Chicken Coop Time!

Construction begins.
Pictures of "the ladies" to come.

Bunnies

We have two bunny nests in our yard!

Here is one of the babies on the move.

Dinner!

Finally life has settled down enough to allow me to cook.

Here is a sampling from this week's CSA share
which I used to make a delicious veggie pasta and salad.

Orin's fort

Orin came running into the house the other day
saying "mama, mama I have something to show you"
When I got out to the deck, he led me to this: his fort.
He told me that you could use it to hide from monsters
and then showed me how to crouch down so they couldn't see me.

And here are the happy parents

And such good parents they are!

Welcome Baby Ardian!

Today Orin and I went up to Andover to meet Orin's new cousin!
Baby Ardian was born June 21st (the summer solstice)
and was 9 pounds 6 ounces.
Ardian is super cute and is really mellow
(most babies start screaming when I hold them
but he was very accommodating)

Greeting the morning

Last night we went to see Dispatch in Boston.
The show was absolutely amazing and Orin had a great
time playing with the beach balls and balloons
surfing around the crowd,
but I didn't bring my camera in,
so here is a picture of Orin the next morning sunning on the deck.

Kids at work

Colleen has an icecream maker in the shape of a ball.
You add ice and the magical ingredients,
roll it for 10 minutes,
and then pop it open and enjoy homemade icecream.
The boys didn't need a lot of persuading to get them to
do the "roll for 10 minutes" part of the process.

Bouncy House

The other day, Casey and I were invited to a party
hosted by a friend of a friend.
The party was fully catered and the hostess had hired
babysitters for the kids and rented a bouncy house.
The idea was that the kids would be distracted by the bouncy
house, allowing the adults to relax and converse.
The only thing they didn't anticipate was that the adults
might get distracted by the bounce house as well.
(You can barely make out Cody in the right side of this pic)
Either way, everybody had a great time.

Beach Days

Goof troops on the way to the beach

Some things stay the same...

Some things change:
Here is our new backyard
(Pictures of the inside are coming when it looks slightly less chaotic)

And some things stay the same:

Atlas and his ball, still deeply and obsessively bonded.

One more birthday...

As soon as we arrived on the Cape, Colleen, Cody
Rowan and Noah came over with pizza and birthday cake.
We got to tour our house for the first time (it is incredible!),
but were way too tired to unpack.
Pictures of everything to come after we get some sleep.

Yeah Cape Cod!

Finally at Grampa's House!

One day left...

Needing more room in Ohio

Sometimes even a king size bed isn't big enough...

Playing in the South Dakota Badlands

Wall Drug

We just had to stop...

Wyoming

Montana

And we are off!

Leaving the Gorge...

Pizza Friday

Casey and I planned on going to Pizza Friday as our last dinner
before leaving for Cape Cod, but we packed the cars
without thinking about the room that
we would need to get to Candace's.
Luckily, Casey was accommodating...

Orin hugging his purple house

Last days... here come the tears

A School Goodbye

Orin's classmates through us a going away party at Hopworks
yesterday. The kids made a poster that has all of their pictures
and says "We will miss you Orin!" on it.
As soon as Jessika unrolled it, I started to cry.
We are going to put it up in Orin's room at the new house.
Mother Nurture's was the best school we could
have ever asked for with the nicest kids...
we will all miss them dearly.

Orin gets dressed part two

Wetland Plants

Months ago I started working towards my wetland delineation certificate.
When we decided to move to Cape Cod, we picked our moving day
for a couple reasons; one of them being that
it was the day after I finished my last class
(Casey's term finished up a couple days before).
So although I never planned on spending my last week in Portland
in an intensive wetland plants course, that is how it happened.
Although I have to say, I have never had a nicer class that this one.
This, if you care, is a picture of Snowberry.

Sleepy heads

Tiny surprises

After my last Coffee Sunday, I noticed this flower in the parking lot

surrounded by an ocean of asphalt.
I made me smile, I hope it does the same for you.

Swim Date

The other day Orin and I went to the Mt Scott Community Center
with Sarah Lee and Cosmos for the preschool swim.
At first Orin was shy, but after a few minutes he warmed up
and decided to try the lazy river.
By the time we were ready to go I had to drag him out of the pool...
we had a great time.

Getting dressed...

This is what happens when
I leave Orin in charge of dressing himself...