The Perfect Week

What a week! As you can see from all the photos, we've been extra busy. We started last Sunday with Chloe's party, complete with little girls (and two boys) all in pink. Monday was Malcolm's first day of kindergarten, and he was great. Stephanie dropped him off and Brandon picked him up. It was pretty heady stuff. We learned Tuesday that he and the other kindergartners actually ride the school bus in the morning, directly from their preschool parking lot. The trip is about half a mile long. So now our big kindergartner is also a school bus rider. Friday was Chloe's actual third birthday, and we threw her another mini-party with a few extra presents. She received some of her favorite things: clothes, a book and art supplies. Our dog Simon also managed to sniff out a porcupine a few feet away from where Brandon and the kids were playing out front, and got a snout full of quills for his curiosity. Brandon managed to yank them all out, but not without a few puppy whimpers. We can report however that once the quills were plucked, Simon was off searching for the porcupine again, tail wagging.

Yesterday we all went to the state fair, which has now become something of a tradition for us. We packed a ton of food, plus extra blankets and small pillows, making us the ultimate self-sufficient family on a budget. We broke down and bought fried cheese curds and a funnel cake, though that's practically manadatory. Otherwise it was all about the pony ride, face painting and every contrivance of carnival ride possible. Chloe eagerly lined up for a lovely pink unicorn on her cheek, which she sat through with a patience that still defies her parents' belief. The highlight of the day occured during the lumberjack show, when out of an audience of a few hundred, Malcolm was chosen by "Adam" to walk down to the woodlot and receive his just-carved kids' chair. Malcolm went to bed lastnight whispering that Adam is his new lumberjack friend. We saw the full-scale locomotive barbecue that can grill a whole pig, pet every breed of cow, sheep, goat, pig, chicken, rabbit and turkey known, watched skydivers descend over the crowd and even managed to slip in an afternoon nap in a shady corner between the baseball field and the residents of Oertha.

Today we took a picnic to Independence Mine State Historical Park. The weather has been beautiful lately, and we whiled away the afternoon with a bucket of the Colonel's finest, surrounded by a soft sea of crowberries, blueberries and salmonberries at 3,500 feet above sea level. It's hard to imagine a more lovely place. You can see with absolute clarity for miles. We'll be going back there while the "warm" weather lasts, to lounge amid the berry humps and sphagnum moss. It's like a gently rippling lake of soft, spongy berries, with the valley far below and only the crags and the brilliant sky above.

As always, we love you all.

-The Tuckers