Olympic Game Farm

Let the fun begin!!!


Think he's excited to see us??


I'm here for lunch!


So cute that the bears wave back at you


These little guys would come running from the far side of the field, and Connor just LOVED them. Can't tell you how many times I'd hear him hollering, "STOP STOP STOP!!! There's more coming!!!!!"






Be careful, they lick!




GROSS!!!!!


We ended the day at a restaurant at the John Wayne Marina. (Don't worry, we washed our hands first! *grin*)

Port Gamble

The kids and I went on a road trip last week with two other moms and 5 other kids, headed to Sequim to spend time at the Olympic Game Farm. We decided to make a very short detour into Port Gamble because we'd heard it's a neat little town. We parked at the General Store, whose entire upstairs was lined with diplays of shells, crabs, seastars, various fish, etc. The kids had a BLAST checking everything out!

They were pretty fascinated by the size of the crab on the wall behind them


Emily joked that the big brownish shell in the display case she's pointing to was big enough for Charlie (our 10lb Yorkie) to fit into


Connor pointed out that this crab's claw was way bigger than his hand (and those of you who know Connor well enough, know that his hands are pretty huge for a five year old!)


Connor and I both decided we'd probably freak out if we pulled up a crab pot and that lumpy white one was in there. LOL!


I thought these Maple Leaf shells were so pretty!! I'd never even heard of them before.


Back downstairs, the kids each got $1 to spend on candy (varying in price anywhere from 2 cents to 75 cents for the most part)


With the exception of Connor, we made all the kids keep track on their own of how much the candy they were putting into their bags was worth, so they didn't go over a dollar. They each stood in line and made their own purchases as well. KUDOS to the wonderfully patient cashier who had to total out $8 worth of candy when all was said and done, and did it with a smile on her face...


This house caught my eye as soon as we pulled down the street leading to the General Store, and when it caught my eye again as we were exiting the store, I decided to just go ahead and take a picture (this is a side view).


All the kids posing in front of the Port Gamble sign

Crochet projects

Along with my new crocheting skills comes a need to recreate the adorable animal hats I keep seeing on baby heads around town this winter...

Here's my first attempt at an owl hat:


And check out the adorable head it gets to be worn by (I worried from this picture that the hat was too small, but mom Kaci assures me it's just not pulled down all the way because she was in a hurry)


Big Sis, Elly, requested a monster hat


I was trying out a new stitch with some yarn scraps, so ended up making a small carseat blanket for Emmy (pictured above, and then a close-up view of the stitch below)

Father Daughter Ball 2012

Emily and Dan attended the Father Daughter Ball over the weekend. It was their 4th year in a row. Em looks forward to going all year long, and always has a very good time. We had a RUSHED RUSHED day leading up the Ball, so I only had time to snap one quick picture before they headed out the door...


Dan found a copycat... LOL!!


Emily Grace is already making hairstyle and dress plans for next year!

I always knew they were a bunch of clowns!

Swim junkies

Jared and Connor have REALLY taken to the water over the past 8 months. They both love their swim lessons classes, and they have really gotten into their water polo lessons as well. Connor is still working out some coordination issues (major breakthrough, though, this past weekend when he finally got a good crawl-stroke rhythm going!! WOO HOO!!), but is making progress in leaps and bounds. There's really no stopping him once he sets his mind to it, and he BEGS to be in the pool as often as possible! Jared has some technique to work on, but has major endurance and some pretty impressive speed (especially considering he couldn't swim at all back in June of last year!). It has been so amazing to watch their skills improve, the interest grow, and to really just see them ENJOYING what they're doing. Emily Grace figured out by the age of 2 that dance and music were her things, but we've struggled to find something the boys are excited about. Turns out, they like the water. I can't wait to see where these two adorable little men end up!!

Showing off their new Speedos (suggested attire for water polo so they aren't battling long baggy swim trunks while trying to tread water).

Bleach T-shirts

Yet another Pinterest project!!! I made this shirt for Emily Grace as part of her Valentine's Day gift from Dan and I. She absolutely loves it, and got TONS of comments on it.


The best part? It cost me $5 for the shirt from Target, and probably about five minutes (or less!) to cut the template (using my Cricut machine), lay it on the shirt, and spray the bleach on. The turquoise shirt bleached to a light greenish color, which are very "beachy" colors and perfectly suited to the seashell images I used!

There's room for improvement, having a better idea now what I'm doing (being a little less heavy-handed with the bleach, letting the bleach dry before rinsing/washing, etc), but I'm overall really pleased! I can't wait to hit up Target for more plain t-shirts, so I can make some more. Hurray for Pinterest!

It's the little things in life

On the last day of school before Winter Break, Connor forgot to empty out his lunch box. It sat for two weeks in his backpack, growing all sorts of things that should never be grown. A more frugal person would have taken the time to clean and sanitize the inside of the lunch box, but this mom (who normally considers herself pretty frugal!) took one look (and one accidental sniff) and tossed the whole thing in the trash as quickly as possible. We had a tiny red/white personal sized cooler/lunchbox he used for a couple of weeks before I finally got around to finding him something that would actually fit in his backpack. One trip to Target and I found the PERFECT lunchbox for my Little Monkey!


The zipper pull is a banana; how cute!! Connor FLIPPED. He LOVES his new lunch box. And he said right off the bat he's never forgetting to empty his lunch box again because he doesn't want me to throw the monkey away. *grin*

Such good table manners

Once upon a time, Grandpa Jeff was entertaining a cranky toddler Emily by biting holes into a flour tortilla to make funny faces, while we were all out to dinner. Years later, it's morphed into the kids randomly making their own tortilla faces!


We really shouldn't be encouraging this, but it's too funny!!

Going back in time

Emily Grace went on a field trip with her class, and one other class, to the local history museum. They were asked to dress in clothing similar to what would have been worn in 1901, and to pack a lunch in a similar style as they would have done in 1901. We pulled out her old Halloween costume from Kindergarten and called it good! (when they went into the old-fashioned school house, they were assigned a name, and Emily was given the name Nora)


Recess in the "old days" was a little different than the kids have today!


Sit up straight, both feet flat on the floor, hands folded in your lap or on your desk...


They all had to stand and read while the teacher was busy with another group


They even had slates and workbooks to use!


Em's copying the memory gem for the day:

Ouch!

This is why you should NEVER bend down to pick something up at the same time you're opening a door. You might just open the door directly into your head and do some pretty major damage:




And if you think it looks bad in these pictures, you should have seen it an hour earlier before it'd been iced and some of the swelling had gone down!! Wishing I'd thought to take a picture sooner!

There goes another one!

Connor lost his 2nd tooth over the weekend! He didn't want anyone helping him pull it out, but he finally got so mad during dinner Friday night (it was hurting him as he was trying to take bites of his food) that he handed me a tissue, closed his eyes tight, and told me, "Just hurry up and do it!"

I didn't remember to take a picture until Saturday!

A hair story

Once upon a time, there was a little girl named Emily Grace, who had LONG, thick, wavy hair. In 2006, when she wasn't quite four years old, she had her very first haircut EVER. The stylist said there was nothing wrong with her hair, and that she would be willing to take off a half inch, but would be saddened to be asked to take off any more than that. Emily's mother happily agreed, and a half inch was removed from the ends of Emily's hair. It was barely even noticeable.

A year or so passed, and Emily's hair had grown even longer, and her mommy was enjoying all the braids and ponytails she could do with the long hair, but Emily was really starting to want her hair super short like her preschool BFF (which was ADORABLE on her blond, straight-haired BFF, but hard to imagine on Emily), and we finally compromised that she would cut 8-9 inches, leaving it just below her armpits. Cutting 10 inches would have allowed them to donate it to Locks of Love, but Emily's mommy was very scared at the idea of cutting that much off all at once.

(Emily BEFORE)




Unfortunately, the stylist this time around had zero qualms about chopping off all those waves, and got a little scissor happy and took off 10.5 inches. Now, not only was Emily's hair shorter than we'd requested, but we HAD cut off enough to donate to Locks of Love after all, only it was totally unusable all over the floor


(Emily AFTER)




Emily and her mommy made a deal to grow their hair out together in order to donate it.

The mommy donated 13 inches in March 2009

Emily donated 13 inches in June 2009 to Wigs for Kids, as well as raised over $600 to help with the process of creating the wigs

Emily is currently growing her hair out in order to be donated yet again! She hopes to work with her elementary school this fall (2012) to do a school-wide fundraiser, and to see if there are any other girls willing to donate their hair. She thinks that she'll have enough to donate by about October (while still leaving enough to pull back into a small bun--the required dance class hairstyle).

Emily's mommy is so proud of her!

SO SWEET!

Connor asked if he could read Jared and I a bedtime story last night (Emily was reading her own book as part of her homework, and Dan was doing paperwork for work). Jared snuggled up right behind Connor, and Connor was pleased as could be that HE was reading to US! ♥♥♥

Lesson Learned!

And to think I was worried that CONNOR would be the one to mess up his glasses...





I guess I should give her credit that she went four years in glasses without incident, and at least they were repairable!!

That said, we've strongly reminded her that her glasses go ON HER FACE, OR IN THEIR CASE. Definitely not on the floor at a birthday party. *grin* With any luck, it's a mistake she won't be making again.