Fun Times in Sequim

We did a quick end of the summer trip up to Sequim and of course had a fantastic time with the Schroeder family! Thanks again guys, it was great!

The kids both woke up with the rooster, and were set on going outside at the crack of dawn, luckily we were able to get them to say inside until 7, then it was "Can we go see the animals, PAAAALEASE!".

This morning, they slept thru most of the rooster crowing, Sarah did yell from her bed, "That cockledoodledoing is toooooo loud for me in my crib, ROOSTER!" Then fell back to sleep for about 1/2 hour.

Daddy and Sarah, early morning visit with the horse, which she was set on seeing but wouldn't touch, until today, she was totally loving on her, Willow is such a sweet horse, I wish we had a photo of how gentle she was with Sarah.
Some potty training on the spot, it is way more exciting to pee in the dirt with the potential of goats, chickens and a horse watching you!
Feeding the goats, a serious favorite of Sarah's, she tried to feed them everything. She also talked to them about her baby doll, the moon she saw, the cows she saw, the chickens, her coat and how it was dirty etc. Really cute.
At Oyster Beach, a sunny evening with friends and kids entertaining themselves - fantastic!

Wendy and I are laughing at our picture taking skills or lack there of!
Sarah, the shell collector
Abby and Jakob, serious shell collectors, went out into the water for their treasures! Even found Dungeness crab shells, pinchers etc, very exciting for Jakob.
An attempt at a group shot - each kid is displaying their age quite appropriately -

lets start with Sarah: age 2 1/2 no clothes on, refusing to sit where everyone else is and won't look at the camera

Wes: age 1, not sure what is going on

Abby: age 7, posing so sweetly with her brother

Jakob: age 5, total goofy face
Moon over the bay, just outside of Wen and Joe's dining room! The picture doesn't do it one bit of justice, it was gorgeous.
Of course we had to make a trip to the farm, this was Jakob's favorite - climbing the hay with Abby!
Cutie pies!
Rope swing in the loft of the barn!

While Jakob was having fun in the hay, Sarah was quite busy greeting all the baby cows, I heard her tell one that was born a couple days ago, "You were just borned cow, from your Mommy, when you are bigger you can get borned again." I'm thinking she meant that when they get bigger they can have a baby too? It was so cute. She also greeted all the BIG cows with her baby doll, "Hi cows," and then a bunch of babble, I couldn't hear but saw a bunch of arm movements, so she was having quite the talk with them!

All in all a great trip, as usual, I live for these trips, just wish they were longer. Reconnecting, laughing and kids exploring, playing and learning together - really fantastic!

Big girl hair...

Sarah got her first real haircut today, about 2 inches off the back, pretty painless, even got to keep some of her curls on! She threw a fit in the car, didn't want to go, so I pulled a white lie and told her we were going to a place called "Kid Central", and when she walked in the door, it really was, she was in heaven with all the toys, dolls etc. She played for about 5 minutes, then ran to the seat she wanted to sit in, a pink jeep - Jakob said "Of course she wants the pink one!"
She sat so still with her "princess gown" on, and held her baby close by. She watched an episode of Clifford and didn't want anything to do with me and the camera!

I didn't take a picture of the back of her hair before, but you can kind of see how long it was here.

All done, again not enthused as I was blocking the TV!
She got to pick a new hair clip and get "sparkles" sprayed in her hair (a little glitter spray).
Happy girl with her lollipop, new do, new hair clip and sparkles - although you can't see them here.

Weekend happenings

Our neighborhood had a parade/festival this weekend - Multnomah Days. We enjoyed the parade and kid activities. They had a dog parade which the kids really enjoyed, lots of local businesses marched thru and gave out candy to the kids, along with a couple bands. Sarah was overwhelmed by it all, not that happy, until she saw our friend Josh driving a car and of course when she got to have some candy!

Here are the bag pipers, Jakob and I really like them, Sarah had her hands over her ears but her foot was tapping to the beat! She also pointed out that they "put that horn thingy in their mouthes to make the music" (Mouths pronounced Mouth-es)
Jakob, looking a bit unsure about this whole parade thing, and maybe not sure of the candy that was being given to him by strangers!

Sarah in her gymnastics class - of course being a "Monkey Man"!

More hot days...

Mark took Jakob on a work trip to Seattle on Saturday, they spent all day there. Jakob was really excited about it, mostly about the part where he could help Daddy take pictures of properties, which he did with his play camera. They had a special lunch and dinner together and made a few fun stops. When Jakob got home he told me the best part was that "I didn't even get bored." What a trooper (at least a 12 hour day), I know he really enjoyed the Daddy - Son time too.

This is how city folk cool off when it's 100 degrees and you can't get to the beach! Sunday morning we went to Jamison square to cool off. Mark said, "Oh, this is what summer is about...sun, water..." We haven't had much of a summer here this year, so it was an awakening for many people!

Look out for the water squirter!
Sarah is giving her baby a bath in the waterfall, with her water gun as well! She's a modern woman.


Jakob and I had our last Mommy - Son day for the summer (I return to work next week and Jakob will start Zoo camp, which he is quite excited about).

We did one last hike at Tryon Creek together, and the arachnids were out in droves!!

We've been watching "Charlottes Web" quite a bit, so this was great for Jakob, not to mention that he loves insects and bugs. We sat and watched a few spiders spin their webs and saw a couple wrap up their dinners! Pretty cool.
Behold, Jakob has found a birds nest! He is pointing at it with his spider web "whacker stick" that he used to clear the path for us, didn't work though, we both walked thru a handful of webs.
Jakob wanted to take his own pictures today, this is his prized spider "whacker stick".

And here is my attempt at a photo with my big guy at Tryon Creek. He is the best little nature guide, so inquisitive and so creative with his reasoning for things and stories for all the animals and insects that live in our little world.

Summer days...

Last weekend's visit to Slappy Cakes restaurant

A day at the beach at Sauvie island, unfortunately we've not had the best weather, so it was a bit cold this day, but enjoyed the time out anyways!

A barge going by on the river
Conquering the logs
My best attempt at a group shot
Stopped at a farm on the way home, to cut our own flowers, the kids made some great choices!
Sarah doing her best at "gentle sniffing"
Sarah picking blackberries at the park, she ate them all there, and had the tummy ache later to prove it! They weren't very ripe, but that didn't stop her.

"Pink Beauty"

Sarah found this "treasure" at a neighbor's garage sale - it's a unicorn costume that you step into, she wears it on top of her princess dress or in this photo her princess nightgown after bath time!

Toothless big boy

broke our camera, therefore we haven't had pictures in a couple weeks, I'm so glad to have it back! Here is my big guy without his front tooth!

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Just a couple funny things I heard....

Jakob, "So Mama, what does pizza grow on, I mean like how does it grow to be a pizza?" - seriously, we have made pizza at home together!! I almost said, "it grows on the pizza tree in the backyard," but I kept it together and explained all the ingredients and where they come from, that seemed to be what he wanted to know.

Sarah at the dinner table last night (Mark is home now), "Isn't it nice to eat dinner with your parents?"

Sarah, walking thru a gift shop with me today, holding my hand and repeating the directions I gave her before we walked in, "I am holding your hand Mama, I am not touching anything that isn't mine, are you so proud Mama!" Then she saw some jewelry that she wanted to see up close and said, "Mama, can you touch those for me?"

A weekend...

Not sure how single parents do this! I have only been at it for 2 days, since we dropped Mark off at the airport yesterday at 6 am!! My theory is just keep busy and drink a lot of coffee, so we've been doing a lot and the kids are sleeping like champs, I on the other hand don't sleep well when Mark is gone and when I've had coffee in the afternoon!

We started our weekend by eating breakfast at "Slappy Cakes" restaurant, where you get to make your own pancakes at the table (batter is provided in a squeeze bottle), the kids wanted blueberries and chocolate chips in the pancakes. They had a great time making different shapes - Jakob made a long neck dinosaur, unfortunately he got decapitated as we flipped him, but tasted good! Sarah was told about 100 times not to touch the hot surface, she repeated that "No touch this, it's hot" about 100 times and just before we were done, she brushed her knuckles on it, well she learned, no real burn just felt "HOT Mama!!", a little ice water on it, she was good to go.

We went from there to Laurelhurst park for a walk around the pond, that is randomly growing a toxic level of blue/green algae, so we were bummed that we couldn't find tadpoles, but were privy to a crow eating a dead rat - Jakob loved that! It was disgusting, but he wanted to stay and see how the bird ate it, I could only stomach about 1 minute and then ran away - promptly running into a little wire fence, which ripped my skirt - oh yeah, looking good now! Another parent saw the whole thing and said "I can't believe you even stayed to watch it", so I felt like a brave Mom. We were promptly treated to watching a blue heron hunting tiny fish, that was really neat.

Came home, and we all napped for 2 hours. Then off to the park for the evening, dinner at New Season's - with Sarah yelling "Mac n cheese, Mac n cheese, Mac n cheese, Thanks Mama!!", nibbles of the cherry tomatoes we bought and followed by a scoop of chocolate gelato (which of course Sarah ate mostly with her hands).

This morning we took a hike thru our forest, did a little geocaching, played in the park and then ate lunch at Grand Central, one of my favorite bakeries.

Jakob rode his scooter there and then he and Sarah ran thru the grass on the way home, actually they rolled, it was so cute. Sarah was saying, "Roll wiff me Jabub, I love you Jabub!"

When we got home, the kids were tired, but not quite nap time, Jakob was whining and talking back, I asked him a few times to stop and then without looking popped him in the mouth with my hand, and heard a small sound of something hitting the floor - yep his front tooth came out! For the record the tooth was literally hanging by a thread, and it fell out without any blood or pain. I said, "Oh my gosh was that your tooth?" in complete horror of what I had done and he just started laughing, knowing I felt guilty. ARRGH! No lesson learned there, just one for me I guess. He forgot about it quickly when he remembered that the tooth fairy will visit him tonight. He looks so goofy without his tooth, but all of a sudden he looks like such a big kid now! It makes me so sad and him so happy - he was beaming when I said, "You look so big, I can't believe it."

The day ended with a 2 hour visit to the Washington Park, upon returning I asked Jakob to check on his worms in his 3 worm hotels, he did so and 1 had died - oh my gosh you've never seen a kid cry so fast and hard, poor guy. He is so sensitive with anything about animals, he walked into the kitchen with it and asked with tears in his eyes, "Is this a worm?", in fact it was and I had to tell him it was dead, that was it, he was in full tears and couldn't get control of himself. I reminded him that that worm did his job in the hotel, ate the leaves, made the soil rich for us and would have died in the ground or in a bird or a mole's mouth someday - which helped a bit but he still wanted to eat his dinner alone. When he said that, I had almost a dejavu moment, but into the future, where I saw a broken hearted teenager in the future wanting to "be alone" - ugh! He has such a big heart, I managed to think of something else to say hoping it would make him feel a bit better, "Jakob you know what I like about you the most, you care so much for animals, insects and people, that you would cry over a worm, you are such a good person." Finally a smile!

Ok, Mark, I need you home now, I can't do all of this by myself, you are the calm, cool, collected parent, that I needed for the constant Sarah redirection, the stomach to watch the bird eat the rat, the worm death, and the talking back (me knocking the tooth out), can't wait until you are home!!