Our little English man

Ian (with Nate's animation) reciting lines from his favourite and best Charlie and Lola book "I will never, not ever eat a Tomato". Can you hear the English accent?

Go Blazers!

Mini Roy and Mini Aldridge are ready to take on the Rockets!

The Answer is...Anywhere!

Where will Ian nap today?

Yes, even the kitchen floor.

The Gap

I could hardly stand the look of the one twisted tooth left after the incident last night (it was kind of a hobo look - not so cute!) so after our baseball game tonight I convinced Nate to let me have a little wiggling time. (Some might think it's creepy, but I really like messing with loose teeth and pulling them out!) Now we have a serious GAP!

Knockout!

Must be something about the way little boys play. For the second time now we've had knockout happen with a loose tooth. This time, Nate and "5 Guys" buddy Brendan were having and intense Star Wars battle and the tooth was knocked out. And the best part, Nate was THRILLED! The bloodly little sucker tumbled out (notice blood dots in shirt, very proud of those!) and got lost in the carpet. We found it later and cleaned it up for the Tooth Fairy's visit tonight.

The weaponry

Now THAT's a gap!

Drama on the high seas

Coming up from his first ever bob
Kicking alone isn't so scary.

Bottles are by far his favorite

Not quite ready to jump in yet, but we will work on that.

It should come as no surprise that Ian is high drama about taking classes, especially when it comes to swim class. After the drama last year (and subsequently dropping out) I decided to rewind and try private lessons, come hell or high water. Well, we started Monday with Ian sobbing hysterically all the way there and me having to peel his octopus arms and legs from my body and drop him in with Coach Nathan. He did fine, grouchy, but fine. Today we easily had 3 hours of drama and sobbing before getting to class and then happily (huh?) getting into the water!?! Coach Nathan has so far convinced Ian to do a bob under water and put his face in for 1 whole second! They worked on kicking alone with a kick board and floating on his back first with bottles, but ultimately alone with Nathan letting for for a few seconds. Private seem to be worth every penny.

Crisis Garden or Ecco Chic?

Fertilizer. Check. Dairy Compost. Check. Popsicles. Check. Hottest day of the year. Check check. Garden prep is underway. Dave tilled. I sifted. Ian pounded and got very, very sticky! We have tomato starts (don't forget to say to-mah-to at this house!), pea and lettuce seeds ready to be planted. Oh, and a yellow pepper for Dave. We are going to try out the water cages since it is a little soon to plant those starts. Here is a link to a great planting calendar...http://www.portlandnursery.com/plants/docs/veggies/veggie_calendar.pdf

Wild Cats vs. Blue Flames

#5 up for his first at bat

(anyone know a good seamstress who can shorten that shirt!?)
He wacks it and takes off running

Definitely time to pose

Making it home

Coach conference in mid field

Batter Up! T-ball (which actually is coach pitch baseball) games started to day featuring the Wolf Creek Wild Cats vs. The Wolf Creek Blue Flame! Nate, #5 and Assistant Coach Dave were awesome today, as were the rest of the team. 6 of Nate's friends from HT are on the team, which is coached by another HT dad. The games run 3 innings, everyone bats to a hit and everyone scores.

Peep Cake and other yummy things

Easter post, part 2. The highlight of the weekend was definitely cousins coming to town from Seattle. Its more and more fun to watch them interact as they get older. A close second, however, what Grandma Rita's Peep Cake! Check out this masterpiece! Triple chocolate bundt cake covered in peeps and jelly beans. Dave and Andrew love to eat peeps the most and the rest of the boys seemed more interested in blowing them up to rubber duckie size in the microwave!

Grandma Jan and Papa Ron were also here to celebrate and watch the Master's. I think we were all napping by 4pm!

The Hunt is on!

Happy Easter! This year that silly rabbit sent us on a treasure hunt to find the Easter Baskets. It was a fun way to start the day (at 6:30AM) and a good exercise in patience! Nate read all 8 clues flawlessly!

Clue #1 sent us to the room were Daddy makes lots of noise.
WE We found an egg in Ian's shoe.

The tub where we get clean was a clue.

Ahh, the oven! What a silly place for the Easter bunny to hide the baskets!

Candy galore!

Reading the first clue

Dyin'

First ever Cadbury egg, "Where is this yummy filling you are talkin' about mama?"
"Ooohhh, there it is!"

First every Cadbury egg, "I think I don't like it. Can I have a cookie?"

Noggin

Just Cuz

Back in the Saddle Again

What have we been up to this past week...an update is in order..

D: Busy, busy, busy with buyers and sellers. True, there is a 14 (or is it 19) month supply of houses on the market here, but the right house at the right price sells quickly. Case in point, he was shopping this week with a client who has lost out on 2 houses to other offers, only to find (and secure!) the 3rd one today. Hers wasn't the only offer though. There is hope! D also has a great new listing~check out his website for details. Oh, and Coach Dave will be assistant coaching Nate's t-ball team. He's been waiting 6 years for this.

K: Busy, busy, busy with boys! I decided to try out spinning class at the gym this past week. Monday - Sore bum, sore legs but pretty fun. Instructor was every educational, gentle. Wednesday - getting better. I can get the hang of this. Will I ever get used to the saddle? Friday - holy cow! What a difference an instructor makes. I think this one had ex-boyfirned issues!
;-) My teeth were sweating. On the plus side, I was too exhausted to worry about the saddle!
D and I got to work on our backyard garden, dubbed by a different client of D's as our Eco Chic Garden. I think the just might stick! Found out more than I ever wanted to know about Dairy Compost. Poop seems to fascinate my family, why not cow poop as well?!? We've got a big learning curve ahead of us, but looking forward to seeing how we fair as farmers. Nate wants to have a veggie stand rather than a lemonade stand this summer. Spread the word! ;-)

N: Back to school. Good to see friends again. Started reading a fun series of 'chapter books' called "Nate the Great" and thinks he over the moon that he gets big kid reading alone time before bed (but really, it is mom who is over the moon about this!) Started baseball/t-ball on Saturday. Green is the uniform shirt color so he is carefully contemplating the team name. Spent hours and hours in the sun yesterday and today and is already sporting a tan face and neck. (where as Ian and I look only slightly less white - let's call ourselves eggshell....)

Ian: Got to have big boy lunch date with Grandma where she picked him up from school and let him chose the restaurant. Good stuff! Even talked her into some candy and bunny ears from the store after! Discovered that the best part of going to the library may just be self check out. Who knew scanning bar codes could be so fun (guilt from mommy, I am NOT a great library goer - but the economy and a thirsty 6 year old reader has me reconsidering.) 2 play dates, karate and many, many practice egg hunts.
And Ian wants EVERYONE to know that he ate 10 peas over spring break.
And almost as important, Nate only ate 3.
(Na na na naaa naaaaa.)