Look Who's Two!

Jill sent us picture this week of Daniel' birthday celebration as well as several from the winding down of the last day's of school before summer vacation. Can you guess what Daniel's favorite vehicle is?

David's class grew bok choy as part of their farm learning project. The whole school shared a lunch that included a salad made with it....kind of a nifty way to get kids to eat some greens! He's had a fabulous kindergarten experience, and that makes this ex-teacher grandma very happy.

And here's Sophia Dandelionseed. I remember chasing these fairies". Do you?

Seventy! Finally!

Finally, just yesterday, the thermometer hit seventy. Today it's 54. Oh well, it was nice while it lasted, and we did have four glorious days of sunshine....in a row, no less! Dick caught a couple of Steller's jays in our backyard while trying to capture the "snow" from the cherry tree.

MOV04129 a video by jatshaw on Flickr.

It was nice when our friends the Schmidts were in town enroute to Alaska. They even got to see Mount Rainier, and I am sure have totally the wrong idea about our weather. But, I'm glad they got to see our city at its finest. Before the weather turned good, I finished this washcloth from one of the patterns I got on Mother's
Day at Churchmouse Yarns and Teas. I love this pattern so much that I'm going to try it for a small blanket. We'll see how long that takes!

Phew!

Wow! This has been a busy and fun week. It began on Mother's Day with a ferry ride to Bainbridge Island where we had a nice lunch with Carl, Catherine, and Brent at a Thai restaurant. While they went to the Blackbird Bakery, I slipped into Churchmouse Yarns and Teas and bought several patterns and a skein of Koigu. The nice woman who waited on me offered to wind the skein, a offer I never refuse. It turns out she was the owner! Catherine and Brent gave me these cute socks which I just had to share. She found them in January at Lake Tahoe.

On the home front, the kitchen/family room floor is done and has been thoroughly inspected by Ginger. We are doing lots of laundry today as that floor is next. Then all that remains is the backsplash and floor molding. The latter is drying in our garage, and the tile was supposed to come in Friday, but we've been to busy to check.

Friday afternoon I sewed these booties together. They were an interesting knit but seem pretty small. These are done with dk yarn and the needles suggested in the pattern....newborn size maybe or slippers for an American Girl doll perhaps?

Our cherry tree is blooming despite the chilly, grey weather. The paper noted on Thursday that we've not broken 70 degrees here since last November! However, clloudy skies have made preparing for our Elijah concert a great diversion. We had two rehearsals with the soloists this week and two exciting performances this weekend. Here's a link to some photos that were taken Friday night. It was definitely a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity! (And now that Elijah will have quit invoking "rain upon the thirsty land," maybe, just maybe, we'll see the sun?)

Flowers Inside and Out

We celebrated Easter with part of our family and ate in the partially finished kitchen because the dining room table is still buried with stuff that can't be put away until everything is done. But thanks to these flowers from Catherine and Brent, the table looked very nice anyway. And they're still beautiful over a week later!

We've had a few glorious days that inspired several walks with camera at the ready. If you look really carefully, you can see the Space Needle and Smith Tower which used to vie for "tallest" building in Seattle. No more.

Each spring I look forward to seeing this beautiful trillium. Isn't it amazing? Mine has only 3 blooms, but maybe some day it will look like this one.

The star magnolia seems to have been a favorite yard planting by the builders in our area.

Doesn't this one look pretty with a forsythia behind it?

Our mountains still have lots of snow; in fact we had a tiny bit of snow here last Wednesday evening. Just this morning the paper said most of our native wildflowers are 2-3 weeks behind schedule.

Our unusually chilly spring hasn't stopped these from blooming. Many people detest dandelions, but to me they are a sure sign of spring.

Forget-me-nots are another hardy plant that can grow almost anywhere. I love their bright blue flowers! Sights like these make our walks a pleasure.

Not all of our days have been this lovely for walking, but I've been gainfully employed inside and even had a bit of time to knit. This interesting pattern surprised me with a 3-D effect. It would make a pretty afghan, but I'm going to stop with this hotpad.

My last finish for the month is this prayer shawl for another choir friend who's having some health challenges. Speaking of choir, we are gearing up for our big concert next week! Elijah, will keep us very busy then.