I haven't been online for a while and I don't know how much longer I will be on.

We have had a lot of fun enjoying the spring and easter was great.

Easter at my sister's house.

My husband had the idea to hide the big kids surprise egg up in the tree.

One found it but with the help of a clue.

Grandpa

We also have wonderful news.

I am pregnant again!

  I don't believe in due dates so much but this one is interesting enough to share.

December 25th!

A Christmas baby!

We are very excited of course.

And I painted our kitchen.

Blue.  I love it.

And we painted the playroom but it is not done yet so I don't have a picture.

We also went to the coast aquarium.

There were more than birds there of course but these are the best of the pictures I got.

I've also read a few books.

"Harry Potter The Order of the Pheonix"

"Harry Potter The Half-Blood Prince"

"The Culture of Fear" by Barry Glassner

and am currently reading "Protecting the Gift" by Gavin de Becker

and "Homeschooling in Oregon" by Ann Larson-Rice which I am excited

about because she was a school teacher who after having kids realized that children learn so differently than how she thought all those years teaching.  She was influenced by her kids and John Holt's Growing Without Schooling newsletter.  So she is very supportive of unschooling. 

Other discoveries:

My daughter is a good fly catcher.

Soduko is frustrating.

Now I am going to go play in the dirt. 

Get the garden ready for planting.

I have already planted two different varieties of peas and some cauliflour.

I will have to wait and see how they come out, if they come out.

Anyways I am happy to be back even if it is only for a short time.

European Vacation

(part 1)

London

     In the summer of 1995 I was 16 years old.  I had the wonderful oportuntiy to visit Europe.  I went on a two week tour of five countries through a company called EF Educational Tours.  This had been set up by one of the teachers at our school.  My teacher, two other students and I along with some other groups of student from a girls Catholic school and a few extras all traveled together.  I was able to go by cashing in some bonds that my grandparents had gotten for me when I was a baby.  I raised a tiny bit of money through some fundraisers. 

     We visited England, France, Switzerland, Italy, and Greece.  Our first stop was London.  This is a little embarrassing to say but I did not realize we were going to be touring England until we got there.  I did not think that England would be all that interested at first.  But I fell in love with London.  When I arrived I was in such a state of shock.  The memories are so vague though so I will try to sort them out. 

     I had brought with me a new camera that I had won in one of the fundraisers.  After going through the first roll of film I went to remove the film and put in a new roll, but could not get the used roll of film out.  For a reason unknown to me it dit not rewind.  So I was not able to take any more pictures the rest of the trip.  When the adventure was over and I had returned home I took my what I thought was broken camera and film to the place to have it developed.  The employee showed my that all I had to do was pull out a  little manual crank and rewind the film.  So the whole time I was in Europe I could have been taking pictures with a camera that worked just fine.  Get to know your camera before using it - Lesson learned.

     I did have a wonderful friend who was willing to share all her pictures with me.  So I wasn't at a complete loss.  What a nice friend.

    We visited all the usual tourist spots.  It was a lot of fun.  Here are some of the pictures of our trip.

This was our adorable tour guide with his most enjoyable Brittish accent.

I believe this is at Trafalgar Square.

I know this is Trafalgar Square.

The pidgeons are everywhere.

Big Ben

Westminster Abby

Tower of London

Tower Bridge My friend with her head on the chopping block.  She was the kind one who shared all her photographs with me.

Tudor style

Then we went to Canterbury and the Canterbury Cathedral with its beautiful stained glass windows.

Then we went on to Dover with its white cliffs.

Our bus rear-ended a car in front of us.

Then we cought a boat for an overnight trip across the English Channel to France.

The old switcheroo.

And a milestone

Her first wore out jean.

And my little dare devil.

It has been a fun and beautiful week.

The snow hung around all week for us to enjoy.

We went for walks and built a snow dog.

Diaper Dilemma

The diapers have gotten all dingy.  And smell when they get wet so I know they are not getting clean enough.  It has been a long time since they have been able to hang on the clothes line to dry in the sun.  I have read that some people don't use any chemicals on them and have no problem.  I tried just soaking them in Borax before washing them, but it wasn't really doing too good a job.  So I have been using non-chlorine bleach.  They are still yucky.  I don't want to use chlorine bleach but that is all I can think of to get them cleaned up a little.  Any advise from you environmentally friendly cloth diaper users?

Funny quote of the week.

My son was looking at an alphabet book and pointing to the letters and asking me what each one was.  I'd tell him and he would repeat it.  When he pointed to the "W" I told him it's name.  Then he repeated "doubleme"

Here is the most used piece of commercialized plastic from Christmas.

His Mater car from the movie "Cars"

He really enjoys this toy.

Look!  He thinks he's people.

And of course playdoh is always fun. 

"Self portrait in orange playdoh"

And some fun videos.

Playing in the snow.

Daddy and Aolani building a snowman in the dark.  Aolani said if we put some books in his hand (which he doesn't have yet) he will come to life.

Little Aldie was asleep when they built it.  The next morning when he woke up he was very excited and surprised to see that snowman there.  He came to me and said "A smowman came!  With a carrot nose!"  He said an elf made it.

And to warm our insides when we are done.

Creamy Roasted Butternut Squash Soup with garlic and onion