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We’ve had a busy and productive week around here…

In remodel news, the new floor is done in two of the bedrooms and part of the hallway. The guys have spent the past several days scraping up linoleum and working on the living room floor. We decided to raise it up instead of leaving it sunk-in and that led to all kinds of extra work on beams and ducts under the house. We made a few unexpected discoveries but the decking is being put back on today so we can move on! My kitchen is practically unusable and all of our doorways are covered with plastic, but at least the end is in sight.

In fun news, CareBear had her first field trip! Her preschool class took a trip to Spooner’s farm and LiliBee and I were able to tag along. We learned how pumpkins and corn grow and what bees and bats do to help. We took a ride on a tractor around the corn maze and to the little pumpkin patch that they set aside for school kids. We visited with goats, chickens, turkey and rabbits and climbed on straw bales. After a quick snack, we headed out into the main pumpkin patch to run around, which was really muddy! The girls checked out the spiders and mud puddles and the rope maze before we headed home with our little pumpkins and mud up to our knees. The weather was actually pretty nice and all of the kids had a great time.

It was, of course, Halloween on Saturday. We decorated our pumpkins with stickers handily donated by one of my former co-workers. CareBear made a great face on hers while LiliBee went for a more abstract use of almost all of the eyeball stickers. CareBear could hardly wait for trick or treating this year. She started asking to put on her costume around noon. LiliBee was unsure of what the big fuss was, but she’s always willing to go along with her big sister’s enthusiasm. CareBear debated for a few weeks before deciding on a costume this year… and ended up with the same dragon costume as last year! It’s a little shorter on her, of course, but she was thrilled with it. LiliBee dressed up as Darth Vader and impressed everyone with her jedi mind tricks. They made a pretty good candy run going to the few houses around us and over at my folks’ house. CareBear loved helping Pas hand out candy to their numerous trick or treaters while LiliBee used my camera to take pictures of each of her pieces of candy, for some reason.

LiliBee and I went to a fun little candle party Saturday morning. She charmed everyone and even found a little boyfriend who couldn’t stop hugging her! Meanwhile, Chris took CareBear to gymnastics class… he tells me that the holiday sugar high created extra chaos in the class but at least everyone had fun.

In Banjo news, we went to our first big ultrasound last week. Since I’m considered “advanced maternal age”, we automatically do the level 2 ultrasound at the perinatology office. Banjo has all of the usual body parts in all of the usual places! We’ll be going back in a few weeks so that they can get a really good look at the heart and face (Banjo stopped cooperating toward the end), but everything looks good so far. And, before you all start wondering, we’re still going to be surprised about the gender. We did get a few ultrasound pictures but I haven’t had a chance to scan them so I won’t be able to share until next week.

Onward to November…

I hope everyone had a safe and enjoyable 4th of July!

We had a very busy day. We spent the afternoon in Olympia having BBQ and sprinkler fun with Chris’ family. Cousin H was there, of course, so the three girls made for great entertainment.

After visiting the goats, driving the little jeeps, having lunch, running around in sprinklers and having hose fights, we headed back up to my folks’ place for more tasty BBQ and fireworks.

CareBear has been waiting for a year for the fireworks to come back. She was a little concerned about how loud they were, but loved watching them and waiting for the “pink” ones.

This was LiliBee’s first time to actually be able to track what was going on and she totally loved the fireworks. Every time she saw one, she’d giggle and clap along with saying either “oooooh” or “woooow”. It was very fun.

After all of the excitement of Saturday, we took it pretty easy on Sunday. We had a trip to the library, but otherwise we just hung out and dealt with cranky, clingy and generally out of sorts toddlers (or maybe that was the parents). It was nice to have a quiet day before the week day schedule started all over again!

In other news, Chris had a long weekend. It was nice to have him around and he even got to go to one of CareBear’s swimming classes. He was dutifully impressed by everything she did and she was thrilled to have him there.

I was able to have a great visit with Susanna, who I used to work with at Good Sam. I haven’t seen her in months so it was nice to be able to catch up and get all of the gossip. I really do miss all those lab folks. Hopefully, we’ll get to do that again soon.

The weather has been so nice that we’ve been having park visits and lots of water fun (sprinklers and pools!).

We set up the sprinkler in our back yard for awhile the other day. CareBear spent most of her time running away from the water and splashing in puddles while LiliBee ran into the water. I must admit, though, that I’m glad that the weather has cooled down for a few days and I’m really hoping for a little rain to water down the pollen!

We’ll be heading out to Alder lake this week to celebrate my dad’s birthday (Happy Birthday, Pas!). I guess it’s a lot different than it was the last time I was there… of course, that was probably 25 years ago. Anyway, there should be lots for the kids kids to do there and I hear that CareBear might have her first fishing lesson.

Another week, another Easter celebration.

This week, we went to my folks’ to color Easter eggs (because, of course, everything got postponed due to flu).

CareBear had a great time helping to make the colors and coloring the eggs. She also liked hiding them herself and then finding them again. She fell in love with her green egg and slept with it for a few days, until it cracked and we had to say goodbye.

 

LiliBee, on the other hand, was very concerned by the egg coloring. She liked it when she could stir the egg around in the cup of color, but got really mad at every other part of the coloring process. I’m still not sure what her problem was, she’s usually a pretty easy going kid.

Apparently, it was terrible to subject the eggs to things like drying and moving around.

We celebrated Earth Day by planting some seeds.

Both girls thought that was a lot of fun and particularly enjoy the watering part of gardening.

The weather has been nice enough to play outside most days, even when it’s overcast and sprinkly. LiliBee has learned how to climb up the ladder and go down the slide all by herself. She’s a scary kid.

CareBear likes digging in the dirt and we usually all come in covered with sand. The other day, LiliBee somehow ended up with a diaper-full of it when I wasn’t looking!

This weekend was fun. We did some birthday gift shopping at Freighthouse Square, which is always a fun place to visit. We also stopped at DeCoursey park downtown to play and look at ducks. LiliBee was so enchanted by the ducks that she was inspired to learn how to say “duck”!

CareBear is off at a sleepover with her cousin tonight. I miss her terribly and it’s way too quiet around here, but I hear she’s having a blast at Grandma’s. I think LiliBee’s enjoying “only child” status, though.

We’re looking forward to a nice week of doctor visits and a birthday party. The party will probably be more fun.

 

We’re finally flu free around here. It’s been a long three weeks of fevers and staying home. We more than made up for that this past weekend, though.

After toddler gym on Saturday, we headed to the Spring Fair. I love fairs, have I mentioned that? It was pretty crowded being Saturday afternoon and all. We managed to have lots of fun in spite of the long lines, though. CareBear got to go on a few rides and won a new ball at the “fishing” game (plastic, magnetic fish). LiliBee complained about not being able to do that stuff yet but enjoyed the people watching. We all enjoyed visiting the goats and chickens in the barns.

Sunday was our belated Easter Egg hunt down in Olympia. Auntie Trina hid sugar filled plastic eggs all over Grandma’s yard and the girls had a great time finding them. CareBear is an egg finding machine, her basket was over-flowing! LiliBee wasn’t sure what the fuss was at first… it was fun to put eggs in the basket, but she doesn’t have the competitive streak yet and was more than happy to just look at the eggs. Grandpa did some grilling and we had a whole Easter Party! The girls slept all the way home.

Today, we had CareBear’s appointment to recheck her vision. She tested as normal this time around, so there’s nothing to worry about at this point. It was a pretty painless appointment.

Then we headed out to the park to take advantage of the nice weather. After walking the paths with Grams and Pas, we turned the kids loose to play at the playground. CareBear got over her initial hesitation about the slides (I don’t know where that’s coming from) and spent a lot of time going down the tunnel slide. LiliBee wasn’t sure which slide she wanted to go down for awhile, but she sure did enjoy climbing around the smaller equipment.

It’s nice to be well in time for the fleeting warm spring weather!

A fun day today… we had guests! Some very good friends stopped by for a belated Christmas gift exchange and much fun ensued. The kids all had a good time playing together and CareBear played hostess by swiping graham crackers off of the counter for everyone. 

We set up the CareBear’s new toddler bed and I made a canopy for it! I found these instructions and adapted them a bit as there’s no need to be quite so fussy for a toddler’s bed. My version is much simpler and there’s no sewing involved. Anyway, CareBear got to pick out the colors that went into it and I think it came out pretty nice!

CareBear thinks it’s fun and LiliBee pretended to sleep.

One of the new Christmas presents was some nifty battery-powered gears for on the refrigerator. CareBear opened the package all by herself and told me that she was going to make a special machine! I love that she knew that was what gears were used for.

My whole family was fascinated.

Even Lucy came over to check it out!

Well, it’s 2009. We had a pretty boring New Year’s Eve… a little grocery shopping, a quick dinner, lots of jumping around on the part of the small children, lots of shaking and panicking on the part of the big dog. Lucy really doesn’t like fireworks, so 4th of July and New Year’s are particularly difficult for her.

The fireworks lasted from 11:30pm until 1am around here last night. I’m not sure why they had to go on so long, but it made it impossible for me to sleep. I just hate it when Lucy is so upset. Consequently, we all slept in a bit this morning and we’re planning on doing a lot of nothing today. Nowhere to go, nothing to do… a good way to ring in the New Year, eh? I figure it’s one of the few days of the year when we really don’t have to do much so we might as well enjoy it!

***This is a copy of the email that I send weekly to friends and family… just to see how it works!***

I hope everyone has enjoyed their holidays. We had a big, fun, extended Christmas this year.

 

 

Christmas Eve found us down in Olympia to celebrate with Chris’ folks and his sister’s family. The girls had a great time playing with cousin H and checking out all of the presents from Grandma and Grandpa. CareBear and LiliBee proved to be very efficient at tearing the gift wrap and ribbons off of packages. It snowed the whole time we were down there and they already had more snow on the ground than at our house. It made for a very pretty Christmas Eve and the roads weren’t too bad (most of them).

 

 

On Christmas, we had my folks and Uncle J over for a tasty brunch (if I do say so myself). The kids were excited to show off all of the cool new stuff they got and Grams and Pas were more than happy to add to it! CareBear loves it when people come to her house. Since I’d spent most of the week cooking and baking for our various Christmas functions, we were able to enjoy a nice, relaxing afternoon with everyone. The puppies even got new bones!

 

 

Yesterday (Sunday), we headed back down to Olympia for the big family gathering. Many of Chris’ aunts and uncles, along with their kids and grandkids, congregated at his folks’ house. Grandma Rose was able to visit with the whole extended family, which is always nice. And there were even more kids to play with! CareBear got into that, but LiliBee preferred to hang out with the adults. She spent most of the afternoon charming everyone by being snuggly.

Chris’ gift to me was control over this website! I’m pretty excited about that since it means it will be updated more than once every year or so. It’s still in the very preliminary stages since I’m changing everything, but feel free to poke around. My Christmas present to him (haha… more like his to himself) was a new laptop. Poor Lucy wandered by him with a static charge and fried his old one a few days ago. Luckily, there were some really good sales going on since this was an unexpected expense!

 

Other than that, we didn’t do much! Chris is back to working long days this week since they were unable to move the rest of the stuff out of their old building last week (silly servers are particular about temperature and weather conditions) and they have to get everything out before the end of the year. He’s been there 12 hours already today and I haven’t heard from him about when he’s coming home yet, which means it will be at least another few hours.

Our snow is just about gone. We still have a couple of inches of slush in the backyard, but that’s not as much fun as the snow. Our neighborhood is always one of the last to thaw out.