Schultutens

Just what is a schultuten, you ask? Well, for starters, it's supposed to have little dots above the second "u"... but I'm not bright enough to figure out how to add them.

A schultuten is a German tradition-- a cone-shaped gift bag, holding school supplies for a child's first day of school. As we ready our Mary for kindergarten, this little tradition seemed like a great idea. I took the girls to my favorite little fabric shop and let them pick their designs.

Then, I found an online tutorial (from an incredibly gifted mama right here in my neighborhood of all places!), and somehow managed to muddle my way through the creation of these two schultutens. Let me just say that it does not appear that the crafty gene is inherited. Sadly, I do not have one millionth of the sewing talent of my mom.

Despite my tawdry sewing talents, I cannot wait to give the girls their bags on the first day of school filled to the brim with crayons and glue and other sundries.

P.S. The photo of the girls enjoying a sunny post-dinner swim in our hot tub is for Brian, who doubts that we have much sunshine in Portland. Today, 86 degrees and gorgeous.

Super-solar-fragilisticexpialidocious

Since I've now received my third phone call congratulating me on my pregnancy, I better the clear air here...and fast! The "big news" I alluded to in my previous post had to do with the SUN, not a SON!

Now it's apparently going to be a huge disappointment (or perhaps a huge relief!) to you all to learn that the exciting news is that we have joined Solarize Portland! It's an initiative to encourage neighborhood collaboration to enable more Portland homes to install solar panels. Kinder the earth and kinder to our energy bills.

So, there you have it. No need for another person to call and ask about the impending due date!

Rainy Day Crafts

Since Mr. Sun didn't respond to our requests to please come out and play this week, we needed some fun indoor crafts. I swiped this idea from a great site, and the girls had a wonderful time picking out fabric scraps and using the oft-forbidden glitter glue (which is normally found under lock and key around here because of previous mishaps) to decorate these little characters.

Once the wee decorated dollies were dry, Mary made a small home for them complete with functioning doors and windows. Viola, hours of entertainment on a rainy day!

Regarding our elusive friend Mr. Sun, we have some big news coming from the Loeb household...soon!

Lederhosen Who?

Uncle Ryan with the nieces and the henhouse.
The family on the front porch.

Grandma and Mary.

Curtsies after an evening production by Mary and crew.

Amy's birthday celebration...a shared smile between mama and daughter.

We have just returned from a week of adventure with all of my siblings, spouses, children and the parents. The locale? Leavenworth, Washington, up in the Northern Cascades. The adventures? Endless!

Amy's husband Tom found a spacious 100-year old farmhouse for us to rent for the week, which was the perfect spot for us to unwind, prepare big meals to enjoy around a gorgeous and enormous table, play board games, and even feed/water chickens! We watched a spectacular theatre performance of the Sound of Music, floated down the Icicle River into town on a very (emphasis on very) slow current, hiked, biked, winetasted, and laughed. Each night, Mary would enlist the help of her grandmother and a few other lucky (or perhaps unlucky?) performers to entertain us under the lights of the porch with dance and music, usually with comical results. It was a wonderful week.

And here are a few acquired tidbits while on vacation:

1) Roosters are nasty, and you should not be in the chicken coop with them unless you have swift defensive skills.

2) When floating down a river, the only way to avoid being dumped into the water is to have a toddler on your lap. Think leukemia, recent surgery, or wearing contacts will exempt you? Not in this family!

3) The Farming Game requires at least six hours to play properly. We should have started earlier than 8pm.

4) Wearing lederhosen in public always draws attention...and not always the positive kind.

5) When a printed trail guide says a mountain bike trail is technical and advanced, trust it.

6) Hens sometimes roost above their designated roosting nests in a henhouse. Always look up in the henhouse before pulling a Henny Penny and declaring that hens are missing...unless you want to watch all of your in-laws spend an hour searching 20 acres of land for assumed-missing hens.

7) Everyone except Emily is tired of reading about Northern Exposure Re-runs in the Buck Banter. (Okay, fine...everyone except Emily AND the Buck Banter editor.)

8) Having family you really enjoy spending time with is a rare and wonderful thing! We are indeed the luckiest of luckys.

PROST!

Runaways and Renegades

When it's 106 degrees, inside the house and out, what's a girl to do? Escape to the beach, of course! We picked Nana up along the way, and had a wonderful time in the 65-degree coastal fog of Neskowin. We spent the afternoon digging in the sand, running near the waves, and basking in the cool weather. Bliss!

When we returned, it was clear that those strong rays had been shining on the garden in a super-mega-watt type of way. Check out the renegade "dinosaur egg" variety of lemon cucumber we found this morning!

Marathon Mama

For those of you who don't already know, my amazing, brave, big (though significantly smaller) sister Amy is running a marathon in October, in honor of her husband Tom. It's a fundraising effort through Team in Training, the phenomenally successful program put on by the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Funds raised by Team in Training helped to bring Gleevec (the "miracle" drug for leukemia patients) to fruition.

To read her story about deciding to run the marathon and to get updates on Tom's health, visit:
http://pages.teamintraining.org/vtnt/dublin09/abahrman

From this site you can also make a donation and help her reach her goal. Thanks to everyone who has already given toward this wonderful cause!

Trio

It must be a universal trait that grandmas and great-aunties like to buy matching outfits for little girls. Here is a snapshot of the three cousins together in their incredibly beautiful blue dress-up duds. So precious with little Chiara sandwiched between the big girls.

And, it wouldn't be a post without a quick update from the backyard. Our latest crop: carrots! Up next, tomatoes...a LOT of tomatoes.