Happy St. Patrick's Day

The kids made leprachaun traps in hopes to catch a lil green dude. 

Unfortunately they didn't manage to catch him. Perhaps their attempt to trap him made him a bit mad. As you can tell by the pictures the little Irishman had a lot of fun turning our house upside down.   

He left a trail of green where ever he went. 

 He helped himself to a green and gold snack and didn't even clear his dishes. 

 socks and underwear chandelier.

a trip to the loo is a bit risky for a wee fellow like me, but as ye see, i really had to pee!

Green Eggs and Bacon

 We're celebrating Dr. Seuss's Birthday with some 

green eggs and........bacon. (close enough to ham, right?)

yum! they ate it all up. We'll have to have some more on St. Patrick's Day.  

4 eggs, a handful of spinach, a cup of broccoli and cauliflower florets and a splash of milk were blended until smooth and then scrambled in a bit of bacon grease.  

a few shots from Christmas Eve and Day

Reindeer Food

So excited for presents.

Santa left us Rats. Their names are Pickles and Whinnie

A few shots from November

goofy girl

J.T.'s Wish List

Skinny Dipping on Thanksgiving

No, the pool is not heated. The kids sure were thankful for the hot tub after the cold plunge.

Train ride with Aunt Sandy and Bob and Santa!!!

giving

Peyton and I felted Christmas gifts this year. We made little birds and flower brooches. Here she is giving them to her teacher, Mrs. Law.

Halloween

Easter

Egg Hunt

4 Generations!

A Visit With Cousins

A Crabby Christmas Eve

mmmmmmm, Fresh Dungeness Crab! 

After our delicious dinner we put out some cookies and milk for Santa and carrots for the reindeer,

then opened some gifts. Every year we get new p.j.'s on Christmas Eve. Tom got big Onesie p.j.'s, the kind with the feet.  This year we got to open a few extra presents!!! Unkie and Leigh came loaded with gifts! Lucky us. We also got a new "Twas The Night Before Christmas" which Nana and Pop Pop sent. They recorded their voices while reading the book so we hear their voices as we turn the pages.

After such a wonderful Christmas Eve we felt like Santa already visited. 

The only thing crabby about this night was the dinner. 

C - is for Cookie and Cookie is for ME!

Santa Claus Came to Town

Christmas Fun Has Begun!

                                             

Snowy Village

Trick-or-Treat

Today our goal was not to see how much candy we could stuff into our treat bags ............

but to make sure we made it home, in front of the television before first pitch of  

World Series Game 4 - Giants vs. Rangers.  

Luckily the merchants of Downtown Petaluma have trick-or-treating from 3pm-5pm. 

The kids were happy to fill their bags with loot and head home to pass candy to the trick-or-treaters at our door while dad watch his beloved team play ball.   

A little last minute pumpkin carving. 

Check out the awesome, home grown pumpkins next to these happy kiddos.

It was a good night had by all including the Giants!!! 

The Easter Bunny, Bambi and Chicken Little

This year we spent Easter with Aunt Sandy in Columbia. As usual, the kids were more than thrilled about that. We went to Columbia State Park on Saturday for a late lunch at Brown's Coffee House & Sweets Saloon. Then took a stroll around the old town.

We went rock climbing.......



Tried to hitch a ride on the Stagecoach....

Then back to Aunts for some Easter egg coloring.


Easter Eve was fun filled - dinner, wine, games, more wine, entertainment, more wine, and a big slumber party.
Easter Morning the kids woke up and immediately started the search for their baskets full of goodies. This year the bunny filled watering cans so the kids could help water mom and dad's garden. (How convenient.)

We suspect that the Easter Bunny may have hired Bambi to do his job this year because there were lots of deer right outside where all the Easter Eggs were hidden.



Unfortunately, Easter ended up to be a sad day. Upon our return home from our trip we found our favorite little chicken, Foxy, dead and...well....I'll spare you the details. She had been murdered in the night by what we assume to be a raccoon. As soon as we walked in the door we knew something was wrong. The other three birds were standing at the back door staring in and were obviously shaken up. The did not want to go to their roost in the coop at sunset that night. Poor girls, poor Foxy. Poor Peyton. She was in tears. Foxy was such a friendly and sweet lil' chicken. Peyton held her all the time. I never thought I'd be upset about loosing a chicken but we are all sad that she is gone. She was a good pet.
I wonder, has city living clouded my brain so much that every thing I learned growing up in the country is no longer second nature to me? I should have known that leaving the lights on would NOT keep the raccoons away, even for just one night.
Well, I'm quite sure I can remember how to shoot a .22, and if I had one, there's no doubt you'd see me parading around town in a coonskin cap sometime in the very near future. I wonder if a 2x4 would do the trick? Oops, Did I say that out loud?
Good bye lil' Foxy Girl.