10 Year Anniversary

Hard to believe that 10 years have gone by since the day David and I got married. That was such a beautiful day. Today, I got to wake up with the love of my life by my side, in a gorgeous setting in Walla Walla, WA. We are celebrating at Inn at Abeja. This place is incredible. And, it's harvest season, so the wine makers are busy at production, sorting and pressing grapes. It's truly a treat to be here!

The tasting room and winery.

The Carriage House Suite, where we are staying.

We arrived on Wednesday afternoon. We were welcomed with a beautiful bottle of the winery's Innkeeper's Red. While we enjoyed our wine on the back deck of our room, we were greeted by Casey, the resident cat. 

We then went for a walk around the grounds. There's a small creek behind us, which we have a view of from the deck. We saw some wild turkeys crossing a road, and I saved a bird from a net (used to keep the birds out of the grape vine, ironically).

View from our deck.

Look at this sky.

I rescued this little guy. It closed its eyes while I stroked its head to calm it down. 

There's A Nip In The Air

After a summer full of warm days, the weather quickly took a turn in the past week. Rain coats and light down coats are being dusted off and put back on the Hunt family members. The heater kicked on this morning!

We are (hopefully) t-minus 6 days to the start of a new school year. It's been a long summer - 12 weeks this year. I so wanted to be different than the other moms who can't wait to send their kids off to school again. They were in various camps for most of the summer, but I left the last 3 weeks wide open for spontaneous outings. Let me tell you, it's pretty exhausting coming up with stuff to please 3 different ages and personalities. Not to mention, expensive. Even a bus ride downtown now costs around $10 round-trip, depending on how long we stay out. Cost of parking around the city is the pits. And, the food! Unless I pack our whole refrigerator with us, I inevitably end up buying some food to feed these constantly hungry boys. Or, I pack all of them food, but have forgotten myself. 

This last week of summer is always bittersweet for me. The older boys got to spend a lot of time together, bickering and bonding these past few months. It's nice they attend a small school and run into each other sometimes during the day, but it's a drastic change from the near constant companionship of the summer. They spent lots of time with baby brother, too. When he's not with his older siblings, he will ask where they are.

Speaking of baby brother, he will be starting preschool next week, too. I can't believe it. 

In the meantime, with the colder (sometimes wet) mornings, it's not as easy to let the toddler fulfill his digging needs in the sandbox outside. He was really sad about it this morning, so I improvised with some dried black beans.

Brothers bonding over lunch time at Veggie Grill.

Seattle Center Playground

New playground at Seattle Center is awesome. It's really arts and music focused. The above rock pit for toddlers has metal logs inside a log cage for little ones to grab a fistful of pebbles, drop in, and make "music." The two large slides are the perfect solution for the need to burn off some big kid energy. If it's a warm day, the giant, nearby fountain plays music while water sprays high up into the air. It's great fun to sit back and watch, or run in and get soaked.

Murray Update

Yes, Murray is still dead. Last night, before the kids went to bed, David & I started asking Tyler how Murrary's doing. He said, "He's just hanging around in the water..."

We went to look at him with Ty. After a little examination and analysis of the situation, Tyler calmly said, "...he might be dead." He explained how sometimes tadpoles die soon after turning into a frog. He was so matter-of-fact. 

He did eventually get sad. Very sad. Poor buddy. He said, "I'm scared I will have a dream that I turned into Murray, and then I die." Oh dear. What finally made him feel better was that I said we'll sew a little frog stuffie. Now, I gotta figure out how to do that.

Keeping Busy & Sad News

After dropping the big boys off at camp, I took my littlest man to the $1 showing of Paddington Bear at Regal Theater up north. It's their Summer Movie Express. The last time I took him to the movie theater was last summer for one of these. We met up with friends, and I forgot my wallet. I ended up having to take him out of the theater periodically, as he was only a little over a year old. We did better today, but not by much. We stayed for 1 hour of the show. It was alright, since we were meeting friends for lunch, and I wasn't sure if we'd make it back in time if we stayed for the whole movie. Luckily, I only spent $1 on my ticket, he was free, and we shared a kids snack pack for around $6.

We made it back a little early, so we stopped at the playground. Crosby really enjoyed going for a ride of the zip-line swing.

Lunch was at Cactus with our friend who nannies two boys we met through karate. They have a pretty decent kids' menu. I ordered C the beef brisket flautas for $4, which came with sour cream and guacamole. He seemed to like it, but ate more of it in the car on the way home than in the restaurant. Go figure.

Before we picked up brothers from camp, I went to check on our frog, Murray. He was dead. I was really shocked and sad about this. We found Murray a few weeks ago, when he still had a bit of his tadpole tale, in Seabrook, WA. I was the one who caught him, but Tyler claimed him, and has been taking care of him since. I didn't tell him that Murray died, but he didn't check on him before bed tonight. He seemed so good yesterday. When I found him, it looked like one foot may have been stuck between a rock and the side of the aquarium. My guess is that he drowned. Good-bye, Murray. You will be missed.

When we first got Murray's aquarium, and crickets for him to eat.

What a cute frog.

Fava Bean & Shitake Risotto

It's been tough for me to motivate to cook when the house is so hot. But, we have so much wonderful, fresh produce in the house, I need to make use of it, and quickly. We are only in week 4 of 20, for farm fresh organic vegetables from Oxbow Farm. The last 3 weeks have brought us sugar snap peas, fava beans, fennel, garlic shoots, shitake mushrooms, lettuces, and more. This week's box shouldn't disappoint, either. This year, we are not hosting a pick up site, as we thought it would be less chaotic while the remodel is going on. It's the first time in several years (4 or 5??) that we'll have to pick up our box. We almost forgot last week! We do have the option of having it delivered, if we order a pizza from Pagliacci, where the boxes are dropped off this year. Dangerous.

Anyway, I digress. Back to cooking in this heat. Currently, it's 80 degrees F in our kitchen, a touch cooler than yesterday. And, it was pretty muggy yesterday. Basically, not very comfortable, especially when I was about to make it hotter with my cooking. I was determined to cook dinner and use up our fava beans. I had saved 2 weeks' worth of them. These babies were gorgeous, and delicious. Sauteed in a little browned butter, in the same pan I used to saute the shitake mushrooms, then added to creamy risotto. 

For the older boys, I left out the mushrooms. I wish they would like mushrooms. I think it's more a texture thing than a taste thing. 

I think it turned out nicely.

Getaway

After school let out yesterday, we drove out to the WA coast to the town Seabrook. We were just here back in April during spring break with Ma. We've rented a much smaller place this time for just the 5 of us. It's nice, but the last place was so fabulous, this is like we're slummin' it. Ha! Spoiled.

Really, though, I do feel spoiled, even if this place isn't as big or well stocked as the last. I mean, raising my 3 boys is so hard. {One is super moody, another is happy yet wildly crazy, and the third is super duper moody, cute, and wildly crazy.} I'm usually exasperated by 9am. BUT! Yes, there is definitely a silver lining. Raising these boys comes with priceless rewards, like the things we did as a family today, and I feel so fortunate.

Hiking down to the beach via the "Gnome Trail."

Crosby putting on David's Cavs ball cap like it ain't no thang.

Seeing my 2 year old flying a kite for the first time.

Playing in the sand & finding tadpoles {yeah, on the beach!}.

And, my life is extra sweet because I have the best husband to share these moments with. He said to me while we were on the beach, watching our boys with another random group of kids, "I love seeing kids play & explore like this. It's what growing up should be like." I love his appreciation for the wonders of childhood.

Last Day of School

I can't believe I only took one picture all day.

What is even harder to believe is that school is over. Come September 9, I will have a 3rd grader, a 1st grader, and a preshooler! Oh my. Yea, C will do 2 half-days at a Mandarin immersion school on the east side. It's so minimal that I won't really get anything done. 

Anyway, here's the one picture.

I did take a few pictures from Ty's kindergarten celebration last week!

Wash In Cold

As a kid, I wanted to Sun-In my hair like the rest of the girls at school. But, I knew that my mom would disapprove. Yeah, I said, "disapprove." Even though my parents considered me to be "wild," I was really pretty good. I mean, Sun-In would leave some pretty obvious evidence of me rebelling against something Ma felt strongly against. I wasn't stupid.

Fast forward, oh, 20-something years (or more) later. I'm a mom of 3. Now, the clock is ticking, and I only have a few more years to pull off something as crazy as neon blue and neon green hair. Funny enough, Ma thinks it's great! Ah, I love her. 

So, this is the wildest of my wild hair. In the past year, I've done some purple with blue and bits of green, some blue with pink, and now this. It's taken me a few weeks to get used to, but it's pretty fun. I feel like it makes people do a double take and think, "What? Anny?" Yup, it's the same, pretty good-girl me. Just with a little extra color.

Oh, and my little tip for colored hair...wash in cold water. Yaoza!

Morning Bird Feeding

This morning, after we dropped Tyler off at school, Crosby kept saying something that sounded like "Yatzee" to Tyler's teacher. I thought it was totally legit, since we've been playing Mickey Mouse Yatzee the past week, until I heard something that sounded like, "duck." That's when I realized he was saying duck in Mandarin. Yia-tzi. Since we had a little bit of time before our "baby college" class, I was happy to oblige. So, off we went to the arboretum, and ducks we found! Along with some Canada Geese, and crows. And, baby geese! Can you spot the little guys?

Ducks are truly so much nicer than geese.

I say ducks are nicer, but they are just as eager to eat as geese, and even a little more daring. See that light brown one? Yeah, she managed to take that whole piece of bread from Cros. I think he dropped it because he was a little scared, and she swooped in, snagged it and ran. One geese hissed at us a bunch, which was freaky. When we were down to our very last bit, we threw it and ran, as more ducks were landing in the water that very moment! Whew!

Mushrooms For The 2 Year Old

I made a pork stir fry last night. It called for shiitake mushrooms. Crosby loved the mushrooms. He had leftovers for lunch, but had eaten all but about 4 tiny pieces of mushrooms last night. I served him what I could, but when he asked for more, I couldn't say no. I cut up more mushrooms and sautéed them with some of the stir fry. 

Beet Pancakes

My 2 year old is loving these. I used a pancake mix and subbed the butter and some of the milk for beets.

2 C pancake mix

3/4 C puréed beets

1 C milk

1 egg

Measure out the mix into a large bowl. Make a well in the middle. Add the remaining ingredients into the well. Mix until just incorporated. 

ACME Farms + Kitchen

I get nothing for endorsing this business, except knowing that if more people buy from them, they are more likely stay in business, which is super helpful to me as a busy mom. So, here I go! I was introduced to ACME Farms + Kitchen by my friend, Hannah. A few months ago. This is the gist of it:

"Today, our Locavore Boxes contain a carefully curated array of fresh, local, seasonal food paired with recipes and a meal plan to turn our region's bounty into dinner for your family. Order online each week and have a beautiful box of local food delivered to your doorstep. You'll cut out trips to the store, save money on your grocery bill, answer the question of "what's for dinner?" and most importantly, support dozens of farmers, fishers, ranchers, and artisan producers throughout our region."

We have tried Blue Apron, which we like and use sometimes. Unlike Blue Apron, AFC is located in Bellingham, WA, which is just a couple hours away from my front door! Their boxes come with way less packaging, because it doesn't need to travel as far or stay cool for as long. They also pick up the re-useable items on their next delivery; boxes, glass jars, ice packs, etc. Nifty!

Music Together

Our little friend, Orianna, had her 2nd birthday party this morning. It was probably one of the less hectic toddler parties we've attended. I'm not sure why. There were plenty of little feet running around, and lots of noise, yet, I felt pretty relaxed. 

Orianna had a special guest at her party. Music instructor, Mr. John, from Music Together. He brought his ukelele, some small instruments, and a music! All the boys got into it. Crosby was very delighted and giggled at the funny jokes the teacher made. He danced, played with the different instruments, and even sat quietly watching.

Drumming along

Tyler trying his hand at triangles.

Quietly listening to "Twinkle, twinkle...".

The party was near our house, so we walked. The older boys rode their bikes. David left early with Vincent and Tyler. They stopped to play at the park. Tyler made it up to the top of this structure for the first time.

There's Ty in the red shirt. He was so proud of himself.

Our First Hunt Family Yard Sale (aka Vincent & Tyler's Toy Sale)

OMG, I just realized, I forgot to take a picture of their set up! Ugh.

Vincent and Tyler have been asking us for, oh, more than a year to have a yard sale. A real one. Not one where they gather their stuff and we buy it off them for dirt cheap and then donate it. We finally made it happen for them. In all our relationship, this would be David and my 3rd yard sale. This is the first where we involved the children. Our main motivation was our upcoming remodel of their bedroom.

For about 2 weeks, we've been gathering things. I hesitated to do much advertising on it because I wasn't sure if it would rain this weekend or not. I finally decided on Friday to get the word out. The boys passed out little flyers to their friends, advertising a toy sale. We posted on a few places online.

In the end, we had 4 of Vincent's friends stop by, a few neighbors, and a couple of random people. The boys each raised a little money for their stuff, and we pulled in about $36 for the other stuff. The remaining items, except for a few "big ticket" items, we will take to donation. It's funny to me how hard it can be for me to make the decision to let go of some things. As the kids were organizing their stuff, I could see their hesitation on some of the stuff that had already been decided to go. But, they did a really nice job selling their things. I had to have them back off a little on the pushiness. All-in-all, I think they enjoyed it, and it was a good experience for us all. 

 

It's Tuesday

For the past 8 months, Tuesdays have been college day for Cros and I. This is my Round 3 of "baby college." I used to ride the bus there with Vincent pretty often. We lived half as close, so I even walked sometimes. Rarely did I drive. With Tyler, I hardly drove. I had to rush back to pick up Vincent from preschool, so time was of the essence. 

 

Today, we rode the bus to school. I have been meaning to do it for months now, but keep forgetting. As I said on Sunday, I was going to try to ride the bus more often with the kids.

 

Getting there was a breeze. Getting back, not so much. Somehow, the 2 blocks to the bus stop seemed much longer. The bus took longer than my app said it would. When it finally came, the bus driver immediately rear-ended the car in front of us. Rather than stand around for 20 minutes waiting for the next bus, we hopped on the wrong bus that was right behind ours, knowing we'd have to transfer halfway home. This was all pretty simple, actually. Only, C kept saying, "Amma shuai." "Shuai?" "Pees, shuai?" Translations: "I want water." "Water?" "Please, water?" This went on the whole ride, as we waited for the transfer, and on the next bus.

Waiting for our transfer. He kept eating dried cereal and asking for water. Hmmmm.

Yes, home is just 2 blocks away from the bus stop, but the coffee shop was just a few steps. Immediate water satisfaction, and maybe a doughnut.

Prior to our morning outing, we got to watch workers on in front of our house. Okay, actually, we weren't watching the workers. We were watching the machines the workers were using.

Ms. Annette at the lunchroom gave him U.S. President cookies.

oohhh. ahhh.

 In other parts of our life, there are Duplos.

Welcome to the jungle. Do you spot an elephant?

And, show and tell. 

Ty showed off some Pokemon cards. He carried them to school in a Nespresso pods box. The kids also sang for their teacher's birthday.

 And, there's dinner. Taco Tuesday for Cinco de Mayo.

We Rode The Bus Today

Given where we live in proximity to downtown and a bus stop, we don't ride the bus nearly enough. Well, David does, almost daily, but not the kids and I. 

Today, we did it as a family. Rode the #43 to Capitol Hill. 

Here's what we did, after we got off the bus:

-Walked through Broadway Farmers' Market

-Crossed the street to Walgreens for "allowance day" shopping. V & T picked out Skylanders trappers. Trust me, you don't want to know.

-Walked a block to Elliot Bay Books, where the boys tried looking for more stuff to buy with their money. Nothing. Crosby had to be quickly carried out of the store, so avoid a scene.

He may look like he's calmly reading, but it didn't last long.

-After getting a little turned around, we found Kurt Farm Shop. Please, run, don't walk, and get your booty down to this little gem of an ice cream shop (he has cheese, too!). There's even a nice back courtyard for the kiddos to shake their legs.

 

-Stopped in at Retrofit, where I think I've found my desk chair. I just need to convince D to let me get it.

-Big Mario's pizza for big slices.

The boys are looking at, I think, a homeless couple across the street making a ruckus.

His was just half a slice. Look at D's on the left.

-Walk back through the Farmers' Market.

-Stopped in the comic book store.

-Get back on the bus and head home. 

Almost home.