With the weather improving, we had some time outside this weekend to ride bikes, picnic in the yard, and enjoy the sunshine.
Picnic lunch
Sweetie pies! A good moment to catch on camera. 🙂
We were invited to a birthday party with a dress-up theme for the first time. I will admit that I grumbled a little, but it turned out to be kind of fun. JT loved his Hershey’s Kiss hat (he is the kiss!) and Haley was a Strawberry Jolly Rancher. You can’t see it, but I tied her pigtails with clear plastic wrap.
As my friends’ children begin to attend school, I have realized how critically important it is to pay attention to moments when we can enjoy being home together. I had lots to do on this sunny afternoon, but all things I could do in the dark, while my children slept. Right then, there was nothing that was going to trump heading outside for some sunshine and bikes together.
I turned on the PAC12 women’s gymnastics finals the other day, and Haley confidently proclaimed, “I could do that.” Bring it on, girl!
It started raining again the next day… I’m so glad we didn’t miss our chance!
In indoor news, Grandpa Cole and Grandma Cole got JT and Haley the game Tiddly Winks. Do you remember that game? I sure do! JT is pretty good. He taught Haley (which didn’t go that well…) and also Jim.
I really struggle with that one, thinking there should be an apostrophe. But I am pretty sure it is a night with Dads, not that the Dads have the night. I listened to a Grammar Girl podcast on this years ago. Anyway.
Tonight was Dads Night at preschool. Jim left work early to be home in time. His awesome supervisor knew it was really important and let him leave extra early, just in case traffic was awful, so he got home in plenty of time. JT has been excited for days but he was so sweet and told Jim that, if something happened at work and he couldn’t come, I could go because another girl in his case had a mom coming.
But he was here, and it was a cowboy theme. We borrowed hats from Grandpa and Grandma Cole, who have these sorts of things. Jim’s hat is a little small. 🙂
Then Haley and I had a Girls Night… ice cream and a movie! She also took a big girl shower “all by herself.” This means I stood right outside the tub and she kept closing the curtain and telling me “I’m fine Mom. You can leave if you want.” We took this picture and then snuggled in. This lasted for about ten minutes until she moved away and said she wanted to snuggle by herself. *sigh* She is my daughter, after all.
Sunday morning, as we were enjoying a nice family breakfast, it looked like sunshine outside. Jim said, “It’s too bad we can’t ski today.” And then I said, “Um, why couldn’t we ski today?” We had plenty of time before we left for church to get organized, so we kicked it into gear: dry suits, handles, rope, skis, gloves, hats, blankets for the kids, vests, snack.
After church, we headed straight to the lake. The water was very calm and there were partial sun breaks on the horizon. The kids were jumping up and down! I took some photos with my phone camera (and I just got a new app, called PicsArt, so I’m hooked on that now).
Getting ready to ski
Happy driver 🙂
Happy passengers! Maybe that’s because they are snuggled under a Mambi Blanket, which is windproof, waterproof, and heated .
Lake Meridian, 47 degree water and 58 degree air
Skiier Two
Post-ski sun break
Getting ready for when the water warms up
Mrs. Hello Kitty on the dock
We had such a great time! At dinner that night, JT said, “Raise your hand if you love going out in the boat!” and we all raised our hands. 🙂
My mom had a Birfday, as Haley calls it. We ate a wonderful Chinese lunch out, and then came back to our house for a cupcake decorating party with some presents.
Fortune cookies!
Tic-tac-toe with Grandpa
Love this one! All those blondies…
Getting serious about sprinkles
Reading Violet the Pilot – our new fav – love JT’s face here!
Then we were lucky enough to have our friends from out of town spend the night. The men went out late and the ladies stayed home and stayed up almost as late… then we all had trouble getting up in the morning (even with fresh coffee) so the kids got a special Sunday morning Veggie Tales while we made a lazy breakfast and then headed off to church.
Also, I am officially the coolest mom ever. I built JT a race track with painter’s tape on his floor, and he has spent a lot of time racing in there. Then he figured out how to tear the tape and he has made many new creations along the way.
You know how, every once in awhile, you have a picture of yourself and you think, “Hey! That actually looks like me!”? That’s how I feel about this one. 🙂
Haley is two and a half! She was unimpressed when she found out that this did not mean cake, parties, and presents. She is, however, very happy to be closer to three. I took a couple quick pictures of her to mark the big occasion.
Reading me a book. She points to the words as she reads.
Haley continues to be strong in language development. It is definitely her strength. She still falls flat on her face while walking down the hallway for no particular reason at all, but she isn’t concerned about that. She’s concerned about telling you about it. We love listening to her talk and smile when she surprises strangers by speaking quite clearly to answer their silly questions. Stranger: “Are you shopping with your mom?” Haley: “This is store two. We went to Costco already. We couldn’t go in the play land because it’s not open yet. Maybe next time. I had to ride in the cart but I wanted to walk. Mom said no because it takes too long. We got some carrots and I got to put the apples in the bag…” and so it goes on.
Haley has a good memory for songs and poems, something JT has never really been excited about. She can count into the teens and can identify her name (and letter H). She has a tough time with red and green but mostly she has settled on the other colors in the standard box of crayons. Haley’s favorite color is pink and she loves dresses and sparkles and feeling fancy.
Today we had our first ever date (which had nothing to do with her half birthday, but it was a nice coincidence). We went to see Dot and Ziggy at Seattle Children’s Theater and it was a lot of fun. Here we are getting ready to go.
Then we dropped JT off at the Hollanders’ house to play and off we went.
Fuzzy and backlit, here we are.
Got her ticket in hand
After the show, meeting the spider (not too sure about this)
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We stopped at a favorite donut shop on the way home and got a thank you gift for the Hollanders for hosting and feeding JT all morning. Haley wanted to carry the donuts and was very careful not to trip on her way to the car. It’s great to be two and a half!
Meanwhile, it’s great to be on the home stretch to five. 🙂 Love this boy.
Well, that’s not its real name, but that’s what we’re calling it. We drive by on our way home from church sometimes and it looks like so much fun. So we were excited to make a date with our friends Tawnee, Kayrene, and Dante to ride bikes and play in the sunshine last week.
We rode bikes from the car to the park. (ONE car: two adults, four kids, three bikes, and a scooter in the back of my Volvo, love it!) It wasn’t until half way there we saw a sign posted about riding bikes on the boardwalk. Oops.Â
Valentine’s Day is supposed to be all about how we love others (and really it’s about getting things as gifts…), but it would be great if we could focus on how much we love God, and how much He loves us. I tried to talk about that to my kids all day long!
We started off with a family heart-shaped breakfast: pancakes and strawberries and sausage, all heart shaped. It’s my first attempt at a themed meal for a minor holiday. 🙂Â
Then we did some errands and when we went to the post office, two exciting things came:
1. My envelope that JT mailed on his post office field trip (the field trip was awhile ago, but we don’t get the mail very often!). It had two coupons inside: one for a BIG HUG and one for a movie together. I love that was what he picked to be so special, because we hardly ever, ever watch movies and it’s fun that he wanted to do it together.
 2. The kids got fun packages from Grandma and Grandpa Keene, who are away on a trip.
Then JT put the finishing touches on the cards he wrote for his classmates.
Haley and I got to go to the party at JT’s school. It was lots of fun. JT looks stoned in this picture, and it’s because it was the end of the party and he was soooo tired. Haley and I could have partied all day. 🙂
JT needed a little nap when we got home, and Haley joined him on the couch. So cute!
You might have known that Jim’s cousin Isaac proposed to his fiancee, Amy, and recorded a video of it to share with his family who couldn’t be there. He posted it online and it went viral. As of Feb 2013, the video had over 17 million views on YouTube!
Isaac decided to make another video, this time including the 100+ family members that come from his two sets of grandparents. He invited everyone to come be a part of the video. So we went!
We stayed with Isaac’s older brother, Connor, and his family. We just love them and their sweet kids. Kelly and I had a great time chatting and five-year-old Isabel was a wonderful playmate for JT and Haley. Plus, their dog Boss is a sweetheart who may have changed Haley’s mind about dogs. Haley and JT got sleep in bunk beds, too, which they thought was super fun.
Isabel introduces Haley to a Hello Kitty Nintendo DS
Here’s a couple of photos of the filming Saturday morning… as we stood in the 40-degree rainy weather for hours, finally doing it “for real” only to hear “one more time” from Isaac way more than one more time. Our children did not cooperate. JT completely shut down and Haley just wanted to snuggle!
Lined up to start filming
Haley + Great Aunt Julie
Isaac and Amy took everyone out for pizza afterward, and then we went home for the kids to nap it off. Sunday we woke up to a yummy breakfast with the Lamb family and then headed off to the Portland Children’s Museum. It was packed getting in, even for a Sunday… and then we realized it was free day at the zoo, which is right next door. Too bad we weren’t dressed for outdoor weather at all. So we did what we came to do, and had a wonderful time.
Riding the train outside the zoo
In the entrance
In the water works
In the water works
At the dig pit
Haley gets digging
Snack break!
In the treehouse
Haley found a slide, but you have to rock climb to get up. That just made her day!
JT getting ready to go bouldering
He was so proud to make it all the way across!
At the pet hospital
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Giant lite brite!
This was an inspirational part for me, the educator and mom. There are containers of all different natural elements and the children are asked to “build a story” and then tell about it. So cool.
JT’s story (a person picking a flower in the sunshine)
Haley’s story (???)
Getting on the bus back to the car
We parked so far away (one freeway exit away, in overflow parking) we got to take the school bus shuttle. JT was in heaven.
Meanwhile, Isaac just posted the video today in honor of Valentine’s Day. That’s Jim’s Grandpa Kenny and Grandma Eileen right from the start. We are the E and S in YES in the letter cards! When the kids watched the video, when JT saw the picture of Grandpa Kenny in the military, he said, “There’s my dad!” (Don’t cry, Cathy…) It was sweet. You can see Haley for just a second in the pink coat in the top left of the screen when the 35 great grandchildren start running. But don’t look for JT… he was busy sulking and cold on the other side of the field, all by himself.
Today the sun came out. It’s amazing how smiley everyone is when the sun comes out. 🙂 The kids were wrestling and giggling and giving zerberts and I couldn’t help but take some pictures.
We put on our play clothes and went to the park with friends. It was wet out but wasn’t raining and the sun broke through a little. It was nice! Both kids ate big lunches and it was good to get out and exercise. It is a grand total of a three minute drive from our house. I am so thankful to live close to lots of fun things for kids.
These four kiddos will have spent four of seven days together this week… BFFs for sure!
The Keene Family 