A monkey. A squirrel. One happy family.

From our family to yours. 

We made our annual trek to Starr Pines Christmas Tree Farm last weekend and found a little beauty in record time. After 60-degree weather and sunshine the previous day, the quickly plummeting temperatures on this particular morning came as a shock. We found our sweet tree quickly so we could get back to the hot apple cider as soon as possible. Happy holidays!

"Let's try a new philosophy this Halloween," suggested Spencer. In the past we've allowed the girls to eat a couple of pieces while out trick-or-treating, and then they can have a piece every night or so after dinner if they eat well. This means that by the time Valentines Day and Easter roll around, they still have Halloween candy, and this new candy gets mixed in with the old. We can't sneakily throw it away bit by bit, because these kids notice. It will be April and Ella suddenly wants to know where that package of gummy candy shaped like body parts is. Um, in the landfill? Consequently, we have way too much candy around (half of it stale) all of the time. This year, a local supermarket was offering a trade - bring in your candy the Monday after Halloween, weigh it, and get that much in produce/bulk items for free. Spencer pitched it this way to the girls: you can eat whatever you want on Halloween, then set aside 10 special pieces to save, and trade the rest

I'm supposed to be doing some homework for an upcoming workshop on preserving digital archives, but my head is fuzzy from reading all of those acronyms. (OAIS! METS! ISO! Ugh.) It's much more fun to share recent pictures of the kiddos. Photo booth props - best $12 I ever spent. Here are the girls with our former neighbors who came by for a visit this MU homecoming weekend! MU homecoming parade! Shryocks Corn Maze fun. Sweet sisters.

This week Ella started her final year at Russell Boulevard Elementary. And this morning Annie started her first year there, entering kindergarten.

Annie holding Baxter  (son of my childhood friend, Beth) We just returned home after a trip to Oregon, the first time we have been back as a family since we left Portland in 2005. One evening, we were watching the kids play in Mt. Tabor Park, which is practically in our friends Beth and Darrell's backyard. With evergreens towering over us and Mt. Hood plainly visible in the distance, Ella asked, "Tell me again why we moved away from here?" It took me a full 30 seconds to come up with a single reason, but of course I did. We needed to be closer to our families. We wanted our children to know their grandparents. We wanted to send our kids to better public schools. And personally, I was kind of over the rain and the traffic. But, man. The physical beauty of Oregon in the summer? You can't beat it. And during this trip I loved having long conversations with old friends, meeting their new little people, and hugging their necks. The food wasn't bad, either. Hi

Here is a little photo essay about all of the things that have happened in the past couple of months. Kiddos' schedules and conference planning and loan closing frenzies and whatnot have us a little busy, so our apologies for letting so much time pass! Ella wrote her first five-paragraph essay and chose the ocean's plastic vortex as her topic. She got a very good score and high praise from her teacher, particularly for her good examples. In the paragraph about how we can make sure less plastic gets into the environment by reusing things, she suggests keeping plastic shopping bags in the car, "in case you have to throw up. Just make sure the bag doesn't have a hole in it." Sage advice. Plastic Vortex = Disaster! Ella also got selected for fifth grade honors choir! We are so proud! Annie (last week she announced she wanted family to start using her nickname again) is reading entire books out loud to us. Our awesome readers. Swords add an element of d

We've had a chocolate-fueled morning, and we are about to head to church to lift our voices in song. Happy Easter! Happy spring! I'm going to wash and put away the winter coats! (So if it snows in the next couple of weeks, you can blame me.)

When you tell a child, "You'll go to kindergarten when you turn 5," chances are she might interpret this to mean that the very first weekday after her birthday she will need to report to the classroom, sporting her backpack and shiny new lunch bag. We got Anna straightened out on this point, and she is a little disappointed not to be joining her sister at Russell Boulevard Elementary until this fall. She also thinks that they won't let you start kindergarten until you learn to tie your shoes, so she has been practicing. Yes, while we were on a spring break trip in Florida, our sweet Anna June turned 5. When she blew out her birthday candles, she wished to be a mermaid. She was a little disappointed when that wish didn't come true. She did, however, get to be princess for a day. Annie takes a break during a walk around The Villages, FL. Cookie monster cruises in the golf cart. Sweeties! Sillies. Don't feed the gulls!  Ready to take