The Party Stache

(from August 17th)

This here is birthday party girl. She decided to go business casual for her guests. The party worked out alright. For some reason I never come away with many photos, entertaining and all, and trying to polish off a case of Yuengling all on my own. But there did seem to be a weird unintentional theme taking place that may not be typical to a four year old's birthday party.

And finally, for the first time, the kids were old enough to be awake when the movie started. Shut it down folks.

Getting Goods Away From Home

Weird day. Two year old birthday party, complete with Foo Fighters soundtrack and Yuula got cake AND a cupcake, of which she ate neither. Laura's boss's daughter turned two and she likes Hello Kitty. The girls had a lot to talk about.

Then we met more Home Goods people at a pizza joint by the university. Yuula stole their spaghetti and ate none of it. 

Aesop was intrigued with the pizzerias choice of lighting. I don't think he blinked for 45 minutes.

Keeping Her Happy

We've semi-neglected Yuula in all the home renovations, it's no place for a sticky-fingered grabby-hands to be hanging out, but we've managed to give her a few good times in between.

Sarah's birthday party was on Sunday, so that's a nice break from wood and metal and blood and tears. That's right folks, they're turning three this year.

 She had some surprise visitors keep her up til midnight playing soccer and dancing the evening to death.

And of course we've been making sure the evening play sessions reach their maximum intensity no matter how sore our backs may be.

The Great Cake Delay

For her birthday I made Laura dinner...

It turned out okay tho, I thought. I'm not a steak eater but I ate this one. The avocado spread was a little rich tho. But I do prefer boiled asparagus and the little potatoes were just fine. The kohlrabi/apple slaw is a curious sidedish and I enjoyed it as much as I expected to, not being a fan of slaw in general.

The kicker was that each dish incorporated ingredients from our CSA, garlic vinegar in the steak, garlic scapes and potatoes, slaw had the kohlrabi and mint, and asparagus had asparagus. Mmm.

The girls came over and colored with Yuula. Christine did caricatures of everyone. They're not worth seeing. Then the girls hit the town and stayed out pretty late.

I watched some clouds.

The cake would have to wait. Hope it lasts til next June 15th.

From Scratch This Morning

Any reason to make pancakes.

Amanda came over last night, with some wine and pizza and popcorn and frosted animal crackers. We traded her for some Portlandia and Idiot Abroad, both of which she'd never heard of. You're welcome. I don't know what the girls plans are for today, but I know there's a disaster in the shed that have been calling me at night, and I can't rest until they're cleaned out.

Aaaaaannnnnnddddddd begin.

Buhbye Bone

Bone is leaving for Barcelona in a couple days so the girls got together for one last pajama jammy jam, til May anyhow. Yuula put her right to work.

The evening went on pretty late into the morning, with another rousing set of Shut the Box, a relatively unsuccesful round of Spoons and we introduced the girls to something called vinyl records. They approved of their existence.

This morning I made them all pancakes, because I wanted pancakes and needed help eating them all. Then there was some playtime and they were on their way. Have fun in Barcelona. We will visit you. Or send us a postcard. Yeah, the second one.

I'd Be A Galapagos Tortoise

Stopped by the Goods after teaching today. Yuula likes surprising her mother and I tried out a new camera app. And dude at work bought us ice cream. We tried to convince ladies to see Inception and talked about what animal we'd like to be, if we could be any. Laura said Tyrannosaurus Rex.

Eating The Fruits Of Our Labor

Today was a big day. Laura picked some rhubarb from the garden that we dipped into sugar and ate for breakfast. Delicious. Then for dinner we had a salad made of greens from our very own garden. It was more delectable than I expected. Can't wait to get my hands on those carrots. Mmmmm, winter root soup.



Today was busy and exhausting. Laura had to transplant a few things, carrots and tomatoes. It never ends, apparently. Yuula helped.



I did more work on the new rock patio. Almost finished laying the rock, SO CLOSE. I concentrated on the retaining wall and actually completing a part of this job gave me some satisfaction. Tomorrow may be the day.



Laura went to the Pocono Bazaar to meet some girls and then dragged them back to the house and made them cook us dinner. Well done and sneaky.



Finally, to end a long and exhausting day, we planted some rose of Sharon along the outside of the rock wall. When these boys grow in it should be nice.



Laura just took the girl to bed. She did not take a nap today. Too much excitement. I took a little nap after dinner and now I'm ready for some more. Early day tomorrow. The clock is ticking.

On Quartering The Century

Laura is 25. Quarter of the way to 100. I bet she lives that long too. With a giant head of white hair and an amazing garden of rhubarb. For today she'll have to deal with some starter plants.



The plan for the day was to work in the gardens all day. We got out late and had to come in a little early because of an unexpected rain shower, but we got a lot done.





We got Yuula a pool for Laura's birthday. Everyday is Yuula's birthday.



The big surprise gift was a 1940's wrought iron glider. We've been looking for one for quite some time but could never afford their high three digit price tags. I came across one on craigslist last Friday for $20 and went on the offensive.



It is now ours. Needs some work but... $20!

Laura also got some birthday nannies to watch the monster while she did some much needed, much delayed work in the garden.



Now we're off to dinner with friends.

Aware & Hateful

We were speaking today, Laura & I, about how aware Yuula's become. She follows us around the room. We tested it. She turns her head to look at you when you talk. Sometimes. She figured out that she can make her duck jingle by kicking it. Breakthrough.



But I guess that becoming aware of your surroundings and developing senses also involves being scared and upset by things. Laura's friends Christine & Amanda came over last night, and even tho they'd visited Yuula on three other occasions with little to no tragedy, last night was not the case.



A cry usually reserved for intense moments of disturbance came out upon her placement into their laps. There was no soothing her, except for being given back to her mommy or daddy, which I gotta admit, I kinda like. We held Yuula safe from stranger danger, her eyes transfixed on the flaxen blondes across the room for a good 30 minutes.



Good news is she finally came around, and only after a few moments of habituation did she finally loosen up and crack a goofy smile. The rest of the evening went off as planned and the girls got their fill of baby-time, including an impromptu encore performance of Laura's baby-in-arm bounce/dance/seizure to Electronic Santa by Blazer Force, a new holiday classic under this roof. Laura planned a Christmas party with them. I wonder if I'm invited.