Penguin Party

Hi there guys.  Been a while.  I guess I have been a little bummed about our upcoming move.  Since it has been so rushed we only saw one place and basically had to take it or leave it.  I like having choices.  The sleep deprivation from the bar music has also made me a touch grumpy.  Poor Carl.  

I am feeling more optimistic about it now.   You all know we want a tiny house (less to clean) and a huge huge garden. Yes, we know what we want.  So I will share the  

perks about the place...

3 stories.

5 bedrooms

8 bathrooms

4 balconies

Staff sleeping quarters and kitchen

HUGE grass covered banda 

Fireplace and barbecue in banda

Male and female bathrooms in the banda

Pool table and dartboard in banda

Weight lifting equipment in banda

Furnished including comfy couches (totally unheard of here!!)

basically a tad excessive

AND the not-so-perks...

itty bitty cave of a kitchen

itty bitty corner for my garden

and will have to sneak in chicken coop before owner tells us it is not allowed

AND worst of all...

it comes with a gardener so we have to give up Moses. 

We love Moses.

And this is very very sad.

I know I have ended with the negatives but I really am feeling more optimistic about things and motivated to turn it into a nice home despite the fall backs.  Maybe an opportunity to learn about butterfly gardens or bird gardens to attract some wildlife and balcony gardening to maximize the yield on a small property.  We will make it wonderful.  And we will do it by the time Tia Leslie and Uncle John arrive for their visit.

In the meantime we have been incredibly busy having fun. 

 Kaia's classmate turned 5 and her mom is AWESOME at throwing themed parties.  She is the one who did the troll cake last year.  This year was a penguin theme.  So this is where the 'penguins' soaped up and  slid down the hill on their bellies.  Both Kaia and Theo were too scared to try but had fun watching.  I would have lathered up and showed them how it was done but there were WAY too many cameras around.

 The penguin bean bag toss.  

And I can't find the photo right now but she made little fish shaped meringue cookies and had the kids waddle over to her with their mouths open to get one.  Friggin' hilarious!!

Kaia-ism:
This morning Kaia put on shorts that are '12-18 months' and I told her they were too small and short.  She had to change.  And she did.  But then when I picked her up from school she was wearing the SHORT shorts!!  She had just put the larger ones on top of the short ones and took them off at school!!!  She said it was because she was warm, but I didn't think we had to worry about stuff like this until high school!!

 Then we spent the weekend with Amelia (the one from both Egypt and Finland).  Bob just accepted a job in Portland for next year so this is the end of an era.  Here they are walking the cat. 

 And here is Kaia (who was inseperable from Amelia the entire weekend) and Amelia chasing butterflies.

 And once we were home from our relaxing weekend, with full and very happy bellies, reality set in.  Packing packing packing.  Theo LOVES to help.  Since Theo is Moses' shadow, I think he will miss him the most.

 And of course I still have to get some work done.  Today we experimented with new candle designs and organized the workshops some more. What a messy room, right.  

And what in the world is in that white box?

Oh, just Theo napping :)

He fell asleep sitting up at the lunch table with a piece of ravioli and a fork hanging out of his mouth!!!  Priceless.