adventures with pete

our friend peter visited us for almost a week, and we're really glad he did. aaron enjoyed sampling lots of northwest brews with pete, i enjoyed crafting and talking and being quiet with pete, and noah enjoyed having another person pay attention to him. we had lots of adventures including a hike, a boatyard mega-yacht party, an island bike ride, a battlestar galactica marathon, masaman curry eating and lots more. you can see many more pictures here.

the mysterious lummi island sailboat

cracking up on the fragrance lake overlook

pete's awesome freezer paper stencil shirt

first birthday, third time

and the festivities continued on sunday with a family party for noah at grandma and grandpa b.'s house in ladner. here's noah sitting like a prince in the rocker, wearing his new bird shirt.

we arrived to these lovely decorations (although they may have been a bit recycled from colin's surprise graduation party friday night...)

aaron was particularly excited about the sailing theme on this great cake made by grandma b.

noah probably didn't care too much about the theme, but he certainly loved the cake. we told him to enjoy it because it would be his last piece of cake for a long time. by the end of the weekend we were all suffering from "the berenstien bears and too much birthday," according to aaron.

he's thinking how he can get some more cake...

first birthday, second time

and on saturday, april 28, we celebrated again--this time with an afternoon party at the co-op connections building, attended by most of noah's baby friends (and their parents).

aaron made these invitations, a silhouette stamp made from a picture of noah on the porch.

and here are some of the many freezer paper stenciled shirts we made as gifts for noah and his friends. (and for me and aaron too. you can see my fox on green and aaron's brown bear on blue.)

we served some of noah's favorite snacks. he is particularly addicted to pirate's booty right now. like mother, like son.

we also made mini-muffin carrot cakes with cream-cheese frosting. i should say, aaron made them, and they were super yummy.

the co-op connections building is a small glass-enclosed building on the south side of the co-op parking lot in town. it's available free for members to use, which is a really wonderful perk. we spread blankets in one corner for babies to lounge on, and set up chairs by the windows. aaron hung all the animal shirts on clotheslines around the room, and as people left they chose an animal for their child.

noah and his friends took turns driving the mack truck.

maryka the marine biologist.

jeff made this awesome sunflower-stalk rainmaker for noah. it's filled with a mix of adzuki beans and arborio rice, and it makes a beautiful, slow pattering when it's flipped.

here's jessa looking grumpy. (i'm pretty sure she had a nice time, though.)

and pig-tailed kate on the move.

i think this look means, "i thought this was supposed to be my birthday party! why are all these babies playing with my stuff? and all i'm left with is a spoon?!"

maryka came over for soup after the party, and promptly undressed so she could make her own animal shirt.

birthday the first

and here begins the series of birthday mania. on wednesday, april 25th we celebrated noah's first birthday with pizza and cupcakes. grandma and grandpa b. came down and were shocked to see noah down some greek pizza, olives and all.
noah was pretty excited about his very first cupcake. he was most excited about the frosting.

and yet still willing to share. what a sweet boy.

and he was also excited about his first birthday present, the touchy-feely book diggers from grandma and grandpa b.

arrival of the hobo-sapiens

a few days after danielle and napiqua's visit, another friend from the oregon extension showed up on our doorstep. rachel, my cabinmate from the OE, and her husband andrew are biking up the west coast and then back east to virginia, where they live. they stayed with us for a wonderful five days before heading north to vancouver.

we joked that rachel became noah's second mom while she was here. here she and noah are reading a bedtime story.

we took a mini bike trip down to the harbor (every bike trip seems "mini" now, compared to what andrew and rachel are doing). here's the FV desire, a boat that fishes out of petersburg, alaska. we bought some salmon from these folks, who we know a bit from petersburg and who do all their own processing too, which is cool. aaron also loves that the whole family is involved (parents and three kids)--the boys even wave signs advertising their fish on a busy street corner downtown, and they don't look embarrassed!

here we are at the park at squalicum harbor. i thought noah would be psyched about sliding, but apparently not!

but he did seem psyched to ride his own bike! no more of this chillin'-out-in-the-trailer business for him.

um, here's me getting ready to chow down on some steak.

and aaron chowing down on a mega taco.


rachel helped a TON with the birthday t-shirt project (more on that later). here she is in process (also in all my clothes).

in the spirit of t-shirt making, i made this shirt for rachel. it says, "the revolution will not be motorized," and on the bottom corner there's an outline of a bicycle.

sailing! aaron's friend logan took him, rachel and andrew for a lovely sunday sail on his boat. they had a great time relaxing and getting a few sailing pointers!



we went for a walk up sehome hill to the observation tower. i love the grumpy look on noah's face.

and then, sadly, we said goodbye.


noah thought about going along for the ride, but decided to stay here with us.

and the hobo-sapiens are on the move again!

a visit from napiqua

my friend danielle (from gordon and the oregon extension) came west recently from her home in leavenworth, washington, and she brought with her four-month-old napiqua. it was really fun to chat with danielle and to meet napiqua, who is super smiley and cute. (and, dare i say, elfin?) noah had fun with her too, although i had to remind him a few times not to poke her in the ear.

we'll visit danielle and napiqua (and woody, who i haven't yet met) in a few weeks on our way east to chelan for the weekend. we're excited to see the gibbs family farm (and aaron's super excited to check out their sawmill).

the tulip thief (a movie)

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the tulip thief

we had some fun on the porch recently peeking through the railings at the lovely red tulips. noah set his mind on stealing a tulip, and even though i knew it was destructive, i let him. here's a series of grumpy, triumphant, and tulip-glowy pictures.