Picking Strawberries with Nana

We went to Sakuma Brothers farm (a local from since the 1910's) to pick strawberries today with nana. Their u-pick field was a field of tall pokey weeds. The kids had a great time and there was also a track to ride in for the little ones.


Vance and Zoie are ready to go.
Where's Vance? He is missing from the last blue barrel. Scared little boy got out when the tractor (electric) started up.
Push Nana!
Picking strawberries is tough work! Good thing I don't have to do it as work during the summer.

Notice the big strawberry already in his mouth.

Cloth Diapers

Last week a large package came in the mail -- bum genius. 12 cloth diapers. When I realized I had every few diapers left for Vance, I decided to look into other alternatives besides disposables. They have worked great - Zoie likes to point out that Vance is wearing his new diapers and that they are being hung out to dry after I wash them. It will take about a few months for them to pay for themselves. But that's OK. http://www.cottonbabies.com/

How does your garden grow?

Radishs
Raspberries.
Cherries.
Garlic.

Wagon Fun

Gramma Alice stopped by today. And brought Frootie Tooties. We gave her strawberries, radishs, and garlic from our mini farm.

Run Youngren Kids Run!

Here are some pictures from the Wednesday track meet.


Vance made me take his picture. The hurdles are behind him.
Zoie is warmimp up. She has already ran about 200 meters. Notice Ty has come out to bring her back in.

There she goes again.
And she just keeps running!
And going!
Look at the arm movement. Zoie is in the middle with the white shirt and purple long shorts.

Track Meet

Zoie and Vance ran in their first track meet on June 18. They did great despite being 3 and 1. Zoie won the 5om hurddles and 50meter dash for the girls age 3. Vance got 2nd in the 50 meter dash in the boys age 2 catergory. He was more concerned about the knocked over hurddles than getting to the finish line.

I hope we can go every Wednesday during the spring.

Jean has posted her pictures. My battery is charging, so I will post pictures later.
http://the-youngrens-at-bow.blogspot.com/

No one's home

After constructing the greenhouse, Zoie needed to return the duct tape. I was putting Vance in the car to go get tomato plants, so I sent Zoie through the trees to the neighbors. She was gone awhile, shouted her name, but no Zoie. I know her, she is talkative and loves the chickens, but is scared of them. So I run next door and notice the neighbor's car is not in the garage. I am starting to get concerned. I knock on the door but know that no one is there. I walk out of the yard and am getting worried. I shout her name again and start thinking, how am I going to tell my mom that I can't find Zoie at the neighbor and other bad thoughts. Just as the thoughts were getting worse, I hear her voice and the door close.
"Mom, mom?"
"Zoie I am here."
With a sad face and tears, she says "They are not home. I asked Karl Norton (the cat) where they were and his friend (the other cat) and they didn't tell me."
"Zoie, did you knock on the door? Did anyone answer?"
"No, no one was there"
"Zoie, you can't go into people's house when they are not there. That is what the bad person did to us when we were not home (referring the break-in at our house about a year ago) and took all of our stuff.
Now the more concerned mom kicks in, "Were there any beeping when you went in?" I am now thinking that the cops could be on their way.
"No", she says.
We get into the car and I continue on about not going into other people's house when they are not there. I tell her that if the neighbor's car is not there, then they are not home. Poor thing felt really bad about the incident. But when we got home from town, the neighbors were home and she had to confess the story. The neighbor was not mad, thank goodness, he was more concerned or embarassed that the wife forgot to lock the door. He chuckled and the wife chuckled too later when they came over to see the ghetto greenhouse.
So, hopefully this is the only incident of this sort . . . . Thank goodness for good neighbors.

Fishing

We always seem to have a big puddle in the back driveway. On this day, Zoie and Vance were fishing in it. And they were catching fish. The fish were a black plastic bag and pieces of an old rag that were in the puddle. It was gross to me but they greatly enjoyed the adventure.

Summer Break Day 1 -- the Ghetto Greenhouse

Summer Break Day 1 -- I struggled through the weekend to do nothing as I was watching the kids play in the backyard. I have told my mom and friends that I had no plans for the summer but to just stay at home and hang out. Well, on day 1, my mom brought over some pepper plants for Ty for Father's Day. They looked so good that I knew they needed a warm place to live. So Zoie and I built a greenhouse out of recycled materials we found in the shop. Somehow they were 2 sets of boards that were the same size . . . I knew they have been in the shop for a while, so hopefully Ty doesn't say "Why did you use those boards?" We nailed together a base, then found the PVC pipes we used about 3 years ago for a different greenhouse and stood them up. We ran out of duct tape so we have to borrow some from the neighbors. Hopefully the wind doesn't blow it down and the rain doesn't fall too hard so our peppers and tomatoes will grow.

The Dirt Pile

I have what every parent wants. . . a 12 foot high pile of dirt in the vacant field next to our house. Zoie and Vance have enjoyed playing on it during the winter months but only for a short period of time. Now that we have had 3 days of sun (YEAH!), they have only played on the dirt pile. Last night they played for at least 1 1/2 hours, climbing up and sliding down. Today, they had 2 long stretches of climbing, sliding, running, throwing, digging, . . . they love just getting dirty. A little bit of Spray and Wash and Oxiclean getting every thing clean again. Now if I could just figure out a way to recycle the dirt they bring in to get it back out to the pile because I know by September all that dirt that was on the pile will have travelled into my house and hopefully got swept up or vaccummed up.

A flower for dad.

Don't you wish . . . .

Don't you wish you would be 3 and just sleep in your parents bed whenever you want to? Or have the "nice" smile and your brother has to have a funny face to ruin the picture? The life of Zoie and Vance.

Breakfast with Vance

Like Paul and I, Vance loves cereal. His favorites now are Apple Jacks and Honeycombs. He can eat 2 "normal people" bowls of cereal with milk. He loves to have me sit with him at the little table and share breakfast with him. (There are more pictures but I have a hard time uploading them -- maybe later)

Fort Ebey

Happy Birthday Patty!

June 5th was Patty's birthday. We had just visited her and the girls in Wyoming. So Zoie made a birthday poster for her and even wrote Happy Birthday on the top by copying my writing.

Dinner Time with Vance

As I was putting the pizza in the oven, Vance found the ice cream in the freezer (it is easily accessible by kids because it is on the bottom of the fridge). He got the ice cream scoop and a very small bowl. He was ready! He gladly exchanged the mini bowl for a normal bowl and spoon. The ice cream was his appepitizer. It is in the dairy group -- so that is good. Then he shared my pizza. He is such a picky eater that I did not stop him from taking a part my pizza. That's a good main course, with cheese and meat and tomatoes. And the bread/cereal group was a precursor to everyone's dinner. Zoie and Vance love Apple Jacks. But they need to eat them out of measuring cups that they get from the lazy susan. While Vance and I ate in the kitchen, Zoie enjoyed watching the 1985 edition of the Care Bear movie on demand, again for the 5th time this week.

At Home

A few pictures from around the house. Ty bought a new BBQ on Saturday and a little pool with slide for the kids. Despite the cool weather, Zoie played in it and wanted in on Sunday when it was a balmy 57 degrees. For a great laugh, watch the short video of Vance playing the Wii at the bottom of the entry.