Halloween 2011.

notes and stuff.

A sweet note from Jace to Popsie on his 83rd birthday.

"Thank you for fighting the war for us.

From, Jace S."

And he left this little gem under my dinner plate the other night...

"Dear mom,

I love you so much!!!!

I love you like the gold

power ranger."

I keep this one smack dab in the middle of my refrigerator, so when I feel like a complete failure I can be reminded that I have reached gold power ranger status.  And that, my friends, is quite an accomplishment!

Now for the stuff.  Two stories that I don't want to ever forget.

Jace and Stella were watching TV and during every single commercial Stella would exclaim "I want that for Christmas"..."I want that for Christmas", sound familiar? I reminded her that Santa probably wouldn't be able to bring her everything she wanted.  Jace agreed and said "Yeah Stella, because my library teacher is still waiting for her bikini." I was like "What? Her bikini?" and Jace was all, "yeah, it's been on the top of her wish list for a long time and she's still waiting for it".  Strange, but whatever. The next day we went to the book fair at school.  I told the librarian what Jace said to Stella and she exclaimed, "Lamborghini, not bikini!"  We could not stop laughing.  I have a feeling she might be changing her "wish list".

The other day I helped in Jace's classroom and his teacher told me he stood up to do the calendar after recess and said "Aww man, I'm sweaty. I'm sweating like a platypus." She laughed and asked "A platypus? Why a platypus? Do platypus's sweat a lot?" Jace was all "Yeah, they sweat milk." His teacher said all the kids were nodding their heads and agreeing so she googled it and sure enough, platypus's sweat milk.  I guess I need to thank Phineas and Ferb for making my child a genius. 

Birthday boy.

My baby turned two last week.  I am in complete denial.
 

Happy birthday little man.  I love you!

Dirty Dashers.

So much fun! Next year I am investing in a pair of goggles.

Mary Poppins.

It was supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!

Farewell to Summer.

I am never ready for summer to end. I think it's because I know that craziness arrives with the start of school. The thought of waking kids up early in the morning (as you can see from the baggy, puffy eyes below we are not morning people at our house), hurrying them out the door to school (it's only the fourth week of school and Jace already has 5 tardies), homework, afterschool activities, dinnertime, always rushing and never being on time for anything, and a decent bedtime, it all makes me very anxious. Nonetheless, the first day of school came and the kids were all excited. We walked them to school, said our good-byes and then I went and ran errands with only 2 kids! I have to admit, it was wonderful, and I thought "I could get used to this"...

  
  ...and then Labor Day happened. It was such a great day. Jace learned how to ride his two-wheeler in the morning and in the afternoon we took our kids for a bike ride down the greenbelt. We skipped rocks and played in the river, played at the park, fed the ducks, relaxed, and rode our bikes to Papa Joe's for some yummy dinner. It was such a fun and relaxing day that it brought me right back to mourning the end of our sweet summer days. Buh-bye summer, you will be dearly missed.

         

pretty things.

When I was a little girl I was mesmerized by pictures of toe shoes. Turns out, I still am. Aren't they pretty? B had her very first pointe class today. She couldn't wait to try these beauties out. I don't think her poor little toes are ever going to be the same.

Seattle.

Jason's grandpa is a huge Mariner's fan. For the past few years his family meets in Seattle to take him to a ball game. This year Jason and I got to join in on the fun. It was a quick two days but we packed them full. We went to the game, did a lot of shopping, walked pike's market, saw the gum alley that made me want to throw-up, ate fish and chips at Ivar's, visited with relatives, and took a ride to the top of the space needle. I am blessed to have such great in-laws and it was fun to spend a couple of days with them sans kids.
 

Momsie.

Momsie had her eightieth birthday the end of June. I can't even begin to tell you how much I love and adore her. If you know her, then you are lucky. I am especially lucky because she is my grandma.

She sent out a text the day of her birthday telling everyone to meet at Simplott Hill at 6:00 p.m. with a helium balloon and a hard boiled egg. She also told us to bring an index card with a "wish of our heart" on it. Mine said I wish to travel the world, most of my kids wished for a puppy, except for Jace who wished for all the legos in the world, my sister's said "may the force be with you", my mom wished for two tacos from Jack in the box, and Jason wished Mitt Romney were president. We tied our wishes on the end of our balloons, hiked up to the top of Simplott's, sang "Happy Birthday", and then let our balloons go. As for the hard boiled eggs, we had an egg roll down the hill, just like we used to do every Easter when Momsie and Popsie lived in their old house. It was a great celebration. Happy Birthday Momsie! We love you.

the fourth.

This is one holiday done right. We cram as much as we can into one day, starting with a BBQ and swim at our house. We play our traditional water games, put on our festive tattoos, eat a lot of good food, take lots of pictures and then we make our way to my aunts house for our newest fourth of July tradition...our family parade! We started it last year. It was such a hit that we had to do it again this year. We march around the neighborhood on our decorated bikes, strollers, wagons, with Coming to America blasting in the background. My aunt throws out candy to the spectators (aka people in their driveways doing their fireworks). This year we even had a grand marshal. I wouldn't be surprised if next year we added floats. The whole thing is quite hilarious to me, I absolutely love it! After the huge parade we settle down on my aunt's lawn to watch our amazing firework show. Our party pretty much rocks...just like our country!