Country Morning Coffee

It's amazing how interesting wooden blocks can be when you are in a new place. 

Science Unit Picture

This was from earlier in the school year. 

Preschool Thanksgiving Party

Novak really enjoyed his preschool Thanksgiving party.

Halloween 2015

Happy Halloween from a Pokemon trainer, Batman, and a soldier. 

In case you needed a little help...

Special day with Papa

Every night before bed, I talk with the boys about the things they are thankful for about their day.  With Novak, I ask him to share a good thing about his day. 

Today Novak got to spend all day with my dad. He was so excited to have "special time with Papa." 

So tonight at bedtime, he told me he wanted to share five good things.  (This was a first!)

1. School

2. Blowing bubbles with Papa

3. Playing ball with Papa

4. Watching football with Papa

5. When Papa bangs on his tummy and makes a funny noise. 

:)

Spike!

Nile wanted to spike his hair today. 

I love that he did this himself and that he gave me permission to post it. 

Last year of preschool!

Novak had his first day of preschool on Friday, September 11. This was just a one hour "open house" for the kids to meet their teachers and classmates. He is in the 5 year old pre-K class, and there are only 7 of them this year. Many of his preschool friends from last year are in the 4 year old class, which meets at the same time but in a different classroom. They share playtime, and so he was really excited to see his best friend, Lyla. He had been talking about her almost all summer. Turns out she had been talking to her mom about Novak all summer as well. 

Once those two found each other, they were inseparable for the rest of the open house. I wanted to try and take a photo, but couldn't keep up with them. Neither wanted to leave after an hour, and it was really hard to get them to go. It may have required a mention of the candy that was next to the door on the way out...

After the open house, as we were driving away, I hear from the back seat:

"Mom, I really love my school."

First day of school

Okay, so it was almost two weeks ago. I'm late on blogging. 

At least they were all smiling this year. 

Nate, 5th grade

A friend took this on the playground at school. 

He's growing up too fast. 

Oh, how I love this child. 

Unknown prairie flowers

One of the exciting things about growing our native prairie is finding the new plants that come up each year. This year, with a second-year prairie planting in bloom, is no exception. Allow me to introduce...the two newest mystery plants. 

This red-orange flower is on a tall spike with tiny leaves. 

This short purple flower is connected to the awesome 9-loved leaves below. 

Portland Vacation Day 3 - the coast!

We had to take one day of vacation and make a trip to the coast. Tom had never been to the Pacific Ocean before, and I had only briefly seen it on a family vacation years ago. 

We headed out early-ish Wednesday morning for a drive out to the coast. The forecast was for clouds and a bit of rain so I wasn't quite sure how it would be. 

We headed first to Astoria, Oregon. The first place we went was this little coffee shop on a pier. And when I say it was on a pier, I mean that we had to drive on a wooden deck/road/bridge to get to it. It was kind of nerve wracking.  So much so that I didn't get a picture. So here is one thanks to Google. 

Yes. We parked on. the. dock.

The coffee was great though, and the scenery was pretty good too. 

 

It was still cloudy and cool, and I was regretting my sleeveless dress (more on that later).  I almost bought a Coffee Girl sweatshirt to take the chill off, but at $40 I didn't love it enough to own it forever. 

After coffee we hit (can you guess??) another brewery for lunch. I didn't take any pictures, but they had a beer called the Truffle Shuffle. You see, the movie Goonies was filmed in Astoria. I was in 80's geek heaven. We are definitely watching the movie with the boys very soon. 

We then set off for a drive down the coast. We stopped in Seaside at Seaside Brewery for a forgettable beer sampler. It really wasn't good at all. 

The first beach we went to was Arcadia Beach. Holy smokes, was this gorgeous. 

I took a minute to write a name in the sand. A friend from college and his wife lost a baby at birth and now they collect photos of her name written in the sand from all over the world. You can see the wave coming - a second later this name was washed away. I barely got the photo. 

After this beach we drove further down the coast to Oswald State Park. Here we found a beach that was so far off the road you had to walk down a heavily forested path along a creek to reach it. You don't see this in Illinois. 

Yes, this is the way to the beach. 

Completely gorgeous. 

This is where that sleeveless dress came back to haunt me. Remember the forecast for clouds?  See the sky?  The sun was intense, but the air was cool, and I got a bit sunburned. I know better but, well, I know better. 

After this beach we headed back to Portland.  Our navigator (Siri) led us on a journey through 13 miles of tight S-curves before reaching a main highway. Apparently there is no shortcut or easy way through these (mountains? Hills?). 

Portland Vacation Day 2

On Tuesday, we decided to just stay in the city and explore a little bit on foot. 

We started with a run in Forest Park. This park has 80+ miles of trails - talk about a running and hiking paradise!

The pictures don't really capture how beautiful this place is. The trees are dark and the shades of green are so beautiful. It was also 58 degrees - perfect for running. 

The main trail/road has nicely marked miles. 

This was a really cool valley. 

After running we went to a coffee shop, then headed back to the hotel to shower. The rest of the day was shopping and visiting breweries.  I found a local yarn shop and bought some beautiful yarn dyed by local artists. 

I've sampled more beer in the last few days than I could have ever imagined. Believe it or not, this is a coffee stout. It tastes just like an iced coffee. Amazing. 

Portland Vacation Day 1

Tom and I are on a kid-free vacation to Portland. Our first trip away alone in what feels like forever. 

We arrived Sunday evening and visited a few breweries and ate dinner. On Monday, we headed to the Mt. Hood area to see waterfalls. And oh, did we see waterfalls!

The first one, Latourelle Falls, turned out to be our favorite. Probably because there was nobody else there. It was also beautiful. :)

We then hit Bridal Veil falls, which was a nice 0.3 mile "hike":

(I wasn't brave enough to climb out on the rock.)

I think this was Wahkeena Falls. We ran into a family wearing Hawkeye gear here. 

The last one, Multnomah Falls,  is the most famous tourist attraction in Oregon. The parking lot was packed and the visitors center was full. (This is why we loved the first waterfall best. No crowds.)  But it was also gorgeous. 

After the waterfalls we had a lunch at Thunder Island brewery. Just look at the scenery. 

After lunch we debated whether to drive north to see Mt. St. Helens, or drive south to see Mt. Hood. We chose Mt. Hood. We were surprised that there wasn't an official route, but we were able to find Trillium Lake, which was gorgeous and offered postcard like views of the mountain. 

This view?  Doesn't stink. :)

That was pretty much the end of Day 1. We drove back to the hotel and went out for dinner and a few drinks at a bar. 

Pollinator Paradise

I love our backyard prairie. 

Budding chef?

Nate has decided tonight that instead of reading books (maybe his favorite thing in the whole world), he is going to create a recipe for a chicken wing marinade.