Snow Angels...Monsters?

Making Nori Rolls

 One of the girls' favorites!

Playing

Community "Castle" Park

Skate park

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Taking A Trip with (Little) Kids & Making Lists

picture courtesy http://www.cheerdiva.com/totes/index.html?c=9&i=226&t=0

Marina is 4 years old and quite happy to get her own travel bag. I mean really happy. She is borrowing it from Grandma, and EVERYTHING "grandma" is special.

Stella is 1.5 years old needs her own bag too. Meaning: she wants her own bag. When Marina was Stella's age, she didn't care about having her own bag. But when you see your sister has something she really likes and you don't? You use all means possible to get one of your own (usually accomplished by trying to take big sister's bag). It's pretty effective by the way. Who would've thought a little toddler could be so bold?

Here is one of my many lists to do before my big trip:
__ water plants
__ gather food from garden
__ pack kids clothes (while they are not around)
__ make list for animal sitter about animal care
__ get supplements
__ call & meet with animal sitter
__ buy sunscreen
__ make food lists
__ super glue sunglasses
__ Figure out how you are going to carry a kid and stuff while backpacking
__ make more lists
__ fix water timer for garden
__ get ingredients for margaritas

How and why to bury a trampoline in the ground part 2

We love our buried trampoline. The girls can safely run right on and off of it. Even when one of them tumbles off they get up unharmed. And we don't need to lift them up and down from the trampoline at their every whim, they just enter and exit as they like.

It is important to have grass planted around the trampoline, as you do not want the kids tracking dirt or wood chips onto the trampoline every time they get on it. That was something that we had to deal with last fall and winter while the grass grew in. We are now in the process of seeding the path to the trampoline too. What a pleasure to have a beautiful, grassy area around the trampoline to sit and relax in!

To bury our trampoline Luc dug a large hole with his excavator of approximately the trampoline size plus an extra few feet on every side. You could probably dig it by hand depending on the size of your trampoline. Ours is a 14 footer, which would be a lot of hand digging. He then placed the trampoline by hand and by himself into the hole, no small feat either. Using the excavator and a shovel he filled in the area around the trampoline until it reached the sides.

It looks pretty messy while you are doing it. And the trampoline gets dirty. No worries though, there is plenty of time later to clean it. You can then seed the ground as you would a lawn, all around the trampoline. It is really pretty simple in theory: dig a big hole, place trampoline, fill in the gaps, then plant grass. Done.

Earth Day! Pictures and Videos from the Bayview Corner Celebration

The girls and I arrived at Bayview Corner's Earth Day celebration at about 3 pm last Sunday April 19th. It was not as crowded as I imagine it was earlier in the day. There were plenty of activities, music and interesting Island characters to watch anyway. Below is a review of the event, from my perspective, in pictures: Scroll all the way down for videos of Earth Day celebration

Above: Island musician Timothy Hull performs. I had never heard him perform, and it was great! The lyrics were thoughtful and poetic and the singing and instrumentals were equally enjoyable.

Bayview Cash Store

Earth Inspired mandala

mandala close up

Bayview cash Store Earth

Above and below:
Part of the parking lot was designated for chalk drawing

"Make every day Earth Day"

Above: More mandala pictures

Bayview Cash Store art for Earth Day

We hung out by the mandala and listened to music, the kids loved running around the mandala, in some sort of energy-building rhythm. It was pretty cool

I can always count on Marina to find and appreciate the flowers!!

Above: There is a man running through the festivities with cloth wings on in the center of the picture. Sounds funny describing it now, but at the time it was just part of a larger continuum of interesting Whidbey Island moments, one naturally following the next . . .
Chenjera Youth Marimba from the Whidbey Island Rubatano Center: Setting up for more music. By the time we arrived at the Earth Day celebration, it was 3 PM or so and so it was no longer crowded, but there was no shortage of things to do and music to listen to.

People gather to enjoy the music

More running at the giant chess board/ mandala site

Gotta have stilts!

above: VIDEO: Timothy Hull performs


above: VIDEO: Kids dancing to the Marimba music at Earth Day

Where to get Ice Cream in Langley: Just in time for a hot Spring or an early Summer

ICE CREAM anyone?

Sharing, of all valuable things, ice cream with little sister Stella

Marina's favorite ice cream from Mike's Place

There are a few great ice cream places in Langley were you can get ice cream in a cone or bowl:

Mike's Place Family restaurant and Creamery: the restaurant part didn't get good reviews on Yelp.com, but it is one of only a few places to get ice cream cones in town, and they do have decent ice cream.

1 Angel Place Chocolate Bar: First and only to offer "gelato" Italian ice cream from a supplier in Seattle. Their ice cream is good, and is probably worth the higher price they ask compared to Mike's, depending on your taste buds. Also enjoy yummy gourmet chocolates, espresso (home of the "truffle" shot), with inside or outside dining. The chocolate shop has a newly remodeled interior is comfortable and open.

Star Store: the grocery store in Langley. Fun, funky, friendly. Want to beat the high prices elsewhere, just buy some ice cream bars from the freezer section.

Time to plant Oodles of Blueberries, plus some great kids books with blueberry themes

Kids book: Blueberry Shoe by Ann Dixon

I caught it. Yep, just this week. It's a bit late for me, but it happened all the same. I am talking about the gardening bug! There is this natural instinct within me that propels me into the dirt each spring with my ratty, holey jeans and last years gardening gloves: shovel in hand, seeds in pockets, with a determined and crazed (yet focused) look in my eyes. I usually expect this gardening zeal to hit in February or March, but perhaps it was the snow or the kiddy birthday parties, or my half marathon training schedule.

I know the gardening bug has hit when I am out in the dirt with rain pounding down, pulling just one more weed, planting just one more raspberry cane, clipping, pruning, and most of all when against all reason and sensibility I decide to make a blueberry patch with 12 new blueberry plants. Yep, that's my newest garden project. Well, that and getting the chickens moved to a plot of land in the garden. That's a huge project all on its own, but don't let me stray too far from the blueberry patch story.

Before my daughter Marina was born, about 6 years ago, I planted 4 rows (30 feet each+/-) of raspberries. I didn't do it all in one year, but over the course of 3 years I had that many rows. I knew that one day (ha, today!) I would plant a large blueberry patch. Where does this motivation come from? Like I really need any more projects. Yet . . . somewhere within me is a desire to be at least somewhat self-sufficient. Plus, the girls love, love, love blueberries. And I want to have enough to freeze oodles and oodles and more oodles of blueberries for the fall, winter and spring. Anyone want a blueberry pie for Thanksgiving? Yum!

I am learning all about soil pH on my new quest to grow oodles of blueberries. You see, I have 2 blueberry plants that look quite miserably small and pathetic considering how long I have owned them. So I transplanted them to their new "blueberry only" patch (I'm sure they will feel extra special not being forced between two raspberries). My research told me that blueberries like acidic soil, so for about $5 I purchased a soil pH test kit (at Bayview Farm and Garden) and discovered that my soil is 6.5 pH, which is not acidic enough for the b-berries. To remedy this I added peat moss (there are other alternatives like sulfur) and purchased a special fertilizer to help acidify the soil. The website http://www.geocities.com/green_cache/blueberries.html states that blueberries like 5- 5.8 pH. Aha! The berries look quite happy in their new location with their new soil amendments.

For more pH information checkout: http://www.geocities.com/green_cache/ph.html

Speaking of Blueberries, checkout these great kid's books about berries:
Blueberries for Sal
Berries, Nuts, and Seeds: a take along guide
Jamberry
Peter in Blueberry Land
Blueberry Shoe

Who did it? The mysterious disemboweling of the chair cushion

Want to make a guess what happened here? There seems to be a strange disemboweling of a chair cushion. . .

A new puppy? A bad dog? Monster, bear, raccoon, rat . . . ??? No . . .

Answer: A 4 year old with an imagination and a chair cushion with a hole in it. Yep. But it's okay because it took her a good hour and meanwhile I got some chores done. It is these kind of weird trade-offs we parents do in order to sit back and relax, do the dishes, and make dinner.

First Street Langley: Blue, Blue Day in Langley (Village by the Sea)

It is snowing tonight, but last weekend it was beautiful and sunny so I took some pictures in Langley to capture the feel of early March, and the beauty of the little seaside town!

My dad made this cool rock wall!

Far Left: Bell on the hill to ring if you see whales, I love Langley!

ok, so I was a little obsessed with this Rolls Royce :-) but it was beeeautiful!
(and I'm not usually interested in cars at all)

1st street Langley, there was an interesting cloud formation just above the water in the center of the photo, it looked like it was a vertical spherical cloud (maybe a rain storm)

Chocolate Flower Farm Store, 1st Street

Chocolate Flower Farm Store, 1st Street

Chocolate Flower Farm Store, 1st Street

New store coming!

Langley Pizzaria: A great lunch, or dinner, try the Clam and Garlic Pizza!

ZThe signs in the windows say: L: For Rent, R: Moving Sale.....

Langley Library, Best View Library Award, really!

Community Park, up the hill from the castle playground by the soccer fields, Memorial chair for Jessie Travis, a former classmate in High School of mine., I'll tell the chair story sometime . . . RIP

Liking the kitty!

Lie down in the sun for a minute and get bombarded! Yes, that is poor Stella being squished, she's fine, Marina was actually kneeling, so Stella fit nicely between her knees and belly!

Where is Stella going . . .?

A hug! (this is sorta unusual)

Above: Yeah, you're cute baby Stella!

walking on the trails lugging Stella on my back