Hammock Cuddle

I'm loving that my sweet boy is still home for lunch everyday cause I might just be able to talk him into a little hammock cuddle, just like when he was a baby!

 

 

4th Annual ZAGOFOPO!

We had a fun Zackey's Annual Gathering of Fish Oriented People and Others this year! There was LOTS of good food, plenty of goofy kids all around, and even bear meat! 

 I gathered fish items, decor, and made some silly fish food:

I liked Q's fish art on the patio:

There was so go fish for swedish fish, and yard play action, etc.:

 The teeniest ZAGOFOPIAN was there, 13 day old Issac Rock:

 

What a doll!

And though not all posed as if taking bad high school dance pictures, 

I got many of the attendees (at least of the kid variety) in front of the ZAGOFOPO sign!

But I think my favorite part is when we sing "Happy ZAGOFOPO" with enthusiastic kid participants:

 

Next year we'll try harder to make sure more "Fish Oriented" people can make it, and get that bouncy house time share over here too!

Welcome Isaac!

 

  The newest Rock has arrived! Baby Isaac was born on Sept 11th (his parents anniversary) and a few days later we stopped by to meet him.

 

He is already a sweet and calm little guy. We will have fun getting to know him!

2011 School Year Chalkboard Pics

Hazel Starts Preschool!

Hazel had her first day of real preschool today with Teacher Jo at The Shoreline Children's Center. Considering she had a nightmare the other night about NOT getting to go to school, and she has watched her brother get to go to school her entire life, she was pretty excited. 

 This little Miss has had relatively few wounds in her 3 years, but of course she's sporting this chin one from a little fall just in time for preschool! :(

 

Both her outfit and Q's first day one were both gifted from our fashion adviser Gigi, thank you!

 

 The little a little bit apprehensive look 

She was a little nervous too, and she got clingy at drop off, but then she was fine and didn't even cry! I think it helped that she got into the toys, plenty of ponies, dolls, and dress ups for her there.

 And she enjoyed the light table!

When I picked her up Teacher Jo said she did great and Teacher Diane said she saw her trying to play with another little girl. And Hazel's report, "I didn't cry and I didn't even pinch anyone!" I guess I must have gotten it into her head that she needed to be brave, gentle, and friendly. Way to go Hazel, I can't believe you are such a big girl now (and it's a good thing you didn't catch me crying)! I'm glad I was so busy rushing off and teaching my first day at Froggy Holler to miss her too much.

Yard Projects

Todd has been working hard this late summer to build us a nice new fence, and then clear out a bunch of branches from our cedars to give us a bit more yard. It's been a lot of hard work, and totally worth it!

Before:

During:

  

After:

Then cause he's so amazing and crafty Todd built a "Hobbit Home" out of the curvedcedar branches and old fence boards:

Sounders Game

Q and I got to go to a Sounders Game! We picked up the tickets at his school auction last spring and it was a fun day to go! We took the train down (right past "Naked Beach" fyi! ;)) and even saw a schoolmate right when we arrived. They didn't win, but we got free hats and had a great time!

Quin the Kindergartener

 

  Quin started real school today! Wow! 

We started off the day with my quick attempt at the German tradition of schultute giving on the first day of school, just some little school items and a treat so Q really got that this day was a special occasion.  

Then, after a large tummy filling breakfast, we took the obligatory front steps first day picture:

He said on the way to Maplewood, "I'm going to be scared today, but only for 1 day." You can certainly tell by his lack of smiling that he was nervous, I barely got him to get out of the car. But he did his job, got in there, put away his backpack in his cubby, signed in with his full name, gave his teacher (and the Parent coordinator) little treats, sat at his desk with his nametag, joined the circle, and even raised his hand (though he wasn't seen by the teacher) and had ideas about what he wanted to learn about, and rules for the class.

H and I stayed to hear the topics of interest and rules the kids made, and H had to keep telling me not to laugh, it was hard not to! Topics included spiders, sign language, running at recess, volcanoes, counting to 100, and so on. Of course they had all of side stories to tell Mrs. Klein while she took notes, like how one boy had some really fast shoes, and another girl had a very old cat, and so on, cue the laughing from me! The rules started off with one boys idea, "No smoking!" and another's, "No standing on the tables." Q later told me the one he wanted to share was, "No dinosaurs in the class!" They were so excited and eager to share all of their thoughts (well the talkative ones anyhow). By the time I got back they had heard some sweet books, had kissing hand cookies, drew self portraits, had a little recess, gone on a school tour, and seemed to have a pretty good time together! For now, I'll have to just hear about all the action in the class, but I'll look forward to when I have my rotation day there on Wednesdays starting later in the month. 

After this exciting morning I decided to enjoy the sun and take the kids to the beach for a picnic and a celebratory ice cream out. So, we went to "Statue Beach" as the kids call it, but surprise there was a baby seal there. So, we got to have beach time and see the most adorable 3-6 week old seal (being watched and protected by the Edmonds Seal Sitters).

 

It was a lot of fun picnicking and playing on the beach this afternoon, such a perfect day for it too! As a special treat we went to the Beach Cafe for kid sized sundaes, yum!

 

When Papa got home today Q announced, "Kindergarten was SUPER good!" 

Way to go Q, we're proud to now have a Kindergartener!

Vashon with Pals

After spending the day at Pt. Defiance we had a nice sunset ride on the ferry,

Then on the island we had some relaxing fun,

 And some good times with our pals, at Anna's and at the Gold Beach Pool and beach,

Pt. Definance Trek

We met up with Anna and Ella for some zoo time at the Pt Defiance Zoo! 

 

 

 

  

The kids were especially into having their pictures taken today, it was lovely! 

 

Thanks Sander family!

Summer Treats

Really in the summer it seems as though "Kids in Charge Day" is everyday...:) Today as a treat we went up to have lunch with Papa. Gee, he has a lovely view from the dining area:

 Then, later in the eve we went to the Crest theater in Shoreline for a movie date with our friends, and since we were early we had slurpees at 7 Eleven!

 H had put together quite the outfit for the occasion:

 She and Q both had a great time running down the road to see if Olea was ready for the movie yet, and then running back after she and Rebecca drove by!

The movie was the very first one H ever saw in a theater, and she loved it! Well except for the scary bit with the "Backson" when she mutterd, "Poopey diapers!" under her breath, which is her current swear word phrase. ;) The whole theater was full of kiddos though and they all laughed and clapped together, what a fun scene!