Over and over and over! Holmes realized he grew tall enough to climb the side of the chair, and then climb back down over the side - dangling feet! Oh what a ‘feat’ it was:)

And after every climb and dismount, Holmes would clap and tiptoe dance into the kitchen and back:) Rest assured, he’s self assured.

Lola and Tito came over, and thus began the first class of Cooking With Meryl. Meryl is teaching Tito how to cook! They made arroz caldo, which is a savory rice porridge.

Technique transference takes practice, after all.

After weeks of smoke, we progressed to torrential rains today…and a flooded preschool. Early pickup commanded a cookie run and a visit to the toy store. Because, the kids are home tomorrow too! We love them so much!

Meryl realized that she didn’t have food for Bunny today, so she wrote a grocery list (carrots, lettuce, and banana pancakes), drove to Ken’s Market to shop, checked out (bringing her own re-usable bag), and then put her groceries away in the fridge. Also, banana pancakes are a thing: 1 banana, 2 eggs, dash of cinnamon - smash, whisk, and cook!

We’ve decided to try to find the BEST maple syrup. On day one today, we tried ones from Vermont and…the USA:) There’s more out there and we’re ready to try them.

It misted and rained all day today, “hello clean air!” We went from an Air Quality Index (AQI) of near 200 to the twenties in 24-hours, “is that the sky up there?” We braised a beef stew all day, took a field trip to our neighborhood game store, and cozied-up:)

Watch out.

It’s smokey out there! We’re now a full week under smoke, but it’s getting…better?

How many toys and stuffies and games can we rediscover? Turns out, there’s still more to unearth.

The Easter Bunny seems to hop around here quite often:)

Gotta check!