The monkey bucket

Last weekend Skadi was helping AB clean out the garage. You never know what you are going to find in there. Truly. I hate to admit that seeing Skadi in there reminds me of being a kid in my grandmother's basement and finding so many "treasures". There's motivation to finish cleaning it out!

Skadi found one item that she latched onto.

A small - 6" tall - galvanized aluminum bucket.

I bought a few of these before I had Leif - when I had time for crafty things. My plan was to punch nail holes in them and put candles in them for outside lighting. And I actually did this with one. And apparently the magazine that I got the idea out of used some professional technique and not the one they illustrated in the magazine because it did not work. I punched one hole and it dented the bucket, as did the next hole, and the next one...

If I remember correctly then AB took the other bucket and made a much nicer decoration with minimal dents. And we might have used it once.

I love the notion of crafty things, I am just not good at actually making them or using them.

Anyways, Skadi found the third little aluminum bucket and adopted it.

She came into the house with her bucket and beelined to her monkey collection courtesy of Aunt Tara who sent her about 13 monkeys for her second birthday.

Each monkey has a purpose. There is the bath monkey, the naughty monkey who is ALWAYS in time out, the big monkey that sits on the chair and causes distress if he isn't in the chair. There is the monkey with velcro hands and feet that Skadi hangs around her neck and waist. And the little monkey with incredibly stretchy arms, which has somehow wormed his way into Skadi's heart as the "favorite".

Favorite monkey was placed into the bucket and fits perfectly.

Favorite monkey has lived in the bucket for the last week and goes nearly everywhere Skadi goes.

And I recommend you don't mess with Favorite monkey and his new home lest you incur the wrath of Skadi.

I fear that this is a precursor to one of those rat dogs in a big ugly purse.

No offense of course.

Say what?

Skadi is terribly talkative. I used to always think that Leif was a talker... until Skadi started talking. Now Leif seems pretty shy to me, while Beaner talks and talks and talks. And sings and sings and sings.


We went to the doctor's the other day and I had a hard time getting a word in edgewise as she told the doctor about boats and life jackets and swimming and swim suits and invited her doctor to come boating with us (despite the fact that we do not have a boat).


Some of the funniest things have come about with her pronunciation.


Blueberries:


We eat LOTS of blueberries and always have them fresh in the house. Skadi, not really a blueberry fan, but the rest of us may turn blue like Violet Beauregarde someday. Skadi looks in my Kashi every morning and complains, "oh boobies in your cereal today". (Really, my boobies were not hanging in my cereal. My putting blueberries in my cereal keeps her out of my Kashi.)


The other day a container of blueberries fell out of my much to full fridge.


Skadi exclaims, "oooh! Look at all the little boobies all over the floor!"

Princesses:

Skadi is a touch fixated on the Princesses lately and so I ordered her Sleeping Beauty.


Skadi: "I want to watch Sleeping Booty!"

She requests dresses most every day, princess dresses. I am learning to give her a choice when it comes to getting dressed in the morning.

Me: "Skadi would you like to wear this princess dress or this princess dress?"

Once she selects one she puts it on, checks the "swing" of the dress be twisting her hips back and forth and singing "la la la princess la la la" in the mirror.

Saturday night I was telling V about this and she reminded me to keep in my back pocket, "would you like to wear this dress or THESE princess jeans!" I will need that particularly for those cold days when a dress just won't work.

Nakey:

I mentioned the other day that Skadi prefers her dollies naked. I am not sure I mentioned that Skadi also prefers herself to be nakey. She loves to strip down and run around. Then she stops running next to me and yells:

"Mommy! You say 'you my nakey bum girl'!"

So then I have to squeal, "there's my nakey bum girl".

It has become a touch interesting that Leif has had to join in this because if it generates attention for Skadi then it is certain to be even more cute when he does it. I remember feeling that way... as an older child... of a much much cuter younger sibling! Suffice it to say that then I end up with two nakey kids running around and I have to tell each of them how much I love their nakey bums.

I hadn't thought a lot about the implications of this until the other night Skadi was getting into bath and made an announcement:

"Mommy, I love nakey boys!"

September Goals

Since finishing (mostly) with Leif’s room I have been debating the path forward in our new house. There is so much I want to do that my decision has not been easy. Unfortunately none of them seem inexpensive. I am resisting the urge, now that our house has sold, to start buying everything at once. And truly, I can’t do this. I don’t want to do this. I want to take it a month at a time and really bring a room together with elements that I really want.

Instead of immediately jumping on one of the two rooms that *I* want to see done (formal dining room or bonus room) I am going to bend to the will of other people in my house.

I dream of a luxurious formal dining room with a table that seats 8, rich paint, new drapes and a new chandelier.

I also dream of an updated playroom/bonus room that has a wall unit for toy storage, media center to house a new TV and seating.

Both of these room updates require more cash outflow than I can justify right now. Though AB may give me the bitty shove I need in justifying the bonus room updates simply due to his “want” for a new TV. However he tends to look at me sideways whenever I start mentioning the formal dining room.

I have asked AB a few times which room we should tackle next and his answer tends to alternate between “nothing” and “the garage”.

How boring.

How uninspiring.

Then there is one other person who lately has been quite vocal on her needs.

Skadi.

The only person silent on the issue is Leif. Leif loves his mommy.

Skadi is still harping on needing her room painted. And she has BIG plans for her room!

A few common themes have been emerging in her décor choices. Some combination of purple, pink, yellow, green and blue are preferred and life would be grand if there were rainbows and dolphins.

When I was in 5th grade or so my mom redid my sisters and my bedrooms – we did lavender with rainbow wallpaper and so I am finding it a touch freakish that purple and rainbows are topping my daughters list. She would have been in heaven in my bedroom as a kid.

The September goal is twofold. I can’t put off the need to organize the garage any longer. Once the garage is organized we can bring the rest of our belongings from the storage unit and close out that account, thus saving a little money each month. So blah blah blah… the first goal is the garage.

But since I NEED a fun goal, a decorating goal, I will add in there Skadi’s room. It shouldn’t take more than a weekend to paint her bedroom. And her bedroom has everything it needs – I don’t need to spend money on her room aside from the cost of paint. AND I would like to get paint on her walls before we start bringing in boxes of stuff from storage to fill the kids’ rooms.

So there it is… my dual goals for the month of September – Skadi’s bedroom painted and the garage organized.

I need ideas for Skadi’s bedroom. I am not making the “error” I made with Leif’s bedroom at this age – I need Skadi’s room design to be appropriate not only for a toddler but through age 8 or so. (It wasn’t an error necessarily, and it worked out fine since we moved, but Leif was tiring of his “little kid” room.) I am leaning towards purple and yellow walls (if I can get that past AB – he is still buying into that statement he read 6 years ago that said a yellow bedroom will cause anxiety in babies). If I can’t fly with the yellow we will explore purple and green with maybe a pale blue ceiling. (I just don’t think I can do pink. Sorry Skadi.) I am thinking about maybe some big flowers painted on the wall… but that doesn’t have to be done immediately either.

Also on the list are little things from the prior two months:

-Touch up white paint in the foyer – requires matching the white color of the walls.-Buy a bench for the foyer. (I like this one .)

-Hang the mirror in the foyer. (Something AB has been avoiding like the plague. He even at one point mentioned LEAVING the mirror at the other house.)

-Stars on Leif’s ceiling.

-Paint lightsabers on Leif’s wall.

Dollies

When I was a little girl my dollies wore clothes.

Always.

I had a few Barbies - they were clothed. My plastic dolls were clothed as well. And when I got my Cabbage Patch doll (at probably a "much too old to have a Cabbage Patch Doll age") - well she had LOTS of clothes. And I still like clothes for myself too.

My daughter? Notsomuch.

Her dollies never have clothes on. If I put an outfit on one of them it is quickly stripped off as though it was most offending. My poor Cabbage Patch doll no longer wears clothes. The doll clothes make their way to a bucket eventually that is put away for some day when my daughter wants to put clothes on her dollies. I hope that will happen someday at least.

Skadi also has my Strawberry Shortcake Dolls. Their clothes, I am quite sure, were never, ever, ever removed. I found little tiny green and white striped tights on the ground the other day and resisted the urge to find the doll and replace the tights that had never before in 30 years been removed. I didn't do it. I instead put them in the bucket.

Then I was stricken by a most painful sight. One that no little girl or mommy should ever have to happen upon. It stuck out painful and made me shudder just a wee bit.

The Purple Pie Man?

His clothes were gone too.

Thankfully he had painted purple tights. But it struck me how nasty an old man doll can really be.

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Skadi was putting her dollies to bed last night and she informed me her doll's names.

"This one is Trixie," she said (named after the little girl in Knuffle Bunny).

Then she goes on to the other little doll in her other hand, "and this one is Ron".

Hmmm... wondering who Ron might be.

Leif's bedroom

So there is still a fair amount that I want to do. He needs another light in there because the black ceiling paint soaks up the light something fierce. The glow in the dark stars are missing off the ceiling still. And he needs some new furniture - a goal for the coming year to get him a great little loft bedroom set.


But since those things (except the stars and the light) are likely to take awhile, I will post the pictures of where we stand now.

Wear sunscreen!

I am home today and hoping to get a few things done around the house. However, I seem to have a throbbing headache to go along with the nose that feels like someone socked me good.

I went in yesterday to have minor out patient surgery on my nose. From 1991 to 1996 I worked in skin cancer surgery. One in four people get skin cancers and so I figured that given my fair skin and eyes, the fact that I grew up at altitude and the many, many sunburns I have had over my life TRYING to get a suntan. I would be there someday also.

Most of the surgeries we did were on retired people. We had the oddball ones in there - the young, gorgeous model redhead who was 38. The black man with a horribly invasive and misdiagnosed cancer (because skin cancer in African Americans is extremely rare). One uber-famous marathon runner in his early 40's. May, the 90-some year old with large cancers who was probably a case of elder-neglect/abuse. And then my favorite people too - like the elderly guy named Bob who had so many cancers that we used to see him every other month. Despite the fact that we could rarely "clear" the margins on his cancer because we would just run into another, he still was in great humor and would sit in my lab and chat and tell jokes.

I knew one day I too would be in having surgery for skin cancer, but didn't quite expect it to be in my late 30's and that my first would be a squamous cell carcinoma (in the world of skin cancer, the step up from the most common one and the step below a melanoma).

I wasn't terribly surprised to get the diagnosis of the spot on my nose and they quickly got me in for Mohs surgery, to track the edges of the cancer.

Worried? Not terribly. I knew exactly what they were going to do. I knew exactly what was on my nose. And in the larger scheme of things there are people I am close to dealing with a whole hell of a lot more than a bitty skin cancer caught early (since I knew what I am looking for).

AB went in with my yesterday as I sat on the other end of the knife than I was used to over a decade ago. (And the job that I still to this day dream about.)

Honestly I was less than impressed with this doctor mostly because I was used to my old doc I worked for who had a great bedside manner, was friendly, shook hands like a man (thanks to my dad and now my husband I have a severe aversion to wimpy handshakes).

I hadn't met him prior to the point of sitting under his knife. I told him that I was well versed in the surgery after having spent five years working in this surgery in the 90's. We compared notes a little, I was shocked to hear that he does 10-12 cases a day (we did 3-4) and the size of his lab. But he is also the only one for miles that does the surgery. Everything now was fitting in as to why I never saw him prior. He doesn't see any other patients, all his nurse practitioners do.

Then he offered me a job.

I laughed and politely declined citing the fact that I have a great job at The Lab and a graduate degree (i.e., nearly as much education as he does).

He proceeded to remove the offending spot off my nose. Then he stopped and talked to AB about doing laser surgery on his port wine stain - to which AB politely declined (a few times). Then he walked it to the lab.

And that was the last I saw of him. I sat for the next 2 hours in the waiting room with retired old men and their wives.

His nurse came out a half hour later to tell me it was clear and then they set me up for a closure, which I was stunned to find out was performed by a nurse practitioner. I asked a lot of questions about this and AB seemed skeptical, but we went ahead.

It needed stitches. And my thought was that I knew in my mind what Dr. S would have done and if her plan deviated much, then I would be raising a stink. She did exactly what my Dr. S would have done with the thousands of spots I had seen similar to mine. Loosened up the tissue underneath (hated that part), pulled it together with 3-4 dissolving sutures underneath and 6-8 fine sutures on top while flattening the edges so that I have a line down the side of my nose.

Yesterday I felt as though I had been socked in the nose. Today it just aches a little. Tomorrow I will work.

North (to Alaska?)

Leif received a baseball and a mit from one of his school friends for his birthday. He has been aching to get out and throw the ball around. The other day I sent him outside to "get started" and then I would be out shortly after.

Within seconds he was back in.

"Apparently," he starts (I love the way he uses this word), "when I threw the ball it disappeared."

"Where did you throw it?" I asked him.

"North," he tells me. (AB and I are stifling laughter - I didn't know he knew directions."

"Did you throw it over the neighbor's fence?" I asked him.

"No," he answers, "I SAID I threw it North!"

(Ball is still missing.)

She came!

It wasn't really intentional.

I had no plans to take my daughter's binky away.

Nor did I think she would really throw it away on her own.

Or that the binky princess was real and that she really would come!

Yesterday morning Skadi was getting dressed and asked if she could throw her binky away.

"Sure, if you want," I told her in a half daring way.

Plop. There it went into her trashcan falling under a couple dirty diapers.

I knew there was still one left somewhere, so while it was a monumental action, I wasn't terribly worried. Later that morning she found the other binky and was playing with it. I left the other now nasty garbage can laden one where it lay. Then I mentioned to Miss K when I was dropping Skadi off what had happened. She has been pushing for binky elimination for about four months now.

We got home last night and that second binky?

Nowhere to be found.

AB actually asked if he should grab one at the store? Nope, I replied, "let's see what happens". We agreed given that it was the weekend - if we got no sleep, at least we had the days to nap.

I changed Skadi's clothes to pajamas (the SAME clothes she went to school in! Just had to note that.) and she asked for her binky. I reminded her I didn't know where it was.

She asked a few more times while in bed, but seemed fairly accepting that it was gone and suggested that the binky princess HAD come!

She got a little weepy and yelled at the princess a few times, to which I responded, "Skadi you are a big girl now, you dont' need your binky, you wear panties now!"

She responded, "I NOT a big girl, I a little boy".

This morning she asked again where the binky was and I replied honestly, "I don't know".

"We make cupcakes today!" she told me.

So I am off to make cupcakes this morning to celebrate the fact that the binky princess did come! She really, really did!

I am a believer!

Theories on Go Fish

As Leif gets older the really funny comments have moved to Skadi's domain - while his have more thought to them. So a touch less belly laughs to them, more a wink of clever or pure and purposeful silliness.

We are at my mom's house for her birthday this weekend in Colorado. I was just putting Leif to bed, the light was out and we were still and quiet.

Leif: "Mommy are you older than grandma or is grandma older than you?"

NM: "Grandma is my mommy, and she turns 56 tomorrow. I am 37 and so that makes her about 19 years older than me!"

(Sorry mom, for divulging your age... but I have always been proud of your youthfulness.)

Leif: "Hmm, then she would beat you at Go Fish then right?"

NM: (Giggles) "Yes, I guess so."

Leif: "Yeah, you're not very good at Go Fish."

Dismal I tell you!

Most of the kids' books are pretty good. Love the Boynton books. Skadi loves them too. She is particularly fond of the Dora books, Goodnight Moon (which has to be read every night before bed) and also Yertle the Turtle. She LOVES Yertle.

Leif is now into having chapter books read to him. I started off with Little House on the Prairie - which he loved. And then we moved and apparently I packed the rest of the set. Must find them. We got a few Cynthia Rylant books, a Patrick Carman book about a park in Walla Walla and then AB started reading Harry Potter. I wasn't terribly thrilled about this, but let him go with it. At first Leif kind of balked. Hearing about Harry and his cousin and the room under the staircase, wasn't terribly interesting.

So AB skipped that section and jumped straight to Hagrid and his world has since been changed. They are nearly finished with book one.

So these are the good books.

There are other really, really bad books out there.

Let's start with "A Party in the Jungle". This one is so bad that whoever wrote it left their name off. It has no author. It's just a "glitter book" and available for a penny from many sellers on Amazon. Not only does the story drive me insane - an elephant named Toby is shy, but he is invited to a party and asked to dance and miraculously overcomes his shyness. This is not how shyness is overcome, I can tell you firsthand.

Add to that neither of my kids are showing signs of shyness. I think the book should hit the trash. Don't waste your penny.

The main reason for this is one sentence in this book. I can get past the simple concept of the book. But the sentence "Everyone came including a mouse to eat, sing and dance." What exactly is the mouse's purpose? To be eaten? So so very bad.

And Skadi loves this book. Of course.

It's the glitter.

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Moving on...

Tonight Leif picked out a book handed down to him from our prior neighbor boy. The Little Tin Soldier by Hans Christian Anderson. I was thrilled he picked this out. It was aimed at his age group with lots of pop up action and this is a classic author! My son was reading a classic with me!

Ok, has anyone read this story? Classics should probably just go away. I tried reading Robinson Crusoe to Leif a few months ago after remembering how much *I* loved that book. I was appalled. I put it away. Far away.

Back to the Little Tin Soldier. Great concept. A tin soldier made for a boy, gets lost, eaten by a fish, mom buys a fish at the market and cuts it open to find the lost tin soldier.

If it ended there I would have been fine. I would have remained a touch grossed out by the fact that they bought fish with guts inside, but fine.

But no, the story doesn't end there. It ends with the soldier being thrust into the fire because it was defective and the little balerina that fell in love with him jumping in after him and all that remains in the fire the next day is his head and her heart.

GULP!!

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Enter Captain Underpants. Another book passed on by the boy down the street.

Need I say more?

Actually even Leif isn't terribly interested anymore. He thought the concept was hilarious to start, but Underpants is currently lying under a huge stack of books awaiting the repair of the cheap book shelf in Leif's room.

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There is one last book of Skadi's that slays me. It is another one of those grammar violation books. Stay tuned...

(Because I am tired now and need to go to bed.)

One of those things I never thought I would hear myself say:

"Skadi! We do NOT dump soy sauce in our hair!"

Leif's room

So awhile back I declared that my July goal was to get Leif's room painted. For some reason I said that not really expecting I would get to it. Summer is always WAY too busy. Last year I took the summer mostly off from my goals.

Then we didn't know what to get Leif for his birthday. Actually I had picked something out and placed it on his wish list early. My plan was to order it after getting back from the trip to the cabin, before anyone would possibly be shopping for birthday presents for him. I got back and it was missing off the Wish List and sitting on our porch instead! Oh well - someone else thought it was a perfect gift for him and jumped on it.

Leaving us less then enthused about the remaining options. Leif is a hard kid to buy for. We did Legos - lots of them - for Christmas last year and so even though there are a number of sets he wants, we didn't really want to do Legos from us again. He has a bike. He isn't big into "toys". We have games and puzzles. AB and I went through the list and I continued to balk and say "no" everytime he mentioned a Wii. See we had agreed we would get a Wii for the family after the house sold (which it did this past weekend... another post for later). I did NOT want it to be a birthday gift for Leif.

Finally I suggested we decorate his room for his birthday in addition to getting him a few little things. AB jumped on this.

We picked out paint. That caused angst.

I had my notions on what colors we would use and then AB had to go and state that we really needed to have Leif pick the colors. I sighed and agreed... Leif could pick the colors of his new room.

This seemed like an acceptable idea until we went to Home Depot and he selected "yellow for one wall, blue for another wall, red for another wall, green for another wall and brown for the ceiling". Or something like that.

At which point I rolled my eyes WAY up in my head for AB's benefit.

Finally AB pulled out the blues and the greys in the Disney and Nickelodeon section and put them in front of Leif. He picked two.

Then for good measure we grabbed cans of high gloss red, green and black to paint lightsabers on his wall.

We got home and I slapped up samples.

Gag.

The grey looked like baby blue. The blue looked like... well it looked like blue. Bright blue. But I plodded on knowing it was what "Leif wanted". Not what *I* wanted, but *I* don't have to live in the room, right?

We tested the quarts and I admitted I could deal. Until AB gave me an out - "maybe that grey is too blue'ish".

I latched onto another grey and didn't look back. And I don't think Leif is any the wiser. And the new grey is a REAL grey.

Last weekend we painted two walls blue - the bright blue - the bright blue I can live with now that I got a real grey. Two other walls are painted grey. And the ceiling will be a deep navy/black color.

Leif likes it.

Skadi is downright thrilled.

Every morning she comes to get me and leads me by the hand to Leif's room where she declares, "it's SOOOO BEEEEEEAUUUUUTIFUL!" Then she leads me by the hand to her room and says, "paint my room now".

I hadn't planned on actually painting her room until she was a little older. Leif had a "toddler" room at the other house (the elephant on the wall), but by the time he was about 4.5 years old he was ready for something else. But I think I can finagle something that might have staying power... somthing that will latch her on now and still be "neat" when she is 5. Skadi has requested "green" and so I am thinking a pretty green with flowers painted on the walls. She loves flowers. And it would look good with her Dora accent stuff. Anyways... August/September goal? That would be Skadi's room.

We still need to finish the room off... the blue needs a second coat in spots despite having primer in it. The ceiling needs to be done. (AB needs to do the paint, I am a klutz, if you wonder why there is a strip of blue paint across the carpet it's because I was a klutz.) Then we need to hang up the characters - Ahsoka Tano, Obi Wan and then grandma Charlene bought Leif Yoda as well. I need to paint the lightsabers. We need to hang his moon light and move the stars on the ceiling from the old bedroom in the other house to the new bedroom.

We should finish a good portion of this this weekend. But given that we also have a birthday party to throw, and I am dying to get a pedicure (I WILL get a pedicure) - we may not finish until the 2nd weekend in August. Pictures when it is complete!

Then we will start planning Skadi's room.

Then hopefully our house will close on August 28th and I can think about tackling a room for me... painting it the colors *I* want and actually spending money to buy stuff for said room. Hopefully it isn't just a dream!

A girl after my own heart

Yesterday when we arrived at Farmer's Market:

Skadi: "Mommy, are we at Target?"

NM: "Nope."

Skadi: "Are we at Starbucks?"

Yesterday when we arrived at Home Depot:

Skadi: "Mommy, are we at Target?"

NM: "Nope."

Skadi: "Are we at Starbucks?"

Yesterday when we left the house to go for a walk:

Skadi: "Mommy are we going to Target?"

NM: "Nope."

Skadi: "I want Starbucks."

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Yesterday at home:

Skadi: "No mommy, I don't want to watch 'Doo Where Are You', I want to watch the Muppet Show 'stead!"

Skadi Speak Take Two

Yelcome.

Used in a sentence: "Yelcome."

Definition: "You're welcome."

Skadi Speak

"Papernose"

Pronounced "paper-nose" like it is spelled only as one word.

Used in a sentence:

"I need a papernose for the big mess!"

Synonyms: Kleenex or facial tissue.

And the big mess? That would be her nose. Ick.

Meet Bossy

Skadi gave her favorite baby doll a name a few weeks ago.

"Bossy"

At first I asked her if she was sure that was her baby's name? She looked at me like I was an idiot. Of course that is her name. And not only that, but it has stuck. It stuck with everyone at the cabin last weekend and Bossy plays a central role in Skadi's life.

Bossy never wears clothes, she has this horrible voice thing stuck in her chest like a huge pacemaker that when pinched just the right way (thankfully Skadi isn't strong enough to pinch it "just the right way") Bossy cries "wah wah wah" or "mama mama". Skadi isn't particularly fond of her crying - thankfully.

We were driving this morning and I saw a torn up doll that looked just like Bossy on the side of the road and was fearful that at some point I had put her on the roof of my car (we tend to do this) and drove off without her (we do this too - though usually with drinks or cell phones up there).

I was happy when we got back today and Bossy was laying in the middle of the living room floor.

How we speak

When Leif was learning to talk we laughed about a few things he would say. He tended to start his sentences with "Actually," a lot. We giggled about it and ignored it.

(Now he is on to using "Additionally" properly in his sentences which is also a crack up.)

Now Skadi is hitting that age of developing her own sentences and she has picked one up...

Starting her sentences with "Actually". Like as in "Actually, no."

First child, it was a fluke.

Second child... apparently one of uses "Actually" to start sentences quite frequently.

The one my daughter did NOT inherit from me is "see my panties".

She wore panties to daycare this week and was quite proud of them. Her teacher reported back to me that she showed most everyone her panties. Including Coach Brett, who she has met a whole ONE time. She got on the Tumblebus, pulled her dress up and said, "Coach Brett, see my panties!"

Oh so very proud.

On the phone last night with grandma she asked Skadi about wearing panties.

Skadi put the phone down and started pulling her pants down.

I picked it up, "did you ask her about her panties mom?"

"Yes," she tells me.

"Ok, she is showing them to you right now!" I told her.

4th of July Celebration

Leif, Cousin Hugh and Skadi on AB.

Sparklers are cool!


Getting ready for dusk and the big fireworks!

Skadi and Cousin Hazel

Beachcombing Part Two

Leif being goofy!

One muddy little girl.

Chasing Geoducks:

The Geoducks stick their long necks up through the sand and squirt. Oftentimes their necks are as much as 3" above the sand. They are amazingly strong. But the only one able to conquer them in our family was Skadi. She got ahold of one and yanked. Then came and handed me about an inch of Geoduck neck that had been dismembered.

See the stream of water below shooting up? That's a geoduck. We were constantly squirted as we walked by. One of the friends of the dismembered one even managed to hit Skadi square in the eye. She was none too pleased.

Beachcombing Part 1

Leif and Cousin Hugh out in the Geoduck fields.

Skadi found it very interesting that starfish eat at the center of the star. We found a few with clams stuck on them chowing away. Then she had to flip each star she found over to check to see if it was eating or not.

It's paint on her arm - not blood - nearly everyone asked that day. Nope, we were just lazy with getting the paint rinsed off. I had assumed it would come off in the sea water.

Leif and Hugh walking through the oysters. The big ones are Pacifics - not good eats this time of year. The bags are the seeded Kumomotos and Olympics, which got rave reviews.

Winny and Freya. We had a hard time keeping Freya OUT of the water when we first got there. Couldn't get her in the last few days. Winny loves everything about the cabin. The biggest surprise though was a visitor that latched onto her. She was lounging in the water and picked up a critter - a starfish. That starfish was a BEAR to get out of her hair! It took a good chunk with it.

A few of Leif's treasures - clams. Empty shells. Given their location they were probably emptied by us the night before. (Yum.)