The Chadwicks

gymnastics

connor crawling

more garden and flowers

These are cala lillies that we planted in large pots to brighten up our porch.

Our 4 apple trees are very full.

I can almost smell the applesauce.

We got a couple handfuls of cherries off our trees-before the birds got to them. It was pretty hard to get the high hanging ones, but we tried using the trampoline-not so good.

the garden update

Most of these pictures are for Tim to get a little flavor of how our backyard farm is going. The peas look short in the picture only because some fairly strong winds in a storm a week earlier had blown quite a few vines off of the fence we used to train up the pea plants. (In reality the vines were about twice the height of the fnce and I had to continually wind them down and to the sides to keep them off the ground.) I couldn't get them to wind back around the fencing without breaking some of the vines, so I gave up. We just had to gently move the vines around to find all the peas. The last picture shows one of the three or four large piles of peas that we would get in one pick. I was able to prep and freeze about 31/2 quarts of peas and made a big wok of beef and pea pod stir fry for dinner last week-DELISH!
Adele was by far the all star pea picker and she washed most of them off herself. Then she would usually divide them up into bags for us to save and give away to our friends and neighbors. She is so generous with our produce. I have since pulled up those plants and started a fall crop so hopefully we will have some fresh sugar snaps when Tim arrives home.

Pictures with Daddy

I took some pictures with Tim and the kids last week before Tim had to leave for his deployment. I must say I agree with the cliche "I love a man in uniform," especially my man!
Sadly, Ryan is not in these pictures because he is already in NY for his summer visit. Ryan will be home before the end of the blueberry season in our backyard and the raspberry season at our neighbor's farm across the road.

Labels: PIctures with Daddy

Here are a few pics from Aidan's early birthday party. We wanted to celebrate before Ryan left for his summer visit to NY and before Tim left on his boat.

Aidan's favorite gift was probably the new matchbox car. He loves to make car sounds as he drives it all over the house.

I think Connor knew there was something tasty in those ice cream cones everyone was munching on, but he had to settle for a piece of dry toast.

fun in the sun

I picked up a cheap O-ring sprinkler the other day for the kids to have fun with. The dog thought it looked like fun, too, until he realized he was going to get wet. Then he decided to hang out under the tree with Connor.

I know that Caleb looks like we don't feed him in this picture, but he really has a pretty ferocious appetite most days. He just keeps growing straight up. Nearly every time he puts on a pair of long pants I can see his ankles more each time.

Connor is just chillin' under the shade of the apple tree.

trees in blooom

i was so excited about all the blooms on the fruit trees. They bloomed at slightly different times, but by now all of the blooms have fallen off and about half of the trees look like they will be very promising. The blueberry bushes are covered with mini green berries and a few flowers that have not yet fallen off. There will be many days of berry eating and maybe some productive picking for us next month.

Caleb came running into the kitchen the other afternoon, while I was preparing dinner to go into the oven, screaming that his tooth had been knocked out! And this is how the story goes...

"I ran into the living room and what I saw was a monster standing straight at my head. I said ' Would you like to fight?' I started to fight , but he knocked my tooth out! Then I cleaned the blood up. And then I went into the living room again and I said nothing. But the monster tried to knock another one of my teeth out. Instead I caught its hand and threw it to Brazil."-Okay this is Caleb's fun version.

The real story is that Caleb and Adele were playing a game involving some scarves I keep for dress up play gear. A game of tug of war ensued and Caleb decided to use his mouth to add some strength to his tugging. Adele with all her red headed energy continues to pull and POP out comes Caleb's tooth. Adele really felt terrible. She cried on and off for about an hour after the event. To help console Caleb and her spirit she waited on him, giving him ice chips to suck on to help stop the blood flow and saying nice things like "Don't worry Caleb it will grow back soon." All the while sobbing "I didn't mean to." After sorting out all the details of the situation I told Adele she must be really strong to have pulled his tooth right out of his mouth. It wasn't even loose. She looked at me with wide eyes and said, "I should be Mr. Incredible!"- the end

Labels: Caleb loses his first tooth

Last Friday I bought Tim a chainsaw so we could make firewood out of some dead standing trees behind our house. The very next morning he could hardly wait to get out there and start cutting. While Tim worked hard splitting up the rounds the kids and I loaded and transported the wood to the shed. Caleb and Tim counted 75 rings on the trunk. Upon hearing this Adele exclaims "I didn't know there were trees older than Grandpa Dale!"

Our kids are such hard workers...they even used their bike helmets as hard hats for a safety precaution

Labels: lumberjacks in training

Ryan in St. Thomas

Ryan took a trip with his grandparents to St. Thomas as part of his spring break. Here are some of the pictures they sent me.

New House

Part Naked Kids

We just wanted everyone to see why Aidan and Connor are wearing the same size diaper now, despite the age difference. I think Aidan's legs might actually be thinner than Connor's.

This is where we planted our peas and spinach.

Two weeks ago, coming across Snoqualmie Pass, Hunter decided he doesn't like snow. Today he apparently changed his mind when he found out that it's edible.

It's not really cold in this picture, but my wife doesn't believe me when it comes to dressing the kids.

This is our new place.

Those are the blueberry bushes.

That's the little playhouse.

The pumphouse and garden.

The front yard and our neighbors' house. Hunter keeps taking off over there. We haven't figured out if he's after their dogs, their chickens, or their sheep.