Spray Park

Fashion Show Preview

So we are starting to get ready for Kindergarten. I am excited about our new school and Unity is too. Mostly. One thing she is a little less sure of is this school uniform thing. I, however, am thrilled.

This is not surprising. My daughter and I often have differing ideas about the purpose of clothing. I prioritize comfort and protection from the weather. Unity's main concern is fancy.

But the uniform is a rule, and once I showed her the clothes she started getting into it. Mostly.

Honestly, I'm jealous. I wish someone would give me a pile of clothes and say "here, just wear that over and over." It seems so much easier.

She was a little sad that I got some pants for the uniform stash. I tried to explain that pants are sometimes useful. She is still skeptical.

One step closer to the big time!

Butterflies

I spent the last four days in Tacoma for a gathering of North Pacific Yearly Meeting, a regional group of Quakers. I went alone and got to do exotic things like finish a conversation and shower without interruptions. My head is still spinning with all the thought and conversations that I was given, but in the meantime, here are some photos of our butterfly experiment.

What's Goin' On...

We got derailed by a quick little bug over the weekend. It wasn't too bad, but it did cancel Chris and my plans to see 12th Night in the park. I'm hoping to still catch it later on.

                               In the summer, we become fruititarians. I'm ok with that. It's such a short time that we can drench ourselves in blueberries, rasberries, cherries. We eat them in sticky handfuls. A lucky few get put up in the freezer for later jam making. Mostly we just eat them and are delighted.

                                  I know my pictures are sometime a little unbalanced and Brixton gets more screen time. It's too bad I can't follow Unity to school and take pictures of all the interesting works she does and all her wild and tumultuous friendships. Ok no because that would be creepy but still.

                              Yesterday he spent the morning hammering, and then starting cuddling with a shirt of Unity's. The shirt became "baby Walker", don't ask me how. It's funny because Walker is actually a family name on my mom's side but he wouldn't know that. So for the rest of the day we changed baby Walker's diaper and played with him, and rocked him when he cried. I love this hammering cuddling little one.

And the big ones too of course.

   

Tugboats and Spray Park

We have been trying to soak up every last bit of this gorgeous Seattle summer. Brixton and I met up with some friends to go to a floating Farmers Market and a spray park next to Lake Union. The "farmers market" was really just a handful of produce, but the hanging out by the water was fun.

                                      Desmond loved the spray park. Joey and Brixton liked watching it.

                                Peeking at Desi's new little brother Theo.

                                  
                                  Ok, I had to peek too. Isn't he precious?

Rasberries and Rabbits

We had a playdate with some friends who live nearby. Jan and I are living parallel lives. We grew up in the same Chicago suburbs, both went to Earlham College, and then both moved to Seattle to do the QuEST internship program. We've worked several of the same jobs here, but not at the same time. We attend the same Quaker Meeting and now our daughters are going to attend the same kindergarten. It's a little uncanny.

                             
                                 We played with Lena's pet rabbits. Sorry for the red eyes, they were really
                                  very sweet.

                                  Somehow I have no pictures of Lena, just her little brother Miles.

                                  They are lucky to have a huge rasberry patch in their backyard, a gift
                                 from a previous owner. They are always inviting people to come help pick.

                          Nothing like a kiddie pool on a hot day! (Well, for us it was hot. I know low 80s is child's play for some of you.)

Portraits

Kraut

So, I've been getting in touch with my Czech roots lately.
More specifically I made some sauerkraut. I have this crazy German crock that is a fermenters dream. I feel a bit like a peasant farmwife when I use it. In a good way.

                               Here is my cabbage heart. And yes, we grew these.

                                 
                               There is really no recipe. It's cabbage and salt. And then letting it do it's thing.

                                      Oh fermentation, you are so magical!

Buddies

                              Beatrix says "I think when we are older, Unity and I will live together."
                              But for now they are content with helping each other to the top of the climbing
                              structure and swinging in tandem.

The Fourth of Pasta!

Today is a holiday, and we had lots of plans, but we decided to start the day by making some pasta!

Unity is mixing up eggs

Here we are making the dough

All hands at work

Huge sheets of pasta 

Turning the crank

On the drying rack

YUMMMMMM!

what the cherries know

The cherry tree we planted when Unity was born is suddenly producing. Over the years it's given us a handful of cherries, enough to eat in one sitting. This year, all of a sudden, the branches are full, dangling the small sweet globes in front of our faces.

It makes sense to me. The tree has been planted on this earth for five years, just like our little bubbie. We were at a dinner party earlier this evening and one of the parents was enumerating the list of responsibilities that came with being one whole hand. "When you are five you will brush your own teeth. When you are five you will wear bloomers under dresses. When you are five you will put your own plate in the dishwasher."

When you are five, you start to bear your own fruit.

                               We were coming home yesterday from a friend's baby shower and I saw a bird pecking at our tree. Chris ran and got a ladder and we picked all the cherries then and there.  A pie's worth, with some left over for snacking, freezing. Storing.

                   We sat there celebrating my friend and her husband and their sweet babe not yet here.  We brought the cake out and one of the 2 year olds wanted to sing. "Happy baby to you, happy baby to you." As the song ended, a lone voice called out "and many more." My friend's eyebrows shot up. "How many is many?" she asked, bemused.

It was good to talk to her, standing on that threshhold. And feeling too how far away from it I am. My big kids, sturdy legs and solid steps. The highchair burried in my basement, some artifact of other days. There is nothing like that burst of new life into the world, in all its wild joy and terror and transformation.

But at five years old you start to bear your own fruit. And I get to be there, to be a part of it. To watch the becoming. I am beyond blessed.