Sledding with jumps

Today we went out for some sledding jumps on our neighbors hill!!

Something worth watching...

This is what we watch during breakfast or lunch.

Random pictures...

shake mama's head

keenan and his buddy wyatt

making cookies for road party with sugar treats and hot drinks

Holiday activity...

Michelle and Keenan worked on this project together, making felted balls! They are soft, colorful and thanks to Michelle's artistry very decorative. The general process in make ball from yarn or something like cloth scraps, wrap in colorful felt and chook chook chook with the felting needle for a long time.

canadian thanksgiving?...

We went to Montreal for thanksgiving. Had lunch at a French-y restaurant. Lamb and french fries and whitefish and calamari and wine were consumed. Dessert was a raspberry light cake thing. No crowds and no clean-up!! After we went to the botamical gardens. Granny was waiting in the cafe of the botanical gardens when we had the camera snapping away.

6 AM...

It was 6 in the morning. I had just made a cup of coffee. Keenan emerged from his bedroom fully prepared to defend our castle.

treehouse...

Here is the treehouse that Keenan and I have slowly pieced together from scrap wood over the last two years. It has been a process where there is no planning. We just gathered materials from our yard and started building. First we put the upper platform up. Then the walls. Then the stairs and lower platform. Still to come are the bucket on a pulley, telescope and door. He has done some hammering, some obstruction and some design.

dio de los meurtos halloween scary toes...

Our wonderful pumpkins and Keenan/papa action. We enjoyed the surreal Plainfield parade and trick or treating. Then it was off to Granny's in Montpelier for a bit more trick or treating and candy consumption. Keenan was a fire dragon and I was ugly and scary.

exciting cardboard box video...

october ride...

Went for a lunchtime ride this past thursday. Too beautiful to resist! Rode along the back roads from Waterbury to Camels Hump and somewhat beyond. Stopped at the dam.

monarch action...

A few weeks ago Keenan found a Monarch caterpillar on a milkweed plant at the end of our driveway. We brought it inside and watched as it formed a chrysalis and then a few weeks later...pop!

nice tomatoes...

Wouldn't you agree? It's our first good tomato harvest so far...Yum.

garlic harvest 2010!!!!

built some drying racks

pulled up the garlic

yum

more yum

wheelbarrow full of yum

peeling off the outer/lower leaves

peeling off more outer and lower leaves

yum 102 times

close-up garlic yumminess


Did I happen to mention the idea of yumminess yet? Today we built some drying racks and did the big ol' 102 heads of garlic harvest. Almost enough for the whole year! Tonight for dinner we had pasta with tomato sauce that had, yep fresh garlic. We also had some Cyrus Pringle bread (an entire loaf to be precise) spread with astounding amounts of aeoli.

4 years and 4 months and two wheels...

Here is a video with audio of Keenan on his pedal bike after 10 minutes! I cannot sing the praises of the Strider balance bike enough. For the last 1 1/2 years he has been scooting around on his balance bike. Essentially a bike with no pedals. It is supposed to be much easier for them to learn to balance without pedals. Once they learn how to balance, riding with pedals is pretty simple.

fish and green things...

Summer has arrived with it's glorious heat and explosion of greenness and mowing. The strawberries we planted last year are blooming like crazy. Keenan holding up the first brook trout of the year. He has on face paint from an earlier event, he is a snow tiger. Asparagus but we can't pick until next year. And, of course, peas!

I had a great birthday. It was spread out over a number of days. Michelle and I had a real stay out until midnight date while Keenan had a sleepover at Granny's place. The morning after our date I went on a nice bike ride all morning. All of my birthday cards arrived exactly on my birthday, don't know how everyone pulled that off.