Nature Walk

We met some friends at the Audubon Trail for a little nature study. The kids climbed trees and logs, listened for birds when they managed to be quiet, and looked around.

We stopped for some sketching in our nature journals.

After our walk we had a picnic lunch in the park and all the children threw rocks in the river.

Nora's Birthday Tea

Nora invited three friends over for a tea party.

The other kids went to Mimmu's house so that the girls could chat in peace.

They made felt flowers to take home and played for a bit.
And made their own pizzas for dinner.

Friends from far away

Lydia and Lauren brought their mom to visit from Hawaii and be our first house guests.

We had a lovely time chatting and eating and hanging out. Now that the kids are a little older they remember each other from one visit to the next. And since we saw each other around Christmas it hasn't even been that long this time.

We're looking forward to our next meeting.

Henry's birthday party

Henry invited a few of his friends over to play and have dinner. They helped him get his new K'nex roller coaster started.

Everyone made their own pizza for dinner.

Henry used his new mustache straws from Anja for the root beer floats. They were the source of much hilarity.

Turning seven was thoroughly celebrated.

Helena's fifth birthday

Ilse came over to play in the afternoon and have dinner with us.

The menu was potato soup and rolls. Helena requested a yellow cake with pink frosting.

The coloring book from Ilse was a hit and Helena generously let everyone color in it.

Christmas coffee

We had some Finnish friends over for an afternoon of chatting and eating.

The table was set with our favorite dishes and decorations from Finland. It was such fun to visit!

You can see our Christmas tree in the background. I didn't take a single picture while we were decorating it on Wednesday. The big kids did a great job this year of distributing the ornaments evenly over the tree. It was a constantly changing display over the month as people refined the placement of favorite ornaments, but the tree always looked festive.

A wedding

A friend from our church had a lovely fall wedding. Mark and Henry stayed home to take care of Helena, so Nora, Penny, Millie, and I represented our family.

They had a brunch reception with lots of delicious food.

Penny was my helper that morning when we dropped some things off at the church. She is able to ask the same question repeatedly despite getting the same answer every time. 

We wish them a long and happy life together!

Halloween 2012

The night before we carved the pumpkins that the kids picked at the patch.

They had very thick rinds and Mark decided a knife was not enough. His solution was fast, and I think he enjoyed it, but a drill does spray pumpkin pretty far.

 This year we had playgroup on Halloween so it was a good opportunity to dress up.

There are enough kids that it's an instant party. Just for contrast, here's a playgroup Halloween stair photo from 2006.

And before we went home all the kids got treats from a few of the moms.
In the afternoon the kids put their costumes on again and went to visit one of our favorite neighbors. Then Aunt Liisa and my parents came over for dinner and we had the kids trick-or-treat at different rooms inside our house. They had a great time and we didn't have to be out late!

 

Oregon Coast

We had a great vacation in Cannon Beach.

Most days we made morning and afternoon excursions to the beach. The kids played in the sand and water and had a fantastic time.

The house we rented with friends was very close to Haystack Rock. The beach was just a short walk and a long flight of stairs away.

We made the traditional trip to Tillamook. We love cheese!

For lunch most of us had grilled cheese sandwiches and they were excellent. Nora and Henry had chocolate ice cream, just like they did four years ago. Helena chose blackberry. What flavor would you pick?

Nora found a tiny perfect sand dollar.

The big kids and I walked toward town one afternoon while the little girls napped.

 We tried to visit the history center but it was closed. The cannon they are standing next to is a replica of the cannon that washed ashore from the Shark and inspired the city's name.

Playgroup friends

 We brought some cupcakes the next day to our playgroup to continue Penny's birthday celebrations.

We have been so blessed by our playgroup. In the fall of 2003 a lovely lady in our church invited some first-time and about-to-be first time mothers to her house to chat and get to know one another.
At that time there were two babies and six moms. We had pleasant conversations in the quiet.

These days there are eight mothers and thirty-one kids.

Over the years people have moved away and others have moved here and joined our weekly meeting. Two years ago we had to split into two groups to meet in the winter. We meet at parks as long as the weather allows so that we can be together but we are currently too many people to meet at a single house. It's been such a gift to have these people around us all these years to share our lives.

Hiking

Mark, Nora, and Henry met up with some friends on a Friday morning to hike up Badger Mountain.

Everyone had a pretty good time. Nora was stung by her first bee when they were at the top. Henry was impressed with the rock steps that were built into the trail.

Roller skating

Nora's friend Jill had a skating party for her birthday and Nora was so excited to go. It was her first time on roller skates. She did a great job. There were a few laps of hanging on the wall, but by the end she was moving without support. She did fall, but she got up each time to try again.

Successful skaters.

Best of all, she got to share this "first" with Grace.

Running with friends

Another fun run, the last in our 8-day long "season." This time we met up with Grace and Ian to run. They are the ones that inspired this activity. This run doesn't attract a very large crowd. The weather was perfect and the kids had a great time. Ian led our pack and Henry came in second (about 12:30), Nora and Grace finished in about 15 minutes. Helena chose to walk just some of the course.

Trick or treating

The kids raided our costume bin and got dressed up. It's hard to get Penny to stay still for very long these days.This year we went to a "Trunk-or-Treat" put on by a local church with some friends. It was just our speed. We went while it was still light out, circled the U of cars in the parking lot and were done in about 20 minutes with a satisfying amount of candy.

Pumpkin Patch

This year we headed to a new and different farm west of town. Bill's Berry Farm is a lovely family-run farm. They grow apples, pumpkins, cherries, and blueberries.Our tour started with a talk on fruits and vegetables and some of the different varieties of pumpkins by Farm Wife Julie. Then Farmer Bill gave us a hayride out to the pumpkin patch to pick our own Wee Bee Little pumpkin. Penny was pleased to find a pumpkin she could carry around. There was a hay pile to climb over and through. (There were tunnels underneath.) We rode back to pet some of the animals and (after a thorough hand-washing) had fresh pumpkin doughnuts. It was a excellent morning with great friends and good weather. They run this little animal train on the weekends. The horse behind her is named Henry.