Apples & Peanut Butter

This young man ate nearly two whole apples:

And this young lady ate several slices herself.

Who says you need teeth to eat apples?

We got a new swimming pool!

Or, as Parker calls is "swrimming pool"

Hammer

Keith built me a trellis for my snap peas, Parker is helping.

Well, that was a waste of a nap time

I've been wanting to make a change to my hair, but I'm not yet ready to chop it all off, since 90% of the time I have it in a pony tail.  So, I've been thinking about doing a red ombre on the tips.  That part of the hair is already destroyed from two pregnancies and this way if I hate it I'll just chop it all off.

 

So, here's the before:

 

 

And here's what I saw when I got out of the shower after 45 minutes of chemicals, waiting, & washing:

 

Not notably different, is it?  Keep in-mind that the box looked like this:

 

 

And it claimed that my color would look like this:

 

 It's marginally more red after being dried, but all-in-all a less than noticeable change:

 

Well, that was a colossal waste of time.  I think next time I'm just going to go for "Katy Perry Purple"

 

And, no joke, Cecily woke up from her nap as I was taking the above "after" photo.

Oh, I'm behind...

I don't even remember the context of this, but she seems to be enjoying her lettuce.

Helping Daddy with the sandbox

Yes, he's wearing Jammies.  Yes, it's 4:30 in the afternoon, what of it?

Helmet

Parker loves his bike helmet and wears it all the times (except, you know, for when he's actually riding his bike).  Recently, he's started making Cecily wear hers as well.

She seems quite content with it, which is a good sign for when we go on bike rides in SunRiver.  It's actually kind of helpful also, since our new-crawler bonks her head on the floor all the time.

They say that your stomach is approximately the same size as your fist...

...which in no way explains how this little one ate TWELVE ravioli for dinner Thursday night.

Ready for the day.

I've got sunscreen & my guitar, what more do you need?

Happy Father's Day Daddy!

After our semi-successful garage sale, we headed up to Whidbey Island to spend Saturday night up at the Need's cabin.

We went out for breakfast at "The Braeburn" in town.  The food there is excellent, but the service was insanely slow, I think we sat for 20 minutes (with hungry kids) before anyone took our order.

But, slow service aside, we had a great meal.

The kids were pretty cranky & disobedient most of the weekend (crazy schedules & strange locations can do that to a kiddo) and by the end of the weekend I think Keith might have been wishing he'd chosen a Father's Day event that didn't involve being a Father.  But, we did get some down-time at the cabin, and the kids loved hanging out with their Daddy.

But, out kids do love their Daddy, and they're pretty darn lucky to have such an amazing Daddy as Keith.  The past few years have been crazy as we've acclimated to being a family of three then four, and Keith has been an amazing father to our two little ones.  It is unquestionably the most exciting part of the day when Keith comes home from work: Parker comes running down the hall yelling "Daddy's here" and Cecily nearly comes out of her skin, she's so excited to see Daddy.  They love their Daddy, and I do too.

Yard Sale - Day 1 - Lessons Learned

I've just finished Day 1 of our two-day yard sale.  

What I've learned so far:

1. We have a lot of crap, very little of which has sold so far.  With that said, the cup about which Keith said: "Do you think we could even sell it, who would want this?" was the VERY FIRST item sold this morning.

2. It is really hard to do alone

3. It is nearly impossible to do with a cranky 10-month old to help you (even if her older brother is at Grandma's)

4. If you want to open at 9am, 6am is not too early to get up.  In fact, 5 might have been better.  If you open at 9, people will show up at 8:45

5. I did not need the $100 in fives & ones I got to make change, I could have gotten by with the couple quarters in my pocket.

6. Your 10-month old will not be willing to hang out in the pack & play like you'd hoped. (Okay, fine, nobody saw that happening, but it was worth a try.)

7. But, if you can finally, by some miracle, get said 10-month old to take her morning nap, you will have plenty of time to catch up on "Thank you" cards, e-mail, magazines, and pinterest.  It's not like I could spend the morning cleaning the bathroom while baby sitting my yard sale.

8. The Dollar Store on Aurora is open until 10 pm on weeknights. (I learned this one yesterday, but still an important part of the sale, since I needed signs & balloons)

9. Contrary to what everyone says, I'm not certain it's worth the extra effort to have the sale on Friday, business was pretty slow.  If you count all the time I spent preparing & holding the sale, I think I'm earning about $5/hour.  Hopefully my rate will go up tomorrow.

10. The very INSTANT you put the very last piece back in the garage for tomorrow, the sun will finally come out.

The one he'll kill me for later...

Riding on my shoulders

Bear gets a ride too...

Cecily

"No Mama, no pictures of Parker, you get Cecily"

Shoreline Fire Safety Center

My MOPS group went to the Shoreline Fire Safety Center again today.

Parker was in HEAVEN, I could barely get him out of there when our hour was up, I think he would have spent all day there if I'd let him.

He spent most of his time up in the cab of the fire truck.  I'd make him get down any time another kid wanted to climb up, but otherwise he spent the whole time up there.

...and when it was over, he got a tattoo: