Just quickly...

"Linden, you're not allowed in the office. Please get out".  "I can't. I'm very busy reading".

This will be a short little post - Clark is away for a couple of days, which means my time and ability to do these sorts of things is greatly diminished.  But at the very least I can post a few pictures. Plus, I'm sure I'll make up for it next week with some rockin' Hallowe'en photos!

Juniper insisted on "chef's hats" while they were rolling their pizza dough

Juniper sits Linden down for a pretend photo shoot

Linden looks up at the swaying trees while holding his collection of "tools" that he picked up along the way. He would stop people on the path and say "This is my chainsaw! Vroom!"

Annnnndddd... a few mushrooms. Why not?  See you next week!

Birthday Boy!

Look who's THREE!

Last Tuesday was the big day - Linden officially left behind the terrible twos, and entered the fearsome threes. The day started off with a bang - Juniper skipped school, and the three of us headed down to the Woods Hole Child Center (Linden's preschool) to spend the morning parent (and big sister)-helping/celebrating. (Poor Clark just trudged off to work as usual). Here are a few photos:

Linden (literally) digging himself into a hole.

Ringing the bell(s) to come in

Waiting to blow out candles as everyone sang happy birthday. I brought in grapes and homemade cookies for the communal snack, meaning we had to be creative about where to stick the candles!

 I figured that the morning at the Child Center fully qualified as a kid birthday celebration, so in the evening we invited a couple of grown-ups (albeit super fun, energetic grown-ups) for dinner, cake and presents. I am still patting myself on the back for that decision :)

Ben and Liz have a captive audience before supper

I bring out the cake: a traditional "3", but with a few added touches

Dump truck special delivery: dirt (graham crumbs), and worms (gummy, of course)

It is SO EXCITING when it is your birthday!

Linden got four presents, all of which were a huge hit. Train tracks and trains; a superhero outfit (both pictured above), "Dinosaurs Zoom" (a book about dinosaurs and trucks and birthday presents - ummm... is there anything better?), and....

... this. Need I elaborate? "real digging" is clearly Linden's new favourite activity.

Other than all the birthday festivities, we have been up to some other fun fall stuff.  For instance, Juniper went to the birthday party to end all birthday parties - her friend Idahlia turned 6, and held the party at a FARM.  Seriously. They got to hang out with tonnes of animals, and all the kids (the ones who were old enough, anyway), got to go on a trail ride!

Feeding hay to the most adorable pony I've ever seen

Off they go!

We also made a return trip to Beebe woods this weekend - we couldn't resist after the glorious hike a week ago.  We had an even larger group this time around, and the kids had a BLAST. We did too!

"Brushing" the pond with a pine bough

Swinging out over the water!  We want to go back in the summer and actually swing out into the pond.  It looked like so much fun that I had to have a go at it as well, but it took me a good few minutes to screw my courage to the sticking point before I did it!

Stopping for a bit of a snack

Running to catch up with everyone! (we were waylaid by the swinging expedition)

The more dangerous boulders to climb, the better

Look what we found at the top of the pine tree stand!  This teepee made an already magical spot even better. We hung out here for a very long time.

Polka-dotted feather! Anyone know what bird this is from?  A jay, maybe?

The magical spot from a different view

 We also went to a super fun pumpkin-carving party at Juniper's new friend Elise's house (they ride the bus together every day).  Both Linden and Juniper drew their own face designs onto their pumpkins, and Clark happily helped them carve ("happily" in part because he enjoys such endeavours, but perhaps even more so because he gets to harvest the seeds and roast them). I actually have no pictures from the party itself, but here are the after-effects:

Juniper's pumpkin (left) and Linden's (right)

And finally, because I just couldn't resist - we went to another very fun birthday party yesterday (Juniper's friend Maddie turned 5), and while I did not manage to get many pictures from the party itself, I did find this pretty spectacular mushroom on the edge of the driveway.  I'm allowed to sneak in mushrooms if I have offered up a huge amount of other kid-related photos first, right?

See you next week!

Seriously - how cool is this? I thought it was a very lost sea urchin at first :)

Thanks, Columbus

Running secrets

This is that funny day of the year, where we are celebrating a long weekend both here and in Canada - one in honour of Christopher Columbus; the other in honour of giving thanks.  In the last couple of years we have quietly celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving over here on the Cape with a roast chicken dinner, but this weekend we didn't quite get around to it. This is not to say that we don't have mountains of things to be thankful for (which we do, of course!), but rather that there has been much afoot. Not least of which, there have been some preparations for one special little boy's 3rd birthday, which just happens to be tomorrow!  

We went all out for picture day - a woven New Brunswick-made tie and a tuxedo shirt!

LINDEN

Speaking of Linden, I have really been enjoying our Monday Mama-Linden days (and he loves them as well!) His preference is always to go for a bike-ride while I run behind him, and I am (usually) more than happy to acquiesce. He is still on his Strider, and he has mastered it to the point where he is completely comfortable bombing down hills, feet up on the foot rest, and he often rushes far ahead of me with no compunction.  Like everything else he does, I must simply try and keep him as safe as possible while holding back the urge to remove him and place him gingerly in a padded room.

On the go, complete with a self-packed snack in a mini-backpack

For anyone who hasn't seen him recently, I feel like Linden is truly a little kid now, rather than a toddler. He is (clearly), a human tornado, with more energy than his little body is able to contain. He is incredibly sweet and charming (especially to "older" ladies), super expressive (both verbally and physically), and hilarious. He also knows exactly how to be a little s*@#  when he feels like it.  He is marvellously talented at pushing buttons, and is able to shut down any ultimatums or warnings we throw at him.  For instance - "Linden, I've asked you four times nicely to stop doing that.  Do you want me to get mad at you?" To which Linden will smile smugly, and say "Yes. Get mad.  I want to see you get mad. Yell!" Sigh.

Stopping to "fix" his bike with a pretend wrench

Linden is able to fully express himself (at least to those of us who know exactly what he is saying), but has the rather adorable habit of adding and extra "es" to things in order to make them plural. "Trucks" becomes "trucks-es"; "treats" becomes "treats-es", and so on.  He also can not seem to master feminine and masculine pronouns - he/she or his/hers.  For instance, he is just as likely to ask "where is he?" when referring to Juniper as "where is she?"  I don't remember Juniper getting consistently confused like that, but perhaps she did.

Mini-dinosaur enjoys a snack at Spohr Gardens

Apart from his bike and his various trucks and trains, another of Linden's interests seems to be music. He has an incredibly strong sense of rhythm, and a remarkably good ear (at least for a three-year-old).  Besides successfully being able to carry a tune when singing, the other day, I found him playing "Twinkle Twinkle" on the piano, after having watched Juniper do it. I was floored.

Helping Clark with a project

JUNIPER
This week, Juniper had the day off on Friday, but Linden still had preschool.  This meant that we got to have a Mama-Juniper morning, which does not happen very often these days.  It was such fun! Much like her little brother, Juniper was keen to hop on her bike.  Being on a pedal bike, however, (and being two years older, of course), Juniper is able to go much farther distance-wise.  So we biked all the way to the village, with lots of fun stops in between.

Check out the size of this horseshoe crab molt!

I notice a big difference in Juniper since she turned 5, and started kindergarten. She just seems... older, I guess. Funny how that happens. So far, she LOVES school.  She seems to be thriving in that environment, which is wonderful. She is still suffering from cumulative exhaustion, however, which manifests itself in some extra-intense whininess. Whining is my kryptonite.  I just CAN NOT HANDLE IT.  So this is something we are "working" on. There is currently a button system in effect, which involves getting buttons as positive reinforcement.  Once she fills a little jar, she gets a prize.  We'll see how that works.

Apple break before the seal show in the Village

 Juniper is keen on any number of different things these days, but she especially interested in making books and trying to teach herself how to read. For instance, the other day, she tried spelling "going" by sounding it out, and came up with "gown".  When I told her what "gown" actually spelled, she decided to run with it, and has now produced about 4 different books about gowns, complete with drawings of people wearing different fancy dresses. How cute is that?

Improving wheel technique!

Juniper found a nice, fat caterpillar, named "Phoebe".  We're going to see if she builds a cocoon.

 And - that's about it! We have been enjoying the autumn, and all the awesomeness that comes with it. Yesterday we went on a gorgeous hike with some friends in Beebe woods, and I was reminded (once again), of how completely amazing it is to walk through the woods in the fall.  Even the kids recognize this, I think - on Saturday evening, for instance, after weathering a very rainy day, Clark suggested a movie night post-supper.  Juniper thought about this for a few moments, and then suggested: "how about instead, we go for a rainy nature walk?" Ummmm - OK! The magic of fall, for sure :)

One of the swans that hangs out in the pond by our house

Miguel, Linden and Juniper holding hands on the trail...

... and then stoping to do some "dirt writing"

Right Now (con't)

Waiting for Juniper's bus in the pouring rain

I had envisioned a different post than this, originally: lots of pictures peppered with bits and pieces of Linden and Juniper's particularities right now.  But then I realised I hadn't done any videos in awhile.  So I put that together instead.

Oyster Pond Reflections

Somehow, they are all Linden.  Ah well - I'll balance it out at some other time.  I hope you enjoy them!

Clark's friend Peter took him night fishing! This is the first of four huge fish that Clark reeled in: a Bluefish. (He also got a couple of stripers.  They only kept one big striper in the end - we'll see how it tastes tonight!)