#besties

It's kind of hard to tell, but Parker & Taegen are holding hands and swinging.

Best friends!

The girls wanted in on the best friend action too.

Zoo Trip

These are totally two different days, but I'm super behind on the blog, so cut me some slack!

Cecily & I went out for doughnuts before heading over to Woodinville for an adventure day.

Even though it involved a doughnut, visit with Auntie Denise, and lunch at a restaurant, Cecily was convinced that the day was a flop because we didn't go to a toy store.

The next day, there was no school, so we went to the zoo with some friends.

Backgammon

Parker learned Backgammon this weekend, so naturally, he's now obsessed with it.

Keith's Dad came over for dinner, so Parker taught Gary how to play.  Parker totally took advantage of Grandpa's ignorance & smoked him.  Maybe next time we'll tell Grandpa all the rules at the beginning...

Beach Day

Have I mentioned how much Cecily enjoys her Mama days?  This girl would very much enjoy being an only child (another frightful similarity to Piper)

Today, we went to Edmonds Beach.  It took all the effort in me to keep her from putting on her swimsuit this morning!  I really think she just never feels cold!

No school

There was no school on Monday, so we had some friends over.

I forgot how much almost-2-year-olds are on a constant suicide watch.  I was chasing this guy all morning!

Friends

We had some friends over for the morning.

I forget about what it's like to have a nearly-2-year-old in the house.  I was on constant suicide-watch, I turned my back for 2 seconds and he was at the top of the ladder.

Wild, Wild, Wild, Wild Kratts!

For their birthday, we got the kids tickets to see "Wild Kratts Live!" at McCaw Hall.

First, we stopped at Taco Time for lunch:

When you first get to the hall, they had a few things to look at before the show started.

It wasn't super exciting, but the kids got to dig in a few buckets and see some bird's next & etc.

The lighting was bad, even before the show started, so I didn't get any great shots, but Parker was nearly coming out of his skin he was so excited.

 

Cecily was in a bit of a mood, but she was excited too (at least that's what I'm telling myself)

So, to be honest, the show was fun, but for the amount of money we spent, watching 2 guys run around the stage for an hour isn't all that exciting.  However, what TOTALLY made it worth the expense was watching Parker's face as he watched the show.  He was absolutely, 100% INTO it.

She dresses herself.

Working

It's 2:30 Saturday afternoon and Keith & Cecily are hard at work on some local High School

But, she doesn't focus for long...

Breakfast by the Fireplace

It was cold-ish out, and Parker didn't have school, so breakfast by the campfire!

Experience Norwex

My friend, Maria, invited me to join her at the "Experience Norwex" conference in Tukwila.  The kids were up at the cabin with Denise, so why not?

Now I'm super excited to actually try selling Norwex, so come to my party!  ...when I get around to hosting it.

School Pick-up

Cecily is having a hard time deciding if she likes school pick-up or not.  Sometimes she loves playing on the playground...

...and sometimes I have to wake her from the dead to get the big kids and she doesn't like Kindergarten so much.

Adventure Day

Before school started, I read this Jen Hatmaker quote about how the first Friday of school is a nightmare and whatever you do, don't try to take your kids out to dinner, or to some sort of celebratory event, just stay home and watch a movie and everyone will get out of it alive.

Well...  I listened and we stayed home Friday night, but then went WAY overboard on the plans for Saturday.  One of the Architects that Keith works with was doing a photo shoot at an Elementary School that just opened and Keith worked on.  They were looking for Elementary-aged kids to act as props in the photos.  I thought the kids would love it and be fun, so we went.

The kids did have fun (eventually) but they absolutely refused to be photographed.

But it is a really cool school.  They have this pump to show the kids how water flows and where it goes.

The water feature isn't completely done yet, so instead of spilling over the edge into the lower level, it just pooled by the "waterfall" so the kids were DETERMINED to make it go over.  They never succeeded, but I think there were quite a few muddy little boys heading home.

Once we had lunch and then went to play outside, the kids had warmed up to the idea, Cecily even managed to make friends with the other fanciest-dressed little girl there.

2nd Day of School

It's amazing how much less exciting the 2nd day of school is compared to the first!

But, by some miracle, we all make it out the door on-time!

Fiona was QUITE disappointed to discover that they don't have doughnuts & treats at school EVERY morning.

But she got over it.

Cecily didn't have school on Thursday, so we headed home for yet another tea party.  Side note - I'm post-dating this entry of course, and over the month of September I have had about eleventy-billion tea parties.  It got to the point that we went to the Thrift store & bought tea cups that I'm okay with putting in the dishwasher since I was spending the entire afternoon hand-washing tea cups & tea pots.

Whole-day Pre-School is wearing this little one out!  So far, she has taken a nap every Thursday and almost every Tuesday since school started!

Parker's First Day of School - Part II

For all the hubbub surrounding the first day of school, Parker's first day was all of 2 1/2 hours long.  So, after school, we went out for pizza before spending the afternoon with Fiona (much like every other day this summer).

But, he loved it and he's excited to go back.