A Little zoo in Issaquah

We headed over to the Cougar Mountain Zoo in Issaquah on Thursday after Ryan's guitar lessons. It is a small zoo, but fun just the same and we had the place pretty much to ourselves.

Mother's day!

Happy Mothers Day

to all the mother's everywhere! To my own mother who I love dearly! 

I woke to breakfast, coffee, flowers and a nice hot hotub dip. It turned out to be a beautiful day despite reports of rain.

A morning walk down to the river :

Girls day !

Friday Adeline and I had a girls day while the boys were busy. RYan has his all day wilderness school, Sage decided to take the bus into Seattle for his very first trip by himself and Tony was at work. 

Our first stop was to pick up lunch and have a picnic by the river.

The Klondike Gold Rush

I had heard about this museum and we finally made it into Seattle to discover it.  For being free, they did a great job and we learned alot. Seattle was a big hub for "stampeders" to head up to the Yukon in search of gold during the Klondike gold rush. So amazing the journey that those men and woman made.

May poles, farms and the market

On Sunday we headed to the Oxbow Organic farm for the annual sowdown. It was a beautiful sunny day and we enjoyed watching a cooking demonstration, making may crown and fairy house and dancing around the maypole.

Have not posted for awhile

WOW! I have not made a post since Feb 18th? Two and a half months. We have celebrated two birthdays in this time. Sage turned 18 and Adeline turned 4.

We are doing our best to settle in to Washington and developing a rhythm here. It takes time and I hope to be adjusted by the end of the summer. We are making new friends and enjoying what the Valley has to offer.

New posts coming tonight!!

Blue Skies!

Last Friday turned out to be a beautiful day - sunny and warm. We had spent the morning getting Sage ready for his trip to Florida and the afternoon driving back and forth to Bellevue to get his spring quarter paperwork into the college on time. But we could not let this exceptionally sunny day go by without a trip to the park, Fortunately the farm where Adeline and I go for our farm class is 5 minutes away from the college.

When you don't see your shadow often, it sure is pretty cool - like I am seeing it for the first time : )
The same goes for the blue sky - it sure seems so blue compared to our usually grey, cloudy sky.
Living on the east coast, I have taken the sun for granted that we will see it most days out of the year and living in Florida I have most certainly cursed it in the middle of summer ( sorry father sun! )
I have a new found love for this wonder shinning in the sky!

Valentines Day on the Farm

So what do the animals get for Valentines day on the farm? homemade treats of course : )

Adeline and I had our farm class today and had so much fun wishing all the animals Happy Valentines Day

First all the kids got to make the treats 

 heart shaped treats of course

 Adeline loves playing with all the cows! Here she has the mama cow nursing all of her babies! That mama must have a lot of milk : )

 Storytime. Adeline decided to sit on the other side of the rug from me to show her independence : )

 Outside time to feed the animals and wish them a Happy Valentines Day

 First the horses

 The goats were next, but I forgot to get a picture of them.
Here are the chickens

The sheep , my favorite, were last - so cute!! I can't wait till April when they have their sheep sheering festival.

 Back to the big barn for human treats : )

 yumm

Snow Day!

On Sunday we headed up to the nearby mountain to play in the snow!! It was a sunny beautiful day as you can see from the pictures : )

There's my Indepent , Confident Little Girl

Adeline had been going to a cute little preschool up the road that is also a farm school 2 days a week. They taught the kids one letter each week and everything was geared around the farm. THey did a great job and I love that they went out and had barn chores and played outside everyday.

It turns out they are too structured and academic for Adeline. It was turning into a battle every morning she had to go. Then when I tried to drop her off , she clung to me and did not want me to leave. It turned into me doing everything I could to convince her she needed to go and stay. It just did not feel right, she is in fact only 3 and does not need to go to preschool since I do not work. Part of her going was something fun for her with kids her own age and it would give me 2 mornings a week to work with Ryan on his lessons. I went with me instinct and we pulled her out of that school. The teachers were so supportive of our decision as they noticed that she just did not want to be there.

I had seen a farm helpers class in a few towns over that she and I could take together - so I signed us up and we had a great time. Adeline was the Independent , confident little girl that I see at home. No anxieties at all. I am glad I made the right decision!

She loved playing with all the cows!

you can't see it, but there was a hummingbird on this bush!

Picking grass to feed the cows

Bella the Dexter Cow

goats

It was a beautiful morning

This goat looks just like Honey our  neighbors goat in FL .

More than just a cake !

Friday was Heidi (our dog) birthday. She turned 7 years old!! We adopted her when she was 8 months old and feel so lucky that she is a part of our family. This year ryan really wanted to make her a cake.

So as soon as he woke up he started. What I found is that baking a cake  is so much more than just a cake....

 It was made up of many lessons.

1. Research - he had to find a good a gluten free and vegan cake recipe (it had to be vegan cause we were out of eggs!)

2. Cooperation and patience - learning to work with his siblings who also want to help and having patience with them

   3. Math - we only had enough gluten free flour blend for half of the recipe so he had to half everything! each one we we had to work it out

 4. reading and following directions - this means slowing down and reading exactly what is in the recipe! Trust me this is a big lesson for Ryan. He started off trying to make this cake by just dumping in the four blend without measuring it : ) 

 5. Self confidence - being proud of what he accomplished !

 Heidi loved it and the cake really was the best chocolate cake I think I have ever eaten. So moist and yummy!

Happy Birthday Sweet Heidi!!