Fourth of July (more)

The kids playing with sparklers on the Fourth.

picture summer- day 4 {summer traditions}

A lonely piece of gum Samuel left on the ground after the neighborhood Fourth of July parade passed by our house.



Eva decorating her Fourth of July cake. I liked her look of concentration in this one.

portland walking tour

We went on a walking tour of downtown Portland today with a local homeschool group. I think one of my favorite parts was getting to try out two different echo chambers in the downtown area, one in Pioneer Courthouse Square and one further south, near the Keller Auditorium.



Both kids in the funky chair at the Center for the Performing Arts. Samuel was being timed by one of the moms and you can see by his face that something is up.



Anansi topper outside Center for the Performing Arts and the world's smallest park, measuring just 24 inches across.



Portlandia (second only to the Statue of Liberty as a large copper statue) and 19th century building with iron and grotesques (gargoyles without the water...) Apparently they used to use the different decorations on the buildings to give directions, as in- I'm in the white iron building with the grotesques sticking their tongues out...

The tour guide brought magnets so the kids could find out which of the older buildings had iron in them for decorative purposes. Portland has 20 iron buildings (down from 200), second only to New York City for cities with iron buildings.



Salmon Street Fountain and Eva looking at the Willamette and the Hawthorne Bridge.



There was a fantastic flower display in Pioneer Courthouse Square.




The kids doing crayon rubbings. (There is one block with several bricks with words and quotations etched into them. The tour guide brought crayons and paper for rubbings.)

Bubbles

We made homemade bubbles yesterday. Finally something to do with that jar of corn syrup. Of course, if it keeps going like it's going, I'll need to buy more corn syrup to make more bubbles. Wish I could use the extra molasses that's still sitting up there as well...





Here's the recipe that came on the back of the bubble wands we just bought-
Mix together 12 cups water, 3 cups liquid soap, 3/4 cup corn syrup. And it worked! Really well, in fact. And- the same mixture is still working today!

easter

{Textures and colors from our walk this afternoon} We've had sunshine the last few days for at least part of each day with yesterday being mostly sunny all.day.long. I was surprised to wake up to rain this morning, not being someone who normally checks the weather report {with any regularity}. I guess the Easter Bunny didn't check the weather report either (either that or he was overly optimistic about how waterproof our plastic eggs were) because we lost more than a few jellybeans to water log. No one wanted the squished together jelly beans (or the chocolate eggs, for that matter) after they'd spent the night in a leaky plastic container outside. And who could resist an egg hunt outside when the weather has been so perfect?




On Friday, one of my children told one of my other children about the Easter Bunny. And each one of them spent time feeling sad {for different reasons} for a good part of that afternoon. (And one even into the evening.) I feel pretty good about my part in the matter, showing up and being present as best as I could. Explaining what I could in a way that I felt good about (the spirit of Easter and Springtime inspiring each of us to celebrate and enjoy this time of year...) I'd been thinking about this for a while now, preparing myself for what I would say but everything really is a dress rehearsal until you actually say those words out loud to your child for the first time. And I wanted it to be good and kind and gentle. And real. In it's own way.

It felt awkward at times this morning, the kids not knowing what to say about continuing the same rituals that had so obviously been altered just a few days before. It seemed they didn't know quite how to proceed at first and it took them just a bit to get in the groove. Once there, though, they seemed to enjoy themselves {as usual} and it looked like we could stumble along to find a newish way. I'm curious about the magic that I'm sure will linger.

We've been going to the farmers market regularly since it started last month-



And- I made a cheesecake {for Eva} for Easter. Imagine the cutest, sweetest puppy. Walking down the street, enjoying life and the smells and joys of a dog-filled day. That level of cuteness is exactly how delicious this cheesecake tasted.

galette inspiration

So I've made 3 galettes this week, inspired by the fruit still in my freezer, the fruit starting to show up at the farmers market, and the fruit picking season, which does not seem quite as distant as it once did. I used a new recipe for pate brisee with corn meal that I found on Martha Stewart when I went searching for how to cook rhubarb in a galette. I was struck by how different each galette turned out, depending on how long I left the dough (or did not) in the refrigerator and how dry (or moist) the dough was. The first was a rhubarb-raspberry galette that turned out picture perfect. The second was blueberry and had much drier crust and therefore didn't roll out nearly as well. (Still tasted good...) And the third was peach-strawberry-blueberry. It ended up being fantastic, but was a bit concerned during the cooking process because of all of the liquid. The dough was also a little soft, due in part to me not having time to refrigerate it at all. All were equally tasty, though, regardless of their form. I'm leaning toward a savory one next, with the extra dough currently in my refrigerator. I've got some extra greens lingering that would be perfect, I think.

Here are the galettes and some chocolate covered raspberries thrown in for good measure-





Also- two recent pictures {I liked} of Samuel, age 11 (with bedroom light behind him) and Eva, age 8.

outside

We've been able to get out and about a bit lately, what with all of that Springtime in the air and all. My only sadness is that Jack isn't able to join us for much of it. He joins me on the patio, in our backyard, for a bit of sunshine and Springish smelling, but is really needing to rest after his recent hip injury. I'm hoping that after a little more rest and some of the treatments he is receiving, he'll be able to take a short walk down the street again {soon}. I'm afraid walks in the woods are out for the time being and I have found that I have been {unconsciously?} choosing places that don't allow dogs. I used to feel sad when we went to those places without him but knew he couldn't join us anyway. Now it seems to assuage my spirit a bit. I know he can still smell the woods on me when we return. I'm sure in his good-hearted-doggieness that he understands {mostly}. While I'm sad I can't take him with us now, I am happy that I took him as often as I did in the past.



Eva by the creek and some of the first trillium of the season!



Eva checking the water at the Audubon Society for newts.



Samuel and our one brush with frog-ness on Sauvie Island. I think we missed the frogs this year. We did see several snakes, though, out basking in the sunshine with the rest of us.



Eva and Samuel at Smith and Bybee Lakes. We heard frogs here and ended up seeing dozens? hundreds? of tadpoles on one of the flooded paths. I tried to photograph them but they were having none of it. Who can blame them. The herons were also plentiful that day. We also saw two black tailed deer and a bald eagle!

K is for Halo? Or Birthday? Or um Samuel? Hmmm...

Today was Samuel's 11th birthday. He had a big day playing Halo 3 on his new Xbox 360 (I'm so proud I know what that is!), eating cake and Thai food. (Still not a single word that starts with K....)





Blowing out kandles on his double-roll kake. I sure would like some kale.

Organizing the Halo guys-

Agnes placed just so between the two kids/two laptops.

A little closer-

Two kids, two computers

Thank goodness. There is still some scuffling over who uses which and when, but it has mellowed out quite a bit since we figured out the sound on one of them and added a second wireless mouse. Now Webkinz can be played seamlessly on either.

on bowling alleys and food found therein

Today, while getting ready to go to the bowling alley for home school bowling, I told Samuel and Eva that I wanted us to eat before we left the house because a) we have a lot of food in the house and b) I didn't feel like spending very much on food while we were there. The last time we went bowling there were fries and pizza and sodas and any number of other foods of that sort. And I really wanted to go to the bowling alley on the cheap. Or at least think about it. Plus, it seems like we get in this habit of going places and eating food everywhere we go and it adds up and the food that we have at home just sort of sits there. So.

So Samuel said to me, "I'm not hungry now." I raised my eyebrows at this. It seemed slightly suspect to me because he had been up for a few hours and had so far eaten nothing. But who am I to presume hunger on someone else? Or so goes my motto {usually} {at least}. Still, the ticking of the clock and the idea of efficiently eating lunch at home before going to the bowling alley were also sitting fairly solidly in my mind. Oh the balance of it all.

In the time that it took me to go over these two points of view and make myself some lunch, Samuel had come up with more information. These are his exact words. He said he didn't want to "waste an opportunity to eat good food." I actually did a double take. Then he said something like, "Don't get me wrong. The food we eat at home is good. It's just normal. The food at the bowling alley is a treat." This is hilarious to me. It has been a long long time since I considered anything served at the bowling alley to be good food. Much less a treat.

And. In addition to doing a double take and suppressing a bit of a chuckle, I was really grateful. Glad even. That Samuel had chosen to phrase it just like that and let me know what the bowling alley food meant to him. It completely shifted my perspective. Don't get me wrong; I didn't *not* want us to eat lunch before leaving the house. No, I still wanted that. But- I did see how and why he might look forward to a grilled cheese at the bowling alley. And how that has very little to do with the food I had planned for us to eat for lunch. And how a normal we-eat-this-every-day turkey sandwich might seem just-a-little-bit like a let down after thinking he might have been able to have bowling alley food. And who knows- again, not I- how long he had been considering the bowling alley food. When in I march, with all sorts of plans for eating at home and such. It's good to get all of the information.

And do you know? While at the actual bowling alley, all Samuel ended up wanting was a bag of chips and a soda. So not really much of a surprise there. Still on the cheap. And so much less of a break in connection than if I had gone through all of the actual motions of putting-my-food-down. Not that I necessarily relented. Once I understood where he was coming from. What was important to him. What was on his mind. The whole thing became a sort of non-issue. Amazing. Plus, now I know. At least for the time being.

robot den

What Samuel's been up to, at least in part. He has several different games going on right now, is heavily into Harry Potter (along with Eva and I), as well as The Last Airbender, which the kids are re-watching after we went to see the movie (which we liked) earlier this week.

This game is an assortment of Star Wars guys, the new Lego Hero guys (they have bit parts, it seems...), as well as various robots who I think come from Iron Man. I think. Don't quiz me on that, though.



View of most of the scene.



Upstairs. There are robots, bounty hunters, maps, and lots and lots of guns.



Also upstairs. You can see more guns taped to the top. This is one protected fortress.



Downstairs living quarters. Prison. Luke and the other guy are trapped in Silly Putty.