Weekending - Spring Edition

Ah, the weekend, takes so long to get here and is gone in a flash!

This weekend was kicked off with hunger games and dinner sans little ones

a lazy saturday (we're definitely too old to be staying up past 3am), pizza and catching up with the dvr

a walk and bike ride around the neighborhood to enjoy the sunshine

another row of knitting and pb + chocolate ice cream

wrapped it all up with a clean garage (!) and a mega-trip to goodwill - where things were only donated and nothing bought

basil + tomato pasta for dinner and an early bedtime!

Is That SPRING I See?

Um, nope, not quite yet. We've had some amazing weather over the last month or so (on and off). Beautiful sunny skies with not a cloud in sight. Our garden was turned and readied (and, ahem, maybe some things were planted that could have waited just a few more weeks...maybe) and trips to the beach were made.

But now the weather looks so much more like the Pacific Northwest late winters that we are all accustomed to around here. Which, really, is just fine. No, really...I mean that. Sincerely.

While we try not to blow away with our umbrellas I'll be sharing snippets of the things missed in the last few months of blog absence. Lots of projects (big and small), outings (near and far) and memories made.

Now to go off and stare at the neighbor's spring flowers...what? No one told the flowers it's still winter? Oh, well, all the better for getting us through these last dreary days of winter. My very favorite flower growing next door are the crocuses...so delicate and nearly unexpected as they push up and bloom first thing. What's your favorite spring bulb?

Here's to dreaming of Spring!

Now THIS is More Like It!

Finally! A real 'Spring' day!



The sun was out today and it found us working in the yard, consuming popsicles, and wearing shorter pants.

Putting a yard together from scratch is both very satisfying and extremely hard work. Our yard is all clay and in order to get things to grow in it we are going to have to do some heavy-duty overhauling. We're working on putting in raised beds and filling the lake that appears during a hard rain. The lake is really more of a moat that our builders so kindly left us to deal with.



Working side by side in our little patch of earth feels incredible. We talk and laugh. The kids come and go, digging and pretending to plant things. The property is about the size of a postage stamp, but it belongs to us. It is our postage stamp.



Kaiya and Jake had a great time searching for Easter eggs with Nana.



Kaiya's understanding of the premise of egg hunting has some room for fine-tuning. After obtaining one, shiny, glorious egg...she was done. She posed for pictures with her egg and saw no need to further her search for more. This concept was enforced by the other toddlers who readily shared their bounty with her. No need to hunt when the prizes fall right into your basket.

Slowing Down...

It's Spring Break for the kids and for myself so we are slowing our pace a little, sleeping in later, and enjoying a lot more time in togetherness.

Yesterday was the first day around here that really felt like Spring. We visited a local park and soaked in the sun and the cool, instead of cold, air. K enjoyed splashing in a mud puddle under the swings and was quite wet before we left. This is her first long trip to a park since at this time last year she was still crawling. She loved it, as I knew she would.

I'm working on a little spring cleaning to help our declutter project. As we get closer to what we want this house to feel like I realize that we have that much more work ahead of us! There will be lots of painting to be done and work both inside and outside the house as we plant our gardens and build the remaining side to our fence. If there are any takers on a labor exchange, just let me know!

Happy Spring to all!