Scout Nite at the Fire Station

Last night Monica and her Girl Scout troop attended a special nite of activities at the Federal Way Fire Station. Monica got to try sitting in a fire truck, carrying a firehose, and spraying a target with the hose. She also watched several rescue demonstartions, got her fingerprints taken, and ate a hot dog. She and her friends loved it!

Dishes

Monica announced yesterday afternoon that she wanted to do the dishes for me "so you and daddy won't have to do them." I think she picked this up from something on TV (and they say TV is bad for kids-- ha!) So she did the dishes for me not just last night but tonight as well! My kitchen hasn't been this clean since before Auntie Lisa moved away (she was always insisting on doing my dishes). If Monica's not careful, Ken will put her to work in the dish pit this summer!

Four Down

She's currenty down 4 teeth. We're not sure how she's managing to chew!

More Weekend Randoms

Last week was what I call socially exhausting, even for me. We had friends over Wednesday, I went to girls-nite-out on Thursday, and we got a sitter and went out with friends Friday. Whew! Thank goodness for the weekend. Once Saturday hit we enjoyed some at-home activities.

Monica had her friend Alice over to play on Saturday morning. Thankfully she is one of Monica's calmer friends. The weather was sunny all weekend, so the girls took advantage of the swing set. Poor little brother didn't have big sis to push him on the swing this time!

...But he did have his dad to hang out with! I have to say, Jack LOVES his daddy. He follows him around constantly (so cute). Luckily he didn't get too close while Anton spent the better part of the weekend splitting wood, however Jack did watch with fascination from afar. Below you can see him standing close to the action while Anton is on a break.

Sunday while Anton was out helping his dad, the kids and I went to the garden store and picked out some flowers. Monica is REALLY into helping me these days, even with something as dirty as planting flowers. However, she opted to pull them out of their pots while I planted. Her comment when I'm up to my elbows in soil: "Ugh, I'm glad I don't have THAT job!"

We also went to the library. We have always loved using the library, but never with the zeal shown so far in 2009. Both J and M are very into reading these days and both will spend hours reading on their own (or in Jack's case, turning pictures and pointing at things). Anton and I also spend a lot of time reading to them, and I recently realized that I enjoy this activity a lot more if I haven't read the book to them A HUNDRED TIMES! So, we are now checking out at least a dozen books a week. We usually go on Wednesdays when Monica is out of school early, but this week we waited until Sunday. Since library visits have become more frequent, we have been clearer about our library ground rules:

1. Read to yourself first, then Mommy will read. (This gives me 10 minutes or so to browse for myself.)

2. Pick out 4 books you want to take home. But Mom also gets to choose some. This brings us to about 12. (I've taken to bringing in one of those re-usable shopping bags for our weekly book haul.)

3. No choosing books we've recently checked out or already have at home. Yes, they do actually try this!

4. No using the games on the kids computers. We came here to read, not to play video games. (Aren't I mean?)

5. And finally, only one book per series at a time. I'm not going to suffer through a week with nothing but Dora the Explorer or Bob the Builder to read!!!

Despite this questionable look, Jack was quite enthused by his new stack of books today!

Earth Day!

For Earth Day (and for Monica to earn a Girl Scout badge) we did a litter pick-up of our neighborhood. Here was the dialogue before:

Monica: What are we doing for family fun tonight?

Me: We're going to do a litter sweep in the loop. Then you can earn your green badge.

Monica: Awww, that's not fun!

Me: Sure it is. (thinking fast on my feet) We'll compete to see who gets the most garbage in their bag: me, Daddy, or you and Jack working together.

Monica: What does the winner get?

Me: The winner gets to eat their dessert first.

Monica: Oooh! Yeah, that sounds like SO much fun!

The competition added a whole new twist to the activity. Monica and Jack were SO excited when they found a piece of garbage for their bag and would race ahead of Anton and I to pick it up. Anton still ended up winning, but he didn't want any dessert, so it was really like M and J won. The best part of the evening was how many of our neighbors (some of whom I've never even talked to) stopped to say hi and thanked us for cleaning up the street.

Happy Earth Day everyone!

Happy Birthday, Auntie Tina!

Today we helped celebrate Auntie Tina's birthday by attending her surprise party-- Monica especially was excited about the idea of keeping the party a secret and jumping out and yelling "surprise." It was a huge success! Here are a few photos from the festivities:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, AUNTIE TINA!!!

Great Wolf Lodge!

We just returned home from an amazing vacation at Great Wolf Lodge resort, which is located just south of Olympia. We had an AWESOME time!

Monica was so excited all day getting ready to go. She packed her Polly Pockets and Minnie Mouse of course.

The kids were dying to go to the waterpark the moment we checked in. As Jack would say, "Wat-oh pak? Wat-oh pak?"

I really can't convey the scale of this place. It's a HUGE waterpark with activities for all ages. Some of the water rides even extend outside of the building, like the "Tornado" pictured above. Monica and Jack were too small to go on this one, but Anton and I tried it separately. I can truly say I've never been on anything like it. It was awesome!

At nighttime the kids attended story hour, which was kind of like an animated puppet show.

Bedtime was not a particularly popular activity. Having a tickle-fest on the bed with Dad was much more entertaining. We didn't get too much sleep, but the fun made up for it.

Okay, so true confession time: I loved the waterpark, the activities, and seeing the kids so happy. But MY favorite part? Walking 100 yards down the hall in my PJ's to Starbucks in the morning! And I didn't even have to bring my purse because the little armband they give you opens the door to your room, admits you to the waterpark, and charges anything you want to buy or eat... including Starbucks! Anton and I enjoyed sipping coffee and reading in bed for a while in the morning while the kids watched cartoons. But it wasn't long before they were aching to start the REAL activities for the day: trying out the treasure hunt magic wand thingy (which they did with Anton) and then another long excursion in the water.

Both kids loved the water slides. There were two just for Jack's size, a purple one and a blue one. He went on them over and over and over again, each time asking to do the other one next.

Jack also loved all the water squirters, buckets that dumped, and fountains that seemed to be everywhere you turned in the park.

Monica really liked the wave pool, even though she didn't fit in the innertube very well! And she went on EVERY ride she was old enough for. I thought she would be scared by some of the larger water slides but she loved them!

Thanks to Uncle Buck and Auntie Tina for the gift of this vacation. Anton and I aren't very good about planning such outings just for our family, but the time away together was wonderful and I know the kids will be talking about it for years to come. Monica already wants to come back!

Easter Weekend 09

Monica started out Easter weekend by drawing a picture of the crucifixion on her whiteboard. Should I be concerned for her state of mind or impressed by her holiness?

Saturday we had brunch at Great Grandma's. Jack has been in one of his contrary moods, and unfortunately this time it has lasted several days. I think it has something to do with his sleep schedule being off. But Nana always makes him happy.
So does an Easter egg hunt... hide your eyes everyone!

Woah, what's in this one? ANOTHER marhsmallow? Wow what a surprise! (Most of them had marshmallows)

Monica creamed him in the egg hunt, but Jack didn't seem to mind.

Saturday night we had Scott and Kristine over as well as the Carters for a sleepover. The kids got busy dyeing eggs.

Anton got busy recreating the skillet cookie!

Which all the adults ate family-style with ice cream!

After church this morning we took a few photos with the Easter flowers. Here are Mo and Jack with Eva and Sophia.

And a few of us too:

Jack always insists on climbing up and down the church steps by himself. It's especially cute in his fireman raincoat.



Happy Easter!

All I want for Christmas...

Is my two front teeth!

Lucky 7

Today was our 7th anniversary. We take turns planning our yearly outing, and this year was Anton's turn. Despite me having a cold and our anniversary falling on a Monday when lots of places are closed, he planned a nice evening and we had a great time. We started with dinner at the Spaghetti Factory followed by a visit to the Olympic Sculpture Park (photo above-- not taken by us!). The weather was amazing, especially compared to what we've had for the last few weeks. It was a sunny and clear 70 degrees! Then we did a little shopping downtown and finally hit Fox Sports Grill for the second half of the championship game and our favorite dessert: the skillet cookie with ice cream. If you haven't tried this unbelievable dessert, we recommend it!

Tolo Date?

On Friday, Jack and his friends from daycare (Ysun, Chloe, and Riley-- known in the Christmas letter as "Ry-Ry") got dressed up and came to Kennedy for the tolo court assembly. They were going to walk up the envelopes containing the winners to the podium.

The above picture is Annie trying to get the kids to walk down the pathway to the podium. Chloe and Ysun took off running towards it. Jack walked about 5 steps and then burst into tears. Riley just started wandering the gym floor. I quickly rescued the younger ones and walked them up to the podium with me. So I guess Jack and Ry-Ry were tolo dates this year, although after such a traumatic time we'll be lucky if they ever want to go to tolo in the future!