Anna's 4th birthday

Anna had a Scooby Doo Alien party this year. She adores anything Scooby. In the cartoon they go camping and see aliens, so we put tents all over the yard , Eric let the grass grow and made a crop circle with the weed whacker. We gave the kids waterguns and swimsuits and avtivities in the tents and summer fun was had by all. As you can tell, the adults relaxed in the shade.
We were lucky to have Aunt Liz and Cousin Isobel and Ian visiting from Hawaii

Chaos in the backyard....

Anna opened presents next........


I love this picture.

The party ended with all the kids in Dress ups. Cousin Ian, Liam with a ghoul face and good Mackayla and Cousin Isobel all joined in.

First order of summer

Swimming lessons began soon after school was out. Anna continues to be a fish in the water and Liam is doing handstands and front flips and back flips in the water. Both of them would take lessons all year if they could.

End of the school year!

The kids ended their school year with Gymnastics finale's. Anna cried because she didn't want to leave shcool and Liam jumped for joy because he knew summer was beginning.

THis is blurry off and on but I think it's cute. She missed her performance day because she was sick so her teachers let me video tape it the next week. Her little friend danced with her for moral support

Confessions

The other night while cuddling behind Liam in bed he says, "Mom, I said something really mean today" "what did you say?" I said to Anna, "I wish you were never born." "I bet that made Anna sad, how did you feel when you said it." it's quiet for a moment "I knew I shouldn't have told you, I don't want to talk about it" "sometimes it feels good to say something mean at the moment, but you always feel bad about it later. Nobody is perfect Liam. We all make bad choices at times." "Martin Luther King was perfect." "How do you think he learned to make so many good choices? I bet he made some bad choices too, but he learned to choose the right." "What about Abraham Lincoln, he was Honest Abe. He never never made bad choices." "Why do you think he thought it was sooooo important to tell the truth?" "cause he didn't like how he felt when he lied, so he doesn't do it anymore" "See, we all make bad choices but we can make them right. How could you make what you said to Anna right?" "I could say 'Anna, I wish you were born." George Washington did that. he cut down an apple tree and when everyone asked who did it he didn't tell the truth. But then he made it right and told everybody that he did it" quiet for a moment "Mom, I love you."

on potty training

Anna is sobbing and clearly upset with herself after wetting her pants on the way to the bathroom. Through her tears she says quite seriously, "Mom, I wish Jesus made potties in T.V. rooms." I don't know, sounds like a good idea to me.

garden ballet

Anna had her first creative movement and Ballet performance. She is the one standing by the black curtain at the beginning. It takes a moment to get started. She did a good job for only being 3 years old I think.

Comicon

For a date night Eric and I went with HEather and Evan to Seattle Comicon festivities. We didn't really take too many pictures but here are a few.

My favorite, chubby princess leia.

Masterchief was the only videogame represented because of the Halo comic. pretty cool.

Boba Fet

Tron

Awesome gut.... we went to the Buffy the Vampire slayer sing along and dawned fangs for the program. All in all agood time was had.

Snow caves

Erics duty as the Scout Master led him into the mountains a few weeks ago to vuild snow caves for the night. THey hiked in with snow shoes and spent the night helping the boys learn how to work hard.

sleeping in the snow cave which was pretty warm for the leaders who built thiers right. Can't say the same for the boys though.

Erics buddy bondy and Eric built this cave so you could stand up in it.

Fresh mountain air.....

thoughtful conversations

(while sitting on the potty)
Anna: Mom, I wish I had a boys bum.
Julie: really? Why is that?
Anna: Because girls have to sit down and boys don't.
Julie: What a wise observation Anna
Anna: (completely serious) Mom, can we go to the store today and buy me a boy bum?
Julie: Well, would you like a big one or a little one?
Anna: A big one, ( on second thought) actually I want a little one like Liams.
Julie: Okay.
Anna: ( with hugging) oh thank you Mom!

Happy St. Patricks Day

Liam came down the stairs this morning all ready for school. He had dressed himself like a leprochan. A few nights ago we found a note in his room written to a leprochan asking if he could trade Liam's nickel for a gold coin. He even made squares for the coins to be placed in. The leprochan obliged and he found a real gold coin the next morning. He took it to school and said everyone was talking about it. Apparently the other kids tried it and did not receive gold coins. oops!

Generation pics

While my Mum was in town I took the opportunity to take some generation pictures of Anna and said Mum. I feel so lucky to have them and had a blast watching them work together to get the shots.

please notice the gap between both of their big and second toes. so cute.

Grandma White Visits

My Mom came to visit her Grandkids and check up on her daughter last week. The kids had fun baking with Grandma and teaching her how to play Kinect sports. Anna insisted on sleeping with Grandma and she snuck out on tip toe quietly each morning so as not to wake her. Liam spent lot's of time sharing his ocean books with Grandma.

We got some fresh air at Lively property which is about 5 minutes from our house. Their is a cool pioneer museum which made my mom laugh because they had "antiques" from when she was a little girl. Then we went for a little hike and watched the kids junp straight into a mud bog where we lost anna's boot. It was so fun seeing how comfortable the kids were with my Mom and watching them being friends. Thanks for coming up Mom.