cabin-ing, now and then

In April we celebrated Ilona's birthday with our second annual weekend at a cabin in Rhododendron, with a huge backyard that backs into a creek and a wall full of windows that looks out on Mt. Hood. All the adults except Charlie took naps, and the kids played down by the river all day long.

On the last day we took a photo on the couch, just like last year; everyone is in the same place except Lucy and Oscar switched sides and Fife is out:

April, 2016

April, 2015

a pretty grim egg hunt

farm tunes

Two weeks ago we finally made it out to Sauvie Island for an evening of music on the farm.  Oscar was grumpy from his 15-month shots, so we made a last-minute decision to leave the boys at home. The actual music was a questionable fit for the venue, but there were friends and balloons and a hay ride and an evening breeze, so it was still worthwhile.

Lucy got friendly with baby Charlie, and let him pull her hair. She told Erin it was okay, she was used to babies. "I have a little brother, you know."

pumpkin hunting, part one (happy Oscoberfest!)

This year we joined our neighbors once again for their annual October breakfast and trip to Sauvie Island to hunt for pumpkins. This one was scheduled for October 13, so we decided to call it Oscoberfest, in honor of Oscar's half-birthday.

I realized that morning that this was the first year of pumpkin wearing when I haven't been able to pick out Lucy's outfit. I was pulling for a Gunne-sax style prairie dress that I thought would look really cute with dirt and rainboots, but she chose her tutu dress (you may have seen these dresses in a lot of pictures around here lately) and a pink hoodie which, as is typical, turned out to be a very stylish and photogenic selection.

There was some puddle-jumping, which reminded me of last year.

 

While we waited for the hay ride, Lucy rode her second pony ever with unbridled excitement. (Hee!) She had a bit of a stubborn pony, but she was patient, and one of the horsewomen walked right next to her and gave her some tips on how to give the pony a little kick with her heel to encourage him to move. So it was kind of like her first horseback riding lesson too. And also, probably her last, because I cannot afford for her to be very into horses.

After we lost patience waiting for the once-an-hour hayride and decided to just walk out the pumpkin patch, Lucy got another ride: this time on her Daddy's shoulders.

When that got boring, they switched places. Sort of.

The first field we came to was full of tiny pumpkins, which Lucy immediately started loading into the wagon, starting with the ones closest to her feet. An older girl that was with us, Savannah, took Lucy and Luca under her wing to guide a more discriminating search.

After awhile we decided those pumpkins were too small and kept moving. The final pumpkin patch itself was pretty great, definitely the best one we've been to since Lucy was born. The pumpkins were still attached to the vines and the field was in a state of slightly spooky decay, and there were wonderful tiny tree frogs hopping everywhere.The kids chased frogs and the grown-ups found sufficiently large or gnarled pumpkins, and then we all went home.

(On the way out Lucy said: "All the vines are dying!" I told her it was okay, it was just the time of year when the vines die because the pumpkins are done growing, but she said "But I feel sad for the vines!")

apple picking

Fall is here, and I kind of feel like we've taken October by storm. So far we've roasted plums, picked apples, had a few fires in the fireplace, slow cooked pork and short ribs, and visited a pumpkin patch twice.

Here are some pictures from our apple picking adventure with friends. Lucy and Lilac had a great time running around the orchard grabbing apples and throwing them into the wagons. Oscar took a nap and Mazzy tried to keep up. Lilac was big on tasting each apple before putting it into the wagon, so Chip and Rachel ended up buying a bunch of apples with tiny bites taken out of them. Fortunately for us, Lucy's lack of fruit-love paid off again as our apples were sometimes bruised by enthusiasm but mostly whole.

Later, at dinner, we were all saying what our favorite part of the day had been, and Lucy said hers was picking apples and eating them. I told her I didn't remember her eating any apples, but she said Lilac ate them which was apparently practically the same thing.

We came away with a bag of concord grapes and about fifteen pounds of apples but without my cellphone which I dropped in the makeshift overflow parking field. Someone turned it in but it took me a week to get it back, during which time I missed almost no calls and texts. Being largely antisocial pays off!

friday cute shot

friday cute shot

heard on the street

"I love to help. Helping is my favorite thing ever, even more than mac and cheese cheese cheese."

-An older girl at the park to Lucy, during the course of their quickly formed and extremely brief friendship

welcome party

O is for Oscar who is 0 years old.

We had some friends and family over this weekend to celebrate Oscar and the near-finishing after several months of hard work of our new attic playroom. Thanks to generous offers from guests, I had a full table of delicious food without my having to do anything more than put some cucumbers and hummus in a bowl.

And for the first time, our house felt gigantic! We hosted nearly 30 people at the same time, several of them young and rowdy children, but with the second floor to play in it all seemed quite doable and not overwhelming.

Oscar got passed around and snuggled and adored; Lucy shared toys and danced and at one point (almost unbelievably) found herself the instigator of a hug party.

We noted the irony that with our first baby, no one was allowed near her while drinking hot coffee; now with the second, coffee around the baby is fine but no one is allowed to drink it anywhere near the playroom.

Amazing bumblebee honey cupcakes made by my amazing neighbor Ilona.

Lucy dances while eating her cupcake.

Titi en pointe in the new playroom.

Lilac on the newly carpeted stairs.

Lucy drinks some fresh-bottled orange juice, a gift from our brewer neighbor (the grown-ups got beer).

heard on the street

D: Is 'Oditha' Oddie's real name?"
L: Yeah.
M: Is 'Ottolie' Oddie's real name?"
L: No.
D: What is Oddie's full name?
M: Is it 'Oditha Ottolie Broughton'?
L: Yeah! What is Oddie's last name?
M: I thought it was 'Broughton', like the rest of us. Is that her last name?
L: No.
M: Oh. What is her last name?
L: It's 'Chalky-Chigago'.
D: (Laughing.)
M: So Oddie's full name is 'Oditha Chalky-Chicago'?
L: Yeah!

happy birthday, ramona

I hope you know that we all love you as much as Biscuit does!

snow angels

Attempted family portrait.

It has been a mild winter in Portland but we've been itching to take Lucy to the snow, so on Saturday we had Mt. Hood adventure with the neighbors. The first thing Lucy did when we got there is throw herself face down in the snow, sopping up the experience. It was sunny and we had just gotten out of the car for a minute to get a parking pass, but she wasn't wasting any time. I hurried to get her coat before she soaked her three layers of shirts through.

Luca found Lucy's snow-eating inspiring.

Throwing and eating snowballs were the next two mile stops in her sensory exploration, she was digging the cold but Luca wasn't so sure. He picked up on the snowball eating and soon he was also smiling; the parents were trying to explain the difference between snow on the bank and snow on the parking lot and which of the two we were willing to let the little ones eat. Lucy wasn't really buying it.

Lucy, Mama, Figgy, and a snowball

We got the kids into the car and headed toward SkiBowl, but we got a little confused on the short way there and it ended up being kind of a long way. Relatively, when you're a kid in a snowsuit who is tired of the car wants to play in the snow. To stave off restlessness we offered up her favorite song as of late, Dog Days are Over; Lucy said to the stereo: "Make me patient, Florence!"

At Ski Bowl East we climbed up the hill, watching bigger kids ride a lift with inner-tubes and thinking about future visits. We found a snow hill to dig in and a slide, and some virgin ground for making snow angels. There was an intriguing circle setup with inner-tubes and tiny snowmobiles hooked to a metal twirly bar, but when we asked about it they said it was fifteen dollars for a pass even if you're only two. The first teenager on staff was almost gleeful to deny us: "Nothing here is free!" The second teenager on staff looked a little embarrassed. We improvised and Lucy and Luca hopped into an abandoned two-person tube for the ghetto version, a mama-propelled circle spin. The giggles indicated they didn't much mind.

On a side note, I think when I was little and my parents brought me up here, the inner-tubes were real things from real tires that you stopped into Les Schwab and got for free on your way up to the mountain. Today when we tried to bring a disc sled to slide on they said nothing from outside was allowed for liability reasons. Also, probably because the disc sled would have been free, and thus counter-policy. We did manage to sled in the parking lot while sipping hot chocolate we brought in a thermos from home, and the tiny little banks of snow were just the right height.

Attempted group shot. Two-year-olds in snow are hard to corral!

After lunch of fish and chips and burgers and malt shakes finished off with huckleberry pie, we had one last snow-stravaganza and we were ready for home.

Not deterred by it being much later than naptime, Lucy offers to drive us home.