Wonderland

Wellllllll, what can I say? The white rabbit and I are late for a couple of important dates. It's been a whirlwind couple of months and when I say whirlwind, I mean a complete mess... of loveliness and sweet moments and hard goodbyes and a myriad of other fun stuff. My biggest (but still very, very small in my mind) monkey graduated from pre-K (proudly) and set up her first entrepreneurial venture all in the same week. This girl is ready to move on to bigger and better. She is most definitely the daughter of my dorky self who loves nothing better than a good day of school and her father's kid who can identify and carve out a business niche in the neighborhood like it's, well, her job. 

In the midst of celebrating and bidding adieu, we got some much needed hands to pack up our house in Seattle. Has anyone told you how not fun packing and moving is? I remember moving out of a dorm room as painful, but you add a few Legos to the mix and it all goes down the toilet. The good news is that I never plan on moving again so come visit us in our new house! Suburban Massachusetts is lovely for the next 1000 years so you'll know where to find us and our not-moved-selves.

We finished up in Seattle with a much needed tour of local ice cream joints. It's about the only thing (along with a littie bit of Johnny Walker) that makes your forget about boxes and packing tape. 

I also managed to harass friends into letting us tucker our little people out.

And we said our final goodbyes to our sweet little Craftsman

 But we said hello to...

our new house (thanks to Nana for the picture)! Wahoo!

In the midst of all the craziness of packing and saying goodbye and moving and flying and unpacking and saying hello and seeing old friends, we have sneaked off and had some fun (is that allowed when your life is contained in many totes and boxes and bubble wrap? Apparently and necessarily).

Enjoying Molly's oft requested meal of Maine lobster

Jack took Nana's hat to new heights

And stood on top of the world... or on the tippity tip of Block Island

And even enjoyed a freshwater dip.

While this has certainly been a nutty, nutty summer, we're looking forward to being a little more present (hallelujah! I've been waiting for someone to pay attention around this joint) and able to be back in the swing of things. There is a lot on the horizon as we get ready for the big Kindergarten leap (I'm not sure who is more excited for that upward movement... though only one of us chokes up a little when we think about how dang old our baby is) and Jack leaves behind his beloved co-op preschool and starts afresh at a new school, which thankfully has a few cars and train tracks kicking around. It's been an up and down and over and under summer but we're enjoying the ride again... now that we've divested ourselves of those boxes. 

Dad is Rad

I know that good dads shouldn't be taken for granted -- and I don't. I sincerely honor the pops, dads, grampys, grandpas, daddies, step-dads, etc. who are present, caring, and provide support and love to their kids and grandchildren (not to mention their wives!) in whatever way they know how. We had the chance to celebrate some dads this weekend up in Camano Island (and, sadly, we also ticked off another one of our "last time" events) with some pretty rad dads. I would have loved to celebrate with my own dad and with my favorite dad-in-law but in just a few short weeks, we'll be able to raise a glass with them in person. In the meantime, despite Jack's extra spicy behavior this weekend (sick+overtired+excitement=oh boy...), we had a really sweet time showering some dads with love (with a man-only car ride up, the chance to sleep in, the design and execution of homemade cards, a few sticky s'mores fingers, and finally a quiet, Doyle family strawberry shortcake night cap). Happy father's day to you all!

Jack Jack in the strawberry patch.

Molly's going to miss this kid... a lot.

Five kids on a farm. No shirts required.

Lots of monkeys.

A little big Mount Baker across the Sound.

Beach buddies.

Molly, overcoming her fear of doggies. Hallelujah! 

Jack, overcoming his fear of... wait, nope, this kid might BE a dog.

Beach buddies redux.

Nature's playground.

The three bakers "making" father's day treats.

Jack makes a mean mai tai (by the way, why don't more of us have a cocktail suitcase?).

Ahoy mates!

Somehow, someone conned the ancient stereo system into spewing out the (static-filled) Bruins game. We live in Seattle. No one cares about hockey here. Except this guy.

About 1/25 of our strawberry bounty. 

Take Me Out

Sporting events inspire a lot of emotion around here. It's not always the emotion that you would expect but the passion is there for some aspect of most athletic endeavors (Jack is our newest NASCAR fan. Apparently, you can take the genes out of New Hampshire but you can't take the New Hampshire out of the genes). For some of us, wings, beer, and discarding strict (oh, who am I kidding) "we eat dinner at the dinner table" rule to watch a game is the manifestation of our spirit. For others, it is dressing from head to toe (and accessorizing) with her team's colors. And for others still, passion is shown by wanting to get the heck out of one event to get home to watch hockey (any hockey game will do but if one team is wearing red, well, there you go -- they are the winners. This does not bode well for some dads in our house during this Bruins/Blackhawks series). But, if I thought we were a pretty passionate household when it comes to most sports, we clearly missed the boat when it comes to soccer for one member. I really like soccer and watch a fair amount of it during the Olympics or World Cups, but admittedly, we only watch regular match games in passing. In Seattle, we might be in the minority. This town barely ekes out a showing for the beleaguered Mariners. And while the Seahawks draw sellouts, we can't decide if we want an NBA team or not. But the regulars (all 50,000 of them) at the Sounders games? WOW. No seriously, WOW. They are insane. Cheers, songs, scarves, signs, choreography, bands (yeah band!), fireworks -- it's an entertaining, participatory experience. Molly, John, and I really enjoyed it when we went on Saturday. Jack, unsure of what to make of it all at first, eventually decided (a few minutes into the first half) that he HATED it. He covered his ears, thought everyone was nuts, and begged to get the hell out of there. He was not amused by the excitement, poor thing. Luckily for him, there was some entertainment on the way home.

Go Sounders. I did not (shocker) put this cheerful outfit together. The crazy thing? She didn't look out of place amongst the sea of green-clad fans. 

Jack is starting to realize that the crazies are out in full force

Heh, are there any hockey players around here? Maybe an Earnhardt or two? 

Maybe I'll wave for my friend Theo, whose seats we are using, but really, this is just insanity. What are those darn scarves for?

Trains on the way home + cotton candy = good game-time escape

Speaking of sports, we'll pretend that the t-ball hustle looks like this all the time.

Minus the yelling part at the end (of course), I feel like this sums things up pretty well.

That East Coast Vibe

Bad updater. Bad multitasker. Bad stay-in-the-moment Mom. I've been remiss in many aspects of life over the last several months as our family prepares to undergo (we hope!) another transition. Most of you know that we are probably (we hope!) moving back to the left side of the country this summer and I seem to have forgotten to keep up with lots of other things as I juggle these imminent and approaching curve balls. I'm sorry to you, blog readers (if there are any left!) and I'm especially sorry to my little monkeys (the irony isn't lost on me that I have to say no, I can't play/help your work out your fight/feed you right now because I need to find a school for you to go to. They think that trade off is cool, right? Ah, notsomuch) for being a little absent in the mental department. In the midst of the chaos, we have had some glorious weather, some super duper fun visitors come (thank you!), and some fun times with dear friends in the Emerald City (that's Seattle, in case you didn't know and happened to think our nickname was the Rain Soaked City or the Super Drenched City. Those are all lies, though! Lies!). And you have ended up, dear blog, right at the bottom of the heap. It don't feel none too good but heck, show me someone who keeps every ball in the air and I'll show you someone... with a very devoted follower of one. Me.

I could moan and groan some more but I've beat myself up about not soaking up these moments enough that I'll just gracefully move on to the sunshine and rainbows portion of the evening. Here's what we have been doing:

Scooting. 

and some organized activities like T-ball

And, of course, there is the time honored tradition of tagging along at the T-ball practice. This is Jack with one of our favorite little persons and Jack's future wife.

There has been some hiking with the lady

and with the man.

and the've been on slug patrol.

There's been sprinklering (and slip 'n sliding due to our incredibly warm and dry spring)

with a wonderful sojourn to Florida in there to play a little golf and swim and swim and swim

And hang out with the cousins!

We've been celebrating birthdays (hockey socks are a one way ticket to crazy town)

with friends.

  

Someone has been dressing up and asking mom to take pictures. You know, just because.

There has been more finding some more small spaces to hide out in

and finally enjoying outside feasts again.

While this may be a lame, quick recap of the past few months (minus the recent Gerbi cousin and aunt and uncle visit), my mind has been a million places and for a committed non-phone-communicator, I've been on the phone too much. The next six weeks promise to be nuts but I also publicly pledge to return to living in the moment for at least thirty minutes a day and to remove the damn phone/computer/iPad from my grasp for at least two minutes every hour and to look around and actually enjoy our last several weeks here. I can't even begin to process leaving Seattle so instead, I'm looking forward only to heading east. This is a very, very bittersweet departure. I have loved it here and I'm leaving behind an amazing community of family and friends who I will miss very, very much. I am, of course, also looking forward to moving back to family and friends who I have missed very, very much for four years. So, the processing will come later and for now, I just look forward to the return and the new adventures that life will impart on us in this phase. While I have learned that, *gasp*, that I enjoy change, I am really enjoying the idea of settling back in with the good people of the eastern seaboard. 

Oh Mama

Happy mother's day. Thank you to these two, most of all. Motherhood brings unimaginable joy and without these crazy monkeys, I wouldn't fully understand what gives life depth and meaning and all the topsy turvy in between. We are blessed to have mothers, to be mothers, and to know mothers. I am thinking of my own mom half way around the world today, my mother-in-law across the country and all the the mamas in between. Thanks moms. 

Super... Smoosh?

Thank goodness the Easter Bunny was able to find our sneaky little superhero last weekend. Clearly, he moves faster than the speed of light to get in and out of this super-uncomfortable-looking doll crib. Sometimes, I don't know what to do with this man of the hour but most of the time, he melts my heart with his super sweet, super heroic little personality.