Weekend Randoms

We had a nice weekend. Saw some friends and family but also just hung out at home. Here are a few random pictures from a rather random weekend.

Friday night we had my cousins Mary and Clare over for a sleepover. We made homemade pizza and watched a movie (all of us except Clare who fell asleep during the opening credits). In the morning we went shopping at Ikea, one of those dark vortex places that sucks you and your money in on their great deals and great products!

Jack is feeling better. Now that he is finally over his flu he is back to eating, for the most part. However we have given up certain etiquette at the table (such as not wearing our bike helmet for lunch) so that he'll just eat without throwing a fuss.

Monica however has had a terrible time trying to kick her illness and fell asleep on my shoulder Saturday afternoon while I graded homework on the laptop. Pretty amazing feat to fall asleep while Kyle, Tyler, and Jack are running around screaming. Her temp got up to 102 again, but we hope she's over it for good now.

Cinder manages to sleep through this chaos also. Freaky cat.

Anton snapped this one of Jack and I doing puzzles on his floor. Random, but cute.

Fireman Jack helped Dad wash the car.

We did some other things as well without any photos to prove it. Jenny and Ernie came over Saturday. We watched Stanford (unfortunately) defeat Ohio State. Monica went to a friend's house on Sunday afternoon. We got out the BBQ for the first time in '09 to make hamburgers.

This week should be pretty hectic. My spring class at Seattle U is starting and I have a daunting to-do list containing things such as "prepare for 200 kids on a retreat next weekend" and "figure out how to get free toothpaste at Rite-Aid." So much to do. :)

Abandon Ship

After Jack destroyed the playroom today I said enthusiastically "Okay, Jack let's clean everything up!" His response? He quickly got on his little car and "drove" away.

Men.

Outdoor Skills 101

After returning from Search I went straight to Kiwanis Park where Monica's Girl Scout troop participated in "Outdoor Skills 101." As always I'm a bit skeptical of GS activities (will it be hokey, disorganized, or pointless?) but I was pleasantly surprised. The girls rotated through different stations and learned the basics of first aid, knife safety, map and compass, hiking, fire safety, camping, and flag raising. Monica and her friends had a great time, despite the freezing weather. And now that she knows how to pitch a tent, I guess I will put her to work this summer at Parsons!

Lost Tooth #3

Tournament Time-- Go Dawgs!

The Huskies play Mississippi State in the first round of the NCAA's on Thursday. They play in Portland, which you'd think would give us an advantage but with our luck all the local Duck fans will show up and route against us. Evil. Anyway, my stomach is already in knots about the game.

Today Monica made Anton and I picture which she wrapped up in a gift bag. She told me it was a picture of a Husky dog. She got the purple and gold right, but I did ask her what those big black splotches were. She informed me that Husky dogs have black spots. Perhaps one that has been bred with a dalmation?

Then, later in the dinner conversation Anton and I were discussing our brackets. He said he only had the Huskies picked to the Sweet 16. I told him that unlike some people at the table, I am a LOYAL Husky fan and of course had them going all the way to the Final Four. Anton laughed and asked Monica (who was sitting between us) "Monica, are you a LOYAL Husky fan?"

Monica said, "I'm a Husky fan, but I'm not a Lawyer."

Moose Slippers

We found a pair of moose slippers in the bin of "new" clothes for Jack. I believe they were first given to Monica about this age.

Apparently, moose slippers make us very silly.

Three Months

It's almost exactly 3 months until we pack up and move to camp for the summer.

Today Monica said, "I wish we could go today." I told her I agreed, but three months would go quickly. She thought for a minute and then said, "You know the first thing I'm going to do when I get there? I'm going to jump out of the car and run around the dining hall!"

Clothing shuffle

We spent quite a while this weekend going through all of the kids' clothes. Keri and I had fun going through everything and starting to get summer wardrobes ready for the kids. Anything that our kids had been wearing that was too small went to Tyler or into storage, and new clothes came out of storage. We are thankful that we are basically part of a clothing co-op between several familes to share children's clothes. It cuts down on costs and is a bit earth-friendlier.

The best find was this firefighter raincoat passed down from Oliver. Jack wore it around the house all afternoon.

Anton also got in on the fun, sporting his own unique fashion of green sweatpants, blue slippers, and purple and gold huskies socks!

Snow Friend

I took this photo the same day as the other snow picture. Monica built this guy herself!

The good news is, the snow is melting and the sun is shining even though it's still cold. Never in my history as a student or a teacher have I heard of canceling track practice due to snow, but this year it happened!

Sleepy Miss

I love this picture of Monica for two reason. First, of course she's so cute asleep especially with Minnie tucked in next to her. Second, it looks like she's raising her hand to be called on in class even in the middle of the night!

Boxing Day

Empty diaper boxes are fun to play in!

Can you play too Mom?

But I guess it's too small to make into a bed!

Weather (again)

Friday was sunny and clear. I went for a nice long run.

Then today: this stuff again.

Will it ever end?

Raisins

There's nothing like raisins for dinner.
Especially when your parents miscommunicate and it's your third round of raisins that day.

Weather?

Last week we had a late start due to snow. Then this week it seems to change from sunny and warm with birds chiping to cold and drizzly every 15 minutes. The random weather is reflected in my children's choice of outfits for outside play:

Monica is in shorts and Jack is in sweats and rubber boots.

Monica decided that to play a proper soccer game she needed her shin guards on. But note their positioning... looks more like knee pads!

No, Jack did not wet his pants. But he did tip over a bucket full of rain water ALL over his clothes!

Anton's Weekend

While Anne was cavorting around western Washington (and Oregon) this weekend the kids and I picked-up Nanie and headed to the great Whidbey Island to see Great Nana C.

Jack had a great time out on the beach. He filled his boots with sand and loved feeding the seagulls. Monica kept asking me what the seagulls were saying so I said they were thanking us for the bread crumbs we fed them. Thereafter everytime a seagull gave its cry then Monica would yell back, "You're welcome."

We had a great time! Thanks Nana for hosting us!

Anne's Weekend

Friday night we enjoyed having Amy, Mike, and Baby Ella for pizza. Then Saturday morning, I headed down to Portland with my friend Cari while Anton took the kids on their own kind of adventure (see next blog post for details).

Cari and I went to watch the Portland Pilots women's basketball team defeat Santa Clara. A player that we had formerly coached at Kennedy, Carly Koebel, was recognized for senior day. We've been meaning to get to one of her games for several years, and FINALLY made it happen! It was a quick but fun road trip.

Sunday after church I picked up Grandma and we went to see a musical production of Jane Eyre. I was a bit skeptical for a couple reasons. First because how can you take a classic like Jane Eyre and make it a musical, and second because on the website synopsis they had several errors in the plotline. However, it was actually a really good production and I think both Grandma and I enjoyed it.

The other exciting part of the weekend was of course that the Huskies SWEPT the Arizonas, clinching a regular season Pac-10 championship!!! I watched the last 10 minutes of the Arizona game twice (I know, I know: symptoms of an addict). We are now ranked #13 in the nation on the ESPN poll!!!

Chain of Events

Last night was quite the series of events. Here's what happened:

10:00 pm Both very tired, Anton and I get to bed early.

10:30 Anton's mother calls, but agrees she'll call back later when we're not asleep.

11:00 Anton gets up again to put the annoying cat out.

12:00 Anton notices the power is out. Realizing the power is out, Anton assumes that his alarm hasn't gone off and that he has overslept for work. He bolts out of bed nearly scaring me to death and runs for the shower. Then he notices it's only midnight, remembers this was a scheduled outage by the power company that we were aware of, but of course had forgotten about. He sets the alarm on the cell phone and gets back in bed.

4:00ish am The power has come back on and the alarm on our regular clock is blaring because Anton forgot to turn the button to "off" and now the time is set totally wrong. We both wake, turn alarm off, and go back to sleep.

5:45 The alarm on the cell phone goes off, and Anton gets in the shower.

6:05 The phone rings. I wait for Anton to get it but then realize he's probably in the shower. I lurch out of bed to get it and bark a hello into the receiver. It is Judith, my department head, informing me that we are two hours late start today. I didn't even know it had snowed. I go into the bathroom to tell Anton that JFK has late start.

6:30 Anton comes back into our room to tell me that he checked the news and ALL three of our schools are two hours late.

7:30 I finally get up and get the kids up too (although I think Monica was awake and playing in her room this whole time). I make a batch of pancakes for a leisurely breakfast before we all head out for the day.

It was quite the night!

Here was the view from our back patio:

I am SO done with snow!

Abigail's UW Debut

After the Red Robin birthday extravanga, we headed to Hec Ed to watch Abigail's gymnastics team perform the opening show before the UW meet. Then we stayed for part of the meet. Having not been to a college gymnastics meet for about 20 years, I have to say it was really fun! It was only $15 per family to get in and there's lots to see. It's obviously a very technical sport that requires a lot of athleticism and was fun to watch close up.

Happy 6th Birthday Monica!

On the night of Monica's birthday, we headed north into Seattle. By downtown, the little girl was fast asleep, wearing her birthday hat and holding a large kleenex box. No doubt she was tired from her kids' party the night before and attending Eva's party earlier that day.

We headed to Red Robin, Monica's choice for her birthday dinner. Here are a few photos:

What did my little darling want for her birthday? I foam hand to wave at the UW games. (I SWEAR I did not put her up to this!) She has been BEGGING for one of these all season. Now maybe I can actually watch a ball game without constant whining of "I want a foam finger!"

A Berenstain-Barbie Party!

Monica was hoping for a Barbie-themed birthday party this year. I suggested Berenstain Bears so we could give out books instead of plastic toys and candy as favors. So we compromised and did a Berenstain-Barbie party. (The decorations and pinata were Barbie, the movie choice and favors were Berenstain Bears.) The party was also an "Almost Sleepover" where the girls wore their pajamas and did everything like it was a sleepover except actually spend the night! We started off with a pizza dinner, then opened gifts and had birthday cake. Then we played some games and finished off with popcorn and Berenstain Bears movies.

We played "Pin the Heart on Barbie" instead of pin the tail on the donkey. We also played Twister, had a "Candywalk" (instead of a cakewalk), and had a pinata.

Abigail got to actually spend the night. They were up pretty late (sorry Sara and Nick!) but it was a special treat for both girls.

PS. And just to make it a perfect night, the Husky women's basketball team WON a game tonight!

Birthday Preparations

This week we were in full preparation-mode for Monica's birthday party Friday night for her friends. We baked a cake, decorated the house, and set the table.