40

Yep, that's me--40. Well, at least I will be soon. My friends already eased the pain of my milestone birthday by giving me a party last Saturday night. It was a blast. We had a night of wine tasting -- steered by our very own personal sommelier Melissa-- and tapas galore! Yum! Add to that an incredible cake enrobed in chocolate and a spa certificate and you get one very happy Kirsten. Thanks to my great friends Angie, Cynthia, Heather, Maribel, Melissa, and Renee! Oh, and I owe an even bigger thanks to Chris for making it possible for me to have an almost 5-hour dinner with my gal pals.

Leland Trip

Last week, Riley and I joined my parents, my sister, my brother, his wife, and their son for a vacation in Leland, Michigan. Leland touches both Lake Leelanau and Lake Michigan. My parents rented a cottage on Lake Leelanau built by Rollin Perkins I, a judge and law professor. (Even on vacation I can't get away from the law!). Four generations of the Perkins family shared Rollin's name.

Five generations of my family share the same name (Howard). Howards III, IV, and V are all in the photo below.


See any family resemblance between Howard III and IV?


The Perkins cottage has a huge porch on the backside overlooking Lake Leelanau. This is the view from the porch.


We spent most of our time at the house on that porch. Here's Aunt Kate on the porch,
and Riley sharing the porch swing with Grandfather.


When not on the porch, we dipped our toes (some of us dipped more than toes) into Lake Leelanau from the pier at the bottom of the hill. No matter the air temperature, a refreshing breeze could be always be found there.

View from the pier:


Howard V made the pier his home away from home. He was either hunting Petoskey stones (fossilized coral) in the shallow water, hanging out in the inflatable canoe, or jumping off the end of the pier into deeper water.



The Lake Michigan side of Leland has beautiful beaches and--a bonus feature during our stay--a brand new sandbar! Early in the week, boats began dredging out Leland harbor. The excavated sand washed up against the beach forming a sandy peninsula which jutted out about 30 -40 feet from shore. It had the feeling of a little island, complete with child-safe lagoons--perfect, so long as you didn't mistakenly walk off the edge of it into deep water.



Riley loved playing in the water, and building castles with his cousin. Here, Howard instructs Riley in the finer points of moat construction:


The boys also had great fun playing with their "Noodles." (Hey, I'm not the one who named the toy!) Riley pretended to be an elephant,


and Howard discovered he could use his "noodle" to give Riley an elephant shower.


My brother Howard IV (aka Bill or Uncle Bear) combed the shoreline for Petoskey stones, eventually filling the little boys' sandpails with his cache.



Besides water activities, we also enjoyed visits with other relatives whom I had not seen for several years, sampled the fares offered by local vineyards (one of which had its own petting zoo for underage visitors) and restaurants, shopped in Fishtown (Leland's 100-year old fishing village) and Sutton's Bay, and had an ice cream cone or two (or three).

The Horse Whisperer (aka Grandmother) at the Black Star Farms Winery petting zoo:

$10 Word

So...I'm putting Riley to bed tonight and I ask him if he wants his air conditioner on. He says, "Yes. I want the oscillator on."

Is anybody else amazed by the vocabulary this kid has?

Some Big Shoes to Fill

Riley tried following in his father's footsteps last night (literally):




He said he needed to use "airplane arms" to do it safely. Could "airplane arms" be the secret to life's challenges?

Ho-hum

It was a quiet weekend for the P3 household. I brought home a ton of work in preparation for taking next week off. Ever wonder why scheduled relaxation means you must work all the harder beforehand? Chris kindly took Riley to work with him Saturday afternoon so I could have a few hours to myself. I made good use of the time and made a big dent in the piles of paper. So much so that Riley and I drove to my office Sunday night to take it all back, so that I wouldn't have to juggle it on the train on Monday. He loves to go to both of our offices (Chris' and mine). His job is to push all of the elevator buttons for me, and he takes the responsibility very seriously.

I also bombed the playhouse/gardenshed in the backyard with insecticide on Saturday. For those of you who haven't already heard the tale, we have a little house outside the backdoor which one of the former owners used as an office. (Don't ask me how because an adult can't stand fully upright inside.) Anyway, he had some grungy old carpet in there that we've been meaning to pull out. I finally got the motivation to do so when I stepped inside the playhouse briefly over Memorial Day weekend and came out with my legs covered (and I do mean covered) in fleas. (I had flashbacks for days!) So, anyway, I treated it on Saturday and hauled the nasty carpet out to the trash later that afternoon. Fleas still seem to find me as a I walk through the yard, but what am I going to do? Bomb the whole outdoors? At least I don't feel like I'm hosting a flea spa and resort right outside our backdoor anymore.

Diversions of a more pleasant nature this weekend included a trip to the Montrose Art and Crafts Festival and Harvest Market for Riley and me on Sunday, plus a visit to the Once Upon a Time Bookstore where we read firefighter books exclusively, and lunch at Dish in La Canada (a terrific kid friendly restaurant). Why does every boy seem to go through the same phases? First, Riley was obsessed with cars; now, he wants to be a firefighter when he grows up. He's also entering a bug phase. We've watched the movie "A Bug's Life" almost every night for the past two weeks!

Later, we walked to the Monrovia Recreation Park with Chris so Riley could play on the playground equipment and we could check out the other park facilities. There are tennis and basketball courts we may make use of in the future.

If Riley had had his druthers, he would have spent the entire weekend on the computer!