My Birthday Week

I just love celebrating special days surrounded by little kids. All week, there has been whispering and planning and little scurrying feet running around gathering supplies for secret projects. The girls and John made my birthday so special. Ginger was sad that it was a school day on my birthday, but kindergarten is a pretty fun place to be on a birthday.

John asked Ginger what she wanted to give me for my birthday and she said a book, since I love books. He asked her what kind of a book and she suggested a craft book. How thoughtful! She got me a soap making book and train stickers (that she insisted I share with her). Ruby made me a fabric covered book that she and John bound together. She included a sweet dedication that is so touching. She worked really hard on this. John bought me the most awesome bag from Irenes’ made by Appetite. I just love it.

I got to chaperone with Ruby’s class on their field trip to the pumpkin patch.  The next day, I took my own class to a different pumpkin patch where I got to drive the hayride tractor out to the field! On the bus with Ruby, we sat with one of her new friends. They whispered and giggled the whole way there, it was too cute.

It was an amazingly beautiful week full of sweet small moments. I am a lucky girl.

Pumpkin Patch!

This has been the most incredible fall! We are in peak leaf season right now. Every view, even in a parking lot, is breathtaking. It makes me so giddy! I love fall and feel so lucky to live in a place with fall color.

This weekend we visited “our” farm, Gathering Together, for a CSA member pumpkin harvest celebration. It was sunny, about 60 and I was so excited. They welcomed us with freshly made potato donuts, hot apple cider (from a friend’s farm – La Mancha – the best!), chips and house made salsa, coffee, and house-made wine! We saw a bunch of friends, including one of my students. 🙂 Then we gave ourselves a little farm tour (we didn’t wait for the farmer to give us the hayride), walked out to the huge pumpkin patch and hunted around for just the right ones.

It was the perfect day.

10 Years!

Newport Bay

John and I recently celebrated our 10 year anniversary (!) by retracing our steps of our honeymoon. We both grew up in Florida and lived there until 8 years ago. Neither of us had been to Oregon, but we both had a pull toward it and decided to travel here on our honeymoon. We actually stayed a night in the town we now live in because John thought there was a chance he would apply to grad school here.

Boiler Bay

Bob Straub State Park

My parents came out for a couple of weeks and John and I left the girls with them – our first trip away from them – while we drove up the coast, ate our way through Portland, and spent some time in wine country. It was my first vacation away from the girls. I went away for a few days to visit friends several years ago, but I’m not sure if that counts because I was pregnant and sick the whole time. 😉

Bob Straub State Park

Cape Lookout State Park

We stopped on a whim at Cape Lookout State Park and hiked along a steep, rainforested cliff hoping for a clearing and view of the ocean. It was one of my favorite things about Oregon – the wet, green forests full of ferns and moss that open up into incredibly dramatic views of the ocean.

Cape Lookout State Park

Twin Rocks

We stopped for the night in a small, loveable coastal town in a motel that looked out on the ocean. We were charmed and dreamed of having a place of our own on this coastline.

Manzanita

I missed the girls terribly, but enjoyed the spontaneity, leisurely pace, and ability to do things that we couldn’t have done with the girls tagging along. I’ll try to post more adventures from Portland soon. These photos were all from the first day!

Ruby is six!

I can hardly believe that I have been Mama for six years. I am insanely proud of this girl.

Ruby’s birthday fell on a school day, but John took the afternoon off to help us celebrate after she got home. We baked cupcakes and opened gifts – including the card that Gigi wrote by herself and the gift she gave Ruby – noodles. “Because I know that Ruby really loves noodles.” Ruby was gracious as she opened each gift, oohing and aahing over everything; appreciating the thought, time, and effort that went into choosing and making each special present for her.

The next day, we hosted a small birthday party for her – a pink and purple ice cream cone party at her request.

She painted ice cream cones for the invitations.

We hung giant ice cream cones on our front porch to greet Ruby’s friends.

The kids dressed up their ice cream cones with seriously delicious toppings that Ruby picked out at Trader Joe’s (easiest party idea ever).

Then outside to burn off some sugar and enjoy the perfect weather! The girls took turns racing each other with “waffle balls” balanced on top of ice cream cones. Ruby is concentrating very hard.

This kid is growing up way too fast for me. Ruby still loves to snuggle up and read with me, but she is somehow old enough to have two wiggly teeth too. She has taught me so much, these past six years. I’ve learned more about love and letting go than I imagined possible. She has always had a fiercely independent spirit and challenged me to honor that. Ruby observes and memorizes details, loves to play with Ginger, and speed read her chapter books. She is thoughtful and wise and my hope is that she holds on to her strong sense of self while remaining compassionate towards others.

This is one special six-year-old.

 

Three!

My sweet little Ginger turned three!

We had a quiet celebration with the four of us at home. (We had big plans, but alas, Ruby was very sick and on breathing treatments every four hours. So sad! Plans are postponed.)

Ginger’s only requests were for treats. She named everything she could think of in the weeks leading up to her big day. In the end, I decided for her and made a chocolate cake with chocolate filling and cream cheese frosting.

She was thrilled.

Gigi is a silly little girl, always making funny faces and jokes. She is super smart and already starting to read! She is the absolute sweetest kid. She’s the first one to cheer someone up, crawl into your lap for a snuggle, and give sloppy kisses. I couldn’t love her more.

A Valentine’s Day full of love

I love celebrations with little kids around. Every thing is such a big! deal! We hosted a little Valentine making party for some of Ruby’s friends the weekend before the big day. There was paint and glitter all over our table, surrounded by very focused little girls.

Ruby made lovebugs.

We made salt dough hearts that some of the kids painted and glittered for their Valentines. We made a bunch of these years ago that we hang as a garland each February.

We had a little heart tic-tac-toe game out for girls to play when they needed a break.

And some strawberry ice cream sandwiches to munch on.

I made Gigi stuffed kitty.

John got a sleeve to the sweater I’m knitting him and special pencils. He gave me two boxes of cookies from a favorite far-away bakery – so thoughtful and delicious! I knit Ruby a scarf to keep her warm and “snuggled with my love” as she said (heart melts).

But the best part, by far, were the sweet little notes we all got from each other.

Abundance

We just got back from a week long trip in Florida to visit family (including my two new nieces!) where we were surrounded by so many people we love and who love us.

Yesterday was my birthday, which doesn’t get much better than when you celebrate with a 5 year old. There was much whispering, running feet, and surprises.

I started my day at the breakfast table with my little family, opening handmade cards from the girls who were so proud. John gave me a wonderful gift and then explained that he wanted to get me something special this year because we had such a stressful summer and I took the brunt of it.

Photos by Melissa Shontz

Partly because I have been in such a tense state the past several months, I am walking around filled with such deep appreciation these days. I love my beautiful family, our bright fall colors, our backyard, a warm cup of tea.

I am a happy girl.

nine

Oh, life is a bit of a roller coaster right now. My good friend said that I’m acting like I’m pregnant (which I’m not). One minute I’m able to be grateful for all that is well in the world and turn our fates over to the universe and trust it will all work out right. The next moment the power company is at our house to fix something that came up on inspection for free and he tells me he won’t and I’m fighting back tears.

Let me catch you up. Our house is under contract already! The buyer is a wonderfully sweet woman who appreciates our home. Now we’re negotiating inspection stuff and waiting for the appraisal. We are house shopping and getting excited and nervous and depressed and anxious and thrilled and hopeful all at the same time.

But last week, we took a little break from all of the drama. John and I celebrated our ninth anniversary! We agreed to keep things low key (we already celebrated with an incredible dinner out while my parents were visiting). But he surprised me with a bottle of wine from a vineyard we visited on our honeymoon and I surprised him with a decadent chocolate cake.

Don’t worry, Ginger, we’ll share.

Over the wine, we remembered our honeymoon and our other travels together. Our first, was kind of a make-it-or-break-it trip and I think deep down we both knew it. About 6 weeks after we started dating, we packed up his VW bus and drove across the country. We camped for over almost 6 weeks on the beautiful California coast and the insanely hot desert of the southwest. We laughed, shared our past, I learned how to drive the finicky stick shift of a car older than me while stuck in traffic of a big city on a bridge (that may have been the last time I drove that car, actually), dreamed of our futures, John discovered that he should always have some food on hand for me to avoid lots of grouchiness, visited the Grand Canyon, “fine-tuned” the mechanics of the bus, and just plain learned how to be together.

broken down – I think in Mississippi

The past nine years (eleven if you count the two before we were married) haven’t all been my best, but I couldn’t have made it through the tough times without John by my side. We are still ridiculously in love with each other even though we’ve each changed so much. Strength comes from love. That’s how I always know I can get through the hard times. I am in love and I am loved.

Ruby is FIVE!

I am exhausted. This has been quite the month. Let’s see…Ruby graduated from preschool and turned FIVE (on the same day!), my parents came to visit for a week, the girls both got pretty sick (we actually had to postpone Ruby’s birthday party because I took her to urgent care with a double ear infection instead), and…oh yes, we decided to sell our house.

We love our house for so many reasons. But we’ve always known this was a temporary home for us. We thought we would move in a couple more years, but decided that before Ruby started kindergarten would be better to cut down on big transitions for her. John has been restoring our kitchen cabinets which quickly went into overdrive mode along with purchasing a new furnace (ouch, that was expensive), repainting the front porch, lots of decluttering, and some over-due normal spring cleaning/maintenance.

So, um, I’ve been a little preoccupied. Luckily, I had a theme for Ruby’s party in mind ages ago. She is so excited to go to kindergarten and I used to teach kindergarteners, so we had a kindergarten birthday party. We welcomed her friends and asked them to pretend our house was a classroom. We made centers for them to visit – writing, calendar, library, construction, dramatic play (restaurant), dress up, and art got cut at the last minute (just like in real schools) because I just didn’t think I could deal with the space and mess issues of it ON THE DAY WE LISTED OUR HOUSE. Yes, her party was the same day we listed. And a realtor tour was the next day. Yes, I was insane during all of this.

I made some simple decorations (inspired by One Charming Party) and cupcakes, John made the favors (similar to these but he used different materials) and we just tried to relax and enjoy the day. The girls had a great time and there was a lot of giggling in the dramatic play/restaurant center.

It was just what we needed. Cupcakes and giggles.

My baby is 2!

Ginger is two. I don’t know how that happened either. We celebrated in our little family and made the day special for her.

She opened presents.

She ate a lot of blueberry pancakes.

She relaxed in a comfy chair.

She patiently waited for cinnamon cake with chocolate frosting…

…and then devoured it.

And just like that, she’s two.