providing a little unscheduled musical programming at the lowell arts showcase.

lets just say that the 'artists at play' playground opening was not poorly attended.

contemplating his next move.

sometimes, when you've had an epic super-soaker battle in the yard, you kinda just want to leave your shorts on the porch to dry.

benny wishes that he too could 'have'a corn chip.'

what better time to read about the ill fated donner party than over a bowl of cheerios?

a little qt with mimi at the conservatory.

walkin' shelby home from school.

finishing up lap 17 and raising almost $200 for his school. well done, kale, well done.

on your mark, get set, go!

kale has been waiting for the move-a-thon for months. thankfully, the day finally arrived. here he and his classmates (and awesome teacher) are cheering on the upper grades.

sometimes it's hard to see the forest for the trees, or the pianist for the flowers.

racing pell mell down the extremely gentle incline.

another shot with the polar bear because, come on, it's a polar bear with a sign.

watching the paddle in seattle flotilla head towards the shell rig.

a visit to seattle just isn't complete without attending a protest with your grandkids.

what did i tell you about riley and animals? he just loves 'em.

the spades say "oh sHellNo" to drilling in the arctic.

oh you know, just relaxing in a cafe with his newspaper, the usual.

mimi came for a visit and we put kale right to work.

the three amigos.

rye's got a real soft spot for our furry friends.

sometimes you've got to bust out the big guns and get arty all over the guest room floor.

what about when these two head off to school and it's actually almost too cute to handle.

birthday dinner with the fam (and the dogs).

mother's day/kale's actual birthday breakfast of waffles and berries!

riley is serious about birthday balloons.

after the party is over is when you hang out with your friends on the play-platform and make potions out of holly berries.

happy birthday, dear kale, happy birthday to you.

time to empty the pinata.

hard at work decorating their heads in anticipation of 'pin the head on the bloodfire expert'. you'll have to ask kale about it because my knowledge of magic the gathering characters is pretty limited.

older siblings have many uses, shoe tying for example.

kale had a real vision for this 3 layer lemon cake with whipped cream frosting and fresh raspberries and he he totally made it happen.

time to fill the pinata.

kale handed out popsicles and fielded questions about his favorite foods and video games during his school birthday celebration.

seven times around the sun.

happy birthday, sweet kale.

i'm not gonna lie, it's pretty fun watching benny get his breakfast from the doggy fun time kibble dispenser.

who says there's no nature in the city? kale found these raccoons on the walk home from school.

treehugger.

using the world's tiniest bat to beat the candy right out of that bull's nether region.

waiting for the school bus gets a thumbs up from rye.

suspenseful chapters necessitate a good deal of squirming and snuggling.

here is the part of may day where we wandered across a handful of protesters and phalanx after phalanx of riot police deeply overreacting to the situation and freaking us out.

kale is not interested in using swing-sets in the traditional manner.

you can never have too many brightly colored balls or shoes. if it's not a saying already, it should be.

you can sort of tell, if you look closely, that it is pouring rain. play on, players.