RoyalMom

They are happy little pupils, following mom's every lead.

I got a little too relaxed letting them play in the yard yesterday and the poor babies got dive bombed by a Blue Jay. Thankfully mama hen protected them and all are okay.

Today they got a little supervised yard time and then back into the coop.

It seems I cannot be the photographer and the nursing mother at the same time. Simon was like a boomerang back to my lap and gave me the stink eye when I placed him for a pic. hehe!

We went to see Wall-e the other night and it tugged at my personal guilt with using disposable diapers. It also happened to coincide with our current disposie stash running out.

Damn you disposables for seducing me again and again! I'm leaving you for good this time and taking the kids with me!

Aunt Omi took the big kids to the barn to visit her horse Tony.

Apparently it was the best day of their lives and Isaac is going to be a farmer when he grows up. It gives me such a warm fuzzy that just about every day gives cause for the kids to proclaim the day "best day ever!"

We do have a wonderful time and hopefully another trip to the barn soon. I heard tale of some very large tad poles.

Isaac took the camera:

omi operates the mom van.

Tony

Brushing.

"We got to see a rooster!" was the first thing I heard when they got home. hehe:)

I browsed patio sets online today. I can see myself on this deck now! It's going to be *awesome*!

Aaron and Samantha had a little bbq for my mama's 60th. It was our first time to their house (embarrassing to admit) and their house rocks!

The cherry tree put our wimpy tree to shame.

Badminton

And then we hurried home so Jason can squeeze in a bit more deck work before the weekend is over.

All three are excellent! There ya go.

Isaac had a few more diagnostic tests today and it is was what we thought it was. Just a bit of a backed up pooper to the power of ten. We'll get on a better schedule and all should improve, in about 1 to 10 years. no biggie.

The deck is coming along and now has enough floorboards we can walk from one door to the next. This is fun! I can't wait to be able to lounge at a patio table and sip iced tea while reading a fabulous book in the warm summer breeze.

Chicks are over two weeks and actually surviving in the yard with only their mother to protect them. Maybe I shouldn't jinx it by saying so? I glanced out in the yard and mistook them for a bunch of wild birds. They have suddenly grown a neck and look a bit gawky. Teenage weeks here we come!

chicken neck.

That little tail is adorable!

Maybe giving him Isaac's leftover oatmeal was still a wee bit too much? Squishing his hands through the wet oats and tossing it around was breakfast *and* an activity!

Xander, my sweet tooth, wanted me to make chocolate muffins and so I have. Wow! these are delicious. A little goes a long way.

I used the recipe with tweaks noted on this blog, found through our friend Google.

sinful.

And another fabulous muffin recipe I made, for variety, Lemon Poppyseed Muffins. WOW! amazing! I feel like the most amazing baker ever with these muffins. The recipe had me whipping up the egg whites and folding them in last. Is this what made them so moist and amazing? because I will do this with every recipe if that's the case.

A neighbor told me about these family bikes after I complained about not being able to tote all three kids on my bike. Isaac doesn't know how to ride yet and I wish we could all go out together during the day. This would be awesome for short trips, to replace the car. They aren't sold in the USA. How can I get one? EDIT...I found a similar cargo bike in another brand being sold in our very own city of Portland! It will cost a pretty penny. I guess I need to start saving my shekels.

The sun starts to set. My man is doing an awesome job on the deck. He's framing out the stairs now. I'll have to get a better deck pic tomorrow with the wider angle lens. These were shot from the deck, looking down.

Isaac came in to tell me there was a new kind of animal in the backyard that looks like a nutria. He said it scared him by moving quickly when he PET IT'S HEAD. haha! no fear Isaac?

Sure enough it was a baby nutria. The tiniest I've seen.

The chickens were checking it out. All images can be clicked on for a closer look.

I tried to move it across the street to the pond but it just sat there and started to come back toward me. All while a big, stray tom cat was sauntering up. So I carried it back to my backyard and set it where we found it and left it. Hopefully mom will find it again.

Remember those "newborn" wool pants/cloth diaper cover I knit up before Simon was born?

Look how they fit finally at 16 months! haha! We're still going strong with the cloth diapers and these pants work VERY well.

He was having fun out in the dirt, chasing the chickens around the yard. Xander kindly sacrificed his popsicle to slow him down long enough for the picture. I also asked Xander if he could grab my grey card (for the white balance) and he zoomed right out with it and held it in place.

He really is eager to help out. We were both trying to be quick to make sure Simon didn't run toward the edge of the unfinished deck.

We were alerted by the renters that construction workers would be cutting back our juniper for the new sidewalks. We had a meeting with the engineer heading up the project to find out how much of our property would be condemned for the cause. When we arrived we found the entire wall of plants fencing in our property completely dozed out!

He had the map of property lines and they are apparently not technically taking any of our property at all. Pretty amazing the entire facia of our property can change without any say on our part or compensation.

from the yard line to about four feet into the (new) street was all grass, juniper and rhododendron that we maintained and used for a sound barrier against the road noise. that's about a 20 foot by 25 foot landscape change without notice. and apparently all within the rights of the city.

I learn something new every day!

I found an old pic off Google Earth of what it looked like before. Dang that was a lot of juniper!!! This was with out last renters who didn't mind brown grass;) lol!

I think it will look fine. I'm over the shock.

This little black one has been looking uglier and uglier. From its crow face to its naked neck we were wondering what was up. Although it is the smallest, it's also the fastest, like a black streak. I finally caught him/her to get a closer look and all is good. The neck feathers are sprouting.

Look what a difference five weeks makes...

A picnic table will be right there where the saw is set up. Jason is working on one of the two sets of stairs.

Can you see the hot tub area below? A set of stairs will come right out from my bedroom slider and dump out under the deck, onto a patio.

Friday was spent at the beach for the wedding of my old bud Caroline. We shared an apartment uptown during my post-college, pre-marriage party hard days. But we also go back as far as grade 7:)

It was a fabulous, intimate wedding, perched on the state park/cliff overlooking the beach.

"Rev. Amber Rose!" she exclaimed. haha! It was great.

Barbra:) my other bud getting married next month, to the bloke in the background, Chris.

Bud Jen and her hubby Tom with their new baby Paige.

After the wedding, we took the kids down to the beach until it was reception time.

Me and my brood...

Gorgeous cove, not so good for kite flying.

Feeling the terrain under his bare feet.

After spending Friday with my old friends, we spend Saturday with Jason's old classmates he had not seen once in that 20 years passed. He went to the tiny school in St. Paul Oregon with a graduating class of 17 kids.

One of the guys living in the same town hosted the reunion BBQ style in his yard and it was a lot of fun! The kids all ran around in packs with much to see and do. The food and drink was abundant and Jason got to relax and reminisce.

Playing PIG around the basketball hoop. One rule was to have a drink in one hand. Jason held Simon.

We have to have one of these now.

Slip.....slip-n-slide! Check out those hops in the background. I'd never seen them and had no idea what they were. Lots of cool stuff on the farm.

My sister has three foster kitties and we get to kitty-sit while she is on vacation. I think I've gotten my fill of kitties for a long time. Omi said they could be trusted in the bedroom and after one day we had no less than 10 poops under our bed! YUCK!!!

They won't all stay in the basket for a pic...

Let's try a dish of food...

Isaac, can you just hold them so I can get all their faces?

No can do!