The Treehouse that Rick built.

Have I ever mentioned that my husband .never. does things by halves?  If something can be done, then surely it can be done better, or bigger, or...

And so we have not just a treehouse, but really, a house in a tree.  He tells me it is our someday retirement home, and that I'll be thankful then that it is well-built.  I think he is somewhat optimistic on the thankful bit, but in the meantime, the kids are enjoying it very much!

As in any real estate venture, and perhaps even more in tree real estate, the first three considerations are location, location, location!!

This tree seemed a likely candidate, and so the platform building began...

Phase two of the project took place in the more controlled and possibly warmer environment of the barn.

Once the building was completed, it was disassembled and carried down a piece at a time and hoisted into the tree.  After some trial and error, and a broken pulley or two, it was finally in place.
It's probably just as well that there are no photos of this process.

Once the walls and roof were in place, the railing was laced in with rope and the final wall and door built.    At last, the finished product!

Once spring comes, it will get the final coat of paint, and whatever other ambitious plans the kids have for it.

  The view from the back side...notice the windows...fully functional windows.  I think this might have something to do with the deer trail that passes by on the hillside below.  It remains to be seen who will enjoy this treehouse the most!

This is what I found on the fridge last night.

We have a very negligent tooth fairy...

                            I wonder if she's related to our spelling teacher?

Life Perspectives from 6 & 7 Year Olds

As overheard on our way from Hist/Lit co op to Biology Lab from an assorted passenger list of my own children, other Biology students, and some others just along for the ride...

Assorted siblings and unrelated kids--  "Here Emily, here's a song for you and Colby"  (Can you feel the love tonight playing in the background from someone's ipod)  "You and Colby will be married someday...."  (sarcastic sighs from the back row)

Emily's older sibling-- "No Emily, you should marry Gus!"

Gus--"No Way!  I'm not marrying Anyone!"

Emily--"You're going to die an old and lonely man, Gus!"

Gus--  "Nope, I'm going to build a house, and live in Peace and Quiet!!"

                                        Hmmm.  Peace and Quiet...what fun would that be?

           

Exploding pans and Dinner out.

Dinner was an adventure last night. 

Rick was stepping in the door from work as I was pulling ham steaks out of the oven.  He was just in time to witness the glass baking dish explode in my hands.  It. Literally. Exploded.  Glass went everywhere, including into every other dish I had ready to serve for dinner.  

Since we didn't want a side of glass with our dinner, either shards or powdered, thank-you-very-much,  Rick took us all out to Gritty's (a favorite local pub and microbrewery) for dinner.  So, on the bright side, we got to go out for dinner

        (although I have to recommend NOT cooking AND cleaning AND dining out all for the same meal),

and with the mess extending into the oven, I also got my oven cleaned (which I'd been putting off for some time).  And while cleaning out the oven, the realization dawned on me that I had actually scrubbed the kitchen floor AND cleaned the oven in a single week...

Watch out Martha Stewart!

And now, I'm getting rid of all my CorningWare.  This is their second attempt on my life, and I'm afraid I might not get away unscathed next time.

What do you get when you put together some fascinating history reading, an old blanket and some rope?

Oh, and don't forget the crucial ingredient...Imagination...

Hours of fun!!

Conjunction Mal-Function

For the fifth and final time, I'm almost through with this book.  (Note the tattered edges)   As with several other school items this year, we're dragging it on through July, but that's not to say we aren't having a good time with it.
Gus is working his way through the phonics and the stories, but the best part of the book so far (to him) has been the conjunctions.

Yes, conjunctions.

Well, one conjunction in particular...

every time he reads the word "but" to me, he goes into paroxysms of laughter, falling to the floor pointing to his own conjunction and repeating the word "but".  I haven't had the heart to tell him about homonyms yet...

Once lost, now found

The saga continues...
The strange lost and found saga beginning with Zac's animals, that is.
This story began several years ago in Monterey, CA where we were stationed for a couple of years.  Glorious reptile hunting years for Zac.  One of his great finds/captures was a lovely little black ring neck snake which took up residence in his room in a small terrarium.  This was our first experience in the escape-art-ism  of reptiles.
It should have served as a warning.
It soon disappeared, never to be seen again. Well, at least not for a few weeks.  It made it's grand re-entrance mere minutes before the baby shower I was hosting began.  In fact, I stepped over it once on my way to bathe the baby, thinking that it was a leftover lace from the military gear my husband had been going through a few minutes earlier.  (After it's long sojourn in our house, it was about the diameter of a shoelace.) That instance was easily dismissed with a figurative wipe of the brow and a sigh of relief that it hadn't crawled out of it's hiding place any later in the day.

Again in Monterey, we brought home a little crab from the shoreline and added it to our home salt water aquarium.
 A practice that is frowned upon, I'm sure.
A few days later, a very distraught 8-year old Zac came tearing into the living room with the news that "Frank" had died.  Upon investigation, we discovered a very inert, non-responsive crab in the tank which we then removed and ceremonially buried under the holly bush by the front door.  A day or two later, a very wide-eyed Zac came into the room to announce that Frank was back...
We subsequently learned that after molting, crabs will hide themselves while their new shell hardens to its naturally protective state, and we in fact, had buried an empty crab shell.  With great respect and a few tears, I assure you.
Which brings us to the latest in the continuing story.

One of the various creatures who currently resides in Zac's room is a monitor lizard, called Joanna the Goanna.

 She was left in the care of a younger sibling (names omitted to protect the guilty) while Zac was at a conference for 10 days.  During his absence, I was informed of the apparent disappearance of said lizard which we very hopefully attributed to her hiding herself.  When she failed to reappear, we quietly worried about what to do.  Zac returned, exhausted from the conference, to an empty tank.  No lizard to be found, even when the tank was emptied, the hollow log shaken, and the sand combed through.  Sadness and disappointment on Zac's part, much guilt on nameless siblings part followed for the next few days.  

This afternoon, a slight movement in the heater of the room was noticed, and upon further investigation, there was Johanna--discovered at last, thinner, but still alive after two weeks of unintentional dieting and lower than previously thought to be tolerated temperatures.

Another happy ending in a series of lost and then found stories.  And the reptiles/crustaceans are the least of the story really.  Our family has been most gloriously found by God's grace.  We experienced a  culmination of that ongoing saga today in worship where our two younger daughters, Lydia and Moriah, were received as communicant members of our church here in Portland, and received their first communion.
 

What a blessing to realize the ultimate "lost and then found" story in our (human) family.  Thanks be to God for his unspeakable riches!