June 2013

We continued to do our trial month of homeschool, made crystals and homemade charcoal for drawing. We also started attending the Donnelly Library "Dig Into Reading" summer program.  Midas Gold visited and then Clyde wanted to go panning for gold so we did over on the Stringer Place - no gold, but did collect some cool rocks!

We went to Jemima Davis's funeral and had some of her famous cooler.

 My Christmas present - a wall tent - was delivered and erected.

Clyde had an ear check up.  He's lost both tubes and for now they think it looks like he's outgrowing the need for them.  Yeah!

We saw baby bluebirds in a fencepost on the Stringer Place and watched the sheep pass through.

Clyde caught "a such a big fish"!  And, he got to walk with the other kindergarteners in the Montessori Academy kindergarten graduation.

Our Rydalch cousins visited, and even did school with us, and there was a double rainbow while they were here.

Caught You!

The day after Christmas we had the Rydalch Christmas dinner at our house.  Ben made bread and popcorn balls.  I made shortbread, turkey and ham.  Everyone brought tons of other food, especially mashed potatoes - I think there were 4 pots!  Kristen, Britta, Josh, Katie, Julie and Kara brought their families.  It was great to see everyone, but I got vinegar in my eye and believe me, that's no fun!

I had fun making a dessert display, and Alice had fun raiding it:

February Fun...

Well, it's winter and we've got cabin fever pretty bad. It's been a little nicer this week and we've been trying to spend as much time outside as possible, at the park, the zoo, and the ranch. Alice and Clyde seem to have unlimited energy and it's hard to get them tired out.

This is Alice in a "hay cave". She loves eating dirt, playing in toilets, jumping in mud puddles, and dollies.

Clyde doesn't want to go anywhere without a rope. He turns every piece of string or cord in our house into a rope...

Josh and Tiffany, Mason, Hydee and Hanna came to visit us (along with about 25 other people) at the ranch to go for pony rides. It was good to get to see them and we miss them when they're in California.

It's not always fun at the ranch.... Alice is getting her eye teeth and these few weeks have been pretty difficult. She's very independent, determined and vocal.

Here we are at the zoo with our friends from Seattle.

Mason came to visit...

I really like Mason. He came to visit one time when I wasn't home and his mommy and daddy left this on the fridge:

Another time he came to visit and we went to the beach. It was cold and rainy in the morning so nobody had swimsuits, but it didn't matter. The sun came out and we had fun anyway...

Halloween

So, my friend Kay gave me a cool hat after my surgery and one day mom made me wear it with a vest, a little window on a stick (magnifying glass), and a weird black candy (licorice pipe). Mommy said I was Sherlock Holmes, but I'm just Clyde.

My sister had to wear an orange sack with a face and some leaves on it. She wasn't very happy about it:


Elliott and my friend, Olivia, came over. Elliott borrowed my boots and hat and wore a crazy cow vest. Olivia had on wings. It was so funny how all our parents made us wear funny things on the same day!

Alice and I got into my wagon with some pillows and went with mom and Kay.


We walked around the neighborhood and my sister fell asleep.


Some of the grown-ups were dressed up too. This is Lisa. She is a blue rooster. I got to pick out some brightly wrapped candies to give to my daddy (but he did let me try some).


I stopped to look at Lisa's dog through the fence.

The next day a lot of my cousins came over and they were dressed up funny too!

Mommy gave Nora a matching outfit so she and Alice could get pictures. Alice kept crying.

Easter Egg Hunt

I went to Grandma and Grandpa Rydalch's house for an Easter Egg Hunt. There weren't any eggs though! I know about eggs because I went into the chicken coop at Grandad Harry's and got eggs right from the chickens. Instead of eggs, there were toys and candy. I got a plastic thing with a green handle and a clear circle (mom says it's a magnifying glass). My cousins are bigger and faster than me and they got lots of candy and toys, but then my dad took a lot of their fun dips! It was fun.