The First Camping of the Year!!

Cousin Jessica joined us on a road trip to Indiana, to a spot halfway between us and Cousin Kelly in Wisconsin, where we met  Kelly and her boys and camped in a beautiful wooded spot west of Indianapolis.  We don't get to see these cousins and second cousins often enough, and it was a perfect way to spend a weekend in May...we learned how to put up tents with the help of several children...

We learned how to roll up the newspapers just so to add to the fire...

There was playing.

There was "rock club".

There were giggles and snuggles in the tent...

We wielded pie irons...

...made pizzas in the fire...

...and yes, s'mores, of course (who knew Kelly is the maker of the perfect golden marshmallow?)...

...and though we forgot the marshmallows and had to drive a ways to find replacements, and though it rained, and though it was so so hard to say goodbye, it was the perfect camping trip to start the season and leave us wanting to do it again and again and again...

the fullness of our week

Market bread - "Pscho-lantro": cilantro, blueberries, bacon!, pecans, red pepper flakes

We are so lucky right now to have a beloved guest in our midst.  My cousin Jessica, fairy god-belayer to the girls (she was into rock climbing when Eliza was born, and when we asked if she'd be a special guardian to our babe, we all thought "belayer", the one supporting and holding the rope for the climber, would be a good metaphor for the guidance and support of a child, and it stuck), and dear friend of ours, is visiting for a few weeks.  Our days are much enhanced by her presence.  

:: :: :: ::

We've had strange weather this past week - very windy, and lots of rain and flooding.  We've run outside whenever possible, taking advantage of pockets of sun.  The girls set up a "nail salon" on Saturday, offering the few passersby a custom nail painting for four dollars.

They got one sucker, I mean, customer.  Me.

:: :: :: ::

Sunday we headed to Fox Lake, with the promise of sun, if not warmth, and it was green, soooo green...

Jessica, enduring lots and lots and lots of love

:: :: :: ::

During the rain, we have been enjoying some of Ani's birthday gifts, and spending time drinking tea and eating with friends...the days are good, good, good.

Marble run (and new clothes!!)

 Secret Door - the girls don't look thrilled, but they played this game four times today, and loved it.

Five

Today was all about a sugary sugary cake, a carefully selected dear friend to come and share the day with, and a sentimental mama, reliving an awesome birth of her littlest babe (I made my cousin sit through the video...is that love or what?!).  Five.  It feels significant.  I remember five.  But as Eliza wisely counseled her little sister last night, on the eve of five, "it won't feel different right away, it might take a while before you feel it."

Luckily for you, I can't manage to access any birth photos digitally, so instead, here is just an oldie, from when she was a wise old 20-month old...

Happy Birthday, not-so-little one...

Mother Bars for Mothers (and Others)

I have been meaning to post this recipe since December, when I came home from making them for new mama Bubbie in Seattle.  My friend and amazing chef, Kimmy, invented these wonderful granola-type bars, and gave me permission to share them, as long as you don't use them for commercial use!  She calls them Mother Bars because she makes them for any new mothers she knows, but really? We all eat them. 

edited 5.31.11

Mother Bars is on fire!!!! Kimmy and her family are selling them at farmers' markets in Richmond, Virginia, so go there and buy some!!! I have happily removed the recipe at her request, to protect her secret goodness, though to be honest, I have never gotten mine to taste quite as good as hers...She's got the magic touch and the creative mind, to be sure.

May 5

During our weekly visit to our town's library, we somehow managed to spot this little mantis. I am always completely amazed when I see one of these creatures, and this one was impossibly tiny - he or she is sharing the photo with dandelion seeds, to give you some scale.  Those are clover leaves around him...

Here he races across a plantain leaf - he was so fast and nearly transparent!

Spring manages to fill me with this huge sense of awe every year.  Its regenerative powers are great on so many levels.

Tonight we took a walk to the garden, to see if there was any new growth after a few days of heavy rain.  The girls were so filled with contentment, to have us both with them, to have that gift of an evening glow...even after a day of running around, then sitting around, waiting for work to be done on our car (here's a secret:  we get more "schooly" type stuff done at the automechanic's shop than anywhere else.  I'm not sure why, other than we are stuck in one place with one bag of tricks for over an hour...)  (plus this place is great about letting us come back and watch if we want to, and are very pleasant about answering questions regarding cars, car parts, vending machines, and tattoos.) - we were all enjoying being out, together.

We are anticipating a month of wonderful starting tomorrow - one of our favorite people on the planet is coming to stay with us for a few weeks, and we are beside ourselves with excitement.  And we thought spring couldn't get any better...

Time with Ani, Time with Friends

Mondays are choir day; we all look forward to the time together, with Dan, who teaches the class.  Ani was up most of the night (no, not with the flu!), coughing, so we decided she and I would stay home today...we made the best of the morning (Eliza was at her second-ever sleepover!) by making music, just us two...

Do you know about Boomwhackers? They are plastic tubes, cut to varying lengths, that make a note of the scale when you hit them against the heel of your hand, the floor, each other (the tubes, not your fellow musicians...). 

We figured out which ones were higher and lower, noticing that the shorter the tube, the higher the note...it was a total bonus that they come in rainbow colors...

 When Ani stopped in the kitchen to nurse her ginger cold elixir tea, she noticed this trickster hanging out in our bird feeder...she took a few minutes to draw him in her nature journal.

She also drew what he was eating, below, which led to the idea to start another little tray of micro-greens.  More sunflowers...

It was such a good morning together, taking care of things around the house, filling the feeders, folding laundry, pausing to read books together, planting the seeds...it made me wish for more stretches of time like this with each of the girls. In the afternoon we met Eliza and our friends at the park.  After days of rain there were huge puddles, 80 degree weather, and yes, mud.

The girls got very creative, using the mud to draw pictures on the nearby baseball dugout.

There was a long peaceful while of friends sitting with friends, just enjoying the day, sharing oranges (for them) and coffee (for us)...

We are feeling filled with friendship these days, and as luck would have it, these friends all belong to the same family, making it wildly convenient and perfect for us all.  These are our potluckin', tree climbin', wild child runnin', food sharin', endlessly talkin', big huggin', huge hearted friends. Our kids are learning to be friends together (as in what it means to be and have a friend), we are never done, good-byes are difficult and prolonged (for us all!) and we eagerly look to our next visit together...Goodness abounds.

May Day, May Day!

Oh, May Day.  We had such plans.  Who invited the stomach flu?????  Sigh. No, we did not attend a birthday party at the park, followed by the Waldorf school's sweet May Day festivities, making flower crowns and dancing around the maypole.  My flexible and loving husband took it in stride that I was suddenly bedstricken, and took the girls to market for the morning.  They babysat me for a couple hours while he had a meeting, picked me all the flowers from the backyard, piled blankets on me and performed a show....until he was back to take them back out for a hike. A day unplanned but not lost. 

And we did manage one may basket for our dear friend Esme.