soaking it in.

This week is a huge blessing in so many ways. We are blessed to spend time with our dear friends. We are blessed by family friends who gave us their week of vacation. And we are blessed by four grandparents who are spending time with our children while we're gone. So we are living it up. We are soaking in our hot coffee in the morning. We are gazing at the views. We are relishing in every beautiful fall leaf. And we are exploring this beautiful island and making plans for the coming days for some epic adventures.

 We took a walk on a gorgeous fall beach.

 We discovered an amazing organic general store with a grass roof and goats housed on top.

(Fittingly called "Goats on the Roof")

 We wandered. Up and down boardwalks, in and out of shops, and around beautiful fall gardens.

 We wine tasted, cheese tasted and farm toured.

 We chatted and talked and had hours of uninterupted conversation.

 

And we spent time. Time talking, time looking, time soaking it all in.

cozy.

I'm going to miss this for an entire week. I always go into their rooms at night and watch each of them sleep. I love how relaxed their faces look. What they deem the "most comfortable" position to be. Where their little fingers intertwine to find the coziest, most comforting little swatch of blanket. I'll miss it. However, I'm looking forward to mimos in the morning, kyaking with through the fog in the rain, and snuggling up under my own blanket with knitting and a good book. Oh, and the conversations. Seven days of uninterrupted thoughts and conversing. That is going to be epic.

field trippin'

For our last venture to a fall farm, we got to have a sweet day at Stoneyridge Farm with Everly's preschool class on their field trip. Parker didn't have school today and Friday happens to be the only common day off for Jeremy and I so we turned it into a family day alongside the class for a bit. :) It poured down rain. It was freezing cold. The kids took turns crying until at one point approximately 11 out of 12 were crying. Yet we still had a wonderful time. Because it was a day with no school. There were parents and grandparents and siblings there. With 12 kids in the class, we were a group of almost 50. These kids are loved. These kids are supported. These kids have people around them who want to see their little preschooler eyes shine with excitement when they visit the pumpkin farm together. And we learned about pollination and ate snack together and picked out our pumpkins and took turns offering a hand, a hug and holding one another's children, despite rain, despite the freezing air, amongst friends.

 Learning about pollination. A bee puppet is always a big hit.

 Everly was laying claim to her pumpkin. She informed me her fingers were too cold to pick it up.

 And lo and behold, we ran into our dear friend Kate. 

Everly was elated. Kate is possibly her most favorite girl in the world.

 We have this same picture since Parker was 9 months old. And I think we always will.

A great day. And we warmed up with cider donuts. Because, why wouldn't we?

saucy.

 

We spent a few hours on Saturday and Sunday making our applesauce. And lo and behold - it was easy this year! Time passes in a combination of a rhythmic slow and lightning fast so that when something sneaks up on me (like the thought of how easy this year it was to implement my helpers) I'm simultaneously shocked that they're growing up and saddened that I can't steal back that time.

Parker and Everly are pros at loading up the peeler, pealing, and then prepping the apples. We take all the peels and cores and press them and make apple cider with the remnants so that we don't waste a bit of our precious apples. And then we see how long we can make our homemade apple cider last (not long).

 Peelin'

 Preppin'

 Cider

This is Parker and Jeremy playing a joke on Evie and I. He thinks it's the most hilarious thing in the world to play the ol' "Bloody Hands" joke on us. The ketchup bottle is frequently out at our house.

 And this is how a ballerina makes applesauce. Very helpful.

Apple picking.

We visited Bellewood's newest addition to their amazing farm this weekend. We get a box (or few) of apples every year to make applesauce. This year (to my amazement) it took less than 7 minutes for the kids to pick a heaping box of apples, and that was with sorting through the branches and picking only "the absolutely amazing ones". :)

We had the most amazing morning there. Truly. And I had all sorts of wonderful anecdotes and cute moments and details I wanted to record about the day, but then I waited 2 days to talk about it. And in the meantime deadlines began looming and I'm spending nights after my work days doing some design work for a non-profit that is making my work days a little over 17 hours right now, a lot of which is done while the kids are sleeping. So I'm taking a break and posting about our gorgeous and fun day at the apple farm this weekend because I know that someday, I won't remember these sleepless nights or all the work it takes as a mom to balance everything at this time. But I will remember the looks on their faces when they proudly showed us the full box of apples, and the way they quietly held hands on the tractor ride out to the orchard, or when Parker told me that pumpkin bread is WAY better than a cookie.

Happy Birthday, Grandpa!

We celebrated Grandpa's Birthday late this afternoon the best way we know how - with semi-homemade goodies that encourage good coffee drinking, at one of our favorite haunts, at our usual table. The kids made Grandpa a mug with crafts and drawings and writing inside. I wrote down a few of the reasons they love him and it was hard to keep up amongst the shouting of "He tickles me! He reads to me! We play together! He sings to me! He sleeps next to me until I'm dreaming!"

The kids' voices echoed my own inside my head. As we stood on the corner of the street after dinner, amongst the laughing college students back in town and the guy playing his guitar on the sidewalk with a jar set out in front of him, my dad stood there smiling at his grandkids running around (all hopped up on rootbeer), and Jeremy talking about fishing adventures and my mom and I talking a mile a minute about the upcoming week and my dad mosies over and drops a bill in the guitar players jar. And for a second everything got quiet in my head and I stood there smiling at this Grandpa we're celebrating and I felt so glad I got my time in first. My time when I was little and growing up, and skiing together by ourselves and my dad coming up to Bellingham to drive me home when I was so sick with my first flu away from home, and riding a bike without training wheels for the first time down our street, and listening to Cream and learning about music, and learning how to ride a horse and hike by candlelight, I got to do all these things with him. And now my kids get to experience that too. We're thankful we get to celebrate your Birthday, Grandpa. Wishing you the happiest of happy this year.

lessons.

We have a fish for a daughter. This girl submerges herself under water for long periods of time during bathtime, at the lake, and even sticks her head under the kitchen faucet when she gets a chance. ("How did your head get wet?" "What get wet?" "Your head. How did it get wet?" "Something is wet?" "YES. YOUR HEAD. HOW?!" "Oh, thaaaat's wet. My face went for a swim, and, uh, then, uh...." trailing off...).

So The Fish is in swimming lessons right now. And VERY proud of it. She can float on her back and paddle to the edge of the pool, and she enjoys showing everyone how she can keep her eyes open and blow all of the air out of her lungs and sink to the bottom and sit cross-legged down there. AHK!

 She told me her one of her teachers is named Gerbil. I questioned that, but Everly insists. Swears up and down her name is Gerbil. She points her out when we see her - "There goes Gerbil!" and any attempt to correct her on that falls on deaf ears. So, today I asked Gerbil what her real name is and I could not stop laughing. Penny. Her name is Penny. Which is also the name of Everly's beloved....gerbil. I quickly told Penny Girl the story and we both had such a good laugh. Oh, this girl and her connections. I love it. And yes, she's created a phenomenon and now everyone refers to Penny as Gerbil.

every leaf speaks bliss to me...

We braved the wind and rain storm today to head to my favorite pumpkin farm. I love myself a good farm of any kind, but this little one in Skagit County takes the cake for all seasons, for all time. The fact that it's a pumpkin farm (be still my heart) to be enjoyed during my favorite season (oh, Fall, how I love thee) rockets it to the top. One of my friends called Gordon Skagit Farm "A feast for the eyes, as well as the soul". I cannot agree more.

 

 

 

 

And the sky opened up.

Just for a brief time this afternoon. Just in time to go with friends to a little pumpkin patch in the county to peruse the apples, pat the pumpkins and run through the gardens. For a brief and blustery time. It was a precursor to our much anticipated day at the "Big Patch" tomorrow. We drove home, coffee in hand, conversation flowing and my heart all a flutter for what is to come tomorrow.

A fall windstorm...

...is perfect for bubbles.

Nostalgia

These days, this transition into fall, this time of getting back into a rhythm of school and home makes me miss teaching every year. I loved teaching. I loved the interaction with kids, making a difference in their lives and imprinting knowledge on them every day. Fall is the hardest time of year to not be a part of that. So when I wallow and swim in my nostalgia, I tend to create my classroom at home again. I throw caution to the wind and start investigating some sort of scientific question the kids had while paying no attention to a nearing bedtime. We explore the outdoors with fervor. I quiz them on letters and numbers and addition and subtraction while we drive around doing errands. But mostly, I create with them. My favorite years of teaching were my last years, teaching art. So we make and create and paint and inspire each other. This week we have made pumpkins, a painted box that seems to have endless uses, drawings of all sorts of things, a fairy crown and a car. And it's only Wednesday. By next week we'll be working our way into a full-fledged Van Gough inquiry study...which I might still have in my basement. Yay for finally cleaning out my classroom this August!

Table Mountain.

Jeremy took the kids hiking at Table Mountain on Saturday. We keep thinking we have to savor this "last day of summer" well into October and at some point this will be true. As it stands, each day feels warmer than the last. They hiked a trail where Jeremy said he was pretty nervous part of the time because of the narrowness and the steep drop. I was thankful I wasn't with them because if Jer is nervous, I'd likely be freaking out. They survived and had a grand time and were treated to pizza for being extraordinary hikers.

 Today Parks asked me "Do you think I'm big enough to climb Mount Baker?" I don't know, I replied...how old do you think you need to be? He thought for a minute and said "Probably bigger. I'll need to be six." This boy LOVES to hike. He hikes some VERY long and VERY steep trails and really loves every minute. My mind instantly flashed forward a few years from now when I think that his dream of summiting Mount Baker is in the not to distant future.

Jer also noted that both of the kids thought they were going skiing and got fully dressed to do so that morning. He had to bring a change of clothes for them and break the news when they got up there. Sitting on an empty chair is a pretty close second, though.