End of May

What a fun and busy month it's been.  So fun and busy that just the thought of writing it all down intimidates me.  A lot.  It's always this way.  Since I don't have my laptop when fun things are happening and don't like typing on my phone, I just have to rely on my ever-fading memory when I get home.  I'm trying to make an outline now and just do a few smaller posts here and there, but we have so many good pictures and made so many memories.

First though, counting down, today is the 10th anniversary for Emily and Ryan, which they celebrated by taking Katherine to her 4-year doctor's appointment - where she is due for shots.  I told them if they wanted to go somewhere to celebrate, I would babysit, but they're so unused to having any time alone that they're completely clueless where they want to go.  I'm sure they'll think of something that doesn't involve children's plates and spilled anything.

I have such a disaster in my picture files after changing computers that I couldn't find any up-to-date pictures of them to post on Facebook.  I told Emily to send me one, and she said, "We don't have anyone to take serious pictures of us."  Maybe we can get better on family pictures soon.  Just for memory's sake, I'll link a post about the wedding instead of finding the same old pictures.  There were very few pictures of both of them together at the beach without other people.  My favorite one is one I took one morning on the way to look at the turtle egg nest.  Ryan is already geared up for sun protection, but they look (and were) so happy.

Here are some haphazard photos of various family members.  There's not one where someone is not clowning.  Kathy swears she was not torturing Kate in these pictures.  Kate was just working on her best "smile for the camera" smirk.

I hesitate to include this one that I was invited hurriedly to join, and no one had bothered to inform me of the color scheme or to suggest makup and hair brushing, but it's us, grimaces and all. 

Another happy picture I found.

So Katherine's 4th birthday was celebrated over a couple of weeks with various people and in various settings, but I'll let that have its own post later as well as more pictures of the trip.

Mother's Day was celebrated at the beach with cards from the girls and a busy time for the little ones making their own cards.  Rooster Valley has a cute little afternoon every year to honor mothers called Mums for Moms where they make gifts - this year, corsages, bath salts, painted rock picture holders, and other things.  Emily unfortunately had to work, so I had the honor of accompanying Katherine.  We had a great time on a hot afternoon, but there was lemonade and cupcakes and strawberries.  She even ate the lemon orzo salad and gave it a thumbs up.

This was the bath salts assembly line and in the background the rock painting.

I tried to escape the photo area, but one of the teachers insisted on a Mimi picture.

In the first one, I was trying to get her to have a real smile instead of a grimace.

But failed.  I promise she wasn't angry!

I really think this was a phase - the grimacing and closed-mouth smiles - because since then we have some really sweet pictures of her.

I'm working on getting together some more family pictures, cousins this time, but am waiting on a few.  The girls have 6 first cousins in Ryan's family but none in Emily's, so we're borrowing cousin's children to claim, and there are some cute ones.  Maybe that will happen tomorrow.

In the meantime, I've given in and bought Layla something to showcase her slothfulness and disdain.  It's a little too late since she's already done a pretty good (BAD) job of clawing furniture corners, but I have to admit it makes me smile to see her sitting up there so happy.  Since I don't have any furniture left to speak of, hers is the best piece in the living room.

She has an unobstructed view of the bird feeders on one side and a view of the kitchen from the other.  I forgot about her this morning and all of a sudden had the feeling someone was watching me.

Time to pick up the 4-year-old who did not even cry when she got a bunch of shots this morning.  I had the camera in just the right place yesterday when the kids (goats and children) crossed the street.  I now have 3 little girls calling me Mimi and picking me flowers.  I'll take that any day.  Kate has really enjoyed her new friends and is finally having a great time, as evidenced by how wet and dirty she is when she gets in the car.







Happy Trails!

Busy Week with Katherine

I'm still not organized enough to do pictures about the beach.  I've had Katherine with me all day for the last two days, and she needs a lot of attention.  Mimi, I kinda want a snack.  I'm kinda tired of playing this.  Can I play on the pink iPad?  What about a white pretzel?  I hurt my arm and need a Bandaid.  I want to do the Lite-Brite.  Now I'm bored with the Lite-Brite.

One thing that really interests her is cleaning.  I think she just like spraying the bottle of cleaner, but she gives things a good scrubbing.

For our midmorning snack, I had a cup of coffee, and she had a couple of strawberries and a "vanilla" (granola) bar.  

She really didn't like it that I left part of the "green stuff" on her strawberry and at lunch made sure I got it all off.

 We're having a discussion about what the orange stuff is on the chimney top across the way.  She tried out the word "rust" several times.  She seems suspicious of the word and acts like I'm trying to hide something gross from her.

She's a good companion.  I can't believe she will be 4 years old next week.  And can't believe how much I adore her.  Except when she locks me out on the balcony.  She thought that was the best trick ever.  Thank goodness she knew how to unlock it.

Ryan was tossing a bookcase one day and asked if I wanted it.  At first, I said no, because I can't imagine putting another thing in this apartment, but then I thought about how nice it would be to have all the girls' art supplies in one place instead of going under my bed and up in the closet to retrieve them.  He brought it up today, and I proceeded to fill it up.  It's going to take a little more organizing, but I think everything's going to work out fine.  I'm going to get a paper organizer for that second shelf, but all those plastic drawers will hold their papers and stickers and stuff.

Paints on the top shelf out of reach along with all glitter things and stamps underneath that.  Ryan is going to secure it to the wall with some L clamps so they can't tip it over.

Crayons and markers and pencils on the bottom shelf with coloring books and drawers of paper.

 I've hoarded these packs of origami paper, and it might be time for us to start learning to do some.

 Construction paper, scissors, glue sticks, and crayons and markers where they can get to them along with some puzzles and little games.

They have no excuse now for not being creative, although they'd both much rather play on the pink iPad.  Every time.

Home Again

I'm too brain dead to deal with beach pictures and posts.  After spending so much time in airports lately, I thought this was appropriate at my doctor's office yesterday.

Queen of Capistrano saying good-bye to our fun week.

It's a beautiful place, and we've had some good times there.  More pictures when I get organized.

Such a Good Day

Just a Tuesday but a Good Tuesday.  One of those days that just works from the time I wake up until I go to bed.  The weather has a lot to do with it, of course.  We're finally having REAL spring days where you can go out in short sleeves and not dread a little breeze.

I love mornings where I get up and don't have any place to be or anything that has to be done, and I can just drink my coffee and read or make lists and check them off or any of my little mundane pleasures.

Monday was a little busy and chaotic, so it was nice to get focused on packing.  Sometimes I think I would be better off waiting until the night before a trip to pack, because I make piles everywhere and forget what I've put in them.  You can't pack clothing until the night before, so they're hanging on the door knob of the closet.  I have faith it will all come together soon because it's just one more day.

So what did I do on this beautiful day?  I took no pictures, so it's just boring sentences.  I did have a few places to go but fun ones.  I have a friend Debbie who lives across the street from Emily and Ryan.  I have to admire her persistance in getting me out of the house.  The first year we just met briefly for front porch chats and got to know each other, but my time was so limited that I wasn't free to do grownup things.  She had me over for coffee and then bridge club, and I went over and kept her company for her garage sale one day.  I'm so selfish with my time that I don't want to give any up, but she's making me see that it's nice to get out and socialize with people other than my family.

Our outing yesterday was only two blocks for me - the Infusion Bar and Grill.  We were trying to think of a convenient place for lunch that wasn't crazy expensive.  I had been there with friends before, and then Millie and I went when they were here last.  So Debbie drove and I walked, and it was such a nice walk.  Snoqualmie Ridge is so peaceful during the mornings when people are at work or school and babies are napping.  You pretty much have the town to yourself.  Every day more and more trees are budding and bushes and flowers are coming into bloom.  Smells so nice, and the birds are happy and singing too, glad the winter is over.

I think there were only another couple of people there, and it was the perfect place to have an unhurried lunch.  Debbie and Steve are going to move when he retires, which is next year, but they're going to try to get their house ready to sell this year, so she's feeling pressured to get a painter and pick out paint colors and find a yard person to neaten up.  I remember those days, and it's kind of exciting and stressful at the same time.  I hope they stay in town after they sell the house, because I need someone to force me out in the world.

I can't think of half the things we talked about, but we have to catch each other up with many years of our lives, so we were hopping around from subject to subject, but it was a nice time.  She asked me to go with her to pick out paint colors in Issaquah, but I had school pickup so had to decline.  I think I would like to do that again.  It seems like half my life has been comparing paint chips and making those decisions.

I then went over to Emily's to take some things for her to exchange at Target and found her with a mound of clean clothes trying to decide what to take for the children.  The girls are already excited, but they are going to love having their backpacks to be responsible for.  Graysen got a wheeled suitcase for her birthday a few months ago, but I think they're going to check that since she will get tired of dragging it after a few minutes.  I left her in the midst of that and took a pair of her pants home to hem and then went to the library.  I saw this when I drove up, so I did take a few pictures yesterday.

I had one book on hold that I had requested several months ago.  I'm not sure how I knew about it.  It's Give Me Your Hand by Megan Abbott.  Since I didn't know if I would like it, I went to the paperback shelves and looked at those.  I don't usually find anything interesting there, but yesterday was different.  I came home with four in addition to my hardback!

I figured I should be able to find one interesting enough to take with me, but when I looked at them, I saw promise in every one of them.  So now I'll have to make a decision.  Because of weight, I'll probably only take 3 of the paperbacks.  Beach reading is the best!

My underseat bag is getting a little crowded.  I have a wheeled one that I'll gate check, but this is going to be our food and entertainment bag.

These are the surprises I got the girls for the trip, and they look so cute.  I didn't open them yet, but they picked them out on Amazon and got a peek at them yesterday.  Graysen saw this bag sitting out, looked into it, and brought it to me with big eyes.  Whats THIS, Mimi?

That and the pink iPad plus some animal crackers will be my contribution.  Emily and Ryan, I'm sure, will have more things to entertain them.  Katherine said she wanted to sit with me on the plane - in my lap.  I told her she would have her own seat (a very expensive seat), but she didn't look convinced.  I can think of worse things than holding her.  If she'll be fairly still.  Graysen is just wanting to look out the window.

I found some Airport Bingo cards for them.  I'm not sure how up-to-date or real-life they are, but I think we'll have fun looking for the things.

There are so many free prinatables online that I kind of got carried away.  They won't spend much time in the car, and who can see things from the back seat, but I found these also.

And a simpler version

Many years ago, our family plus my parents went to Disney World from Middle Georgia, and I made our own Bingo cards, one for all 7 of us.  Mama and Daddy talked about those Bingo cards for years, so I think they were a big hit.  Emily was not reading yet, so I drew pictures on hers, a simpler version of the one above.  I remember having McDonald's arches and road signs and animals but also people in certain colors or doing certain things.  Like laughing girl in a red shirt.  That was the one that got the most conversation, and I'm not sure anyone saw that.

I've got my notebook, and girls' journal and plenty of wet wipes and snacks.

The afternoon went well too.  Katherine came out not quite as covered with dirt today and said she mainly rode the "equipment" and showed me how neatly they had put them up on the playground when they finished.

Graysen was happy after school and wanted me to see the necklace Addison got for losing a tooth at school.  It was a plastic tooth with the real tooth inside rattling around inside it.  I'm afraid Graysen is not going to get one of those this year.  We walked home with the Jones family, and I noticed that one twin has both front teeth out and the other doesn't.  Their dad said it was because his brother accidentally kicked one tooth out, it got infected, and he lost it, and then the other tooth got infected and had to be pulled too.  Brothers!

We sat on the balcony with Layla, and the girls enjoyed a popsicle while I had another cup of coffee.  There are three little boys across the alley from us whom I think are home-schooled, and they were out playing.  Graysen and Katherine sat there like they were watching a movie and kept up a running commentary.  I love this age where they don't need me every second, and I can sit back and enjoy their conversations.  They went in later and pulled out the Candyland game all by themselves and started playing.  All went well until the end when they ended up fighting over it because no one likes to lose.

Emily called to say she was watering the garden and would pick them up soon, but I decided we would walk over and meet her.  Katherine surprised not one but two bunnies as she ran along ahead of us.  Graysen said the best thing in her whole life was cuddling a real bunny, Bluebell, at school.  Her whole life!

By the time I got home, I was pretty tried, but it was a busy and fun day.  Today is just getting to the grocery store and bringing in a few things to make sure Elise and Layla have enough food to keep them going for a week and find a few things for me to take on the plane.  We leave so early Friday that I'll have to have breakfast and lunch packed.