Day 151: Tomato cages

I upgraded this year from the wire cages to lovely wooden ones made by someone who works for our school district and sells them at our local farmers' market. They look great now, but hopefully they'll look even better when we get back from England and they are overflowing with tomatoes.

Day 150: Memorial Day

Many great pictures were taken on my camera today - but not by me. I had planned to spend Memorial Day hiking with my family and some of my best friends at one of my very favorite places, Silver Falls State Park. Unfortunately, my Noah was sick, so he and I stayed home today. We snuggled and read books and then he napped and I got some tidying up done. David took wonderful pictures of the hikers and the waterfalls and when he brought the camera home, I took this picture of our flag. Happy Memorial Day!

Day 149: Foursquare

The kids believe that if we were ever to sell our house, we should list the built-in foursquare court in our driveway as its best feature. Those four squares, a ball and good friends make for a wonderful afternoon.

Day 148: Theater Trip

I took five delightful children to the theater this afternoon to see a production of "A Wrinkle in Time". Great children's theater just minutes away is one of the many benefits of living in a city.

Day 147: Joyful reunion

The kids REALLY missed David this week. So did I. We had a very happy meeting at the airport this evening.

Day 146: New shoes

The new shoes are Johnny's, on the left, but here is the shocking thing (even more shocking than the price of the shoes): my first-born now has bigger feet than me. Oh my goodness, what happened to my baby?

Day 145: Noah's science project

Noah (aged 3) has to submit a science project to his school's science fair tomorrow, so, this afternoon, all four kids and I experimented with dyeing carnations with food coloring. Curiously, the red food coloring didn't work, but the other flowers look fabulous!

Day 144: Styling her own hair

I think that my life is pretty full normally but with David out of town (indeed, out of state) for the week, I am really being kept busy. I appreciate you, honey! Anyway, this was the only photo I took today, on my cell phone again, while we were waiting for Johnny's guitar lesson to finish. I was complementing Anna on her pony tail, which she did herself this morning. I panicked after the kids left for school at 8:30 am, realizing that I hadn't even brushed her hair, and assumed that she had spent the day looking like a scarecrow. But, to my great relief and pride, when I picked her up from school, she was wearing her hair like this, which she had managed by herself and which survived a whole day of school and a gymnastics class.

Day 143: After swimming

The kids and I just figured out how to send photos from my new cell phone to my email address - another device with which to take pictures for this blog!

Day 142: Limo ride

Daniel and his fellow piano students took a stretch limo ride this afternoon - he had such a great time!

Day 141: Last game of the spring season

Daniel is number 21. Their team won 6 - 2 - a great end to the season!

Day 140: Deciding what to plant

I think next year we will plant more from seeds, but since the children and I are going to be in the UK for two months this summer, we are putting a few flowers and vegetables in our raised beds that David can look after while we are gone. Daniel was eager to try growing these Italian peppers.

Day 139: Getting his hands dirty

We planted our tomatoes today. Now that the election is over, I am excited to have more time to garden (and tidy the house, plan our trip to the UK, talk to my family...). And speaking of the election, as of today,  with a few more votes counted, we are two votes ahead... a recount is almost certain...

Day 138: I'm speechless...

So we went to bed last night 17 votes ahead and woke up to find ourselves 27 votes ahead. Shortly after 2 pm, the Multnomah County Elections website updated with the result in the picture. As of now, our Parkrose School District bond measure is losing by ONE vote. It may not be all over yet - the results won't be certified until early June - but our kids have certainly learned that, truly, every vote counts.

Day 137: Election Day

Well, it is 11:10 pm and I had assumed I would be reporting on the results of the election today. However, the results have not yet been announced. The unofficial numbers released an hour ago showed our "Yes" campaign a nail-biting 17 votes ahead. In Oregon, all votes are by mail - but David likes to drop his ballot off at the library and he always takes the kids with him and gives them a civics lesson. 

Day 136: Accessories

School uniform is a khaki skirt, dress or trousers and a white, green or black polo shirt, but there are fewer restrictions on footwear, which means a girl can always accessorize with stripy tights and cowboy boots.

Day 135: Guitar practice

Hawaiian shirt and a guitar (and a hair cut) - I think he is ready for summer... 

Day 134: Last weekend before the election

Both last Saturday and today, the kids and I were at our local Farmers' Market encouraging people to vote yes for the school bond measure. Johnny held up this sign for two and a half hours and got two hundred honks!

Going On Vacation

I live in Portland but I am going to England for the summer.





This is some decoration on the ceiling in the airport.





This is a picture of a plane at the Portland airport, though it isn't the plane we went on.





I love this view from the airplane, though on the second flight we could watch movies and I watched Chicken Run and a couple of television shows. We arrived safely at my grandparents' house in Chelmsford. I am very excited about the vacation!

Day 133: Red racing cart

Little makes Noah happier than arriving at Fred Meyer and finding that the red racing car shopping cart is available. 

Day 132: Nails

Today, Anna had her first salon manicure - a well deserved reward for having stopped biting her nails. I got a manicure at the same time - it was a lovely mother/daughter treat!

Day 131: My bedtime snack

Non-fat plain yoghurt and REALLY good granola - every night!

Day 130: Ready - fence!

Daniel moved up from the beginner fencing class to the intermediate class today. He is doing great - although he ended up facing opponents with considerably more experience - and height!

Day 129: A new project

I've knitted a number of sweaters but never before a pair of socks. Love the yarn - we'll see how this goes...

Day 128: Mother's Day gift

In addition to five cubic yards of soil for my raised beds, the other part of my Mother's Day gift was the labor it took to fill them. My boys worked so hard all afternoon (Anna did too, but I didn't get a picture with all five of them shoveling dirt at the same time). The beds are not quite done yet but they'll be ready to plant soon. I also was given some lovely treats from The Body Shop - I feel very appreciated. This Mother's Day, I've been particularly reflecting on how fortunate I am to be a mother - what a privilege...

Day 127: Capitulation

I had been priding myself on being the only adult left in the western hemisphere without a cell phone, but today I finally gave in.

Day 126: Spring Green

Remember this? Here are the kids walking home from school again in a different season...

Day 125: Vehicles

We are a family of six and, by my count, we usually have eight vehicles in our driveway - two cars and an assortment of bicycles and ride-on toys. How all four kids love their bikes!

Day 124: Dirt

To Noah's immense delight, a huge dump truck made it up our steep driveway, dumped five cubic yards of dirt for our raised beds, and then reversed back down to the street. I would have loved to have taken a picture of the dump truck but the driver was so concerned about the narrowness of the driveway, I was afraid he would think I was documenting his driving skills! Noah couldn't wait to start digging... hopefully we can get planting this weekend.

Day 123: Portland Timbers, here we go!

Johnny and Daniel's soccer team, the Spartans, had the privilege of leading the Portland Timbers MLS team on to the field at the beginning of tonight's game against the San Jose Earthquakes. You can see Daniel standing right in the middle of this picture, while the national anthem is sung. It was an incredible experience - too bad the Timbers lost in the final seconds of over-time...

Day 122: Macbeth and my ipod

This photo blog is really about things I love (which are legion). Here are two more things I love: my ipod touch (which came free with our new Mac - what a bargain!) and teaching Shakespeare. I have the audio book of "Macbeth" on my ipod so my students get to hear the some great actors speaking the parts as they read the play for the first time. It's a great blend of centuries-old writing and modern technology - and I love it!

Day 121: Piano Recital

The recital theme was "A Night in Hollywood" and Daniel played a medley of Star Wars themes. He told us his hands were shaking, but he sounded (and looked!) amazing - as did the other 42 students of his wonderful piano teacher. What a special evening!