Vocab

Jack's list of words includes the toddler usuals, but also has some interesting additions that are probably very telling of what he hears on a daily basis. Keep in mind, he gives a very "baby" version of each of these:
Pooh
Tigger
Dora
Diego
Obama

Great Nana Josie

Here's a cute photo from several weeks ago of us with Great Nana Josie. I've been meaning to post it for a while, but hadn't found the occasion... but as they say, no time like the present. Her birthday is coming up on June 9 (she'll be 93!) We still enjoy visiting her, though not as often as we'd like. But I'm sure we'll sneak away from camp on some Saturdays this summer to enjoy the lake!
Both Great Nana C and Grandma had birthdays this month as well. We are so fortunate to have 3 healthy grandmothers in our lives and the kids' lives... all within a short drive away!

Bampa's Hat

Bampa would be so proud!

Memorial Day Weekend

We had a wonderful time at Whidbey this weekend... enjoyed the sunshine and good times with our family. We also ate ourselves silly and had lots of good laughs: we played Tripoly of course (the official game of Whidbey) and a new game, Dicecapades, which was fun except that Nana and I seemed to get all the hard questions and as a result we got creamed! Oh well... We took a ton of pictures over the weekend...

Greg and Anja taking to the waves.
The Matriarch... and do we ever love her!
Jack hanging out with his grandparents.

We're cool, but not too cool to play in the sand.

Anton and Mo hanging out in the kayak.

We love Puget Sound!

Jack liked his lifejacket for about 1 minute, but as he was waiting for his turn in the kayak, his lack of mobility soon caused him to scream!

Thanks to my own insanity, masechism, or whatever you want to call it, I'm in a busy time of year with two S.U. classes plus end-of-the-year stuff at JFK. Thankfully the above beverages helped me get a little work done over the weekend and still have plenty of time to play.

Jack spent 90% of the weekend holding this favorite red firetruck. It went everywhere with him, including into the water. Both Monica and Jack went swimming, which is good because it means that camp water will feel warm to them.

Did I mention we ate ourselves silly?

Showing off their new suits.

The boys hangin' out at the beach.

...and when we're done at the beach, there's always art projects to keep busy!

All in all a great time, and we're glad we'll be even closer to Nana at Whidbey this summer while we're up at camp.

Baby time? Not quite.

Jill's due date was Saturday, so in fine Kramer-family tradition, we all got together for Thai dinner on Friday. I am personally 2 for 2 in thai food bringing about labor, but unfortunately the same doesn't appear to be true for Jill. But we had fun nonetheless. :)

Ready to pop!

"AAAARRRRR!" Playing "Loot," our new pirate game.

Strategizing on a team-version of "Loot."

Jill made fabulously huge rice krispie treats for dessert.

Ant-on

Here's Anton-the-Ant-Killer ready to slay the beasts with a newfangled chemical. Thank goodness, because while I'm pretty laid back about the occasional bug or even mouse getting inside, this spring it's like ant-mania around here. Luckily it's not those huge, gross, and nasty carpenter ants... just the little guys, but STILL! Monica has become a super ant killer-- she sprays 409 on them when she sees them, but after 2+ weeks with them still returning, Anton decided it's time to raise the stakes!

Elmo Fan Club

Here's Jack watching his favorite show holding his favorite buddy.

Lucky 33

Monica must have wished Anton "Happy Birthday" a hundred times today. We had a nice day at home with the 4 of us, a little more low key than last night's rousing edition of Happy Birthday by our section at Buca di Beppo's (thank you Jill and Doug!) Anyway, Monica enjoyed making Dad german chocolate cake but whimped out on helping me make Billy Joel meatloaf for dinner (the backyard pool was apparently more appealing).

Summer in the City Cont.

Hot Town, Summer in the City

With the weather like 85 degrees today I can't put off getting out Jack's summer clothes any longer. Here he is "helping" me sort... picture taken moments before he decided to destroy all my piles. (By the way he IS wearing a diaper in this picture. ) It turns out we had FIVE bags/boxes of size 2 clothes stashed around the house. That's the great part of being in our clothing co-op and receiving lots of hand-me-downs, I've almost never had to buy clothes for our kids... although I have to say that 5 boxes is really pushing it. Jack has more t-shirts than I do! I'm sure in all these piles we can find something for him to wear while running through the sprinkler tomorrow without mooning the neighbors.

Cinderella

Last Wednesday Monica's preschool class had a field trip to Renton's Carco theatre to see a children's production of Cinderella. Nanie K and I accompanied. I have to say I was a little reluctant about a whole hour watching a children's show (yawn) but it was actually really good and had several very humorous parts (Cinderella wore grass slippers instead of glass slippers, for example). Even funnier... turns out I went to grade school with the wicked stepmother!

Neighbors

Just this spring Monica and companions have discovered the two girls next door. Although they've never had an official play time together, they find lots of things to do between the fence: tossing a ball, passing toys back and forth, or sharing candy.

We have some "interesting" neighbors in our area, to say the least. Some pretty good stories, but probably not ones I should put online.

Birthday Mania

We had two kids' bday parties this weekend, which pretty much wiped us out, among all the other things we had going on. Below are some pictures from Lolo aka cousin Lauren's party. I especially like the video of Lauren and Jack eating their cake. :)

A highlight of the party, at least for us, was Lauren receiving her new UW outfit, which she promptly put on. Now that they're Seattlites we figure it's about time. Go Dawgs!

Playdate with Eva

We went to the park yesterday with Eva and her family. They just opened the new play structure so we were anxious to check it out (as were about 50 other kids so it was a little crowded!) The kids played pretty hard, and as you can see Monica was pretty wiped out after we got home.

Amy's Shower

Now this is my kind of shower. Dinner out, dessert and time to hang out at our place afterwards. I arrived at Red Robin early to get a table for the 5 of us since they don't take reservations. I was armed with balloons and table decorations to make it as festive as possible (and probably also to ease my guilt that we were going out instead of me cooking a nice dinner for everyone). I arrived at our table only to find out that there had been some mix up and there were two high chairs waiting for us. I quickly flagged the server over and said, "These have GOT to go!" C'mon, this is my one night out without whiny kids and they're ruining it! Anyway, we got that all resolved and I promptly ordered myself a beer before the pregnant lady arrived so as not to be rude by drinking in front of her. As a result I ended up pretty much chugging it and after that the evening was even more enjoyable. We had a great dinner, highlighted by a visit from "Red" himself. Afterwards we had strawberry cupcakes, ice cream, and opened gifts up at our house. (Anton had quarantined himself in the back room playing Heroes of Might and Magic to avoid all the estrogen). Amy is due in just over a month and like all the girls at work she is torturing me by not knowing the gender. So we all wait in suspense for the coming weeks!

Big wheels

Kyle brought his bike over this week and Jack SO wanted to ride it. Unfortunately his feet could barely reach the pedals, so instead he just had fun climbing off and on.

Age what?

Quote from Monica today: "Kyle, I will be thirteen before you will."

Are you sure you're not 13 already?

Summer preview

Ready set go!

We were up at camp this weekend for a work party and to check out our digs for the summer. The kids were excited to see our cabin and play on the beach, although Monica was a little disappointed that work parties don't involve swimming and campfires... the parts of camp she is most looking forward to.

Funniest moment of the weekend: Monica running down Dungeness hill at full-speed, totally bit it and did a major slide. Came up covered in dirt. She cried, of course, despite Anton and I cheering her great fall, but a few minutes later she was off and running again.