More May, Less Quiet

Katie had a class field trip to The Farm.

Here she is with a couple of her friends.

While at The Farm, they got to plant a

pumpkin seed.  In the Fall, The Farm is

THE PLACE for school trips to pick pumpkins.

There was some intense learning going on.

As the teacher was calling names to set up a class picture, 

Mikey decided to jump right in line.  

Who needs another two and a half years.  I'm ready

for this kindergarten stuff right now.

CHEEEEEESSSSEEE pizza!

Is it lunch time?

Next up, preschool's end-of-year picnic.

Katie came up with these rice krispie treats - turtles with smiley faces.

She's the idea girl.  I implement.

Someone enjoyed a ketchup-y hotdog.

And then was off to wreak havoc with the wind chimes.

Meanwhile, Katie and an old pal from preschool

started up their own dance posse.

The DJ kept it rockin' and I swear

the girls danced for over an hour straight.

The following week was the "last day of preschool".

Sigh.

How bittersweet.

Mikey had such a hard time at the beginning of the year.

He did NOT want to stay by himself.

Lots of tears and screaming.

"NOOOOOOO, DON'T LEEEEEEAVE MEEEEEEEE!!!!"

But, by the end of the year, it was easy peasy.

I'd drop him off, give him a kiss and he'd say, 

"Bye, Mom!" and run off to do the firetruck

floor puzzle with his beloved Teacher Mah-weee (Molly).

Incredible.

Thanks Preschool Moms/Granmas.

Thanks Preschool buddies.

And a BIG Thanks to Teacher Molly.

One of Mikey's favorite things to do, besides the firetruck puzzle, was

playing superhero.

Here's Mikey and his pal Wylder doing just that.

Mikey = "good guy" and Wylder = "bad guy".

Do you know that it's REALLY hard to get a bunch of three and almost

three year olds to look one way?  Sheesh.

Anyways......

CHHHHHHEEEEESSSSEEEE-y pirate booty!

At the end of class, Mikey received his "certificate of completion" for the 

Two-Day class from Teacher Molly.

CONSTRUCTION UPDATE:

Pretty much everything has been moved out of our kitchen

and library and resides in plastic bins and heavy duty

Home Depot moving boxes.

See picture below.

This makes it very hard to eat - you must search the bins - and

very hard to cook - you must search for pots and utensils - and

very hard to put clean dishes away - you much search various boxes.

Holy Hole, Batman!

The library windows are gone....

.....and are now replaced with pretty french doors.

Here is the kitchen proper.  Most of our old cabinets have been removed.

 I think that we've pretty much done our part.  

We've decided on our cabinets - style (shaker) and color (alder with clear coat).

We've picked out a counter top - a dark quartz with sparklies in it (HAS to have sparklies!)

We've picked our range & hood, dishwasher, microwave, sink and faucet.

Phew.

Now, we just sit back and watch the demo happen.

Stay tuned.

The Color Purple, and blue, and pink, and......

Howdy there.  The last time I had a real post up here was EASTER.

As Quincy of the immortal 'Little Einstein's' would say, " I    CAN   NOT    BELIEVE    IT!"

As usual, it's been really, really busy around here.

Let's see.  What happened after Easter.

The rest of April was filled up with meetings of various sorts, school Spring vacation, donating and purchasing various pieces of living room furniture, preschool events and lots of birthdays.

I've also starting running, uh, more like really slow jogging again.  It has to be bright and early in the morning before the kids wake up and Huzbend leaves for work.  So that means 6am.

I like running/shuffling in the morning.  It's very quiet and calming.  Except when a dude in a station wagon almost runs you over even though you're RIGHT in front of his car.

The only thing on the road is you and a ka-trillion slugs.  There are so many, they are hard to step around.  I have to take my shoes off before I come in the house 'cause there's so much sqooshed slug-slime on the bottom of them.

Oh yeah, and the other day I had to JUMP over a spider crossing the road.

Anyways, the only thing I don't like about it is, well, the running.  Not at all my strong point.

So, that's April.

On to May.

As promised, here is a pic of what our living room looks like now.

Okay, so it's not the best picture.  Try to ignore all the toys spread everywhere.

There are two brown couches and a big tv on that far wall.  We haven't gotten around to getting a media cabinet for underneath it yet.  That will happen.....eventually.

Alrighty.

Yeah.  Check this out.

This is what happens when Mommy has too much to do

on way too little sleep.

Yikes.

Believe it or not, I was able to get all that fixed within two days.

The garage was fixed that same day.  The back window I was able to 

get repaired the next day.

Note To Self:  DO NOT HIT GARAGE DOOR BUTTON BEFORE

EXITING GARAGE.  GARAGE DOOR GETS IN THE WAY OF BACKING OUT.

Katie loves writing.  I love reading (or trying to read) her writing.

Here is an example entitled, "Outside Facts":

"This is a weed.  It looks like a palm tree to bugs."

This past weekend we spent a bit of time looking at kitchen-type stuff and then 

we headed off to Seattle for an overnight and a 5K the next day.

Here were our digs for the night.

Opulent, wouldn't you say?

It was an old hotel, but pretty nice.  Our room had

two queen beds, a sitting room, a kitchenette and

bathroom.  The kids love staying in hotels.

REDRUM.

After dinner, we headed to Seattle Center to chill.

Just like any little kid, our two could NOT resist the power

of The Fountain.

As a result, a member of our family literally got "chilled."

"Look at me!  I'm soaking wet!" 

Two minutes later.....

"I'm FRREEEEEEEZZZZZING!"

Good thing super-prepared Mommy always has a change

of clothes at the ready.

Not to be outdone by Big Sister, Mikey wanted his clothes changed too.

On the way back to the hotel, we found this burger joint and stopped in to have

some shakes.

Another Note To Self:  DO NOT GIVE ICE CREAM SHAKES TO CHILDREN BEFORE RETURNING TO THE HOTEL FOR BED TIME.

NOT A GOOD PLAN.

Finally, though, they did fall asleep.

Here they are bright and early in the morning.

Wakey, wakey!!!

After a breakfast of pumpkin muffins, followed by a viewing of

Doc McStuffins, we were out the door and.......

.......ready to run!

The Color Run.  

Here's Katie warming up.

Off we go.  First color.....BLUE!

Just a little for Mikey.  See it in his hair?

"Mommy!  I got blue on me!"

Next up, YELLOW!

Mikey rode in our little umbrella stroller most of the way.

Katie also took a turn in the stroller.

Although we walked a fair amount, 

Katie did do a lot of running.

Here she is taking off with Huzbend.

Next color.....GREEN!

We finished!!

Katie decided that she liked pink most of all.

Mikey decided that he was unsure about all this

color business.

This is what happens when you give a five

year old carte blanche with a packet of pink

color.......

Katie was having such a good time, other

people in the crowd began to help her complete her look.....

And then the countdown began.....

10

9

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1

Color explosion!

All the runners released their color packets into the air.

There was so much color dust, you could only see

a few feet in front of you.

Soon, though, the breeze cleared the air and 

we were a little bit more colorful

than we had been before.

On the way home, Princess Pink fell asleep.

She slept in the truck for about two more hours.

It was a great weekend and an awesome Mother's Day.