One Big Week for Two Big Boys!

What a huge week for both boys! Harry having full days at Elementary and Thomas missing his afternoon naps to attend preschool....

I think this pic sums up how the boys feel after their first week at school. We were still in the car park at preschool when I took this. Thomas was so tired he fell asleep while I buckled him in.

Learning to let go!
Thomas is off to Preschool in a few days....

Today was the Hillcrest Preschool open house for all students attending this year! I am not sure though if Thomas realised it was for him? He is so used to visiting the Preschool because of Harry. Thomas will be in the same classroom with the same teacher. Which is wonderful, we love Teacher Becky. I just hope Thomas understands that he will be starting here in a few days!

Its very exciting, although a little sad. Its a time of very mixed feelings and crazy emotions! For a mom its scary, not being there to protect your little ones 24/7 trusting that they can do it on their own, or with the help of a teacher anyway. Hoping that they make friends and will not get picked on or bullied. Why do I want to be so over protective all of a sudden? If anything I should be letting go and encouraging their independence....help! Maybe I'm the one with the separation anxiety this time?

Summer....Please stay a little longer!

We had a beautiful weekend of sunny, warm summer weather. That was until now! The rain's have returned and looks set to stay for the next few days....grrrr

Here are some of the latest summer blooms from my garden.

Chocolate Milk Bubbles
Today was a day full off Corvette's Coffee Choc milk & Crayon's

On the way to IHOP this morning, we stopped at another one of my favorite local Coffee houses...Vince's Its just up the street from us, maybe a 2min drive if that! They serve wonderful Italian coffee in a great atmosphere a real cafe feel from back in Aus, not your Starbucks type place at all! Full of the character and charm of an old Italian cafe, big comfy couches, rich cozy colors on the wall, lots of vintage prints, somewhere you want to buy a coffee and then hang out at for a while! Oh and did I mention the coffee rocks....so strong, just what you need first thing in the morning!

Daddy taught the boys how to blow bubbles in their chocolate milk! The excitement on Thomas face was so worth it...."more bubbles daddy" Harry drew a beautiful picture of his red power ranger today at IHOP, while Thomas is really into trying to write letters. He will ask us to write a letter for him and then he tries to copy. It will just be a stick, but he is really trying! The boys love coloring and playing the games on the activity sheet. They have a find-a-word, which I have turned into a "find the letters in your name" game. What great entertainment for them and what a great break for mom and dad!

While in Issaquah today, we dropped in on Triple X after breakfast to see what car show they were having. Today was the Vette's.... oh soooo sexy! We all went today and had a wonder.....
Harry reminding Daddy not to touch the cars "just look daddy!" The owner was so impressed by Harry's behaviour, he thanked us for teaching Harry to respect others cars and then asked Harry if he wanted to sit in the drivers seat! You should have seen how the face lit up, Harry got to sit in a beautifully restored Vette.....truly the highlight of his day!

The SUN is back!
Our fun morning of friends waterplay & gardening

After a week of clouds, rain, storm warnings, thunder & lightning and wind....the sun is a welcome sight! Thank God that summer is not over quite yet and we can still enjoy some outside play.

The boys and I spent the morning with a group of friends at a new spray park in Tukwila. It was great! The boys loved running around, jumping, ducking, splashing, squealing and laughing! They have water cannons in the shape of Nemo's, there are fountains to run under, water that bubbles out of the ground and many other unexpected things that squirt when your not looking...What a fun place to be on a hot summers day, we can not wait to go back.

After a few hours of playing we came home for lunch and then spent the afternoon playing in the backyard. Such a beautiful day, I think its around 75deg today with a slight breeze and perfect blue sky.

The boys were happy playing in their fort, so finally I had a chance to garden! I bought a few plants last week before the bad weather set in. I had been looking forward to getting them in the ground. The garden smells so fragrant, I planted some white geraniums, lavender, rosemary, passion vine and a Italian cypress. Fingers crossed I planted them in the appropriate places and they survive. Still trying to get a grip on this gardening thing!

Such a beautiful day, don't want to spend too much time inside on my laptop!

Scissors Harrison & Hair

Hearing from the living room a very proud scream off "Look what I did Mommy!"

I came rushing into see what the excitement was all about....Did he clean for me? Did he do a beautiful drawing? Did he eat all his breakfast?.....hahaha!

That's not what he was excited about!

The first thing I notice was a pair of bright blue and green kiddy scissors in his hand. I thought great he has been doing craft. That thought quickly ended as I turned to do a quick check of the room for cut drapes or upholstery.

The worst fear was then discovered......

Sitting neatly on the corner of the coffee table was a little bundle of blond hair....who's was it? I quickly checked out Thomas as it was Harry holding the scissors after all. Nope he's little head of hair was fine.

I then went over to Harrison, without saying anything he says "what?" as if to say he was Innocent! From the front he looked fine, but on inspecting the back of his head....there it was a bold spot, the size of a milk bottle lid smack bang in the middle at the back....oh Harry!

So of cause I had to do the mom thing and grab the camera. He was so proud of himself as you can see in the photo with the big grin. No scissors for Harry for a while!

Make a Splash!

Today reached a scorching 92 here in Seattle, that is HOT!

What to do on such a hot day....hmmm?

Fill the pool with ice cold water from the tap and watch the boys squeal as they get wet! So much fun to watch. I'm sure it was refreshing though, they had a ball!

Here are some pics of the boys enjoying the refreshingly cool water....

Warning: rated N - for nudie boy! most were to N rated to post

Wobbly Green Jelly....




Nothing as refreshing as cold, lime jelly on a hot summer day!


It was a very hot day, the kind of day you want to do nothing except find AC or a pool.
The boys had been swimming but started getting a little bored.
So we made some wibbly, wobbly jelly.
Thomas got to choose the color and Harry got to sprinkle the crystals in the bowl. Harry did a great job of helping stir the jelly. We poured it into small bowls and then placed it very carefully on the top shelf of the fridge. OK Harry, we need to leave them in the fridge to get cold and firm. 5mins later "mommy is it ready now?" oh boy, this is going to be one long afternoon...kind of like, are we there yet? Are we there yet?





3hrs later and it was ready to slurp, not super firm but firm enough to resemble jelly.
And for an impatient 5yr old, that was good enough....Yum!

Round and Round the Meadow....

Some of the little daily things that make being a mom so rewarding

Harry cleaning up his room and making his bed without even being asked. He loves saying "mommy was that a great surprise"...the best type of surprise I say!

Reading Thomas his favorite book at bedtime "Round and round the meadow" he can now finish the sentence's and is even spelling some of the animals names. He loves letters.

Harry putting himself to bed at last night saying "goodnight mommy, I'm going to bed" takes himself up stairs, gets dressed the whole bedtime routine down pat...even his toothbrush was wet!

Thomas enjoying soccer and being left, I think the separation anxiety is over! T is really into it, he listens to the coaches instructions and does his best at it!

Hearing my boys both say please and thank you without being prompted.

My new favorite mommy reward is the kids club at the local supermarket. I can put them in there for an hour, so mommy can shop in peace....whoo hooo!

I guess you can tell I am having a good day with the boys....lol! They really have been wonderful lately (knock on wood!) Which has come at a good time with Dave working so much. Its made this mama's life a little easier and sooooo rewarding to see them grow.

Playtime at the Park!

Here are some pics from a play at Fort Dent Park this summer.

Dress up Dance Party!

The music was loud, the lights were off, all except for the funky disco lights scattered around the room. The sound of musical instruments being played and the sight of kids laughing and dancing in a cloud of bubbles...What a fun Dance Party!

There were Pirates and Princess's, Firemen and Fairies. Thomas went as a Soccer player while Harry was excited to be a Pirate!

One of our friends hosted this party for the kids in her Apartment's cabana.

The kids had a ball dancing the hokey pokey and playing a selection of musical instruments that were provided. There was face painting too....what a fun way to spend the morning with friends!

The pirate's getting down and funky with percussion!

After the Dance Party we headed out to a local park where we met up with more friends and had a picnic. It was the most perfect day, 87degrees with a beautiful cool breeze in the shade. The boys both had fun playing with their friends today....perfect summer day!


Thomas and Noah saying goodbye after a big day of fun! Needless to say my two are both napping, its been an action packed day.

Seattle Slugs....

Check out this little beauty!

Besides Planes, Rain and Coffee something else that Seattle seems to do really well is...slugs!

They are huge! If you visit a souvenir shop here in town you will find all sorts of slug merchandise. I didn't really understand the slug thing here at first, until one day I finally saw a Seattle slug....Yikes!

On our way out the door on Sunday Harry and Thomas got quite a kick out of finding a huge slug on our driveway. This one is just a baby, I have seen them triple the size of this....Crikey!

Harry was quick to ask "mommy can we keep him as a pet?" Well you can guess my answer to that...NO, Icky!

They decided to try and move him over to the garden so we wouldn't run over him in the car.

Chasing the Blue Angels.....

Today Thomas had soccer as always on a Thursday morning. He is really getting into it and participating....go Thomas!
Well after soccer we were heading home, nothing much planed and then.......

ZOOM!..ZOOOM!..ZOOOOOM!
One after the other. What was that? Harry called out.

I can not take credit for this photo, just a cool shot I found onine today

The Blue Angels are in town and are practising before their big annual Seafair show this weekend.
Well.....screech went the tires, huge U-turn and off we go! Follow that plane!

I called Dave to see when they were practicing and found out they had two sessions today. Great we will watch them land and catch the second show down by the water.

After stopping to buy some lunch we missed the landing...bumer! So we hung out at Boeing Field so we could at least watch them take off. Talk about fun! We had planes landing right over our heads. Trains going by, huge trucks and construction. What more do two little boys want!!! Talk about great entertainment.

I parked the car at the south end of the runway, opened the sunroof and sat on the roof with Harry, it was so much fun! Thomas was in his seat watching a DVD. I think the last airshow has turned him off loud planes for a while, he didn't want to get out of his seat and was asleep shortly after anyway!

Finally after an hour of waiting the Blue Angels took off.....

see video, still to come. I lost my cell phone shortly after this, so check back for pics and video!

Quick Harry jump into your seat and buckle in, lets follow them again. So off to the Lake we went to continue our plane chase. They flew over the top of the car a few times, the sound was deafning!

We found a great spot down near Seward Park on Lake Washington and watched again from the roof of the car......Just Amazing!

Here are some more video's from the day........Check back when I have found my phone!

What a Noise!

More photo's from the McChord Airshow July 08.....

Hands on the ears, that was a common site today!

Dave, Grandma, Grandpa, Harry & Thomas (in the stroller) out front of the hanger!

The huge crowds, there must have been tens of thousands!

Harry, Mom and Nikko, he was scared of the noise so he hid down Harry's top! The Thunderbirds were amazing! Mt Rainer made a beautiful backdrop for the show on such a clear day.

The boys enjoying the day when it wasn't noisy. We set up camp where the kids had fun playing, coloring and eating frozen lemonade, that is when they were not hiding from the noise.

Here is Harry on the C12...agh forgotten the name (Dave help, what was the plane called?)

Great day and can't wait for the next show!