Mmmm, these taste like Papa's Store

It is funny to realize you are middle aged, it happens for me in bits & pieces. I didn't feel middle aged when I turned 40, it happens for me in small moments. I don't mind, but I do notice.

I was driving my soon to be 20 (!) year old daughter to an appointment today and we stopped at the coop on the way home and I picked up some of these yummy earth balls. They are dairy free and malt sweetened ( I have given up dairy and sugar) so I bought them for a treat. We ate these as a treat when my grown children were small. Hay asked me if she could have one and I said yes. She popped it into her mouth and then said " These taste like Papa's Store.". This simple statement brings with it a whole flood of memories, memories from quite some time ago. A time when I had 2 kids not 3 and these kids were very little and I was their world. I am not sad or regretful. I am just noticing how much time has passed.

So time marches on. My youngest child came home from school today and asked if he could go to the dance tonight...OK now I am feeling a bit middle aged.

Weekend Fun

Saturday afternoon we went out to the Breakwater for a walk. The day was sunny but man it was windy and chilly out there. It took us nearly an hour out & back. I love this walk but you have to pay attention or you will slip down a crack or trip and break your face or some other part of you. I used to be so nervous taking Leif on this walk when he was little - I thought I would lose him down a crack, we didn't go too often! It is funny now because he can scramble across this much faster than I! He was not with us this trip, he slept over a friends house & we had a child free evening.

Our next stop was the sushi place, this was our second time going, I have one word for it...amazing! This is a blurry picture (dratted camera!!!) of our appetizer, which was delicious. I don't really go for the raw fish too much but Paddy loves it. He had the raw stuff (Did you know that a clam has a foot?)and I went for a rice bowl. I would have more pictures but my camera was being difficult and Paddy was getting annoyed with all my picture taking. I get a little obsessed with it.

After sushi we went to the pub a cross the street and had drinks and hung out for hours-fun, fun, fun!

The next evening we were invited to some friends for dinner. No, we did not have lamb. They had newborn lambs and I snapped a few pictures of them. So cute they were.

We had a wonderful evening with our friends, we had cocktails, fresh Maine shrimp, chicken dinner, blueberry crumble dessert and best of all good company!

Heater Hog!

This is our lounging cat, Pippin. He likes to lay right on top of the heater vent. This time he is only covering just a part of it but he is known to cover the ENTIRE thing, so that not one bit of warm air can be shared.

He gets mad when we move him. It's a tough life for this bad boy.

Weekend Warmup

We FINALLY had some warm weather this weekend. It has been a long, cold, hard winter and it was so very nice to feel the sun on my face and the warm air. We sat on the back porch for lunch.

The cats followed us out and basked in the sunshine along with us.

Leif was inspired to get his hot wheels tracks from the attic and set the up outside, not sure what he was thinking that made him go get them but he had a good time.

I received a call from a sick employee and off to work I went for the rest of the weekend. I hope we have some more warm weather soon-I am ready!

Out into the Teeth

We decided to go for a walk despite the 20 degree temp and the wind. We went to the fairgrounds because I thought there would be a path, made by someone else. As you can see we made the path. It was crusty about a foot down so we didn't sink in too much. I was wishing we had some cross country skis at first but is was fine, great actually.

This is taken from the stands. Leif loves the stands when they are empty. I think they must seem like a giant fort to him. We explored and played around the stands for awhile and had a reprieve from the wind. I think he would have stayed forever but I noticed that the sun was going down...

So, we made our way back to the car.