April May and June, in a nutshell

A massive blog update (thank you Juli for the prodding...) - and Blogger added the photos in random order. It'll make my story telling more interesting, right?

The most exciting thing that happened since Easter was Casey and Liesl having their baby! Some of us suspected it would be a boy, but it was a delightful surprise to get to meet him, just hours after he was born! His name is Felix Fisher Fitzwilliam Deck. He was born April 20th. We are smitten.

Here is Felix on June 24th, plump, content, and adorable!

For our friend Beth's birthday in April, a big group of us went on a hike up to the falls. For April, it was really beautiful weather. I'd run 10 miles that morning (my longest run before the Eugene Half-Marathon), so I was perfectly content to go little-kid-speed!

Soleo's school sent a CD with photos from the school year. 

They had a lot of different people bring critters in to the classroom. One family brought in a goose and another brought in these bunnies. Shortly before the last day of school Brian went in with a bunch of bee gear and showed off some bee photos, a drone (the bee with no stinger), and honey for the kids to taste. I'll add those pictures too. 

We tried to take photos of the boys to mark the end of the school year but Soleo wasn't excited about school ending. Orion's comment was, "Mama, if school is out for the summer, why do you have to keep going to work?"Separately from that Soleo asked, "If you get to go to work, why don't I get to go to school?"

Orion's last day of First Grade.

Soleo's next-to-last-day of 3year old preschool.

I got to catch my first swarm this year. We had a total of 7 come to our yard this year. 

Here's the swarm I caught. It was just on the far side of our back fence, clumped to the lilac bush. We were a little too hasty in re-homing them and they got away. But we still ended up with two wild swarms making their homes in hives we set up. So we're up to three colonies now. 

This is Brian up in a cherry-picker, getting the largest swarm that he or I had ever seen. It was on campus on a day that I was at home. He called me and said, "we just got an alert to stay away from this parking lot because of a bee swarm! I'm on my way over there right now to check it out! Will you please bring me my gear?!"

The box is big enough to hold a case of wine and it is FULL of bees, with them spilling out over the top. In the time it took to find a bigger box, they swarmed again which was too bad. But honestly, I don't know how we would have housed that large of a swarm!

Our garden has been bountiful! The artichokes are especially plentiful!

Orion is a voracious reader. I thought he was in bed with the lights out. I heard quiet giggles and peered in to find him reading by wand-light. 

We helped Linda and Larry celebrate their 50th anniversary (more photos to come!). It was a great time by all the Hesses! We spent an entire day at the Wings and Waves waterpark in McMinnville - the perfect place for kids of all ages to play! We had a great BBQ that night in a park. The weather cooperated just the right amount! Our first night there it was a bit rainy and we were able to get take-out Thai food and eat it in the breakfast room of the hotel. The boys (7 Hess boy cousins plus one friend!) had a great time getting to play together!

The two of us at the BBQ. This year is our 10th anniversary!

This summer Orion and Soleo will get to take turns at "Grammie Camp". Orion is there now and worked on this pillowcase that I think he made as a gift. He's been keeping in touch with us via Words With Friends that he plays on his iPod. 

Soleo playing in the yard. Instead of dipping his feet in the pool behind him, he scooped up a pail of water and dipped his feet in there. Then he made footprints on the driveway and made up a song about following the footprints. 

The proper summer attire of any smart three year old.