Marin Moments

Just had to capture a few moments with darling Marin... My girl is growing up!

Face jewels

Ukelele performance at school

Making sure brother crosses the street safely

This sweet girl made a cake for our neighbor Heather, who
broke her leg AND nose on a walk with her dog. Little
did she know when we delivered our haul, that it was
Heather's birthday. WINNING!!!

Swimming date with friends

Zoup date with Mom

She is so precious to me

Cooking from her new gluten free cookbook!

Movies with siblings & friends

Wearing her favorite dress, doing her favorite thing

Marin's food masterpiece!

Colorado

Kyle's Aunt Maryanne passed away this spring, and amazingly all his siblings from across the country and both parents were able to attend the funeral in Colorado. Along with tons of cousins they never get to see, and grew up with. It was a very special time honoring Aunt Mare, and reconnecting with all those beautiful people! Warms the heart to be with people who are important to you. Especially family.

Baby animals

Well... as we were now down to only two chickens (living in their chicken mansion like indulged heiresses), we decided spring was the time to replenish the supply.

Marcus and Maddie both picked out new baby chicks, and just happened to choose the exact same breeds of their chickens that passed to the beyond.

Welcoming to the brood: Stripes and Sylvia (also called Sylvie for short)

Getting the coop cleaned out

Overalls :)

Getting our babies with cousins in tow

Still the queen: Goldie Popcorn

Outside time

Maddie and her newborn baby Sylvie

Weird: an egg inside an egg.
It's like Russian Dolls!

Baby Stripes in a pickle

I brought the babies to school and visited all three classrooms!

Max's proud presentation

Maddie showing off her babies

Stripes visiting school

We have to get this dog lover her own!

Our friend breeds puppies. Max's lifelong dream!

Missing teeth

I just have to take lots of pictures of Max and his cute and adorable missing two front teeth. Once those adult teeth come in, it's never quite the same... He may not be long in the tooth, but he is REALLY getting long in the hair. He is "growing it out". Oh boy.

Crazy hair day at school

More crazy hair

I mean... come on!!

Broadway series

Kyle and I have observed over the years how we are different when it comes to gift giving. He would rather get something like a tool that will last him a lifetime, and I would rather have a fun experience like an outing or a trip. So... every year gift giving is hard for him because I can NEVER think of what I want. I just don't think about stuff I want. BUT, last fall it hit me that I would love to take his gift giving stress away and also give myself the best gift ever - season tix to the Broadway Series in Portland. It has been the BEST thing ever, the gift that keeps on giving (built in date nights, fun variety of shows and musicals, a husband who actually someone enjoys theater)... DONE! And it has gone so well this year that I told him "if you get me next year's season tix, you are off the hook for both my birthday and Christmas"... DONE and DONE! (next year Hamilton comes too, eeeeek!)

We always take our picture by this silly art in the hall... ;)

Finding Neverland

American in Paris... Take 1

American in Paris... Take 2

The Illusionists (bad bad comedy, pretty good magic)
Julie was my date when Kyle couldn't make it to one of the shows!

Daddy daughter date

Kyle is still taking his little (big) girls out on dates :) This time it was Marin's turn, and they got all fancy and went out to dinner. You know, she is such a mixture of barefoot farm girl, and yet still enjoys her chance to shine. I love her so much! She seemed so grown up this time... Sniff sniff! I think it was the eyeshadow and lip gloss... (!!!)

Marcus and his folded ear

There is nothing quite like a title that just captures the exact situation. Marcus and his shenanigans can fill an entire volume of books, but for now we shall marvel at his amazing new trick.

While in Disneyland, he was fiddling with his ear one day, and figured out how to fold his ear inside itself. It's so ridic!! It's so hilarious, because ever since (so we are on like three full months of this), he randomly just shows up in life with a folded up ear.

This is our new "how we get strangers to chat with us out in public" situation, which from my history with him, is wide and varied. We literally get stopped everywhere we go, with people doing double takes "Is his ear okay?"  (or if they catch him actually folding it) - "is he folding his ear inside itself?" - I actually think with THIS particular parlor trick, we might get LESS comments because people are actually alarmed when they see it. I'm sure people are being careful not to comment on some poor child's birth defect or something. EYE ROLL.

In fact! Marcus had his 4.5 year old birthday celebration in preschool (summer birthday y'all), and his preschool teacher was standing with him in front of the class, while he shared his "All About Me" poster. As he is explaining each thing on the poster, the teacher notices his folded ear and feels a bit horrified (because she can't believe she never noticed this serious BIRTH DEFECT on this child before). Then as he is standing there presenting his poster, he casually just unfolds the ear and starts in folding it again. The teacher breaks out into giggles and says "Marcus! What is that you are doing with your ear?" and he just NO BIG DEAL is like "oh, I learned this in Disneyland". She was still laughing when I picked him up from class, and was bursting to tell me this story. OH MY WORD.

Then there's all the times he is like HEARING IMPAIRED because of the folded ear, and he's talking super loud because well, sound waves cannot break the folded ear barrier. "What? What did you say?  I can't hear you. What?" as he blasts my eardrums with his loud talking. I love him so.

So, without further ado, pictures of the folded ear.