Any Excuse For a Party

As a kid, I began the tradition of celebrating half-birthdays in my family. My parents and sister never really caught on, so I was kind of the lone celebrator. I remember sewing gifts for my little sister and walking to the corner store to buy her a frozen Pepperidge Farm cake (which I then cut in half). And I'd do the same thing for myself on my own half-birthday. When Lena and I got together, I began celebrating her half-birthday, and for the first time ever, someone started celebrating mine! Eventually we branched out from the frozen Pepperidge Farm cake, and started frequenting the local bakeries for some sort of decadent treat. Any excuse for a party.

Luke and Jasper's half-birthday is August 18th, which this year meant that it fell right in the middle of our crazy, prolonged, living-out-of boxes experience. I was leaning towards not celebrating, but the kids were, of course, of a different opinion. I realized that I'm definitely no longer alone in this half-birthday thing, and no longer able to blow it off if I'm not in the mood. So, we actually unpacked some boxes to unearth the muffin pans and baking ingredients, and the boys made carrot cupcakes (in both gluten-free and gluten-full versions). We decided that a new part of the tradition will be that they get to do the baking for all of the half-birthdays in our family.

I gave instructions from the other side of the counter, and Luke and Jaz did all of the measuring, dumping, and stirring.

Jaz's favorite ingredient was the crushed pineapple.

The cupcakes turned out really well!
Even the gluten-free version (on the left below) were quite tasty.
Here are the half-birthday boys, decked out in their half-birthday crowns (which were the pure genius of the boys' baby-sitter, I had nothing to do with them!):

At the end of the day, I was glad that the kids hadn't let me cop out of this family tradition. And I loved overhearing the start of their conversation with a five-year-old neighbor the next day:

"Well, I remember that when we were five, we liked that book too. But now that we're five-and-a-half we like different sorts of things . . ."

Red Light

So we're supposed to be busy settling into our new house right now, but instead we're exactly where we were a few days ago. More specifically, we remain surrounded by boxes, unsettled children and the crumbs of the last remaining food from our cleared-out cupboards . . . a.k.a. in the old house. On Friday we had to cancel our Saturday move when a lead test came up RED, signifying the presence of lead in the trim of several rooms in the new house. I assumed all along that there was lead in the house somewhere seeing as it was built in 1823, but since everything I've read about lead says it's mostly only an issue with chipping, flaking paint and windows and doors, I assumed we were probably safe. There was no chipping or flaking paint, the windows are all new and I removed all of the doors (mostly out of suspicion of lead, but also just because we find that doors generally only serve to get in the way . . . I did keep the bathroom door, though). But then, standing in the new kitchen on Wednesday, just as we were finally finishing painting the last of the rooms (we ended up painting 8 of the 9 rooms in the house), I found myself staring at the unfinished trim.

peeking into the living room from the dining room,
note the unfinished wood trim

In several of the rooms, the baseboard and doorways have been stripped of their paint. The look is very funky and rustic and is one of the things that drew us to the house the first time we saw it. But as I stood there staring at it, it just dawned on me in slow motion . . . old house . . . lead paint . . . stripped, exposed wood . . . yikes! We happened to have a lead test on hand (I'd been concerned about a flaking-paint crawl space upstairs), so I quickly opened it up and read the instructions. The test would turn pink in the presence of lead. I brushed it on the surface of the kitchen doorway and immediately the test turned red. I looked again at the package and read that the darker the pink/red color, the higher the concentration of lead. Oh. Great.

Our landlords were less than thrilled about our discovery. First, they were freaked out about what this might mean for the rest of the house (as far as they knew, there was no lead issue in the house, but it had never been tested and children haven't lived there since they bought the place 10 years ago). Then they were worried that we were going to sue them or insist upon them getting the house officially deleaded (which in within our legal rights). Then, when we suggested that we simply paint over the exposed wood with lead encapsulating paint, they freaked out about us "changing the look" of the house. Needless to say, it's been an unfortunate few days. We even did a last-minute scramble to try to find someplace else to live, but luckily everything was figured out again at the new house before we had to seriously consider that option (i.e. the landlords calmed down and said we could encapsulate the lead).

So, long story short, our move has been delayed by a week. Lena is painting over all of the lead-positive wood in the house (and we've tested everything else in the house and it's all fine), and then I'm going to do a deep lead-dust-removal cleaning before we move in. There are definitely upsides to this new plan (more time to pack, time to move some things over ahead of time (kitchen stuff, bed frames) to lessen the nightmare of moving day), but it sucks to have most everything packed up and yet still be living here in disasterville. The kids are FREAKING out, and I don't blame them. They thrive on structure and routine and at this moment they aren't getting much of either. Instead they're watching Old School Sesame Street, eating out at restaurants every night, and asking every few hours, "so when are we moving?"

Mom in the Box

With all the packing and painting we've been doing lately, there hasn't been much time for bakfietsing. My legs have been feeling antsy about it. So when my mom called for a ride this evening (her car was in the shop), I got a most brilliant idea and asked if she'd mind a ride in the Bakfiets instead of the minivan. She hesitated only slightly before saying, "okay, I'll do it." I also had to pick up our dinner since we are so passed the cooking stage in our current house of boxes.

This was my maiden voyage with a grown-up passenger on board Bakfietsy Rose. I took the front bench out and put its cushion on the floor of the box. The back bench folds up behind its cushion, making a really comfy looking spot for a bigger person. My mom was a little concerned about her image as she climbed in (along with our dinner in a bag), but she needn't have worried. The only comments from passersby were, "woah, that's cool!"



As soon as we started going, my mom couldn't help but admit that riding in the box is really pretty fun. And it was fun for me as the pedaler too. I didn't notice any difference in handling as opposed to when the kids are strapped in, and it was so great to be able to keep up a conversation on our way home. One fewer trip in the car today. One more excuse to ride my bike. And how sweet to be biking my mom around!

Happy Birthday, Beautiful

Yesterday my Love celebrated her 31st birthday by painting the new house all day long. There was little time for romance or special treatment of any kind, which was especially unfortunate given that of the 10 birthdays she's celebrated since we met, this was only the fourth one that she's been home for (the past six took place when she was working in Alaska). So, I would have really liked to make it special. Instead, we woke up early and she left to go painting while I tried to pack amongst the kids. I briefly entertained the idea of making her a cheesecake (her favorite, and I've perfected the recipe), but realized there just wasn't enough time and decided to buy one instead. I ended up with a chocolate mousse cake from Whole Foods because there were no cheesecakes to be found anywhere in the valley. So, not only was it store-bought, but it wasn't even the right kind! (Luckily, it was still pretty yummy).

A lion cake for my leo love (and a gluten-free cupcake for Lukas)

Anyway, here are some shots of the birthday girl. I love you, beautiful. I am so lucky to have spent 10 birthdays with you so far. I love you a hundred million. I hope all of your birthday wishes come true. You are amazing.

Goodbye and Thank You

Two years and two months ago, Luke and Jaz readied themselves for their very first day of preschool. At the time, we couldn't believe how quickly our babies had grown into big kids, though looking at the pictures now, I can't believe how little they were.

Getting out of the car on the first day (June 2006)

Walking into the building
(I was 4 months pregnant with Zeb)

The first activity of preschool

The preschool we chose to send the kids to is the lab school for Smith College (where Lena and I met), and is based on the Reggio Emilia philosophy. We are so blessed to have been able to immerse our kids in this art-rich, amazing curriculum. For the first year, I picked the kids up at noon, but since then they've stayed until 3:00 most days (having lunch and a rest in the afternoon). And yesterday was their last day EVER.

The end of school kind of snuck up on us, and we didn't fully realize or accept it until Wednesday (the day before). How would we possibly say good-bye and thank you to the teachers who have been such a integral part of our kids' lives for the past 26 months? We decided to say it with blueberries. The kids helped me make some mini blueberry pound cake loaves on Wednesday night, and on Thursday morning we fancied them up with scraps of fabric and cards.


Jaz carried the loaves to school in a basket (for the past year we've lived just around the corner from school, which has been so lovely. It would be much harder to move next week if the kids were still going to be in school there).

Lukas was too upset about the whole thing to pose for any pictures.

The goodbye was very bittersweet. We all (kids, moms, teachers) got a little teary giving final hugs. As much as I think Jaz and Luke are ready for something new, it is so hard to imagine their preschool and teachers not being a part of our lives anymore.

Next stop, kindergarten.

Blueberry Break

Today we decided to take a break from packing (which, in all honesty has yet to really begin) and, instead, we headed out to Chester for the 6th annual, "Blueberry Days of Summer" festival. We love festivals. And this one was especially lovely, very old-school and genuine. There was blueberry tasting (who knew there were so many varieties of blueberries?), water balloon tossing, dog duck herding, a birds of prey demonstration, a pie-eating contest, tractor rides, face painting, llamas to pet, fun live fiddle music . . . and, of course, blueberries to pick! We ended up bringing home 12 pounds of berries to eat, bake with, and freeze for the winter.

Zeben was delighted by the blueberries all hanging right within reach, and he wasted no time before picking a handful and popping it in his mouth. He was quite the little "Sal," (we even started calling him that). I was initially a little concerned about him potentially eating unripe berries, but I got over it (and he quickly learned to avoid the green ones at least). I will be very curious to see what his poop looks like tomorrow, though! He was stuffing his cheeks pretty much the whole time we were picking.



Luke and Jaz had huge amounts of fun running between the rows of berries and getting "lost" from us. They did a pretty good job at picking, too. They really love having a job. Times like these remind me that this is, instinctively speaking, probably the kind of thing they should be doing every day. Gathering food for the winter. It definitely agreed with them.


They were especially impressed and horrified by the kids' pie-eating contest (no hands allowed!), though they assured me that they never want to actually be in that kind of a contest themselves. Jaz said, "I would take one bite and then I wouldn't want all that sticky, sticky on my face!" And, Lukas pointed out, "did you notice how the girl who won looked like she was kind of choking at the end and like she might puke?" Yep. It's totally fine with me if the kids don't want to join in on that kind of old-fashioned fun.

One of the highlights for me was the birds of prey demonstration. The handler was hilarious. And it was amazing to see such big birds up close. Little Sal the bird-lover was most excited about the owls, and started chanting, "O-wl, O-wl, O-wl" while waiting impatiently for the handler to get the barred owl out of its box. My favorite was the golden eagle. Wow.

All in all, it was an "unproductive" day very well spent. And we will be remembering it for months to come while we reap the benefits of our hard work. Yum.

Too Much Stuff

This morning we hosted our first ever yard sale. While we've become professionals at packing, unpacking, and settling into new homes, we've never lived in a yard-sale-friendly location before. And we've never down-sized before (all of our previous moves increased our square footage), so we've never had quite the motivation that we had today. We've spent the last couple of weeks thinking about what we should keep and what we should try to sell. I've had moments of feeling gloomy and resistant to getting rid of things--things that I know we don't need, but things that I love, or that I have loved, or that the kids love or have loved (or that I wish the kids would have loved more)--and I've needed to remind myself several times that stuff is only stuff. In the end I think I did a pretty good job of letting go. I only kept the things I felt passionately about (and that I knew would fit in the new house), and tried not to be too sentimental about anything (i.e. the stuffed animal horse that I got for my birthday when I was 10 years old). It was hard work.

We were in no way prepared for just how insane the actual selling part of the yard sale would be. Or how insane professional yard sale buyers are. Although we clearly stated that our yard sale would not be begin until 8:00 a.m., people started driving by to check things out at 6:30 a.m. By 7:30 there was no holding them back and there were easily 50 people packed into our driveway. I could barely squeeze my way through. Apparently some people were fighting over some of the toys! I didn't see any of that, though. I was too busy frantically trying to set things up!

The bartering part was the hardest part for me. I'm generally just kind of an agreeable person, and not having been to many yard sales before, I didn't feel like I really knew what the going prices for things were. So, even if I really thought $20 was an excellent deal for something, if someone wanted to buy it for $10, I'd mostly just say, "um . . . I guess so. Okay, fine." Not the best strategy, I realize. But we managed to make a huge amount of money, regardless of my poor selling skills. We made enough to cover the cost of moving (we're hiring movers), and buying paint for the inside of the new house (which is a pretty desperate situation). So, success!

Now that it's over, our house feels a little bit less crowded. And I think we feel a little bit more free. After dinner tonight, we took the kids over to see the new place for the first time. The house is all emptied out now, and the kids loved it. They were running like crazy through all the rooms, laughing and squealing (yes, hello, new neighbors, welcome to your new sound scape!), and we briefly considered just leaving it empty like that. Doing away with having stuff at all. It looked so spacious despite its small square footage. And so easy to keep clean!

The mudroom (also home to w/d and fridge)

The Kitchen

The Dining Room

The Living Room (door to playroom in upper left corner)

The Mama Room (office space)

The stairs (see why we're hiring movers?)

The top of the stairs (every space counts)

The Bathroom

The Kids' Room (one window is better than none?)

The Family Bed Room

I'm really going to try to make it a top priority to not have too much stuff ever again. I'm really hoping that this is something I can make work for me, and for us. I believe in it so strongly, but the pull of consumerism is also really strong. That said, today the consumerist in me definitely got beaten down a bit, watching everyone walk away with the things that were once ours. And feeling really happy to see them go.