Marching onto April

March came and went before I had a chance to post anything, but never fear, here are the highlights.  Sophie finally lost one of her front teeth - the adult teeth had already grown in behind the baby teeth and they pushed the baby teeth out the front of her gums.  No pulling required!

 She was so excited!  And wrote this cute note to the Tooth Fairy.

Next came this cute girl's 7th birthday!  Amelia wanted to frost/ decorate her own cake, but ended up letting me frost it and she put on the sprinkles.  

 We had her party at Skateland - and it was a hit.  What a cute bunch of girls!

Amelia is all princess and wanted to wear this outfit all day on her birthday . . . even while roller skating.   Below she is sporting the new earrings and necklace she got.  She was begging for clip-on earrings, which we got for her, and which she wore almost non-stop for 3 days . . . until she lost one of the earrings . . . and then seemed relieved that her ears weren't hurting all the time 😏

We have had SO much rain this winter that the girls have barely been able to play on the trampoline they got for Christmas.  When we got a rare day with sunshine, we all got out and jumped . . . and had quite the hair raising experience 😂

 I love how Sophie always poses for a picture - with that little hand under her chin!

I am typically non-participative when it comes to St. Patrick's Day, but for some reason, the girls were SO excited about St. Patrick's Day, that I figured I better step up and do something.  So this is the treat I had waiting for them when they came home from school.  The green muffins were a hit!  Thanks Mel's Kitchen Cafe for a yummy, healthy, and green muffin!

Sophie and I had a fun date night at Dairy Queen in March - no Sharpies this time . . . just fun games while we ate our ice cream.  Man, how I love one-on-one time with my girls!

I took the girls to the zoo one day during Spring Break - we lucked out and had another day without rain and we all had a great time.

Last weekend, our friend's, Mike and Jud Ericksen, invited us to a couple's weekend at their beach house in Neskowin, OR.  With Ken's Dad willing to watch the girls for the weekend, we jumped on the chance and had a such a great time.

We had a bocce ball tournament - we've got some good form, but we didn't win, ha-ha

We planned for rain for the entire weekend, but were blessed to have moments of sunshine - not warm - but sunshine!

 We even enjoyed a sunset on our last night there.  

And found these weird jelly fish things ALL over the beach.  At a glance, they looked like broken pieces of colored glass.  I have never seen anything like this before and was intrigued by their design.

February Adventures

February seemed like a very busy month, but apparently I didn't take very many pictures (you can thank me later, ha-ha).  On the 11th, we went back to the Hyak Snowpark for more fun in the snow.  There was a ton of new snow and the girls had more fun playing in it than tubing on it.  And that was okay, because it was about 20 degrees warmer than last time, which was perfect for just playing around.

I had a few great ideas "pinned" for Valentines for my girls to make, but they wanted simpler and easier, and hey, who am I to argue with simpler and easier, right?!

And for them, it was perfect because they were "crafting" and didn't need my help.  A "win/win" all around, if you ask me :)

On the 17th, I took Amelia on a date - blizzards at DQ while we colored with Sharpies.  And when we were mostly done, I happened to notice that the Sharpie had bled through the paper and onto the table - oops!  Thank goodness the employee at DQ was understanding and didn't make us scrub it clean.  Amelia told me she felt "special" on our date!  Yeah - that was my goal!  Can't wait to do it again.

Ken's brother, Kris, came for a short visit at the end of the month and the girls loved every minute they got to spend with him - from bedtime stories, to sharing experiences from school, to eating sushi with him.  We loved his visit too - come back anytime!

A new year; another month gone by

January started off with a trip to Hyak Park near Snoqualmie Pass to go sledding/ tubing.  The weather was perfect - sunny and freezing cold ;)  We came prepared with warm layers and snacks and spent 4 hours there, which is about 4x as long as I thought we'd last.

The park had a steep, groomed hill, which was great, but required waiting in lines.  

There was also an area with a small hill, which the girls also liked.

And sometimes when you don't want to wait for a sled, you just slide down on your belly 😂

Proof that both Ken and I were there and smiling.

The girls started swimming lessons this month.  They were excited, but I think it's a lot different than they expected.  Amelia has already told me she wants to go back to gymnastics - which is definitely more her style.  The jury is still out with Sophie - we'll see if she follows the crowd or does her own thing.

My birthday was celebrated at the Great Wolf Lodge - not necessarily my first choice for celebrating my birthday - but when there is no school that day, you do what you have to do.  Thanks to Ken's Dad for the Christmas present that allowed us to stay there.  The girls had so much fun playing in the water, riding on the slides, meeting Rachel the Racoon . . . and the wolf ears were a hit!

 I think Amelia was in heaven just being able to wear her swimming suit for a day and a half.

It was nearly impossible to get pictures of our water adventures, but this one pretty well sums up how we felt by the time we left - tired and happy.

I threw myself a birthday party - good friends, good food, and fun games and laughter.  A perfect evening.  A few days later, I took Sophie on a date.  We went to Starbucks for hot chocolate (her choice) and I brought games to play while we were there.  I really enjoyed spending one on one time with her and I'm looking forward to my date with Amelia in Feb.  

Yeah December!

December - family activities, snow, and Christmas.  A perfect way to spend a month.  We went to Spanaway's Fantasy Lights drive-through display.  The girls love it . . . mostly because we let them be unbuckled and hang their head out the window as we drive 5 mph through the display.

On the 8th, we got a skiff of snow.  You can see how excited the girls were as they ran outside to play in it.

 But I had to laugh as I watched them trying to make snow angels in it. 😂

The next day, we got a real snow storm, and lucky for everyone, school was already cancelled that day due to teacher prep.  The girls loved playing with the boys up the street, and I loved that the boys loved playing with the girls.

It has been so cold lately, that Ken has been wearing his "puffy" coat.  One day the girls discovered that they could fit in it together.

On the 23rd, one of Ken's co-workers invited us to come to her home for a horse riding activity for the girls.  Her yard is all decorated with lights and then the girls get to ride a horse and pick out presents hanging from the trees.  The girls loved it and didn't seem to mind the cold weather.

We did our annual sugar cookie making and decorating on the 24th.  The girls are getting much less messy and I'm not so tightly wound watching them decorate, so we all had fun this year. 

Ken broke down and got a trampoline for the girls for Christmas (I think he was tired of them jumping on the furniture).  It's not the best picture, but I love Amelia's excitement as she figured out what was "hidden" outside.

We also got the girls roller skates and they've had fun rolling around in the garage.

Tune in next month for more snow play, water park fun, and birthday activities!

November

Thankfully, November was much less stressful/ busy than October.

I started the month by going to Portland for the Time Out For Women conference.  I was able to connect with a friend/ former roommate and had a great time - listening to the speakers, catching up on everything, and being kid free for over 24-hrs.

The girls learned a new song at school for Veteran's Day, and I thought it was too cute not to share.

I love it when babysitters come prepared to play.  Maddi made turkey headbands with the girls; Ken is modeling Maddi's that she made and left behind.

I spent the month posting things I am grateful for on Instagram.  Two of my favorite things are Amelia

 and Sophia.

And the girls helped me decorate the wall all month with things we were all thankful for.

Thanksgiving is always a quiet affair at our house and this year Ken had to work, so dinner wasn't until later, but it was all good.  Ken made his "caterpillar" again this year, otherwise known as turkey porchetta.  It was great, especially because I didn't have to cook it.

We followed our family tradition of getting a Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving.  I love living in the Pacific NW where fresh trees are abundant and cheap.  Who wouldn't love that?

And even better, we found one that we all liked, without too much whining!

When it comes to decorating, we each have our own style.  Thank goodness, Ken's style is "patience" because he let the girls not only help him decorate but put the lights on too.  I tried a new technique too - let the girls decorate, and then re-shuffle ornaments when they were done to make sure the entire tree had ornaments, not just the bottom half that they could reach.

And it turned out really well. 

The girls also decorated "their" tree in the playroom.

I love that Amelia put her favorite seashell on top for the star.

On Saturday, we went to Portland to visit Ken's mom.  The girls were worried that they would be bored, but Diane was prepared with crafts and the girls were in heaven.  They crafted almost the whole time we were there.

I've slowly been putting up the rest of our Christmas decorations.  My favorite ones are always the nativities, including this one, that is tiny, but kid-friendly.  I had it arranged the way I typically do, but Sophie came home that afternoon and arranged it the way she likes it.  I think I'll leave it that way - to remind myself to keep Christ at the center of my focus.

Birthday, Field Trip, and Halloween

October just flew by . . . kind of like this duck . . . Amelia drew this picture in art class and her teacher selected it as one of the 5 from her school that was submit to the nationwide Junior Duck Stamp Contest.  Go Amelia!  She didn't get her drawing talent from me.

Sophia's 5th birthday was a fun event, even if I took horrible pictures and didn't even get one of her by herself.  The girls colored, played games, ate brownies, opened presents, and broke open a piñata - the true hit of the party ;)

Almost before we knew it, it was the night before Halloween and we didn't have our pumpkins carved yet.  The girls each drew a picture of what they wanted their pumpkins to look like, Sophia helped clean out the "guts" . . 

  . . . Amelia supervised, and Ken carved all 3 pumpkins!  Yeah!

 Yes - there really were 3 pumpkins - I'm not sure why I didn't get a picture of the 3rd one.

On Halloween, I got to be a chaperone with Amelia's class for a field trip to the pumpkin patch.  It wasn't as organized as Sophia's pumpkin patch field trip (not the school's fault), but we were all grateful that we got a break from the rain and had a windy, but dry event.

 Me and my girl eating our lunch together!

And then after school, it was time to get ready for Trunk-or-Treat.  Sophia wanted to be a ghost - a simple costume, I thought, but I spent much more time on it than I expected trying to make sure it fit just right . . . and stayed on.  Cutting the holes was the scariest part - I was so afraid she'd end up looking like Charlie Brown's ghost costume :)  And of course, Amelia wanted to be Elsa - super easy costume, since she already had the dress - yeah!

I hope there are no tricks in November - just plenty of time to eat all the Halloween treats!