The tradition lives on.....

The annual Christmas baking day just keeps getting better!  My boys used to do the skedaddle and run for their lives when this event rolled around and landed on the calendar somewhere between Thanksgiving and Christmas.  But they have come full circle and realized that we might be having more fun in the kitchen than they were having on the golf course or in the bar!  Ha.

Here's Andy supervising the sugaring of an old favorite recipe.  Actually, he wasn't supervising anything because the kids were doing things their own way and he was just standing there.



Brady and Ada were getting the job done right -



Well, the day isn't ALL about baking......



Ben and Brady bonded over a super huge batch of Gingerbread cut-outs



You can never have too many sprinkles, right Drew???



Here are some key members of the baking team.  The beautiful girl on the right was our newbie.  Few ever return. 



Time out to snuggle in for a video.  I love the angle of the picture in the background:)



Jude provided a little harmonica music to see if it would help the cookies bake faster



Hey.  Remember the "Christmas Story"???   Drew was dressed for the 15-degree weather, but I hoped he wouldn't fall down because he would never be able to get up. 


All together we kicked off the 2013 holidays by putting a little Bailey's in our coffee and then destroying the kitchen, sending the electrical meter into the o-zone, laughing our heads off with the children, and keeping a valued tradition alive.  It was agreed this was the best baking day ever.

The chicken came first

We have the answer to the age old question. 

The chickens have been a good source of entertainment around here.  We let them out once every day to run around the yard and uproot my flowers.  Three out of the four kids are wildly interested in the life cycle of the nasty little critters and love to help with the feeding and the care. 


Ada drops one eensy little piece of grain to the waiting crowd.



Brady claims to be a farmer.  He amazes me the way he gets right in there with the chicken chores and he loves to feed them right out of his hand.  They peck pretty hard, but he doesn't seem to mind.
Brady is actually the one who named the chickens:  Seven of them are named Walter and one is named Fruity. 



Jude likes to watch them run (and they do!!)



Drew could care less about the chickens.  And while the chickens aren't very smart, they do know enough to stay out of his way.



At one time we were getting 8 eggs/day and it occurred to Jude that we might turn this into a profitable venture for his piggy bank. 



This is Jude & Ada having a picnic in the tree fort.  You can see his egg sign in the background and his 3-dozen egg inventory.  He would yell at the passing cars, EGGS FOR SALE!!!!  Before the operation closed for that day, Jude had managed to sell a dozen eggs to the neighbor (who I had been supplying with free eggs) and knocked the other 2 dozen onto the ground as he was climbing down.  No worries, we have lots more where those came from. 

Jude's pricing structure was firm:
$4.00 for 18 eggs
$3.00 for 12 eggs
$2.00 if you are what he considers a "loved one". 
FREE EGGS ON HOLIDAYS

He had an opportunity to sell some eggs on Memorial Day.
Nice customer:  This is Memorial Day, do I get free eggs?
Jude:  Not THIS holiday.  Only on real holidays like Halloween and Christmas and baking day and Valentines Day. 

Sad news:  With the onset of the time change and the season change, the chickens are definitely out of sorts.  They still manage to eat 50 lbs. of chicken pellets every couple of weeks and they manage to poop 50 lbs. all over the yard, but the egg production has dropped off significantly.  Some days we get 1 or 2 eggs.  Some days we get NO eggs.  Jude has fallen into a lower income bracket. 

So it appears the chicken's government has shut down.  I've had some very frank discussions with them lately and have explained in detail just how the BBQ works.  It's called tough love, but they know I'm a pushover:)

I'll let you know if the situation corrects itself in the spring.  If not, we may have to change the sign to read "Chickens for Sale". 

Cheap - Cheap. 

Dress code

If you ever get the urge to stop by early in the day, keep in mind that we dress for breakfast around here. 

Another FIVE year old

Brady turned 5 years old last week.  It's so hard for me to look at him and wonder where the time went and how did he get to be five years old when it seems so recent he was just struggling to crawl off his blanket.  In a sense he's still struggling to test the waters off the edge of his blanket.  He's very imaginative and clever and convincing.  If this was my first rodeo, I might believe some of his wild stories:)

Such a perfect little five-year-old face. 



The blue frosting on his cupcake was VERY blue and stuck like glue. 



Blue glue on Drew 


Brady has a very nice network of old and new friends.  I pick him up from school once/week and can easily tell that he is likeable and well-liked by his preschool group.  He's a busy little guy, constantly making up games with crazy ever-changing rules.  He doesn't require complicated toys because a short length of rope and a small stick can spark the best little Rube Goldberg invention. 

Brady is a beautiful little boy and a joy to be around.  Except when he isn't.  But isn't that true of all of us? 

Help DID arrive!

With this unbelievable October weather we're experiencing, the leaves are falling like crazy.  The overall look of the place is messy, yet beautiful.  Jude and Ada were helping me with raking over the weekend and Jude said, "this isn't work, Nini, this is fun".  Indeed, it is.




This should have been a video because Jude & Ada were running from the far end of the yard and doing flying leaps into the pile -



Judey Long-legs



Ada wasn't at all timid about flinging herself into the cushy leaves



Brady was working on the backyard leaves, but only until the pile was big enough to destroy!



Brady's job was to push the dry leaves over the bank with a rake.  He took it very seriously:)



I've always loved pictures of Drew surrounded by fall leaves.  It's almost a "where's Waldo" scene because his hair is the exact same color -


A new season provides all new activities around here.  We're done picking strawberries, raspberries,
blueberries and blackberries.  We're all done making applesauce and throwing wormy apples over the bank.  The pears are in jars.  We ate the one peach that grew on our new little peach tree.  And then the leaves fell.  It is more darn fun than a whole yard full of new toys:)

Got help?

The trees are starting to turn on me....


For every action, there is a reaction.  I raked piles and piles of leaves the other day and they were so beautiful I couldn't believe I didn't have any kids around.  Brady & Drew are famous leaf rakers so I thought about last year.....and the year before......


Brady, Fall, 2012


And Drewey


All the toys on the planet don't measure up to a good pile of leaves


Fall, 2011 - We have to hold the leaves down so they don't fly out of the wheelbarrow on the way to the bank


Brady is a worker, if I ever saw one -


This looks like a cold little nose



Then I came to my senses and realized that on this day I only had to rake them once:)

Late night comedy

Scene:  Jude & Ada are here for a sleepover.

Ada decides that she can't sleep unless Jude is in the room. 

Jude gets out of bed, drags his little blankets down the hall to Ada's room.

Ada changes her mind and decides she wants to sleep in Jude's bed.

Ada drags her little blankets down the hall to Jude's room.

Ada cries because she misses Jude.

Jude drags his blankies back and agrees to sleep in his sleeping bag so Ada won't be lonely.

Ada doesn't like Jude's bed. 

(Jude and I are just starting to get exasperated.) 

Finally, they are both settled back in Ada's room but Ada has now turned into a motormouth.

Jude (infinite patience) tries to quiet her and it lasts for one whole minute. 

I leave the room and sit on the steps to listen to them and this is the conversation:

Jude, what are stars made of?

(Heavy sigh) Ada, I'm trying to sleep but I will explain it to you.  Scientists can't agree on what stars are made of but they do know that the moon is made of glowing green cheese.  Aliens live on the moon, Ada, and aliens stay up all night.  You are not an alien.  They are nocturnal.  You are DAYturnal.  If you stay awake all night you will have to sleep all day tomorrow and you won't get to have breakfast with Nini.

BUT I WANT TO HAVE BREAKFAST WITH NINI!!!  cry.......

Ok, then, all you have to do is GO TO SLEEP. 

Ok.

Jude then drifts off to sleep, Ada starts singing, and all I can do is sit there and think that I am
One.  Lucky.  Grandma. 

The Peanut Gallery

The Peanut Gallery continues to grow and thrive in spite of my recording negligence.  I need to do a bit of catch-up here before I can get myself back on the train track. 


Here we are last March celebrating St. Patrick's day, 50 shades of green:)  Daughter-in-law Jen brought Irish Stew and soda bread and the kids insisted we drink some green beer.  Well, ok!



A rare sunny day in March gave Ada the giggles.  She probably wasn't the only one in the Pacific Northwest unable to contain the joy -

Ada turned 3 years old in April.  They were in Florida for her birthday so we missed her party.  Ada continues to march on to her own sweet music while her mostly male influence beat noisy drums in the background. 

I was trying to brush her hair one day and this was the conversation:

Ada:  I have a fit when dad tries to brush my hair
Nini:  Oh, Ada, you shouldn't throw a fit.  Dad just wants you to look pretty.
Ada:  BUT I'M ALREADY PRETTY
I had to agree.
Ada:  1
Nini:  0

Her mommy Linden wrote the most beautiful blog about Ada to commemorate her 3rd birthday.  CornettandCompany@blogspot.com  It gives a very personal and comprehensive look inside everybody's favorite little girl and it's worth checking out.



Ben and Linden hosted the BEST Easter brunch and egg/candy search.  I have to mention that my deviled eggs WON THE COMPETITION and I a trophy to prove it.  So there.



Ahhh...Springtime


One day in April my cousin Joan (from Red Lodge, Montana) came to visit with her granddaughter, Aida.  She was so darned cute, Brady immediately wanted to play doctor!



Some springtime chores:  We'll fix this fence for you, Ter Ter -


Drewey turned 3 in July with a wild party at a place called Dizzy Castle.  The boys conned me into following them through a maze of tunnels, rope bridges and a curly slide.  What was I thinking???  While crawling through a tunnel, I discovered that the distance between my knees and my butt is  greater than the planned sum.  And after I was shot at with plastic balls being launched from cannons, they threw me down a 900 ft. (at least!!) slide.  At one point I told Brady that he wouldn't live to see the 1st grade if he didn't get me outta there.  Drew was a perfect little birthday boy but nearly turned inside out when the entire group sang to him.  The look on his face was total mortification (reminded me of his father) and he crawled under the table.  As soon as the singing was over, he was fine:) 
The ice cream and presents helped him recover and it turned out to be a happy birthday after all, didn't it, Drew?



I don't suppose I'll win G'ma of the year with this photo but hey.  Desperate times require desperate measures!



Jude is an exceptional swimmer for his age.  As soon as their neighborhood pool opened, he immediately passed the swimming test. 

Phone conversation:  Me:  What does it mean when you pass your swimming test, Jude?
Jude:  It means I can go swimming whenever I want without a grownup. 
Hahaha, like THAT'S going to happen!!



We planted a little peach tree and this year the tree and Brady are exactly the same size.  He has a vision that he will grow at the same rate and will always be as tall as the tree.  I will keep you posted on this one......




This was a brief, unplanned fudgecicle event but it would have warmed the hardest heart to hear them interact with each other.  They started talking about words they have trouble saying and the conversation was darling.  Ada summed it all up by saying "I can say every word perfectly". And she can!



And then there's applesauce.  We picked apples and made applesauce everytime one team or the other came to play. 



Jude turned 5 years old in August.  He invited quite a nice number of rowdy little friends to come here for a party.  It rained at exactly straight up party-start time so there were at least 15 kids in the playroom upstairs while we scurried to get the Angy Bird cake, etc. back into the house.  The rain only lasted about an hour so we scooted them all outside for some great 5-year old fun like a golf game, some rocket launchings and the human slingshot you see in this photo.  All injuries were minor.



A nice windy day in August has Brady flying a kite for the very first time all by himself.  He was so excited, staying with the project and running all over the field until I was exhausted (watching him.)



And this is my family.  Aren't they beautiful?  My Aunt Ginny hosted the reunion over Labor Day weekend in Cannon Beach.  If you want to throw a party and invite my family, you'd best think twice because they will ALL show up:)



Brady & Drew are both on the same soccer team this year and Andy is the coach.  It's a laugh a minute watching Drew guarding the goal (he fits perfectly inside the net) and Brady scoring an inordinate number of goals!  Brady didn't really understand the point of the game last year but this year I'd say he gets it! 

Drew ran right off the field last week to ask me a question: 
Ter Ter?  It is possible for a boy to turn into hot lava? 
Me:  No, Drewey, it's not really possible. 
Drew:  Dad said it's possible. 
Me:  Well, Dad's are always right.  Then Andy said, DREW, GET BACK ON THE FIELD OR YOU'LL TURN INTO HOT LAVA!!  There you have it. 


When you stop by next time, these are the photos you will see in the stairwell:

Jude, always thinking


Brady, obviously up to something


Ada, beyond beautiful


Drew.  This picture cracks me up.

So there you have an abbreviated version of the past few months.  Together we have lived through lots of growing pains which exhibit themselves with crying and lying and fighting and sharing and calculating and measuing (His cookie is bigger than mine!) They are writing their names and coloring inside the lines. Talents are forming, personalities and senses of humor are developing.  They can manipulate an old manipulator and that's not easy to do.  A one-on-one conversation results in an exchange I never want to forget.  That's why I have to stay up with this bloggin' baby book of mine. 

More soon, I promise.