attended yet another egg hunt.

Much candy was eaten on this day.

Much.

Hanging Around

Still fairly cuckoo, here. Just very busy and everyone doing so many things. But we went over to a friend's house and busted some moves on their ropes.

As my cousin Anne Frahm notes, their hair is fairly well-conditioned.

Miki's hands are quite torn up from this action, and doing the rings relentlessly at school, so now she wears fingerless gloves everywhere, to keep her fancy bandaids in place.  This makes her look like a little thug Michael Jackson.

Can you see Ida, high in this tree?  We went on a sweet sunny hike on Mt. Hood yesterday...

the summer of March

Wow. Really weird weather we're having. Just trying to deal with it. Went on some nice hikes these last Sundays. Last one, Powell Butte, the old favorite...

Many fairies and trolls live in these places.

Miki is working on many tricks, let me tell you.

This is some of MIki's homework. I'm thinking of trying to write a story based this remarkable plot

Our magnolia tree bloomed about six weeks early; it'll keep blooming and dropping unlimited detritus for me to pick up for the next 8 months.  But it's pretty.

Today we went out to Strawberry Island, up on the mighty Columbia.  Washington side.  Ate some sandwiches, ate some chocolate.  Excellent.

And Ida built a very important marker, down on the beach.

Whoa!