How can it be half-way through July already?  I am getting so bad about updating our blog.  Ken had a PT conference in Canada the first week of June, but before he left, he taught/ convinced both girls to ride their bikes without training wheels.  They literally just took off :)

And now that it's mid-July, they've both upgraded to a bigger bike and are zooming up and down our cul-de-sac as much as I'll let them.  But apparently I haven't taken any pictures of them with their bigger bikes . . . 

. . . Amelia definitely needed a bigger bike, ha-ha

Next came crazy hair/ dress-up day at school.  I'm not super creative, but the girls were happy to do anything out of the ordinary ;)

The girls have been bugging me to paint rocks . . . so we made "lady-bugs" to give to their teachers and to decorate our yard.  I love this picture of Sophie with her tongue out while she paints.  My Dad often has his tongue out just like this when concentrating.  I love that she got this gene from him!

Sophie's class field-trip was to Tolmie State Park.  It was raining - of course - but the kids still had fun finding things (dead and alive) in the water and didn't mind getting wet at all.

 Sophie didn't want to go out too deep in the mud . . . she preferred to stay put and dig.

I've been to Tolmie quite a few times, but I have never seen the beach with piles of oysters on it.

I must have taken at least 10 pictures of Sophie's class . . . this was the best I got 😂  It's hard to get 20+ kids all looking in the same direction at the same time!

Field Day at the elementary school was June 9 - where it rained, of course!  Ken and I volunteered with the activities and I was able to join both my girls for lunch.

By the time Ken got home from his week-long trip in Canada, I was ready for a break.  Ken took the girls to spend the day with his Mom in Portland.

 They had fun visiting a small farm in Molalla and riding the train that went around the farm.  

 It was even better that they were the only ones there and got one on one attention and opportunities to see/pet the animals.

Ken and I celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary with a walk in the Refuge and dinner at a Korean restaurant downtown Olympia, where they were playing Christmas music as background music - it totally made me laugh.  Happy Anniversary to us and here's to many more!

The girls were still in school when the strawberries came ripe, so Ken and I had a date picking and picking and picking.  You can never have too many NW strawberries.  Yum!

 And of course, when you have 2 flats of strawberries, you make freezer jam . . . 5 batches!  Hopefully that will be enough, combined with the 3 batches of raspberry jam, and who knows how many blackberry and/or blueberry jam batches to keep us supplied until next summer.

We FINALLY got out of school on June 23.  I wasn't quite ready for the girls to be home from school all day every day, but we were definitely all ready for school to be done.  We celebrated the last day of school by joining our friends at one of the local lakes.  Unfortunately, this is the best picture I got of the 2 girls.

And then suddenly it was July!  We started the month by attending the city of Lacey's fireworks display on Jul. 3.  As a compromise to the girls to not attending the city of Tumwater's firework display on July 4th, Ken painted the girl's faces . . .

and we lit off fireworks with our neighbors at the end of our street.  It was a blast! 😏  We love our neighbors and are going to be so sad when they move in a month.

 

Last month I mentioned Ken's dream purchase (his drum room).  This month, my dream came true and I was able to buy a baby grand piano - thanks to the sale of our condo in AZ.  I can't even describe the joy that I felt as I watched them bring in my piano and set it up for me.  And then to be able to play it in my own home!  Yeah!

And added to my joy has been watching my girls play on and enjoy the piano.  It's probably time for piano lessons soon, but for now, we're all enjoying the piano at our own level.

For a change of scenery, I took the girls to Portland to visit the Bullocks.  While we were there, we visited the temple grounds . . .

 had Tillamook ice cream in Lake Oswego . . .

 (that "play-dough" ice cream turned Sophie's whole mouth blue 😂  )

. . . and visited a playground with a splash pad before heading back home the next day.

The Children's Museum had Providence Night on the 14th for Providence employees and their families.  I took the girls for a few hours of play and we ended up being 3 of the only 11 people that were in the museum.  It was a pretty sweet experience having the museum mostly to ourselves.

Caught up for now . . .

May Day May Day!

Ken took the girls to the Lacey Fishing Day . . . they didn't catch anything, but they sure look cute standing there with their fishing poles . . . and they said they had fun, so it's all good . . . and there's always next year.

While Ken was fishing with the girls, I set up the annual Easter egg hunt in our back yard.  Due to 2 different neighbors dropping off baskets full of candy for both girls, I filled their Easter eggs mostly with puzzle pieces and stickers.  It seemed like a hit - I think I'll try that next year too.

One of my friends at church gave me these adorable dresses for the girls that her daughter had grown out of.  It was perfect timing and the girls love them!

One of the advantages of church staring at 1pm is that there is plenty of time for the girls to play before church.  Ken and I found this welcome sign upstairs.

And this cute hostess ready with "tee" and desserts.

The Lacey Spring Fun Fair was the first weekend of May.  I've never taken the girls before, but decided to be "brave" and try it this year.  There were a lot of people, but it didn't seem as bad as I expected AND the weather was perfect, so the 3 of us enjoyed the few hours that we were there.  Next year maybe I'll even plan to stay longer.

While we were at the fair, Ken was busy setting up his new drum room.  After driving to Vancouver BC a few days prior, he was like a kid at Christmas and couldn't wait to get it all set up.

I'm not sure how Amelia figured out how to do it . . . or how she can do it without hurting herself, but she can hula-hoop around her neck . . . it seems painful to me 😲

On May 19-20th, our ward had their first annual ward camping trip, held at Zion's Camp in Belfair, WA.  The campground is only about an hour away from home and had lots of fun activities for the kids . . . and adults. 

 But who needs activities when you can entertain yourself with fern fronds, ie. "fairy wings".

We went out in a paddle boat, but it was a bit too sunny and "too far from the dock" for Sophie.

So Ken and Amelia dropped us off and went back out on their own . . . and then took a canoe for a spin.  I'm glad Ken has a boating buddy!

Amelia also really liked swinging on the rope swing . . although she wasn't quite brave enough to jump in.

We have really enjoyed going to STEM/ Math nights at the Elementary this year.  They've all been fun, but this one was definitely a hit - rootbeer floats, cool science experiments to watch, and fun/messy "science" to play with and take home.

The girls love the "gak", ie. slime, ie. so messy it isn't allowed in the house and I've already had to wash/ scrub it out of cloths and carpet 😒

For Memorial Day, after attending the Stake Memorial Day breakfast, we headed to Millersylvania State Park for a few hours of lakeside fun.  Amelia loved "swimming" with her floaties . . .

 while Sophie preferred to dig in the sand.

I think that's it in a nut-Schnell.  Stay tuned next month when we finally celebrate the end of the school year.

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.