So This Fairy Showed Up...

Beautiful Fairy

Her arrival

The Scene

Cupcakes

Teaching kids how to hold their fingers to catch bubbles.

...And then practicing those skills.

Enthralled us all.

We had fiona's party with friends today in our garden. The mysterious guest arrived as anticipated and was well recieved. She was such a lovely fairy. All the kids were enthralled with her as well as the parents. It made it quite easy to have a dozen littlies here. No tantrums anywhere! Cupcakes were a hit as always, and now we are looking forward to a week of perhaps fewer festivities, but no less magic. Thank you all for your birthday wishes for Fiona.
Love
Louise

The Cake

I got some cake decorating bits recently, this is the practice run for the cupcakes on Sunday. Super Fun!

Fairly Four

Fiona woke up today to a lovely spring morning. It's hard to believe it's been four years, but time does march on. Blueberries for breakfast, presents from friends and family opened, Fiona has retired to her new house in the garden which is almost finished....what house ever is? We still need to mount a few cabinets and hang the drapes...but its ready for playing for sure. Indeed, Devon and I are pretty sure we won't see much of our girl this summer given her new abode.

In keeping with Fiona's Birthday being so close to Earth Day the playhouse we endeavoured to build it only with things that we already had laying about and things that were recycled and reclaimed. It looks a little rustic, but its lovely and cheerful. A few old bits and pieces from the kitchen and goodwill make for a nicely laid table... and we finally have a place for all those plastic knives and forks.

Thank you for watching our little girl grow up these past years and for cheering us along the way.
More birthday extravaganza weekend updates to come...
Love
Louise

A few pics below, captions by Fiona:

Making mufins

Having a glass of wine, just pretend it's really water.

Fiona inside and FOUR!

Salad for Dinner

Fiona 4!

Snow Day

Snow means hard (but fun) work for mums.

We had our long awaited snow day in the Sierras this weekend. It was wonderful in all ways. Our good friend Eric set up a super cabin for us called Loon Lake Chalet and we had another family join us: Sue Jon and Fiona's friend Zoey.

Fiona had initially said that she wouldn't throw a snowball at her mummy because she wanted to keep me clean but that was soon abandoned. She loved the snow, never once asked to be carried, only helped up occasionally, threw herself into it happily, never complained of the cold.

We built a snow cave and spent most of our time exploring the immediate area and perfect sledding hill right out the cabin door.

Lots of sledding, fresh powder, lots of eating snow, lots of snowballs thrown, lovely friends, few tantrums, good sleep, yummy food, cold beer, superfantastic to say the least.

Devon and Fiona in a real snow cave

Fiona with the morning's fresh snow

A real icicle.

Louise going downhill without her snowboard!
Fiona and Zoey
Driving with Eric through the snow.
Nighttime snowball fight/walk

Construction

Our playhouse is under construction, as is our real house's front porch at the moment. Fiona and I are honing our skills with the tools on this job. Sometimes a chick has to take things into her own hands to get the real work done.

The Bunny Cometh

Fiona Dictated this one:

On a second night we made Easter eggs.
We waited for a different day and it was not easter yet.
And then we had another sleep and it was EASTER!
There were a lot of chocolate easter eggs in plants inside and outside.
The easter bunny came and hid them.
There was a giant bunny in my playhouse. The bunny is made of chocolate. I will not eat it.

Too Quiet

So it turns out that too quiet isn't always bad. Fiona had been having quiet time in her room after a busy morning and afternoon visiting with the neighbours, making paper egg decorations for the bunny, reading, singing, being willful etc. It had been a bit quiet for about 30 minutes, so I dared to look at what was happening in the back of the house...Fiona has put herself to bed and is snoring currently. If I could find the camera I would document it to look back on with joy some other day but for now she is covered with her soft blue blanket snoring away, blinds open, bright light int he room, sweet as can be.

on another note: The latest parenting tack we are taking is in pointing out when she is being a "bossyboots." She denies ever being such a thing...hopefully a little disdain for bossing will help with our home life.
Love Louise

What We've Been Up To...

Spring has taken over our hearts and minds here...no time for computers and inside stuff. We got to go for a sail last Friday, Just Devon and I, which was relaxing. We are also building a cubby house for Fiona in the back yard as a birthday present. Our rule is that we can't buy any new materials, It's made on pallets and I bought some shelves and things from the thrift store for a few dollars. Hardware samvaged from the tool bench int he garage, means that the hinges won't match but its all good. Its fun to be creative and work on design and building together. My hammering skills leave a lot to be desired, but I muddle through and my thumb will feel better soon I'm sure. Here are some pics:
Love
Louise

Sailing day

Cubbyhouse under the cherry plum tree
Devon installing the front wall

Fiona working on framing the door. (Note the outfit)

Daylight Savings

I have spent way too much time this week convincing Fiona that it doesn't need to be dark for bedtime to happen...about 7-7:30. We've been having a lot of what we call "call backs" lately anyway: Need a rub, massage, drink of water, to pee, to poo, door not closed right, the dog is in or might come in, sweaty, hungry, have a sore throat, booger, gravel in the bed, the list goes on.

Here's hoping you sink in for a sleep tonight without a call back.
Love
Louise

The Hill We Died On

I found my thrill
do do do do do do do do...
On Blueberry Hill
do do do do do do do do...
And we both got killed
do do do do do do do do...
On Blueberry Hill.

We, actually, we made it back alive, but we have to report that train ride back was not nearly as trouble free as the ride up. I think 6 days of new excitement and play had taken its toll on Fiona, and maybe the rest of us too, making us all a bit punchy and overtired. But whatever the cause, after getting settled into her top bunk, and after climbing up and down several times to do another pee, poo, and because she was thirsty, she decided that she was hungry. And not just any hungry, but hungry only for the delicious home grown blueberries that Liv had packed for her. And while they are scrumptious, Devon decided that they were not an appropriate snack for 9 at night, and that if she was truly hungry she would accept an alternative snack. And thus the battle lines were drawn.

To make a long bloody story short, Devon ended up spending a significant portion of the night on the top bunk, while Louise consoled Fiona on the bottom. For her part, Fiona eventually accepted a few bits of apple before passing out, and around 3am Devon snuck down and put her back into the top bunk, where she snored while the parents huddled, shell shocked, below.

But now we are back in Sunny Santa Cruz (forecast this week: Sunny 70/50 everyday), and while residual tiredness continues (Fiona napped on the shuttle bus, in the car, and in her bed at home a total of over 3 hours yesterday!), I'm sure we will all be settled back in shortly with only good memories of our Oregon travels.

D

Homeward Bound

Walking in feather coats

Our last day in Oregon today. We woke up to a bit of blue sky, wonderful rhubarb muffins, and relaxed kiddos. Off to the farmers market in the rain on our bikes lots of things to see and do on the way; We are soooo tough, hopefuly all this riding in the cold rain will get me on my bike in more inclement weather in Santa Cruz

Devon and Brian did a bit of work to boot.

Tomorrow afternoon we will be back home or near there. We'll have to start planning our next adventure.
Love
Louise

Checking Lyle's creek

At the farmers market

Liv's Tub

Fiona and Lyle

Lyle at play

Portland/Vancouver

A small nap in the car

Salmon Spotting

Dina and Fiona on Safari

Being a bear

One for Nanna Jane

We had a wonderful time in Portland staying with our friend Dina and her lovely dog Georgia. Visited the Oregon Zoo, ate sushi...AND ethiopian food, went to Powells books Which was a fantastic book store that had almost every book in print (I think).

We were expecting inclement weather so we had lots of rain gear and layers with us but the first two days were mixed sun and cloud for our wanderings around Dina's neighbourhod in Vancouver Washington. Fiona was a great traveler with our solo train ride from Albany to Portland and then we took a taxi across the Columbia River, Fiona was nap free for the whole weekend which meat that there was not always sweet and loving behaviour but there were no tantrums that would have had us ejected from either state.

Our last day up north was quite rainy but fiona agreed to wear her rain coat with no trouble which was nice. As a child born in drought she has had little call for outerwear in her life so this was fretful for me, "please wear this...you'll be soaked" "you need a coat on" "you must wear boots."

Part of our plan on return from Portland to Corvallis was to go to the snow today, as with the winter olympics our plans for winter would need to have helicopters and trucks bring in snow from afar, so instead we will settle for a swim at the local pool and save our snow day for later in the month in the Sierras.

We are staung with our friends Brian and Liv and Lyle for another day or so and then will roll on back to California.

Life is Good.
Love
Louise

Dispatch from Corvallis

Hi All, We arrived safely in Corvallis, OR, after a WONDERFUL train ride. It is the perfect way to travel with a kid. We took the bus from Monterey to Salinas where Fiona pointed out the vegetables growing along the way and then waited at the station in Salinas for the train.

Our train arrived and we were met by George, the conductor, who had arranged our dinner reservation for 7:30 and said he would turn down our beds while we were dining. Fiona was great on the train and received compliments on her good behavior from all the workers on the train.

Our room was a family room which had lots of options for sleeping we went for a double bed below and a "top bunk" that fiona had been looking forward to. After dinner Fiona was still pretty excited about the experience of being on the train but eventually fell asleep and I started my latest knitting project.

The rocking of the train was gentle and it was pretty quiet when compared with cars and planes. What a beautiful way to sleep. Devon and I weren't far behind Fiona in collapsing into sleep.

In the morning Fiona and I woke up excited to see the snow and volcano's at dawn through our windows. Breakfast was at 6:30, french toast with the sunrise, good coffee, and a wonderful time just being together as a family without the usual morning chores and places to be.

The train was great as Tim Pearse commented in the last post in giving lots of room to walk about, no seatbelts to wory about, constant scenery changes outside, just fantastic! (I'm trying to think of other places we can go on the train, if only there was one to Australia!)

We met some new friends in the sleeping room next door to our room, a little boy Fiona's age and his parents en route to Seattle from the Bay Area. He and Fiona enjoyed playing together and building forts on the top bunk.

Next meal was a morning snack of fresh fruit and yougurt in the Parlour car, lovely company, and some good conversation until Lunchtime...By the end of lunch we were a short distance from Albany and Brian was there to meet us with Fiona's friend Lyle.

So here we are enjoying the beautiful blue skies of Oregon, and already had a wonderful Birthday dinner for Liv with their family and our other Corvallis friends Chad and Claire. Fiona and I are off to Portland tomorrow to Visit Dina and hopefully go to the Zoo. Devon has to do a bit of work this week, two talks at a meeting on steelhead trout. We'll update you as soon as technology allows from our adventure in Oregon.

Love
Louise, Devon and Fiona.

Coast Starlight

Today Fiona woke up and announced loudly, "It's Train Day!!!!" She has been waiting patiently as we have counted down the weeks and then the days. We are taking the train up to Oregon to Visit some good Friends, Brian Liv and Lyle in Corvallis and Dina in Portland. We're expecting rain most days of our vacation but we'll have a wonderful time stomping in puddles.

Tonight we will be sleeping on the train and in the morning we will wake up in Northern California, or Southern Oregon. We're hoping to see snowy mountains and train bridges in the pine trees.

We have heard that other people go to the beach for spring break....how odd.

Anyway, we'll try to post from the road/tracks and we'll be back in Santa Cruz in about 10 days. As we leave we are all in good health, no snotty noses or colds. This is fantastic!

All aboard!
Louise

Making February Count

After blogging for some time it gets to be a bit of a monkey on one's back. I love keeping up with posting our fun days and a few not so fun days online, and Devon and I use the blog as a "baby book" of sorts. But as we come to the end of a short month I realize that my numbers are down so you get this one: a post about posting, so that I can leave February without disgrace.
Lots of Love
Louise