Rather than take a few months to resize the pictures from our trip I’m embedding a quick Youtube of it. You can tell it was a tad bit windy but we had a blast regardless. We spent most of our beach time hunkered down behind a sand dune and dug a fox hole for the kids to play in.

Working hard on it.

End result with some slight assistance from Chicken Little and Dad. But the concept was all Pancake Man’s.

After many months and several hours of hair pulling I finally managed to get into this account for updates! My computer crashed in September and I’ve been getting by with a laptop, none of my favorites or bookmarks, and some serious confusion.

I hope this post finds everyone well, warm and safe and now realize I have no further excuse for not updating this blog more frequently.

Last week despite Christmas preparations of making goodies and gifts we made a quick trip to the Science Center (post Disney’s Christmas Carol at the Imax.) We saw Santa vs. The Snowman in 3D and played at the water table.

A little brotherly cooperation while driving the helicopter.

Everyone is getting so strong!

We visited the Christmas train exhibit at the Center House

Two grown up bottom teeth in, two top baby teeth getting looser daily. M is doing great in kindergarten, writing all his own letters and sounding out words while writing his journal.

Meanwhile L is running wild and doing his own thing. The chickens are always there like lap dogs.

Santa was good to us this year and both boys are fully immersed in the wonder of Christmas. We wish you all could have been here – it was magical!

The only thing better then a trip to the beach is one that lasts all week long.

Some simple childhood pleasures:

Selling lemonade door to door – $1 a pop.

Tug of War ending badly for Chicken Little on the slip and slide.

Whiff!

First tooth gone – and now I’m out $2.

For mother’s day we went to the beach and poked around the tidal pools at Discovery Park. The sun made a rare appearance and we had a scrumptious picnic. Best. Mother’s. Day. Ever.

Perhaps dreaming of chickens?

Grandma finally made it back from Arizona just in time for Easter! We did a little Easter wrestling with cousins

Some hunting

Some eating

Some impressing of the ladies by being able to work the radio while not paying attention to driving

Some surveying of law breakers

And as much force on the accelerator as possible

The other day I finally made it around to some fall yardwork (now that it’s March!) I was thrilled to clear away a huge pile of leaves and find this underneath:

Hopefully it will look this sweet once the chickens arrive…

I’ve been really remiss about posting lately, in part due to designing the makeover for the front yard and starting veggie starts but also because of the crazy number of experiments going on over in my kitchen.

And now, I dedicate the remainder of this post to the kids.

So last week Chicken Little had his first sleepover with his friend Lisa who pretty much lives across the street from us. She is a little bit older than he is but she had never slept over at someone else’s house before and was just as excited as he was.

We normally make pizza for dinner on Sundays but we planned it for Saturday since every kid loves pizza. She came walking across the street with a large duffel bag and grocery bag full of her stuffed animals, pajamas and pillow. She was thrilled to hear about pizza for dinner and even more excited to learn that they would each have their own sleeping bag and small tent to sleep in.

When it came time to make the pizza she was amazed beyond belief that not only were we going to make it but that the kids got to help. She and Chicken Little took turns up on the stool spreading the sauce, carefully placing the slices of fresh mozzarella (from River Valley Cheese, a blend of cow and yak’s milk this time of year but soon to include water buffalo milk at the onset of spring), kalamata olives from Napa and sweet Italian sausage from Skagit River Farm. She kept clapping her hands squealing “I can’t believe how exciting this is!” Chicken Little might have done some eyerolling since this is old hat to him but he kept his cool.

They were complete partners in crime most of the night, carrying on excited conversations about how they both planned to be scientists when they grew up. “Hey Lisa if you’re a dinosaur scientist and I’m a dinosaur scientist then we’ll be working TOGETHER! Won’t that be fun?!!!”

After dinner they got to watch a movie with buttered popcorn in individual movie-style red and white striped bags. And then all too soon for them it was bedtime. They chose to sleep in tents in the living room but Chicken Little decided his sleeping pad was too uncomfortable and he wanted to sleep in his own bed so I moved Lisa’s tent in there and tucked him in. They each had a nightlight.

About 10 minutes later I heard them arguing and Chicken Little came stomping into the kitchen, hands on hips telling me grumpily that Lisa wouldn’t turn her light off and he couldn’t sleep. We tried an old eye mask I found, we tried covering his eyes and facing the other way but he was pretty bent on getting that light extinguished. Finally I realized she was alseep so I snuck into her tent, moved the nightlight to the other side of her and away from Chicken Little and covered her nightlight a little with a stuffed animal to take the edge off.

Finally, around 10 p.m. – a full 2 hours after bedtime – he managed to get to sleep.

All in all they had a great time together.

Chicken Little had this brainstorm yesterday – he wants to have a sleepover. His first choice was Dylan across the street who was unable to come over this weekend. So he invited Lisa, across the street and a few houses down.

He’s been talking about it non-stop, planning what they will play with and watch, where they will sleep, even the dinner menu. It’s very sweet to see him so excited about something.

Tonight after his shower he spent a long time in his room. When I went in to check on him I was amazed to see it completely picked up. And not just all put on top of the dresser, thrown inside the closet or swept under the bean bag this time but really put away and organized. I was speechless so he quipped “I wanted it to look nice for Lisa.”

It was so hard not to giggle, especially since he was standing there in his superman robe with his hair all slicked back like a young Hugh Heffner. My little man. I just hope things turn out at least sort of the way he wants them to since he doesn’t deal so well with disappointment.

In the past he and Lisa have been kindred spirits, watching Godzilla together and running around the house screaming that they just saw a ghost. Lisa has changed this year though. She is a year older than Chicken Little who has an August birthday so I chose not to start him in school yet. That means this is her second year in elementary school and Chicken Little is still in preschool. When she was over the other day she spent most of the time reading our library books much to Chicken Little’s chagrin.

I guess I need to begin this process of hoping for the best, knowing he will be disappointed that things don’t work out just as he envisioned, and helping him move on. Preschool is just about over – it’s time for the real parenting to start.