One goat, two goat, three goat, four...: Better news from Pittsburgh

As a counterpoint to recent national news from Pittsburgh, here's a long-awaited (at least from my end) update from summer and fall here.

When I last left off, as last winter turned to spring and summer, our house grew full of (accidental) animals -- lots of mice living in the kitchen (that our cat didn't seem to catch), a raccoon living in the bathroom closet (we needed to call the landlord to get that one out), lots and lots of kitchen ants, etc. So we decided to turn the house over to them and hit the road.

We drove (!) to Minnesota in June, stopping along the way at some state parks,

and at friends' houses,

It was a bit much, so many days of driving with all the kids, but we made it. I had a conference in Wisconsin and then taught a class in Minnesota.

We saw lots of Mike's side of the family, although I don't seem to have any pictures. I also don't seem to have any pictures of the 6 baby goats who were born in July and August once we were back home (sorry! instead here's a picture of the goats clearing brush on my campus as part of a land management dabbling project, and of the new campus chickens I supervise (but students really do the work)).

We were lucky enough not to have to travel anywhere after that trip in June, and basically just stayed put. Kids went to camp (at their school), and then at the end of the summer there was one week where Oren and Noa still were in session and Li'el and Eytan were not, where Mike and I took turns doing fun stuff with the big kids; and then one week where Li'el and Eytan went to zoo camp (= half-day camp at the Pittsburgh zoo) and Mike and I took turns doing fun stuff with the little kids. It worked really nicely to have some more down time with all of them, but not all at the same time (although I have to say it's getting much easier for one grownup to stay with all four when needed, and once in a while we get a glimmer of a time (hopefully to come) where kids can play pretty independently and peacefully and Mike and I can do crazy things like sit down at the kitchen table for 5 minutes and read a magazine or have a conversation or something).

Watching sea lions at the zoo.

Kiddie amusement park "roller coaster" with the big kids. I was unexcited (I hate roller coasters) but it was small enough that even I found it fun.

Eytan and Mike built a work bench.

Although these tend to be his favorite kinds of building projects.

Took big kids to see fireworks for the first time on 4th of July (actually put them to bed at their normal time and then woke them up when it was dark and time to go out).

Eytan had his three best friends to the Science Center for his birthday.

Climbing trees...

Oren getting old enough to have a couple of friends he really wants to hang out with outside of school.

Noa too is getting big. She remains really independent, happy to play on her own way more than any of the others ever were (or even are now much of the time). She talks like crazy (it seems that the more people in our household talking non-stop, the quicker the littlest one seems to pick it up), and has become quite opinionated -- wanting to put in a "pony hair" (pony tail), wear or lay claim to particular objects. In the spring she took to hiding other peoples' shoes (which was tricky when we were trying to leave the house to go to school); this summer she transitioned to just identifying the owners of each pair of shoes (or clothes) and bringing them to the right people. She started saying yes with a full-body nod (although that has gotten smaller since) and this fall moved on to trying to carry about a million things at once -- so she could hold onto whatever she wanted to lay claim to without losing it to other kids. She turns two later this week.

In the fall, Eytan started first grade. Here's a picture of the first week, when each eighth grader (the highest grade in our school) gives each first grader a rose to welcome them to the school (at the end of the year, I hear, the first graders return the favor and wish the eighth graders off when they graduate). First grade has been exciting -- sitting at desks, learning letters and numbers, having things like music and Spanish and Russian and games class (like gym) and handwork (like art -- see knitting picture below). He's so happy with it.

Noa also started school this past summer and seems to have adjusted well to life in the "Yellow House" as the toddler spot is called (b/c they meet in a yellow house).

Oren was with Noa in the Yellow House for summer (which was a great transition for them both) and then moved up into the big school (K-8) and into Eytan's former kindergarten room (ages 3-6).

Li'el was actually the only one to stay in her same classroom this year. So it was an easy transition, but she's sounding ready to move out of her kindergarten room and into first grade next year.

We decided to start this year sending Eytan and Li'el to Hebrew school. We were worried about having an extra morning where we had to leave the house (since everyone is out and about all week long), but actually they really really like it and it gives Mike and/or I a chance to hang out more with Oren and Noa on their own terms once a week.

Overall the fall has been good, although unsurprisingly busy -- we ended up with birthday parties to go to pretty much every weekend for the first couple of months of the school year, and that has seemed to slow down now, so we are glad to be getting back to more home time on weekends. This is a picture of Eytan at a roller skating rink for a birthday (first time, was neat).

My fall is going well. I'm teaching a class on tree care (see photos from a home-size sawmill and some tree climbing below)

And my typical fall class on dairy production.

And also research methods but I don't have any interesting photos from that one, so here's a picture instead of (tropical) ginger and turmeric growing in a greenhouse -- go figure.