Slip N' Slide Olympics

We had seriously one of the most fun play dates ever today! Aaron and Elijah came over and we had a backyard "Slip n' slide Olympics" as they called it. It was pretty awesome watching their crazy moves. Of course we had the "hot tub" set up too, so they jumped into that also. 

 

 And after we had some really fun playtime together too!

Everett Kids Museum

 We hit up the Everett Kids Museum with Olea today! The kids all had a fabulous time!

 

And boy do we love our Olea time!

The Backyard Fair

With so much action in the backyard it's no wonder their playtime turned into "Going to the Fair" play. There were "tickets" (aka leaves) for each attraction such as the "buckin' bronco", the "goal kick", "giant slide", "high swings", "wagon rides" and the "tarp trip".

 Of course there was also the concession stand which supplied fresh peas!

Wall 'O Planes

 

Whidbey Sunsets

 We lucked out to get a mostly sunny week up at the beach. I had to catch a few good sunset shots as I just love them there! 

Tried to get a family shot, didn't quite work out, but still had to share,

Of course we had to blow the conch while the sun was setting too.

 

Then in the morn, the views from the house sure aren't bad either:

See the little specks of the boys below? What a spot to be!

Front Yard Sun

Papa Time at the Beach

What do we love oh so much while we're on vacation? Heaps of time with Papa of course!

 Beach fun, splashing fun, holding hands (H), boat ride (Q), and lots story time too:

 I loved hearing their giggles as he splashed them, something only a Papa would do with that cold water!

 And he could spin and splash them as they shrieked away!
Hazel's face in this picture is perfect:

While we were up there Papa even made a new outdoor shower enclosure, what a man!

Beach Runners

Whidbey with Friends!

Not only did we get to hang with the Haub family this week,

but we also invited Rebecca & Olea, and Danielle, Braden & Trenton to the beach for a day there as well! It was fun to have company, and it fell on the day Papa had to go to work, so it was a great distraction to have friends to play with.

We set up camp at the fort!

It was a beautiful day and we had a lot of beach time, some meals together, and even a double fisting popsicle party!

H loved Baby Trenton, can you blame her?!

There was lots of digging, splashing, swimming in the COLD waters, and beachy fun!

Whidbey Beach Explorations

Of course we spent heaps of time while on Whidbey at the beach, ok really we spent more time on the beach than off! 

 H loved getting all sandy, learning how to find tiny pink shells (ok I'll admit finding tiny shells is my obsession but I involved H by finding lots of pink ones!), throwing rocks in the water, poking sea anemones gently, and posing for Mama of course!

Q who is the most natural beach bum ever loved building castles, playing with his pals Aaron and Elijah, finding gunnels and other sea creatures at low tide, running at tides edge, catching all sorts of "salmon", "eels", even tiny "fry" and other sea creatures for me (aka seaweed varieties which he "sold" to me), and really doing some doggy paddling swimming in that cold, cold water!

Our Whidbey Week Begins

 We had a fabulous week at the beach house this year! We headed to the island on Monday and though it was grey, windy and even a little rainy that didn't stop the fun!

 

H ran all around the beach and in the grasses in her party dress!

Mostly cause on our first beach walk we came across the Haub family! We knew friends of ours from Q's preschool class last year were going to be on Whidbey a friend's beach house this week, but we had no idea it was only a few houses down! What luck! Q was ecstatic to see his pal and the kids all ran off in the cold waters edge together.

 

After some beach time with Gigi and Poppi Vince too (who had both come for the day)

we went back to the house to warm up, 

play with paper helicopters and airplanes from the loft, and have some tasty Pizza Patti and Vince picked up for dunch.

Later in the eve we couldn't resist the pull of the beach again and headed down to see these beauties:

can you tell this was a double rainbow? the sky was really pretty awesome that night

What a way to end a fun first day at the beach!

Alki Beach Eve

After our time a the Festival, we dropped off Nami and headed to Alki! I had a Pegasus Pizza Groupon so I thought we head there for an early dinner and then play at the beach. So that's just what we did! 

 

Q played the role of spider man and befriended a little boy on the beach who called him by his stage name the whole time they played. H was happy to play in the sand with me. As warm as it was, you could get the two of us to wade in the water nearly as much as Mr. Spidey.

 After beach time we had some ice cream time and the kids chose spongebob pops. Oh my were they ever drippy! H was so covered afterwards I splashed her with the outdoor shower!

 

It was a beautiful night to be part of all the action down there!

Arts and Nature Festival

 I was so pleased to be staying in town for once this weekend so we could enjoy the Arts and Nature Festival at Camp Long. We caught Caspar Babypants right when we got there, whoop! Nami joined us for the day too, and down at the meadow we all got right into the action!

Nami and I both had to try out the hula hoops,

 

The kids loved all the art activities (printmaking, drum and shaker making, and getting their faces painted).

They also had a great time marching in the parade led by the big bird puppets and shaking their new shakers!

Tara had told me about this event before, so it was great to have them there with us to run around with. We checked out the many cabins with art displays, had a private Babypants show, enjoyed quirky music and art etc together. The Cabiri aerial artists were incredible to watch, and we had fun seeing other shows here and there. 

 

photo credit Rich Fought's Picasa Web Gallery of the event

To top it off if was an incredibly perfect Seattle weather sort of day. I hope we're around to enjoy this festival again in the future!

Pink Party Dress!

 

Just a smidgen late H decided to wear her fancy pink birthday dress today! So I took advantage and gave her the party props to reenact the big day a bit. Plus she was so stinkin' cute I had to capture it!

* Note: Miss. Ella I think all of your "pretty clothes" talk just may have influenced Miss H. ;)*