on the road to lisabeula

And more Legos.  There have been loads more creations, of course– this is one I just happened to capture.

Hazel and I had fun making potato print cards for St. Patrick’s Day.  Hazel decided that the appropriate stamp to make for St. Paddy’s day was, of course, a pink heart.  Who am I to argue with her creative vision?

One of Hazel’s and Sam’s favorite games lately has been one they made up called “Cozies.”  Usually this means getting out all the cushions and comforters in the house, piling them up, and then burying themselves in them.  Sometimes they play baby and papa or mama, sometimes they bring stuffed animals into the game, sometimes they just hang out chatting.  There’s been lots of “cozy” play around here given the dreary weather outside.  During one sun break, they got to get cozy with papa on the porch for some story time.

Some of the things we’ve been up to around here:

• LEGOs, LEGOs, and more LEGOs (including the construction of the ship to end all ships: The Death, complete with rotisserie, as always)
• beading (Hazel has developed a new earring design for those without pierced ears)
• a beeswax version of Sam’s favorite video game, Plants vs. Zombies
• death-defying tree-climbing in a leotard
• garden planning
• a few visits from Nick and Camille which Hazel attempted to document on camera

What fun to discover the Mad Libs app for the iPhone.  They’re just as fun and silly as I’d remembered.  And Hazel and Sam are getting an early lesson in parts of speech.

We saw orcas down at Lisabeula last week–it was the first time Hazel and Sam were really able to see them and track them.  We heard their blows and noticed they had two calves.

Hazel and Sam also went on a hike to Judd Creek with friends and found this deer(?) skull.

We’ve been practicing writing our numbers and letters.  Hazel and Sam are also creating their own code.  Sam’s been working on reading and can now identify “the” on any page.

Some of the things we’ve been cooking up lately:

• eggs, eggs, and more eggs (our chickens are responding to the increasing length in days and we are needing to get back into the egg habit)
• a Valentine’s gift to our cats–heart-shaped wet food
• our first batch of nettles pasta this season (“can we throw it like pizza dough?”)
• usnea tea
• horse-shaped biscuits

We used to live in San Francisco and Berkeley, so we have lots of friends there and it was great to catch up with them. The city has also recently invested significantly in its playgrounds, and we definitely availed ourselves of that investment! Also ate at some of our favorite spots here: French bakery La Boulange, burritos in the Mission, pasta up in North Beach (where Hazel and Sam started journaling about the trip), sesame balls in Oakland’s Chinatown (where shop owners were lighting off firecrackers in celebration of Chinese New Year). A highlight while in SF was a stop at 826 Valencia–a writing/tutoring center for kids with a pirate shop at the front, started by author Dave Eggers. There is another 826 in Seattle with a time travel theme, and if it’s anything like the 826 in SF, definitely worth a visit.

We also had fun looking at skulls, insects, and plants at the shop next door to 826. And across the street, Hazel got to meet the authors of one of her favorite books: Show Me How.

Action over and a success, we started the drive back to Vashon, via L.A., the Bay Area, and Portland. First stop: Culver City (Los Angeles), where Hazel, Sam, and I ate at another of my former favorites, an Argentinian empanada bakery. We figured it was good preparation for our upcoming trip to Buenos Aires. Then, while my husband John, was at a meeting, we found a park with some massive trees to play in.