Christmas Morn

Christmas this year was certainly a whir of activity. We had the delight of waking up at 6 (though we somehow managed to keep the kids in bed with us resting until 7 when they realized it was Christmas!), and then the joy that comes with walking downstairs to the site of the tree and stockings in all their glory. 

Our morning was actually not overly exciting, the kiddos opened their stockings, we had some light breakfast, then they got to open a few more gifts in between times of play and brunch prepping.  

Q loved his Star Wars gifts this year, you know underwear, a shirt, legos!, a game, and even a lightsaber from his friend Alex!

 

H was pretty excited about her "big baby" with the purple clothes, her new books, and just like Q a tiny gift from "Tiny" the elf. 

The kids also enjoyed giving their own creations they'd made at school to Papa:

It was a lovely family morning and such fun to see their faces light up on this special day!

Winterfest Day

 We met up with some pals for Winterfest at the Seattle Center today! This family hadn't all been to the Science Center before, and it turned out to be relatively calm, so we had a lovely time. We enjoyed watching and learning from the live science demonstrations going on today, and of course just being there with pals!

 

After our time at the Science Center we went on over to the center house to eat our lunches while listening to some high school singers, and then letting the kids play in the little playroom up near where we'd found a table. Down at the train display we ran into pals from the neighborhood, the Roberts, and pals from Froggy Holler! 

 For our last stop we popped on over to the fountain to run off some of the sugar from the tasty carmel corn Gigi got for the kids.

It was a fun and festive visit!

Mom's Day 2011

There will be years I know wherein I will get to be a fairly lazy Mom on Mother's Day, but this year was certainly not one of them! That said, my lovely husband did let me sleep in this morn, which after a lovely uninterrupted nights sleep (why thank you for that gift Miss H!) and that was a present enough. But Quin did a lovely hand print gift at school, I have a new sweet little rose plant, new seeds and gloves, and some tasty treats as well, so it was nice to get spoiled! But when you also get dirt for Mother's Day ;) it's can't exactly be a lazy day, or when you have a cold, decide to deep clean your car, try to catch up on laundry, buy a refrigerator for the beach house, do a bit of grocery and veggie starts shopping, make picnic lunch food, or generally have 2 young kids...

We had a nice time down at our yearly Lincoln Park picnic with both Gigi and Nami (plus Danpa and Dashel too ;)) thanks to Mother Nature cooperating!

 

 

 

 Back home we worked on the new garden! Q was a rock star at this, and we have dirt to spare so I think they'll be lots more dirt play in our future!

 It was a full and lovely Mother's Day, if I could only take the day off tomorrow! ;)

Heart Fest

Valentine's Day was fun this year with the kiddos! They woke up to treats and Valentine's at their spots and we had a heart filled breakfast together. Then H got to spend the morn with Gigi while I went with Q to school for the holiday. We had made a quick batch of easy peasy Valentine's for Q:

the idea for which I've seen in a gazillion places online now so I'm no original thinker with this one, but Q's classmates and teachers had never seen it so they all thought it was clever and cute!

The class had a cute party with dancing, cookie decorating and snack eating and such. 

I got to read a Valentine book to the class (they are such a sweet group and SO attentive when I read to them, I love it!). Then of course they did some Valentine arts and crafts, necklace making and beading, wrapping of their sweet little "I love you" pictured framed picture (which Q gave to Papa to take to work), and card making. At gym they did, "I'm Gonna Mail Myself to You", along with fun games and such. It was a lovely morning to be there. 

For lunch and dinner I kept the heart theme going and we had heart shaped ice cubes, and hearts cut into food here and there, most of which I didn't photo, but here's a smidge for fun, 

Yes, indeed it was a heart fest of a day!

Advent Fun with the Fam

Advent Day 19: Send the kidlets and Papa over to Gigi's to play with Uncle Justin while Mama has herself a wrapping party!

 Then, join them for some fun in the sun at the beach!

 Advent Day 20:

Head downtown to partake in seasonal fun with Gigi, Uncle Justin and Nami too!

First stop, a visit to the incredible Gingerbread Houses at the Sheraton:

 

Then, off to the Fairmount Olympic to see the Teddy Bear Room. After saying hi to Santa that is,

 

Then, a quick walk to the carousel. Where after a wait in line Gigi took the kids on their favorite horses, pink,

and red!

Thanks for joining us downtown Gigi, Uncle Justin and Nami!

Fall Festival and Halloween Carnival!

At Quin's new school there was a Fall festival this past week, complete with a dinner potluck, book sale, cake walk (which I volunteered for, oh joy!), and carnival games. This was a fun social event and a nice way to show Papa Q's school. Of course the kids had a blast as well!

 

Olea Clifford sitting while H shared her monkey with him 

 

Teacher Cody gave Q a cute little ghost face painting

Then on Saturday we went to Q's old school's big carnival fundraiser. The kids supported our old co-op by playing lots of fun games, bouncing in the bouncy obstacle course, riding a pony (Q only, H was bouncy obsessed), and seeing our pals as well.

 The "Spider Monkey" practicing his climbing skills

 

 "Monkey Bird" (sans wings) had to join in!

 I personally love this game! You throw the balloon in, and it pops and a candy pops out the mouth!

  

Then there's always good old fashioned throw the ball in the toilet, in case they needed any more naughty ideas...

And a spider monkey shooting foam discs, oh boy!

Phew, that was a lot of carnival fun for one week!

First Day of Pre K!

 Q started back to school this week! 

 This year he's at a drop off program for the first time at The Shoreline Children's Center with Teacher Cody. His old pal Olea is in his class and he's immediately attached himself to her. 

Prying H out of the room when dropping off Q is tough!

Being in a drop off class with lots of new kids is a big step for Q, so we're really proud of him! This is also great chance to show off our new "blackboard" aka the playroom door painted with magnetic and chalkboard paint by Papa!

 

 

and he's a ventriloquist!

8 on the 8th

I think this definitely means we are in for an especially lucky year in our marriage, don't you?! On this day, 8 years ago my sweetie and I were joined, and oh how time has flown. Since then we have lived in 5 different homes, brought 2 beautiful children into the world, and have had countless adventures together. We will most certainly enjoy this year of lives together more than ever!

 

Quin insisted on taking this picture of us when we were at the beach, 

apparently we were being cute.

Tea for 2

I just adore birthdays and hosting parties, wait, that's not new news is it!? 

So, we had another little bitty party for H with her little pals, a garden tea party here at home. It was just perfect, 2 girls, 2 boys. The bouncy house and lunch were just the right amount of entertainment for the kids. I made a simple banner, 

made quick gift satchels for the mini tea set party favors, froze some pineapple flower treats (ideafrom family fun), and made some simple tea party foods, like H's favorite: corn!

Her raspberry adorned cake was from The Tassajara Bread Book. 

It was sweet to celebrate with just the 2 year olds (all of these kiddos are younger sibs), and I loved the Mom company too! 

Here's a little more in a slideshow:

Monkey Bird Turns 2!

 H's "2" rock from Nami and Danpa,  

with her bday crown by Anna of course!

Hazel was lucky enough to have her birthday fall right on our vacation at the beach. She's still calling herself "monkey bird" these days, so we had a "monkey/bird/beachy" birthday party! Nami and Danpa were up to celebrate and we had the little party right after she woke up from her nap. She was so excited!

Nami accompanied our Happy Birthday with her ukulele, which was so beachy and perfect!

For cupcake and present time we moved the party on outside:

Opening her Mama made baby doll

 

Lucky Q got an unbirthday gift of a dinosaur 

excavation kit he was perfectly engaged with

 

Trying on her monkey necklace, 

which besides all the jungle monkey wrapping 

was the "monkey " bit of the party

Cowgirl H was thrilled with her new real cowgirl saddle from Nami and Danpa

(sorry about the lousy picture quality on these, still having lens trouble)

 H, playing bubbles with Danpa and her new bubble toy

Modeling her new necklaces (made by Q and Mama) for us, all at once!

Happy 2, little monkey bird!