Halloween

No time for words, just pictures!

Birthday

Action shot of the ballet dancers. We had around 8 little dancers, very fun and low key, but crowded in our little house.










Happy with the tower of Red Velvet Cupcake. I used Paula Dean's recipe, excellent!

Pumpkin Patch

Calendar worthy!












"Stop making faces and smile."











"Honey, that's as good as your going to get."












"That's the perfect ball gown for the pumpkin patch."









They are such hams.

Birthday

My husband said it best: "To my little ballet dancer, master artist, scrappy independent, and giver of hugs and kisses that touch my soul, Happy 4th Birthday. Your joy is infectious. You are my birthday present even though you insist you wouldn’t fit in the box."









I took E to a inflated jumpy place for her birthday with her best friend. Yes, she is wearing a Dorothy costume. I made the day special since I had class that night. Girls are so fun to hang out with.

October!

First day of first grade! Yes, that's an angler fish on his shirt.













Zoo visit before we were locked into a school schedule (mom included). We all look at Butters that way, at some point in the day!










Some days, she looks like she's a teenager! This girl sits and colors page upon page of pictures. She paints, the colors in the lines, she write letters. She colors first thing in the morning and right before bed.

The leaves are falling, the rain has come and I'm back to making soups for dinner. The autumn is here. With the new weather, brings the biggest change of all, I am now a graduate student, back to school. Excuse me while I go read 100 pages of scholarly articles!

Baby Surprise Jacket

A Baby Surprise Jacket for baby Charlotte. Finished several months ago but I couldn't remember if I had posted this or not. My knitting friend knit the hat and I did the sweater.

Pattern: Zimmermann's BSJ
Yarn: Breeze, cotton and wool blend

Kentucky!

We had a wonderful visit to Kentucky. We went to Coney Island for a very hot Balloon Glow to see hot air balloons and ride the rides.







We had a blast with our cousins at the farm!








We had a picnic at Big Bone State Park and toured the diorama, museum and walked to the buffalo. The heat started to get to us, although the Princess is a bit overly dramatic here!

We also went to the pool, went shopping and saw many many amazing fireworks!

Soccer!

We survived Spring soccer in the Pacific Northwest! Out of 8 practices, I think we had 2 where the sun came out.






The kids were troopers, during one they practiced in 45 degrees of wind and rain with no complaints! It was a full family affair, DH would meet us after work and we cheered each other on (or, sit in the car and stay dry waiting for the other one!).









The kids were proud to finish it and get certificates at the end, they made some good friends and next year, we'll sign up for the summer session!









Butters was a proud big brother!

Flashback!

I'll bet my sisters and parents can relate to this photo. When I was younger and I'd get mad, I'd hide under my favorite blanket. It was a pink, blue and white crocheted blanket from my great Aunt Eva (I think). I could see people from between the holes, but I felt like they couldn't see me. I suppose history likes to repeat itself. Who do you think is under this towel?

Art Quilt

We've been recovering from some serious computer virus and technological failures in this house! My blog has been seriously ignored. But, we are back online and I'll update you on our Spring as we start our Summer!






This is an art quilt that we'll hang in our bedroom. I used free motion quilting and pieced it together so you'd see those small brown squares. Sewing it together didn't take long, the quilting took about 30 minutes a square.

Wallace Falls

It's a 3.6 mile round trip to see the waterfalls along Muddy Trail. We started out jumping rocks and puddles and the last 1/4 mile climb was tough, about 300 foot elevation gain. So, you see E on my back and C with a grumpy face. The way down was much faster! We stayed in a very nice cabin for two nights at the park, had smores both nights and camp fires, despite the rain. This was a great trip and hike for young kids!

Mom Visit

We had a great visit with Grandma!

Carkeek Park and the beach and The Pretzel Tree hike, a hike with a story board about a little mouse on his way to see the Pretzel tree.

Muddy Spring

What can I say? It's been a long and muddy Spring. The kids made this mess while I talked to my mom on the phone. It lasted about 20 minutes and took about 2 hours to clean up including a load of laundry. We have officially started popsicle season. She looks about 5 in this picture! I swear she is bigger than some of Butter's classmates.

He even managed to get mud on his face and in his hair. It was about 50 degrees out, but it wasn't raining!















I pre-washed the kids (ie, I sprayed them with the hose) until they were clean enough to take a bath.
We've been busy with school and soccer. I got into a Masters program at UW-Bothell and with that, need to take 2 classes this spring and summer. I've been studying Statistics and have my first midterm tomorrow. It's been about 15 years since I took a mid term, so I had better study some more!

Some Go Around

Where is the prince to lay down his coat when you need him?

Spring (?) Break

I took the kids down to see their grandparents and cousin for our spring break. This gave DH a few nights to himself which he enjoyed, even if the Mariner's lost by 11 points!
They went to the children's museum, I went to the yarn store.
They went to Point Defiance Zoo, I did my statistics homework. A girl could get used to this!
The best part-is all the fishing you can ask for (and Butters did, constantly!)



If there is no dancing and silliness involved then we don't want to be invited!











You can just see it in her face, she's saying in her head. "Look at me, I'm fishing and I look like Strawberry Shortcake."










Nice cast! We had patches of sun, it was around 45 degree for this shot.







We even fit in some sunset fishing time. No, we didn't catch anything. But, we used nearly every lure, even the salt water ones. The Princess demanded to catch a salmon and Butters told me he knew more about fishing than I did. I told him I went out on one hundred and eight whale watch trips and I have been a galley wench and captained a 100 foot boat (for 30 minutes)! But, I have no tackle box, which equal experience, in his eyes.

Hot Dog Car!

Richard Scary, how can I thank you for the hours of entertainment?

Back to Work

I completed my Postpartum Doula training at Bastyr University's Simkin Center and got CPR certified. I did all the required reading and finished breastfeeding training. I've got a business license and a website (visit it here) and business cards. Next, I had to find a client! I was referred to a family that was a perfect fit for me and a great example of people who need a postpartum doula. A wonderful couple from Seattle who have had some post birth complications and a partner who ended up needing surgery (details have altered to protect identity).

I've been able to do evening-night shifts, the witching hour for babies, and that has been a good fit for my family. I leave after dinner, DH puts the kids to bed and I put in most of my hours while they are asleep. It isn't exactly a smooth transition, the Princess grips my leg and begs me not to go and Butters has told me repeatedly he hates it. But, really, it's only a few nights a week and they are with their dad, so how bad can it be!

It feels good to help a family and it feels good to help my family financially. I've got a lot of balls in the air: pesticide free park, Snohomish County democrats, Master's, doula, but so far things are all coming together, although the house is a bit messier. To make things even better, we had 3 solid days of sunshine and we were outside for hours on all three days. I can see a fun summer on the horizon!

Painting

Same paint dot markers, same type of canvass, two vastly different paintings! See if you can guess which one is by Butters and which one by the Princess.

Snow!

Snow day, no school, sledding with friends and lots of hot chocolate.











Butters didn't want to go down the hill after the first time. E jumped up and said, "Again!" She went down it around 6 times, he did it twice. Then, last night, we got around 3 inches and Butters finally enjoyed sledding, it was dark out and he rolled down our backyard and couldn't get enough of it.