Monday, June 24, 2013

Leotards and Leporids

My blogs have become quite, uh, how you say?  

Formulaic.

Yes. That's the word.

Some uninspired commentary accompanied by pictures.

Katie likes to go back and look at old blog entries, especially ones about herself as a baby.

I read those entries and think to myself, "What happened to my creativity, my verve, my rapier like wit?"

Here's a good, and very relevant to this month (as I'll explain later), example from October 2006:

To binky, or not to binky: that is the question.

Whether 'tis smarter in the long run to suffer the cries and screams of an unsettled baby, or to take measures against a sea of tantrums, and by pacifying, end them?

To pacify, to sleep; no more; and sleep to say we end watching Nick @ Nite and the thousand sleepless hours that we have become heir to; 'tis an outcome devoutly to be wished.

To binky, to sleep; To sleep: perchance for more than four hours; ay, there's the rub!
For in that sleep of binky-dom, what bad habits may come?

Alas, it has suffered from a determination to run myself into the ground volunteering to do WAY too much stuff in the name of making my kids education more fulfilling and their lives super-awesome.

Such is mommy-hood. 

And now, on with the show.

We had a pet moth for a day.

As you would guess, his name was.....

.....wait for iiiiiiittttt.....

Mothie.




The second week of June, Katie's school had Spirit Week.

Here's Katie all prepped and ready for "Crazy Hair Day".




Some PNW wildlife.....

Mikey's hand is there to give you some perspective as to exactly how big and gloopy this slug was.





And even MORE wildlife!

Did you know that we have tame unicorns here in the PNW?

No really.  We do.







It's true what they say:  Cats love people who hate cats.





Here's a cool phenomenon.  This is a rainbow halo around the sun.

It's officially called a sundog.




Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, now introducing the next star of stage and dance.......

KATIE!!!




It was Dance Recital time!

Here's a nice picture of Katie with her costume hat on.


This was a serious recital folks.  Kinda like the ones I remember as a kid.

Katie had to have her hair done in a "ballet bun" (her hair was too short for a bun, so I plastered it to her head).  She had to have stage makeup on.  She had to wear an elaborate costume.

The recital was at a performing arts center - the big time.
It lasted three hours.  And her group was performing as group # 43 out of a total of 44 groups.

She told me that the wait wasn't that bad.  She got to wear a pretty outfit, hang out with her class, play games, do crafts, watch The Little Mermaid and make new friends.  Hmmmm.  All things Katie loves to do.

And here she IS!
(Second kid in from the right, in the back row) 





She had a great time and wants to continue with her dance career.

Next year - Jazz.

"I LOOOOOOOVE DANCING!!!!"


Next up, it was field trip time for Katie.

Her class went to a local park to "investigate" plant life as part of their science curriculum.

In reality, they played on the giant playground, went for small hikes, climbed trees......



....and ate popsicles.

Very messily.

Mikey calls them "pop-sticles".


You would think that an almost 7 year old could manage a popsicle better than a preschooler.

Not so much.



And then, just like that, school was over!

Summer was here!

It was a nice weekend this past weekend.  I decided to pull some weeds in our yard.

I thought it might be time, as some of them were taller than Katie.

As I was chopping down a giant fern (they are EVERYWHERE here), I noticed a little brown furry thing huddled at the base of it not moving.

Upon further investigation, I realized it was a baby bunny.

So THAT's what that rabbit hanging out in our yard was up to!!

Armed with knowledge gleaned from a 2 minute search on the internet, I did a quick search of the garden area and found some brothers and sisters huddled in a burrow.



We weren't quite sure if the little bunny was ready to be on his own.

In my search for the burrow, we ended up finding two other siblings.

One that didn't mind being caught and another who was pretty fast on his feet.  We decided to let him run free.

All in all, there were six baby bunnies.






The internet said that if the bunnies eyes were open and their ears were up, they were ready to be on their own.  But, they seemed SO small - about the size of a chipmunk.

We decided to return them to the burrow and let Mommy Bunny decide if they were ready to skedaddle.  Mommy Bunnies will not abandon their babies if they are handled by humans, by the way.

Katie wanted to help.  So, we got our gloves on and began "Project Rabbit Replacement".




The next day.  The mommy bunny must've paid a visit to her babies.  The nest was disturbed and she was hanging out in our yard.

And then when we went to check on the babies two hours later... and they were gone.

All six baby bunnies.  Gone-zo.

I searched the yard for live or not-so-alive bunnies, but found no trace.

We wish them the best wherever they went.

The kids visited the dentist last week and I got the "gotta get rid of the binky/finger sucking" speech. Again.

So, we did it.

Mikey gave up his binkies.  Katie began the process of breaking the finger sucking habit.

With all this craziness going on, some of us are a little exhausted.




Saturday, June 01, 2013

More May


Spring has sprung in the PNW!!

A monarch butterfly stopped by to say, "Hola!"


And, we have a new resident in our backyard.
Katie is in total, absolute LOVE.



Mikey seems to have grown another set of Spiderman patterned arms.....





....and has managed to recruit a member for his up and coming super hero team.

They should be set to vanquish evil come June.




The preschool year came to an end last week.

Just like every other parent in the class, I was left pondering the fact that we only have one more year of preschool left.  Then it's on to kindergarten.  Phew.

Mixed emotions about that one.

But, no emotional confusion for the kiddies.  They were as happy as can be.

What's with all the smiling, you ask?



Let me show you. 

"The caterpillar ate through one nice green leaf, and after that he felt muuuuuuchhhh better...."




On the last day the kids got their, what I like to call, "movin' on" buckets.

Mikey was just a tad bit excited.





Next up was Memorial Day weekend.

It didn't rain allllll weekend, but it was pretty dreary.

On the one day that it didn't rain, the kids (and Huzbend) decided to build a house.








And then Katie decided that she wanted to camp out in the backyard.

She recruited Mikey to join her in her adventure.

And, so, we set up the tent and they spent the night out there.

By themselves.





They were fine.  They slept pretty good and there were no issues.  Excluding the fact that they were awake at 6am, of course.

Huzbend and I, did not sleep so good.

It's a sad state of affairs when you are paranoid about your kids sleeping in a tent in your own backyard.  Sigh.

Mikey is very much a "do-it-yourselfer".

He recently bonked his nose on the couch.
After a little cuddle and an explanation that he was not bleeding, so he did not need a bandaid, he decided to take matters into his own hands.



Sunday, May 12, 2013

What April?


Figured I'd start with picturesque scenery in an attempt to calm you because I haven't updated the blog in, like, a month......did it work?

I TOTALLY forgot to tell you that I made my own hollow chocolate bunnies for Easter!

Yep.  Bought some nut-safe chocolate melts.  Found me some bunny molds and WENT TO TOWN!

Can you tell that I'm just a little proud of myself?



In the midst of preschool stuff, various meetings and a few birthday parties, there was a school break in the middle of April.

Granma C. came to visit!



I swear that all were healthy when she called to give me her flight info the day before her arrival.

By the time she got here, everyone in the family was sick with the unexpected exception of me.

Sigh.

I made the joke that she was going to go back home with more than just memories.....

On top of all the boogies, it was cold and rainy the whole week.

We did manage to find a non-rainy morning and decided to Ride the Ducks of Seattle.

I was a little leery of having the kids sit in a vehicle for 90 minutes for an edutainment tour of Seattle....

But, they LOVED it.




















I did mention that it was cold?  And rainy?  You'll see why I asked that when you come to the end of this little video.




A good time was had by all.

You COULD even say, it was TOO good..... 




Have I mentioned that Mikey talks A LOT?

No.  I mean A LOT times infinity.

Granma now knows what I mean.

Here's a few pics of her trying to eat lunch while Mikey discourses on a variety of subjects.





We attempted to get a nice picture of Granma and the two grandkids.

This is the best we got out of about eight trys.


Sick of the constant disobedience and general chaos of our house, Granma decided to show us how it was done and laid down the law.

It was time for a little arm wrestling.


And then, it was time for Granma to go back home.
Saying good bye just never gets any easier.

School started back up again and so did "activities!"




Katie had a "parent observation day" at her ballet class.

Mikey was not impressed.






Mikey got new pajamas.




He wore them to the family fun run we did the next day.

There was A LOT of whining because not only did we have to get up early, but it was cloudy, windy and not so warm.

But, as soon as we started moving, it was all okay.






And then it was time to begin....

MAY

Jam packed with school AND preschool events, meetings of all shapes and sizes, and just normal life type stuff; May is by far the craziest month of the year.  Really.  It even beats out back-to-school month AND holiday time.

These are good May-type pictures....





May started off with the Washington State PTA Conference.

Yes.  I went to a PTA conference.  I even stayed overnight.

Go ahead.  Say it.

NERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRD!!!!!!!!!!

Mikey had a preschool field trip to the zoo.

YEEEE-HAWWWW!!



Mikey pretty much ran through the whole zoo.

Very independent, this little man is.

He was always off by himself, having run from the last exhibit to the next.....




At one point, he wanted to pull the wagon.
It was good....as long as it wasn't a down hill...




"Really?!?!  Eating lunch is picture worthy?!?!"




One of the most exciting parts of the day may have been the trips to the bathroom.
The hand dryer was TOTALLY AWESOME!!!!



Hey, remember this guy?



Fantastic impression, eh?




In case you were wondering, having three birds on your arm gets a tiny bit tiring.....




......but it's all for the kids!



After a quick stop at the playground to let the kids adults get the sillies out....






......it was time to pack it up and head home.

Zoo officially CONQUERED!!!





This past week, Mikey learned a valuable lesson about what happens when you
throw a rock and it accidentally lands on a glass patio table....




Meet Glitter Chicken.
A Mikey original.



 Phew.  That brings me all the way to Mid-May.

One whole half a month left to go!

December 2025

 December started off with a trip with my good buddies, the state PTA president and vice president. You can't call it a meeting if there...