Birthday Surprise!

N got to ride the ferry boat today! We were on our way back and the captian noticed how excited he and his sister were and it got mentioned that it was his birthday. Well, he just invited us into the office and asked if the kids wanted to try on the fire equiptment, and show us around. He even offered to have E wish her brother a happy birthday over the loud speaker...and when she couldn't pull it together and stop giggling he went ahead and wished out little 2-year-old a very Happy 2nd Birthday. So neat!

Big 2-Year Old

This kid has completed our family in so many ways; he amazes and delights us daily. Happy Birthday Dear Son.

1 year

When He Joined Us!

Doggie Beach Picnic

Well the weather has really disappointed me so far this summer. The spots of sun have been way too few. When it's out though, we are out too. Today I threw a bunch of food in our beach bag, dug out our sand toys and drove us down to the water with Molly to watch the waves and breathe in the sea air.

Strawberry Patch

I figured I'd give strawberries a break this year. Last year I invested in one of those terracotta pots with all the pockets for the plants, and while it was sorta productive I think that whatever vermin was nibbling on the ripe berries while my head was turned appreciated it more than I did...very frustrating! All that to say that today I ripped out a bit more of my yard to put in strawberry plants. My neighbor offered up as many Alpine Everbearing plants as I wanted, so I dug up like 20-25 (Many that I gave away to friends)! Here's to good berry eating this summer, if it ever warms up!

Before:

Ivy, supervising

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After:

I had to put up some fencing to discourage chicken nibbling! Papa came over to remove the gi-normous rock that we unearthed just in front of that small hydrangea I'll fill in with more plants soon. You can also see some of my sunflower seedlings there along the wood fence.

First Roller Skate

The Perfect Morning

5am, Even though the sun isn't up it's comfortably warm already when I let the chickens out, the birds are singing
5:05am Snuggling back in bed with E
7:15am The sun is up and streaming through the windows, N wanders in asking for his banana
7:20am Turning on the sprinklers to water the garden
7:25am Feeding Molly, shuffling around the kitchen and drinking coffee, opening windows and the sliding glass door
8:00 E wanders down the hall, breakfast then strait outside
8:45 hanging laundry on the line

The rest of my day should look a lot like:

Eat popsicles we poured last night, drink iced tea I steeped last night, tearing off the rest of the carpet on the stairs, work in the garden and a nap...more like a perfect day.

Trampoline

One Step, Two Step; Bye-Bye Carpet :: Part 1

Yesterday morning I came home to dirty stairs. I'll be the first to admit it...they are often dirty. It's a high traffic area that leads from the outside, and stairs are the worst to vacuum! Between kids and the dog there's just no getting around it, even when I've hired professionals to come in...it lasts a month or so and then it's embarrassingly disgusting again. Anyhow, the ongoing conversation in my head got the better of me..."I don't want to vacuum these, I just wanna tear out the carpet and be done with it."

I did it.

Slow and steady though, I'm just doing one at a time. First I rip off the carpet, then the pad, next I start in with the pliers and pull all the huge staples, and then attack the strip of wood with all the tiny nails that keeps everything in place with a crowbar.

The stairs are hardwood, in fact our entire house has hardwood under the carpet, save the dinning room, kitchen and bathrooms. It's not in pristine condition, but far outweighs the condition of our carpet. The only worry is that it may make things a little trickier for Molly, but we can work on that when need be. So this will be the summer of bare floors! Step by step.