Weekend Warriors Are At It Again

We have been working on leveling our yard for three years now, and we are FINALLY close to being done!

This weekend we tore down the last remnants of our old fence and started building a new one that will encompass our entire yard - not just half of it like the old one. We rented a two person auger and started to dig the first of 21 holes for fence posts. While it was much easier than using a post hole digger, it was no picnic.

By Saturday we put out a call for help, and our fabulous friends came to the rescue. Several guys helped Dan finish the holes, mixed concrete and began setting the support posts. I BBQ'd some ribs and burgers and we made s'mores for dessert. All in all it was great time.

Our plan is to have 8' sections of wood interspersed with 4' sections of chicken wire. On the wire we are going to plant kiwi's and grapes and whatever else sounds interesting. The only downside is the dogs don't have a yard right now. Dan is taking the day off tomorrow, so hopefully we'll make some serious progress on it.

First Day of School

In what will be the first of many school days, Kendra began her scholastic career at King Street Cooperative Preschool. She will be going two days a week, for three hours at a time.

In case you aren't familiar with co-ops (I wasn't) it is staffed by two paid teachers, and every other worker is a parent volunteer. There are 4 parents who work each classroom shift, plus the teachers, for roughly 15 kids. There is one in the "home center" - a pretend house that is fully stocked with child sized stuff; one in the gym area; one in the art room - which is a beautiful glass enclosed atrium with lots of plants; and one in charge of snack.

The parents are also responsible for running the school - registration, collecting tuition, maintenance of the facility - everyone has a job. My job is historian. I'm in charge of collecting and scanning in the kids artwork for the yearbook, decorating the two classroom bulletin boards and ultimately creating the yearbook. I'm really excited about it. Here are my first bulletin boards. The board on the left is the art board for the kids. It will feature a rotating display of the various types of artwork the kids create. This week features the artwork created at the kids play date before school officially started. The other board is for the parents - information, discussions, etc.

Here's to the start of a fun year!

Cousin Comes to Visit

My cousin (or some relation or another :) has come to visit! We have had a great time so far. She arrived Friday afternoon and we gave her the grand tour of Seattle. It started with the locks, a nice walk through Ballard to a great Puerto Rican restaurant, and ended with driving around the city showing her the area.

Saturday we enjoyed some tasty cinnamon rolls Dan made, then went down to the Market. We wandered all over, ending at a great little dress shop. She found the most adorable dress and matching shoes. What a great souvenir! She'll think of us every time she wears the outfit! (And she looks AMAZING in it.)

Sunday was a very, very early day. We were all up by 5:30am and out the door to catch the 9am ferry out of Anacortes. It's roughly a two hour drive there, and then an hour long ferry ride to the San Juan Islands. We were hoping to see some whales, since that is what they are known for, but we were not that lucky. We did see some beautiful scenery, learn more about the history of this area, and have a nice time. We caught the 7pm ferry back, and made it home by 10:30pm, absolutely exhausted.

Tonight is dinner (without Kendra) at Marrakesh...