Adventures with Nick and Sally

North Creek Park

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May 292013

Part of moving to a new area with kids, is visiting all of the local parks. We were blessed with outstanding weather our first couple of weeks in the Bothell area, so we went exploring. The North Creek Park is one of the Snohomish County Parks. We live on the border of Snohomish and King Counties.

We arrived to a very full parking lot. We almost didn’t find a spot.

The playground seemed new and was loved by Nick and Sally.

The only downside was no shade. I’ve heard that’s not a problem most of the time.

We also visited the port-a-john. They were nicely set up for not having indoor plumbing.

We noticed a couple of paths at the park too, but the kids were more interested in the playground. It wasn’t Nick and Sally’s favorite, but I’m sure we’ll be back.

Seattle

May 222013

Wow, I can’t believe it’s been over 5 months since I wrote a blog post. When I started this blog, I wrote every day. I rarely missed a day. Last December, I was tired of writing. I was tired of feeling like I had to write everyday. So, I took a day off. It felt good. I took another day off. Then, I got extra busy and it was nice having a break. I really thought I would only take a couple of weeks off, but the holidays were approaching and then my husband accepted a job – in Seattle!

Craziness ensued as we celebrated the holidays, shared our plans with family and friends, negotiated a start date, traveled on a house hunting trip, put our house up for sale, sold our house, bought a house, moved etc.

Now, 5 months later, we are somewhat settled and I have missed blogging. So, I’m back. I’m not going to pressure myself to write everyday, but suspect you’ll hear from me a few times a week. I feel like I have some catching up to do and we are experiencing new fun things everyday.

Join Nick, Sally and I on our adventures in the northwest! We’ve already scoped out u-pick farms and have joined a CSA. I’m excited to share with all of you.

Happy Birthday Sally!

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Nov 302012

Sally turned three years old today. It’s hard to believe. As a family of four, we celebrated with ice cream after dinner. Nick was super excited about giving Sally her gift. Sally was excited about special birthday ice cream.

So, she ordered banana. She orders banana every time.

We had just a couple of gifts. In case you are wondering, when your almost five year old goes shopping with Stephen for a present, a pink guitar that makes noise comes home. She also received a Richard Scarry book.

Stephen and I got her a felt mosaic pattern set. She quickly got to work. (Only because the guitar didn’t have batteries yet.)

We ended our trip with a noisy ride home. Nick wanted Stephen to be a spaceship driver. He talked about space stations, lights, and space all the way home. Sally didn’t want to be left out. Stephen was her horse driver. It’s hard to parent in two different fantasy worlds at the same time. But, we survived.

Both kids fell asleep quickly tonight. I’m glad they had fun. Stephen and I sure did.

It’s a wrap!

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Nov 112012

Stephen had some extra bubble wrap that he was going to get rid of. It was the kind that has the really big bubbles. Needless to say, Nick and Sally had a blast. It took them most of the day, but they ran, stomped, rolled all over it. By bed time, it was flat.

There was lots of follow the leader and giggles.

Every motion led to pops.

It’s the simple things that the kids love the most. I may add bubble wrap to our holiday shopping list.

Some days they are such pals. I love it!

A Generous Gift from Long Time Friends

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Nov 092012

A couple of week’s ago, some friends of the family called us and ask if we wanted a set of blocks for Nick and Sally. We accepted their generous offer. A couple of days ago, two boxes were delivered to our door step. The kids had no idea what they were opening. It was like an early Christmas.

Of course Nick had to take a break from opening to read the instructions.

A few minute later, we already had a road with street lights.

It didn’t take long for cars to appear.

These are classic blocks that we will have for many, many years to come.

They are perfect~! We’ve already got hours of use out of them with many, many more to come.

Hurricane Sandy and a movie projector

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Nov 072012

What does Hurricane Sandy have to do with a movie projector? My son Nick has quite the imagination.

He and Sally love to darken the living room. They turn out all of the lights that they can so the room is dark for their “movie”. A movie to them is a 30 minute PBS show, a Wallace and Gromit episode or maybe The Muppet Movie.

During the storm last week, Nick asked me if he could use the flashlight. It’s one of his favorite toys. I told him that he couldn’t use the flashlight because if we lost power from hurricane Sandy, we were going to need the flashlight to have good batteries.

Sigh, and he went off to play with something else.

Today, Nick came running into the kitchen asking me if hurricane Sandy was over. Yes, it’s over. He excitedly asked me if he could use the flashlight now. I said sure and got it down for him. The next thing I know, it’s on the steps, turned on, facing the TV. It’s now the movie projector.

Kids are great.

Finally Election Day!

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Nov 062012

I’m glad that we have the right to vote. I’m sick of the ads and all of the political talk. I’m heading to bed early today. I can learn everything I need to know in the morning. My hope is that we actually know who the president will be by the time I wake up.

Nick learned all about elections in preschool this week. They did some matching exercises with which candidate liked which food. I hope that he grows up to vote by looking at the issues at hand and not based on which was likes the same food.

Sally didn’t really understand voting at all yet. She’s to the stage where she knows that she has to “agree” with her brother to watch a TV show before I’ll turn it on. I’m glad that they are learning how to share and negotiate their opinions. I think some of our politicians could learn a ton from the little kids. Nick learned the term brotherly this week as well. I heard many words used to describe the debates and other campaigning, brotherly was not one of them.

I hope you all exercised your right to vote today (or in early voting).

Happy Halloween (observed)!

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Nov 022012

With Sandy this week, our Trick or Treat was postponed until this evening. It worked out great for us since we had Stephen’s birthday party on Wednesday.

Our Halloween started with the kids enjoying It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown on TV. It was taped earlier in the week. Stephen was able to get home a bit early and brought us Chinese take out for dinner. As soon as we ate, we got the kids ready.

Meet our shape monster and shape princess.

I’ll take 39 degrees and no precipitation for Halloween.

Besides deciding that a coat was in order, she also needed mittens.

Nick wanted to be a monster for Halloween. I asked him what the monster looked like and he didn’t know. I thought for a bit and they were learning about shapes at school. I said, “I know, you can be a SHAPE MONSTER!!!!”. He loved the idea.

My mom helped with Nick’s costume. We started by looking at poncho and other costumes that could be made out of a sheet. A bit of sewing later and he had a costume. Then, we used foam pieces and cut out tons of shapes using cookie cutters. I glued them with a hot glue gun.

Of course, he had to practice his roar. He later decided that he didn’t want to be recognized, so the mustache was born.

If big brother was a shape monster, then Sally had to be a shape princess. We had borrowed a princess dress from a friend. Stephen worked on a tulle skirt for overtop of it. Using foam, glue gun and cookie cutters, the skirt was turned into a shape skirt. (In the photos above, Sally has a heart on her nose. If brother has black on his face, I want it too.)

She was so excited.

Both kids loved their unique costumes. I loved that they were the only ones dressed like that. I can’t wait to see what next year brings.

Halloween Party

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Oct 272012

Tonight, was the Fall Fun Fest (Halloween Party) at church. It’s a fun event for the kids with lots of activities and trick or treat – indoors! I’ll talk about their costumes on Halloween this week.

The kids had a great time. The Brush High School Key Club was volunteering and it was nice of them to man the activity stations and play with the kids. Nick tried to toss the balls into the Coke bottle. Sally enjoyed getting a heart tattoo.

Nick picked out a friendly smile and a scary spider.

The filled gloves with candy corn finger nails and popcorn to make hands.

This year’s highlight was the donut eating contest. The clown was my favorite costume of the night.

First round of donut eater ready!

Yum, but no hands!

It was a riot to watch!

Toward the end of the evening, Sally was surprised to notice this spider decoration.

While I passed out candy for trick or treat, a friend helped the kids out.

They were super tired. That’s always a sign of a good night.

Sure, you can climb the pile of leaves.

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Oct 212012

Today, Stephen took Sally and I took Nick. We need to make sure that we both get some time with our kids solo. I took Nick to see my mom and dad. We worked on his Halloween costume. After we enjoyed dinner at their house, we went to check out their community garden. Nick enjoyed the letters on their new sign. We walked around the garden plots and checked out what was left. Quite a few people were all cleaned up for the winter while others still had parsley, potatoes and more.