Friday Again!

This has been a fast week, or maybe all weeks are fast nowadays.  Our hot and sunshiny weather is not going to last through the weekend, but it's still pleasant.

Ryan had an appointment this morning, so I went over and got the girls ready for school.  It's better than it used to be when they were so little and never wanted to wear the clothes you picked out for them, but there are other glitches.  Graysen wanted to look in her lunchbox and found that there was Paw Patrol mac and cheese, which I made yesterday and she decided she didn't like.  She wanted Goldfish instead.  I okayed it with Ryan and substituted one yellow thing for another.  Kate likes the mac and cheese, but she wanted Goldfish too.  And Graysen could only find two of her library books.  Good lesson about putting them in your bookbag the night before.  She'll be sad to get only two new ones to check out today, but she will hopefully remember it.

When we got to Rooster Valley, Katherine announced she didn't want to go to school.  I think she does that every morning, but when she got in and her teachers carried on about her overalls, she perked up.  And it was Walter's birthday, the school mascot.  He was having a doggie cake and treats for everyone, so it's going to be a good day.

This picture came from school this morning.  She had told us there were some baby chicks just hatched.

They went across the highway to visit the trains one day this week.

Katherine has little patience or interest in any of the kids except Porter.  She's in the orange stripes, and he's wearing the red shirt on the back row.  

I ran across this on the Casade View Facebook page.  Graysen and Shradda posing with Mr. Bob, the maintence man along with the rest of her class.

When I left there, I decided to walk and enjoy the morning.  I went about 6 blocks and turned around and came back, and it was so nice.

 This was at 9:15 a.m. but looks like sundown.  It wasn't dark at all.

It's daffodils and cherry blossoms right now and not much else.  I'll probably start seeing the nice forsythia in downtown Snoqualmie and the Japanese magnolias.

I'm not sure what I'll do this weekend.  Taxes are done and paid and fussed about.  My eBay selling is coming to a close.  Emily and I want to get together and decide what we'll plan for the girls this summer.  Maybe a dance camp one week.  They're looking for a tee ball group, but I think that's later in the summer.


Three whole days to do my own thing, whatever that is.

I think this is a compilation of about 3 days of photographs.  The days do run together.


Katherine and I walked down the street to the "wood" park while we were waiting to pick up Graysen on Tuesday.  Just simple fun all by herself.

Wood park because ...  Made of wood and trees.  Except it's not real wood.  Graysen figured that out last year and was a little mad about it being fake.

Graysen had early release for the last time, so I walked up and got her at 1:15 on Friday, and we walked down to the same park.  It's funny how much fun she had all by herself while I basked in the sun on a bench.

Elise is gone for the day to do some errands and the Win-Bins are away somewhere, so I'm free to read or go for a walk or whatever.  The book I'm reading now, The Golden Child, is a little plodding, but I'll probably finish it.

Delirious

With happiness.  I never thought I would be so happy to see sunshine and warmth.  Well, I kind of knew I would be really grateful to see the end of freezing temps and snow mounds.  I'm pretty sure this is it, really spring. 

I walked up to the library today, and it's so nice to see people sitting outside at tables at Starbucks and the restaurants downtown.  I just wanted to keep walking, but I also got a few good books that I want to read too. 

I kept Katherine for a couple of hours while Emily took Graysen to a birthday party.  She starts asking for treats or to play on the Kindle when she comes in the door.  It's different when Graysen is here, but when she's alone, she thinks she's the princes.  And she is.  That's why I was making her a peanut butter and jelly waffle right after lunch.

She studied her milk carton and said, "Mimi, milk comes from cows and pigs, right?"  It was too cute to correct right then, so I said, "Not exactly."  I just didn't want to get into a discussion about bacon with her.

Passing Time

Although it seems like time has stopped some days this winter, it is passing pretty fast. I was talking to one of my neighbors today who used to work at the school and who was talking to Graysen about how old she was and how she liked school. She said, "You'll be in first grade next year? Wow, how exciting is that?" I said, "I'm not ready for all this growing. She was just born yesterday." We were walking away as I said it, and Graysen said, "I was NOT." Then I had to explain to her somehow about sayings and exaggerations and how time passes so quickly. She said, "I think time doesn't pass quickly at all." I wish I could borrow some of that slowness.

 It was a beautiful day today, the start of many, I hear. There are still big areas of snow everywhere, but surely they'll be gone soon.

 As we walked to pick up Graysen yesterday, Katherine wanted to walk on the "high wall," so I let her. Then for some reason, she decided to run through a patch of snow on the grass. BIG mistake!

This is the moment she discovered that not everybody picks up their dog poop.

 

It took us forever running through all the snow and wiping on grass and running through mud puddles to get her boots presentable for going into the school.  And thank goodness it was a school day, and she had on those boots!  She did fine with it and didn't even announce to everybody there.

Graysen came out beaming with her birthday crown on, a whole month after her birthday.  I'm glad she got to celebrate it at school.  That's really about as special as having a party.  As we talked home, she insisted that Katherine wear her crown.

Which ended up like this.

She kept trying though, and when we got to the little park on the corner, the water park because it has a rock fountain, they wanted to stop and play awhile.  It suited me, because I couldn't get enough of the warmth from the sun.  They have already mapped out a house in the bushes and were busy gathering leaves and pine cones to cook.  

The sky is blue, and it's not raining or snowing.  I keep having to remind myself.

I've tried to get a good picture of the patterns of snow on the mountain that just thrill the girls to see, but I don't get much chance driving.   There is a seahorse, a Santa's boot, and to the left a dragon or dinosaur.  And then I noticed that you can see it from the school.

Just the boot and starfish, and the boot is not too clear.  This is the best I could do from the car Thursday.  

Some pictures from Rooster Valley today.  Emily and I aren't worried about Katherine seeming to sit by herself on the playground a lot, but we wish she would have more fun.  She has one little friend who just goes three days a week, and I believe she's the only one she will play with.  She told me afterwards that they were playing Elsa and Anna.  And doing a lot of running.  It was nice to see.

And she got to be the leader today.  That's pretty special because you get to open the door and be the first one to your cubbie.  You can tell it's Friday.

Speaking of time passing, I can't believe this one is so big.  Old enough to pick out her own clothes!

I got presented with a boo-boo before we left school.  I think it involved falling down on the playground (again).  There were two scratches but just one bandaid, and the other one started hurting really bad when we got home, and she remembered we had Hello Kitty bandaids.   It's funny how excited they get as they watch a bandaid going on.  She told me later she had two "white" boo-boos.  As opposed to red ones which involve blood.

 While eating some Barbie fruit chews, or whatever they're called, Graysen noticed the B on my cup and asked if that was for Barbie. I'll answer to anything.  That's hibiscus tea and tumeric in my cup and not a dirty cup.

I walked the girls home at 5:00, and it made me miss that walk.  We talked about the moon, which they could see already and the Blood Moon and eclipses and painted rocks and blackberries and whether the person in the car that passed was the school librarian.  And spoke to a basset hound behind a fence.  I had told them we could stop at the park for awhile, and that was exciting.  Just as we got there, Graysen started running, and then I saw Shradda running toward her.  They hugged and hugged and couldn't believe their luck in seeing each other.  They sit at the same table every day in school and had seen each other two hours earlier!

Shradda's mom, whose name I don't know, told me I could leave the girls there and that she would walk them home.  They live across the street from Emily and Ryan, and they know each other, but I had the hardest time doing it.  She insisted though, so I left and walked to their house.  It was good though, because Emily was okay with it, and we got to sit in the swing on the front porch and talk - uninterrupted - for about 15 minutes. It was nice.  We're talked about getting together to plan the garden Sunday afternoon and funny things the girls had said lately and friends of theirs who are moving to California - but 2 miles from Disney Land and offered to host them for a trip.  

It was a lovely day, and it's the weekend!  I'm walking to the library tomorrow and taking some donations to the GoodWill truck, and that's about it.

Warm Weather Hope

I started writing this yesterday, but my pictures weren't uploading, so I abandoned it. But just wanted to say I thought it was yesterday we were planning to start getting out of the snow rut and looking ahead. But yesterday morning I woke up to another half-inch.

That set me back a few hours until I could feel safe walking and driving, so I didn't go to the post office or the grocery store and had to wait until after I had the girls. Katherine's morning class was cancelled, and she looked so happy and snug inside I didn't even take her at lunch time. They usually spend the afternoon outside playing anyway. Graysen was out because of parent/teacher conferences, so they were both here for a long, long day.

I found this picture of Graysen wearing this dress on the way to meet Katherine for the first time.  She was a couple of months past 2, and Katherine is nearly 4.

Probably the last thing I wanted to do was something crafty, but Graysen needed to make her Birthday Girl to take to school since they cancelled school on her birtday, and then there was Winter Break. Luckily, she wanted to do it all herself. I just had to bring out some interesting decorations and help with the cutting and pasting.

Behind the shirt are more shirts telling more about her. Can't wait for her teacher to try to interpret some of them. The 6 is for her age and the 3 for Katherine's age. A unicorn, of course. The pointy skirt was decided on when she saw the scrps of paper that came from cutting out the shirts.

Well, something is still wrong with the pictures. They're appearing on the blog in code but will appear okay when previewed so hoping for the best.