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.

Ballet

This was going to be a post with pictures of Princess E dancing all around the room in her ballet class.

But during the parent observation day, she decided against participating. She one of the youngest in the class, and that day, it showed. She usually hangs on the teachers every word and has a great time. On this day, the parents walked in and her face dropped. She told me later, "I didn't do what the teacher told me to do."







Strong willed, that girl. Something tells me this could be the last photo from ballet!

We Made That!

The kids and DH made this to send to Grandma.

I made this play tent for the table. Inspired by this one (click here), but not as nice since my table is 89" long! I hope to go back and add windows.

We made this for my mom's birthday. The center needlework is by my grandmother who had put this on a dress for my aunt. The fabric was my grandmothers, so I used it to make a boarder. The frame is made by DH from purple heartwood. That amazing purple hue is the natural color of the wood!