Ants, Day Seven

Nothing to report, except the ants continue to work hard and we continue to enjoy them.

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Third Day of Christmas

The gifts keep coming! At Aaron and Wendy's, the girls got cool masks and a board game, courtesy of Grandma Charla.

Merry Christmas, indeed!

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Ants, Day Three

After the first night, we were startled to see that the ants had made a lot of progress, building a tunnel from one entrance to another and burying their one dead guy with the excavated sand. Here we are at Day Three, and they continue to build.

We are going to soon have to face the reality of maintenance: watering the cotton balls, getting out the bit of apple they haven't consumed, and removing the dead ant.

So far, though, I'm thrilled with how interesting the ant habitat is. I'll continue to post pictures as the ants continue to build.

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Christmas dresses

Grandma gave the girls beautiful matching dresses and told them how her mother had made all of her and Aunt Teddy's clothes when they were children, and had often dressed them identically.

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Ants Arrive!

The one thing Suzanne wanted for her birthday was an ant habitat (not "ant farm" - - she's pretty scientific). She got the ant habitat, but the ants had to be mail ordered from Utah, and they didn't arrive in time for her birthday. Suzanne wasn't disappointed. She just bided her time and enjoyed her other presents.

And today the ants arrived! Just in time for Christmas.

The little buggers came in a small plastic tube labeled with a warning that these ants sting. Luckily, only a few escaped as we were transferring them to their new home. (Hindsight being 20/20, I now realize we should have done the transfer outdoors. Now Elizabeth and I keep thinking there are ants in our pants.)

We are all excited to see the ants construct their colony.

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Tree Decorating

Today was both Suzanne's fourth birthday and the day we got a Christmas tree.

Busy, but fun!

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Thanksgiving 2014

We had a really nice, relaxed Thanksgiving. Grandma, Pat, Karen, and Charlie were over. Barb did a spectacular job with... well, everything. She got the house ready, prepared and served the meal, and even did all the clean up.

I'm thankful for my friends and family.

Suzanne as an Indian wearing a Pilgrim bonnet.

Chief Charlie Poodle.

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Puff the Bearded Dragon

With the holidays in full swing, everyone has left town -- except for us. Consequently, we are taking care of Charlie the poodle, our neighbors' cats, and Puff the Bearded Dragon. We had to say no to caring for Crooklyn, Aaron and Wendy's cat.

The girls love playing with Puff, despite the fact that he basically just stands there and if they've picked him up, leaves their hands covered in tiny scratches.

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Happy Birthday, Uncle Mark!

Harvest Parties

It's all harvest parties all the time now. Friday night we were at Woodstock Elementary, jammed into the cafeteria, the gymnasium, and the hallway in between with what seemed like about ten thousand costumed kids and twice as many adults, some gamely costumed, some dressed as overheated, overly-tired parents -- one of the scariest sites of the holiday season. The kids had a good time with activities like cupcake decorating (and eating!), games like the beanbag toss, various crafts, and just running wild in the normally constrained environment of school. I remember as a child the magical feeling of being in the school after hours (for, say, a parent-teacher conference).

The next morning it was Harvest Party #2 at Suzanne's pre-school. That was more mellow, and so for me more fun. Barb even dressed up as a witch!

That evening we went to Aaron and Wendy's for dinner and pumpkin carving.

And this is just the beginning of the Holiday Season!

Elizabeth and Lily scooping out pumpkin guts. 

Suzanne drew a face on her pumpkin and then, with a little help from her mama, carved it exactly. It turned out great!

The finished products: top to bottom that's Elizabeth's, mine, and Suzanne's. The mini-pumpkin was carved by Aaron.

Here she is in costume, with the product of the cupcake-decorating craft at the Woodstock harvest fest. Check out that mountain of sprinkles! Truly we are in Sugar Season. Elizabeth is dressed as a sorceress, but due to the jungle heat in the school, she already shed some elements of the costume.

Suzanne in her sitting spot in a tree at her pre-school. She is dressed as an ant, if you couldn't tell by the extra set of limbs.

Witch, ant, and sorceress at Suzanne's preschool.

Suzanne getting her face painted at the Woodstock Harvest Fest.

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Haunted Dollhouse

Elizabeth is crazy for holidays, and she currently has Halloween fever. The other day she and her friend Jackie converted her dollhouse into a haunted house.

A detail you might not be able to see in the picture: blood coming out of the toilet. Elizabeth argued for a snake, but Jackie convinced her that blood running out of the toilet is spookier than a snake coming out of the toilet. Not sure I agree.

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Bare Feet

Friday night we had a family movie night. The movie was Tangled, a version of the Rapunzel story.

Rapunzel is kept captive in a tower for the first 18 years of her life. When she is finally getting ready to escape, you see that she isn't wearing shoes; having lived indoors all of her life, she hasn't needed them.

"I hope she puts some shoes on!" I said, as Rapunzel contemplated going on her adventure in the outside world.

With genuine curiosity Elizabeth asked, "Why?"

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Suzanne's Inimitable Style

For a girl who used to hate dresses and skirts, and who wouldn't wear tights because she thought they would hurt (?), Suzanne has developed a unique and quite girlish style.

The other evening when we went to Elizabeth's school open house, Suzanne got "fancy" by wearing a dress half on (only one arm through a sleeve) and a shirt wrapped around her waist as a skirt.

And somehow... it worked.

Here's another uniquely Suzanne outfit: those are leg warmers on her arms.

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Omnivore

I love many things about Suzanne. One of them is her love of food that many American kids (or Elizabeth, at least) find impossible to choke down.

She loves fat trimmings from steak, for instance. And tomatoes! The other day Suzanne ate four small tomatoes in a row, chomping on them like they were Gala apples.

Elizabeth was a more adventurous eater when she was younger. I hope Suzanne doesn't grow out of it, as Elizabeth did.

That's a tomato.

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First Grader

Elizabeth was distressed that Summer was over and she had to go back to school and wouldn't be able to just play all day, every day. Who can blame her?

But once she got back into the classroom, she loved it. Her first grade class consists of both her and Lily's kindergarten classes combined. Twenty-eight students is a lot!

Her teacher seems good. Elizabeth likes her. And Elizabeth is thrilled to be in the same class as Lily and their mutual friend, Freya.

The class is jam-packed with books, toys, puppets, art supplies -- and kids. The teacher's desk is shoved into a corner and practically buried in paper.

But it's a warm, homey sort of jam-packed, and when we all went to the school Open House this week, I could see why Elizabeth likes it so much.

Here's the student at Open House, playing freely. That mark on her cheek is a temporary tattoo of a black cat.

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Lily is Six

Lily's birthday party was, as we have come to expect, creative, fun and relaxing. The theme was 'bugs.' The "cake" was a gooey confection that resembled dirt and was served in a galvanized steel bucket, complete with gummy worms. Awesome. (Not to mention the chocolate rocks that looked just like rocks. It was uncanny; I was half convinced the first kid to bite in would break a tooth.)

Then there was the piñata. It was beautiful, home made, and shaped like a butterfly. But I've had a lot of experience with piñatas at little kids' parties, and it's always the same: dangerous swinging of heavy clubs, worried parents warning their children to stay back, and mounting frustration as the piñata proves nearly impossible to break open. This was no different. Until, that is, Aaron broke out the sword.

Eventually the hull of the butterfly dreadnought was breached and the children got candy and gift bags and were happy.

The day was also beautiful, if a little hot, and there were lots of good people to socialize with in Aaron and Wendy's expansive back yard.

Happy birthday, Lily Joy!

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Getting Ready for Mom

I was happily surprised this afternoon to come home to find that the Vegepocalypse had begun: Barb had done some massive trimming of the privet hedge, in preparation of the arrival of Mom's mini-home.

After dinner, the whole family spent time together hacking away at thirteen years of unchecked growth. The girls used their little round-tipped scissors and were very proud of the piles of leaves they amassed.

Everyone's excited!

Bette's Place, 2014 -- Pt. III

McKenna and Scott: she's scowling because of smoke from the fire, not because she's not having an awesome time! 

Connor hoisting Suzanne.

Master of Fire: Connor Larrison! 

Uncle Mark and Elizabeth, sharing a moment.

Bette's Place, 2014 -- Part II

Today the weather went from perfect -- low 80s, low humidity, plenty of sunshine -- to imperfect -- gray, chilly, windy, intermittent showers. (Sure wish I'd brought more to wear on my feet than sandals; but that's another story.) The bright spot of sunshine in our otherwise dreary day was the arrival of Uncle David and Aunt Joyce. They showed up around 3:00 pm and stayed through dinner and desert, so we had an ample amount of time to catch up. I don't believe I've seen my father's brother and sister-in-law in thirteen years. What a joy it was to catch up!

David had a lot of stories to tell and was eager to listen to all of our stories. Joyce was very interested in getting to know the kids (Connor, McKenna, Elizabeth, and Suzanne) in the short time she had. She did a fantastic job -- when she left, both Suzanne and Elizabeth gave her a big hug.

Scott barbecued up a mess of chicken, and the ladies put together a fantastic array of salad, corn on the cob, and salt potatoes, replete with a gravy boat full of melted butter. It was awesome.

For desert: Aunt Joyce's home made chocolate chip cookies.

After David and Joyce left we had a spirited game of Scrabble. Some campers went to bed, some stayed up; a fire was started in the downstairs fireplace, but abandoned after the room filled with smoke; there was some nice conversing on the back patio -- many mice were observed, scurrying about; a tiny frog tried to get into the house, apparently on a suicide mission.

Eventually, everyone was asleep except one camper, typing on his laptop.

We induced Frank to take this picture. He did his best with an unfamiliar camera, and all in all I think it turned out OK. 

Joyce and David, having just completed their chore of shucking corn. Suzanne is still working on it.

Bette's Place, 2014

First night around the campfire.

First attempt at a family portrait -- pretty successful!

Grandpa tying a hook onto Elizabeth's brand new fishing pole. Grandpa brought one for each of the girls.

Suzanne caught a fish!!

Suzanne being chased by McKenna being chased by Elizabeth. The girls are getting along famously.

Connor, Suzanne, and McKenna.

Brothers.

Scott attending to McKenna, whose feet were home to a dozen leeches.

Barb having a good time with Grillmaster Scott.

Good-bye, neighbors

We've got some pretty cool neighbors in Brian, Eowyn, and Layla (not to mention Kali, their dog). But, alas, they are moving out of their rental around the corner next to the Plaid to a super cool house they bought north of Burnside.

The parents are fascinating people -- she's a doctor who works with street kids at Outside-In; he's a citizen journalist activist currently developing a phone app for citizen journalists -- and we've enjoyed having them as neighbors. Last Saturday we had them over for a farewell barbecue and had a good time, and Elizabeth got to push the boundaries of her freedom: first, she and Layla got to go to the end of the block, then around the corner to pick blackberries; next, Elizabeth got to walk the neighbors home, again venturing around the corner. She was positively giddy with the liberty.

She came home from Brian, Eowyn, and Layla's with these ridiculously magnificent flowers.

Block Party IV: The Quest for Peace

Despite the awful weather, we had another blockbuster block party. It may not have been Block Party II-levels of success, but it certainly exceeded block-office expectations.

Barb and I were expecting rain. Luckily, last year we bough the world's flimsiest pavilion. So we set it up with the food tables under it and called everything good. Which it was, until the heavens opened up and dumped so much rain on us that the pavilion collapsed. And then one of us (me, mostly) had to be out there under the pavilion's questionable aegis, holding one of its legs as insurance against collapse and getting at least one limb wet.

On the other hand, our first guests were the Reed College students who visited (with a pan of hot potatoes au gratin!) from the formerly abandoned house, which was purchased by some enterprising soul and fixed up to become a nice rental property. There are four students living there, and we met three of them, and they were just as you would expect of smart young people privileged enough to be enjoying a college that charges $47,500/year tuition. Which isn't an insult! They were AWESOME! They were nice, polite, smart, attractive, and interesting. 

Whatever their parents did, it seems to have worked (e.g., they brought potatoes au gratin). So bully for them, I say.

Many of the other neighbors arrived, including another "new" renter from across the way. His name is Eric and he has a business making custom boat covers. We see him sometimes sewing these enormous marine garments in the driveway. Seemed nice enough.

The kids had a great time with the rain: dashing from the pavilion to the house and vice-versa, splashing in the puddles, etc. They didn't care a whit for the rain.

After a little while, neither did the adults.

Here are sisters Ani and Kiera playing in the puddle. That's their dad, Jeff, in the background, being ambushed by Grayson.

This is the block party in between the deluges.

Barb, Suzanne, Joan, and Jordia, carving out a quiet space to talk.

In full swing.

That's Kai Wheeler-Kay Cohen in the foregound, wet to the thighs. 

Suzanne and World's Cutest Child (tm) Keira.

Didn't I tell you she was the World's Cutest Child!?