All AbOaRd PrE-ScHoOl FaMiLy FiElD tRiP!

Kid's Qwest Children's Museum

Bellvue, WA

Miss Emily, One of Nicholas' wonderful Pre-school Teachers!

Getting To It!

I've known for quite sometime that Nicholas had a family field trip, but for some reason, I thought that I needed to print my own directions... Well, I did and was driving around for 45min trying to find the place. It is located on Factoria Blvd., actually it is inside the mall. After quite a few trips up and down the blvd, and two trips around the mall, I decided I needed help. I called a friend. You know who you are (thanks you are a life saver!). She gave me the number to the museum and we finally made it there in time to do the group activity. They made Dr.Suess hats, and had story time. Yeah, we didn't miss it. I was upset, because I thought he was going to. If I would have used the directions the pre-school provided us, we would have been there a lot sooner...

Every month Nicholas has a field trip to somewhere fun pertaining to what they are learning that particular month. This month, they had a family field trip which occurs twice a year. The first one was at a pumpkin patch... Unfortunately, I wasn't able to attend. Greg took both of the boys and they seemed to enjoy the time with Dad. Due to Greg's work schedule, he wasn't able to come to the museum with us this time, but it was lots of fun... Nicholas really enjoyed the water music exploration. William's favorite part was the water table with floating balls. He also enjoyed painting large rocks with water. He kept trying to climb up on them. Yep, he's a climber... I was able to get short video's of both their favorite activities. Nothing fancy and it's un-edited but great footage of the boys.

Drive By...

Today, Greg had the day off. We decided that we would take a drive by the new home site. We knew that it had been released, but they didn't tell us that the foundation was poured. How exciting. It feels a little more real seeing work started. We will have our official building start sometime next week, I mean this week.

Crazy NICK!

THE ONE SOCK WONDER... TURNS INTO BANDAID BOY! Nicholas has such a fun personality. He is always doing things to make us laugh. The other day, he must have been in an exceptionally crazy mood. First he decided that he only had one foot... We were trying to get ready to go somewhere, and he was making it more difficult than usual, but we couldn't help but laugh.
Later that night, he had a crazy idea that he needed a bandaid on every little tiny spot on him, even if it wasn't really there. I think he had nine in all. He counted them each time he needed me to get him a new one. What a kid!

Count Down...

Tenatively, we are set to close on the house on the 15th of July. That is about 3-4 months sooner than we were planning. Yikes!! We are going to have a meeting next week to go over the timeline and they will start building. Maybe it will feel a little more like it's really going to be our home.

Is it really comming to an end??? I am a little hesitant telling anyone what is happening. Since it is new construction, I'm sure that it is a little more secure than a short sale. It was a little embarrasing telling people that we were moving, and then the closing never actually came. As far as we knew we were supposed to close on the 4th of January, when that came and went we didn't think much of it. But when the date kept getting further and further away, it just didn't really feel like it was going to happen. We kept hoping though. I am a firm believer that things happen for a reason. Now, we get to have an even more amazing house.

LeConner, WA

After a long day of chasing the kids around the fields of flowers, and shopping the outlet stores, we were ready to eat. Before we headed to LeConner, we decided to get something to eat. We ate at the Outback Steakhouse. We shared a blooming onion and a artichoke dip to start. From there we went our separate ways. Julie and Bryce ate in style with their Salmon and Steak, while Greg and I just had burgers. I wasn't really that hungry and should have shared with Nicholas, but the truth is you shouldn't go to a steak house to eat burgers. After our tummies were full we hit a few more stores to grab a few items to last us the night and for breakfast the next morning... LeConner here we come! While we planned to stay in a hotel, it worked out that we didn't have to. Bryce hooked us up! We stayed at a home up on the hill, around, and up another hill... The picture doesn't do it justice. Although it was a beautiful view, the yard and house weren't too kid friendly. The back yard dropped off like a cliff only slightly less of a straight drop off. Needless to say the kids didn't play outside. It was pretty dark by the time we arrived anyways. The view was great, and it was nice to relax in style. We had root beer floats, watched a few movies and hit the pillows. The next day we hit the streets of LeConner... It is a pretty small town with lots of cute little shops and sculptures. Nicholas found a shop that had a pirate section and wanted to buy everything in sight. I think my favorite shop was the antique shop. I think it is always fun to look back on history of furniture, advertisements, and toys, ect. Nicholas found a horse and carriage at the front of the store. He asked us, "do you have any quarters?" Of coarse it was toward the end of our tour of the town and we were all out of quarters. He used them up buying jawbreakers. Being that LeConner is right on the water, there were lots of boats and a C plane. The C plane took off right in front of us. Nicholas thought that was the greatest as he loves trains and planes. After walking the whole town, we headed back toward home. We stopped at some more outlet shops and in the process realized that we had a little more sun than we thought. We all were a little red, but had a great time away this weekend. Thanks Julie and Bryce!

Tulips, Tulips, and More Tulips

TULIP FESTIVAL
Planning for months to attend the tulip festival this year, we finally made it happen. We took a trip to tulip town with our friends the Highfields. Julie picked the perfect day. No rain and the tempature was about seventy degrees. It was a litle bit over cast, but toward the end of the day the sun even started to show it's face. The tulips were beautiful... I don't think I have ever seen anything quite like it. Although not all of the tulips were bloomed yet, there were still enough to make the trip worth while. This best family picture we could get on this particular day. Nicholas was being a silly boy as usual and wouldn't smile because the sun was in his eyes, but he had the energy to make funny faces... Anything but a smile. Julie coming to the rescue gave him her glasses for a few pictures. At least we were able to get a smile or two out of him. It was challenging to get Nicholas to stand still long enough to even get pictures. With so much space to run and jump what boy would stand still? I watched some of the other parents trying to get pictures of their children and they all pretty much had the same attitude. I'm just glad we weren't the only ones with a photo challenged children. We did manage to get a few good shots though. William on the other hand was a little more photogenic.
I did say a little... He would look at the camera, but no matter what I did to try to make him smile, he just wouldn't. The only time he smiled was when I put him in a little basket hanging on a fence. Because it was across the mud, and I was the only one there, I wasn't able to catch him smiling with the camera, but I tried. One hand holding him so he didn't fall out and another hand trying to aim the camera just didn't work too well. I guess I can't expect much from boys, now can I? I mean how exciting can a field of flowers be to them. While William did explore the flowers a little bit, he was happier playing with the wood chips that were layed out on the edge of the flowers. Greg wasn't too with it either as he was still up from the night before. He got home at 8:30a.m. and we left at 10:00a.m. He had a short nap on the way, but not enough for him to really enjoy himself with out being like a zombie. Just kidding about the zombie part, but he was really tierd and I couldn't blame him. I was pretty tiered myself and I had plenty of sleep. It was fun to get out of the house and visit a place we had never been. The fields were amazing... Even so, Nicholas had more fun running across the dirt/mud road and jumping over all of the muddy dips on the tulip rows, and watching the tractor pull slosh through the mud. Boys will be boys... Nicholas wanted to have a snack and told me that he would smile for the camera if he could have some pop corn. That's a bribe if I ever heard one... It made me realize that maybe I use bribes a little too often and should try to find a different approach. I know I'm not the perfect parent, but who wants their children bribing them? As children don't come with an instruction manual what can we do but learn from eachother and decide what we are and aren't going to do. Obviously not everything works for all people as each child is a unique individual and reacts to things differently. I love my boys and am very thankful that they have such strong personalities, but sometimes it scares me. I want them to stay small forever... I know that won't happen, so we just have to do our best and hope that they turn out great. I'm sure they will, because I have some of the best kids in the world. Don't worry, those of you who have your own children know that we all think our children are the best... No competition right? Just kidding. Those of you who live close enough to go to the tulip festival who haven't already went, should go if you have a free day or two. It's always great to get out and explore and see new things. They are just flowers, but they are beautiful. Because we didn't want to only look at flowers, we planned to do a few other activities as well. We went to the outlet facories in Burlingon and headed for LeConner...

Moving Along...

NEWS ON THE HOUSE

Our Permits are back!!! It will be released soon, and they will start building. Sooner, than we were expecting... We won't have a time line until they actually release it, but we will keep you all posted. So we know that all of you are wondering what our new house is going to look like... So here it is kind of. Ours will be light brown with Dark brown sutters and Door. So it won't be quite as plain... But still a lot more house than we ever imagined we would have for our first home. It will be just short of 2300 sq ft. Yeah! Lots of room for the boys to run and play. It is a 3 Bedroom, 2 1/2 bath with a loft and den. It is right around the corner from a golf coarse and not too far from a lake. Now, we will finally have room to entertain. We look forward to having some great fun with our friends and family in our new home...

SCARY BUNNY CAKE!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GREG

Greg's 27th Birthday was yesterday. We celebrated by having our final appointment on our house selections. Yeah! Scary though, we hope we made the right decisions. It looks good on a small scale, but what will it look like when it's all put together? We also went to one of our new favorite restaurants (The Ram). Unfortunately, Greg was a little frusterated with the boys... who were not sitting patiently for the food to come. It's getting harder as they both get older... Anyways, back to Greg's special day. I made him a bunny cake in trying to keep with family tradition. His mom used to make a bunny cake for him and Dianna (his sister). So I tried... Needless to say, it was probably the worst decorated cake I have ever done. It was partly due to lack of time. If I would have had about an hour or so more, I probably could have fixed the problem. Unfortunately a scary bunny it was... Sorry no pictures. I wouldn't want to embarras myself anymore than I already have...

WE WANT TO PLAY FETCH!

Angle Lake Mystery Dog... A couple of weeks ago I had some repairs to do at Casabella Apartments (the second set of apartments I manage). Of coarse, I can't just do repairs and not allow the boys some time to play and enjoy themselves. I took them to the Angle Lake Park. It is just down a few blocks from the apartments. I don't normally let the kids play with dogs we don't know, but for a good ten minutes this dog kept dropping a stick at my feet. We kept walking and tried to ignore the poor thing. Afterall, I didn't know who's it was or where it came from, if it bites, ect, ect. But after his persistance of dropping the stick and just walking along with us, not a bark and his continued patients, I finally decided to pick up the stick and throw it. It amused the boys so much, I continued to throw it and everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. Nicholas Wanted to throw the stick too. I was hesitant at first, but decided that since this dog was so well tempered from the time he attatched himself to us that it would be okay. William squeeled with joy and clapped his hands. I have never heard him so excited about anything... I wish we could have a dog of our own. Both of the boys really seemed to enjoy his company. We started to leave and the dog followed us. No collar or sign of ownership, I felt bad just leaving him there. As I opened the car door he thought he was one of the family and hopped right in. Unfortunately, we were unable to keep him. I hope that he has a good home or finds one. Nicholas was really sad that we couldn't take him home. Maybe someday we can have our own dog that plays fetch as well as our mystery dog.

SIMPLICITY @ IT'S BEST

Thanks to all of those of you who helped with the shower and those who brought food!
Tiffany enjoying herself. She is due April 17th and is having her second baby boy! Yeah, we are so excited for her and her family.

On the 29th of March, with the help of a few friends I threw a baby shower for our friend Tiffany. There was a great turn out and Tiffany really seemed to enjoy herself, so I am happy... I hope everyone else had a great time too. It was nice to get away for a short time from the boys. As much as I love them, it is always nice to have adult fun and conversation. I was asked by several people what the recipe was for the Cracker Candy I made, so here it is... Quite simple and tastes great. Those that know me well, know that I am not a cook by any means. So if I can make it, then anyone can. I am trying to become a better cook so if you have any great simple recipes, I'd love to get them from you.

CRACKER CANDY

Soda Crackers

1 Cup of Brown Sugar, packed

1 Cup of butter (two cubes)

1 bag of chocolate chips

Sliced almonds, finely chopped (I use the magic bullet)

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2. In a lightly greased jelly roll pan, arrange the soda crackers in a single layer covering the entire bottom of the pan (you may have to cut come crackers in half to fit odd spaces). Set aside.

3. Place brown sugar and butter in a small pan and bring to boil over medium heat. Let boil for 3 minutes.

4. Pour the mixture over the crackers and carefully spread with a spatula. Make sure that it is evenly spread over the crackers. Place the tray in the oven and bake for 5 minutes.

5. Remove from oven and gently push down the crackers that have come up and over the tops of others.

6. Sprinkle chocolate chips liberally over the surface. Place the pan back in the oven for 1 minute to melt the chips.

7. Remove the pan from the oven. Using the spatula spread chocolate chips over the crackers like icing until completely covered.

8. Sprinkle the almonds over the surface.

9. Let them COOL completely! (you can speed the cooling process by putting the tray in the refrigerator for a few minutes. Don't leave it in there indefinitely because the chocolate will separate from the candy.)

10. Cut the candy into squares.

11. Enjoy and try to share!