Elliot-speak

"I already know how to ride a bike with cartwheels"

Some Fall Fun!

We've been enjoying our beautiful fall weather (which now appears to be over, oh well!). While it lasted, we had lots of fun with pumpkin patches, Harvest fairs, sunset hikes and pumpkin bash at the zoo. We're feeling ready for some trick or treating!

First, some sisterly love :)

Group hug!

A short hike at Magnuson Park next to Lake Washington. The girls had fun (and so did I!) finding lots of "hidden" paths that led to the water.

Mike's the champion of rock skipping!

The girls and I took advantage of glorious Saturday in September to go to a children's Harvest festival at the park. Tractor riding, carnival games, and  a concert, so fun.

Spooky mask night at the Burke museum of culture and natural history. It's free the first TH of the month!

My favorite thing to do in the fall, maybe all year :) Pumpkin farm! This year we met up with Kyle and Rachael and their boys and tried out a new farm. The farm was so fun with LOTS of things for the kids to do. They even had a real fishing pond (kind of felt sorry for the fish!).

Riding in the walking wheel

Elliot too!

This was the best photo I could get of the girls. Thanks for smiling Avery :)

The jumping pillow. Such an odd idea and SO MUCH FUN!

Boo! Says Norah at Halloween.

Miss Avery growing up, sniff.

"You may say I'm a dreamer . . ."

Fun at the Science Museum. "Babies!!"

At the zoo for the pumpkin bash. The animals get their food served in pumpkins and crowds of pleasure seekers watch the animals tear apart the pumpkins to get inside :)

Big family trip and moving

August was filled with lots of family fun and then moving. First, our big family trip that started with Dan and Sydney's wedding in Oakland, then looped to Reno .  . .Boise and then McCall, ID. 40 hours in the car, but definitely worth it! (I didn't get any pictures at McCall because my camera battery died, but we had lots of fun there too!)

Our trip to Oakland started with a stop in Portland where the girls got to play at a splash park and then we met Mike's great uncle and aunt (Verne and Donna) for dinner. It was great to see them and so fun to spend a few hours in Portland.

Boo!

Trying out the costumes at the wedding rehearsal!

Yeah Dan and Sydney! You guys are so breathtakingly smart and good looking :)

Norah! You are such a boo.

With Uncle Dan!

"Is it time to go to the pool yet?"

Cousins! Cute cousin Sam in his adorable hat.

The wedding was Friday and on Saturday we went with Leah and Hank and their boys to a fun kids park in Oakland. I was in love with it, I thought it was so cute. The park had rides and puppet shows, mazes and children's theatre. We only had a couple hours, but could easily have stayed the whole day.

 

Moving day! The girls, especially Norah, really loved the truck ramp :)

July fun!

We spent our July soaking up Lake Stevens sun while we still could!

Hangin' at the Lake on the 4th of July

Swimming out to the Haven's floating deck

Making pinatas with the neighbor kids.

At the library park, feeding ducks.

Big girl swing at our neighborhood park!

Kid concert at Silver Lake

Aquafest! The Lake Stevens fair.

June-uary

Now that summer has safely arrived, I can look back fondly on our misty, cloudy June. We had fun with dads, grads (Avery's kindergarten graduation) and my parents coming to visit (couldn't think of a third rhyme).
For Father's Day, the girls got very excited about making Mike a cake. They thought up the theme, "golf." And Avery came up with ideas for how to make the golf balls, grass, dirt, etc. I think the gummy worms may have been Elliot's contribution. Anyway, we made it and then hid it under a box. Then, after dinner and presents, did our big reveal. Voila!

Avery's Graduation. Avery had a very sweet kindergarten graduation. All the kids got to walk up to a stage in the cafeteria two by two. They sang about three or four songs, and then the teachers called each kid by name and they got their diplomas and came back down to the parents. Here's Avery all ready for her big graduation day.

Big Cat Week

To keep ourselves occupied this summer, we have been adopting a theme a week and doing activities around that theme. Now that we are in our third week, I have already noticed a drop in our (my) dedication to this idea. BUT, I will post a few things that we did for big cat week anyway. So, for big cat week, we made cat masks, and checked out big cat books and watched a big cat documentary, and then on Friday went to the zoo. The zoo had a spotted leopard, a tiger and lions. So it was a good big cat haul. Arguably, though, the girls' favorite part of the day was watching the elephant poop.

Parents! Ah, parents. It is always so nice to see parents. Mom and dad came to visit for a few days after they took a well-deserved vacation in the San Juans. We all went to the new glass museum and gardens at the Seattle Center, had some lunch at Pike's Place and went to see the new house. While they were here, they kept the girls very entertained with art projects and games on the iPad. They left on the 4th, and we fit in a quick hike close to the airport in Bellingham before they left. Thanks for coming!



I didn't know Elliot was making a face at the camera until I saw it on my computer. But i'm not surprised.

With the Space Needle