Celebrating 1st.....

Today was a very big day, we celebrated lots of firsts!

 All three of these were headed off to a first day.

 Miss FIRST grader.

 New school since they re-did the boundaries.  She had 8 kids she knew in her class (from Kindergarten and sports.)

She found her spot right away, I can just tell this is going to be a GREAT year!

 This little girl was so excited about preschool!  Mom and Dad did meet us there and got to stay with her the whole class today.

 He kept saying it wasn't going to go, but he was excited (doing 1's like Gabby was for first grade!) and had a fun time.  He already knows a couple of boys and there are so many cool toys and a fun playground.

 Since today also was C's half birthday Molly made a cake a brought it over this morning.  "Happy half birthday to Char"

 "Happy first day of pre school to Elliot"

" Happy first day of first grade to Gabby!"
Notice her missing tooth, eek so exciting. It became loose after biting legos apart, and less than 2 weeks later she pulled it out. She even has a little whistle in her speech plus the adult tooth was already there when the baby tooth came out.  The tooth fairy left a sparkly dollar bill- not sure if it is still spendable? Gabby's note was the sweetest.   "Dear tooth fairy, I love the joys of being me. So why try tanej (change) it? please take my tooth. love Gabby "

This is going to be a fun year for us.  Clay is off fishing in the remote (no phone) mountains of WA with his dad.  He fished 3 times the past week in the rivers here, each time coming home with salmon.  I have all of a sudden learned quite a bit about brine and smoking salmon!  I called my aunt for her brine recipe, it's the best.  She didn't hesitate and recited it off the top of her head! So tonight at our dinner of french dips (Can you believe Clay isn't a fan, both kids try to drink the au jus!) we were snuggling at the counter (where we always seem to eat dinner when it's just us 3) talking about our day and Elliot said " we have the best family!"

Once upon a Summer

Once upon a time I was a blogger..... these days not so much!  We have done so much this summer it would be hard to write about it all and remember it, plus I haven't been to good at taking pictures (at least not with a real camera!)  So here is little bit of picture catch up from my phone.  Most have been on Instagram so they are repeats for some of you. 

 Gabby on a 3 mile bike ride while I ran.. We found this dragonfly, brought it home and put it in a jar. STINKY, it all ended up in the garbage. so much for being a bug collector.  

 Painting outside, Gabby's flag is still hanging on our door.

 We celebrated the 4th of July out on a big farm.  It was a beautiful day and fun was had by all.

 We had a date, Elliot and parents date.  Bellingham Bells game, and frozen yogurt.

 Artist, an original drawing done in Crayola crayon by Elliot.  (Elliot & Mom)

 What you can't see is the long blade of straw in this cowboy's mouth.

 We did a few of the all city track meets.  All ages, broken up by age and gender.  Gabby doing the hurdles.

 Elliot doing the long jump.

 One of our beach days.  For a while we had so many amazing days of sunshine and heat that I took the crew of 4 kids to the beach at least a few times a week.  Some days we lasted about 30 minutes after hauling all our snacks, towels and toys.  Other days we lasted enough to wear us all out.

 The hair is still growing long.  There have been many pony tail parties.

 Scootering and visiting the Fisherman's Memorial.

 Daisy flowers stink, the kids are well aware of this and even like to "hide" them in the car for a laugh and surprise for me.

 We spent a weekend on Whidbey, discovered a new beach to relax at and enjoy amazing views of the ferry and Mt Rainer. 

 Back yard games and food.  So much fun.

 We took a trip.  These two didn't remember flying even tho both have probably flown 50 times combined.  Bham to San Diego is such an easy and convenient flight, even if the airline is cheap (not in a good way) and noisy.

 Sister didn't want to share a bed with Brother, she said he would snuggle her.  Hmmm, this is what really happened.  

 We had an amazing, spoiled, fun, crazy adventure to Disneyland and California Adventure.  I hope to get around to writing more on that- but I really didn't take many pictures.  

 We played with cousins and Aunts and Uncles.  Elliot has a major love, and is still talking about Chloe.

 Three 6 year old cousins, filling out time in line with tricks like nostril sucking in.  There was also lots of hand clapping games.  

 Scary little monsters!

 Coco was asleep, Elliot checked her heartbeat to make sure she was still alive! 

 We picked a few blueberries.

BB afternoon

Washington is dealing with a "heat wave" this weekend, and I love it.  After a really sweaty run for me early, and free fro-yo for the other three at a grand opening of our favorite self serve frozen yogurt place we had to figure out what to do with our day.  We stopped to see Grandma and all the wonderful best friends she had over visiting for a luncheon. We ended up out at Birch Bay, in a quiet little spot in the hot sand.  I just happened to have bathing suits for the kids in the car, so they were able to splash in the bay, and catch crabs with Clay.  I had long capri pants on, so I mostly laid on the blanket basking in the sun.  

Elliot came and spent some time with me, I showed him what I had been up to and he tried.  I built a little family of rock towers and Elliot had fun balancing the rocks for his own tower. 

 He then spent the rest of his time walking the logs and climbing around, spying all sorts of treasures- I went along and we found lots of smooth rocks, pretty flowers, shells and cool looking logs. I think falling in the water on the barnacles resulting in barnacle shaped cuts on his knee made him appreciate the sand more.

 After wading down the beach and making some new friends and trading stories on the crabs they had caught Gabby came back to the blanket.  The girl is either battling a long cold or has allergies, I thought I had a great picture of her running up out of the water... zoom in and see two nostrils dripping so much snot and a sad look on her face.  Building a sand castle and drying off cheered her up.

 Clay skipped some rocks.

 G and I tried to get a picture together, but I guess I was zoomed in to far.

We finished off the evening with a BBQ at  Molly's, the kids all playing and the 4 adults talking.  What a great day, here's hoping for many more summer days like this in our future.

June photos

Since I have absolutely horrible about blogging lately, I figured the best way to catch up was just a photo catch up. I haven't been using my camera all that frequently, but here are a few of the big fun things going on the past month!

 Gabby graduated from Kindergarten.  It was 2 weeks before school got out, and there were 3 classes with an absurd amount of family to watch.  The songs were my favorite part.  Gabby has been looking forward to this day for a few months- like in April she started talking about needing a shower the night before graduation.

 She chose to wear her birthday dress, because she it would match the cap she had painted.  What you don't see are the black athletic shoes she wore because it was a PE day (she didn't want to bring a change of shoes, she's just practical!)

 Elliot and Charlotte had their gymnastics show.  Both kids did great, and have really learned quite a bit during the few months they have been taking classes.  Elliot loves the trampoline.

 Climbing the rope is his favorite tho.

 We celebrated fathers day and my dad's birthday all in one day.  It was a great day out in the back yard.  Grandpa usually requests fruit pizza, and it was yummy.

 The 4 cousins are all into playing together, for the most part.  A bucket of water had them all interested and happy!

 This tire swing provides so many hours of spinning fun.

 Gabby had her last day of Kindergarten, it was an incredible year for her and she really excelled at it all.  The only 2 she got all year on her report card was due to us not turning in the reading log every week- oops!  We always read, but I guess on Friday mornings the paper didn't find its way into her folder each week.

Little EE is the sweetest.  She is so much fun, and has really grown the past few months- she wants to do and eat all the things the big kids do.  Love her so!
Maybe I will figure out how to post pictures from my phone, that way I can keep up to date a little better! Happy Summer, even if it is gloomy gray and raining all week here!

Sir Elliot turns FOUR

Time has gotten away from me, and I realized I have yet to post about the Royal gathering we had to celebrate Sir Elliot turning a big four years old.  Well I am doing it now, mostly because I have other things I need to be doing (like packing my suitcase to fly cross country tomorrow!). Earlier to avoid packing (I am excited to go, I just am not good at taking care of the things that stress me out (like leaving the kids for my first time ever.)   I dusted, because I have been meaning to for weeks!   Ask Clay what a procrastinator I am every time we try to move, he is so good at getting things done.

   So we had a Knight and Princess party for our loving guy, and I think it turned out just about perfect.  I didn't over do it or under do it, a good feeling.  We had mostly family and just a few friends.  I was set on making chicken drumsticks so a Knight could gnaw on a big hand held piece of meat.  Along with nuts, cheeses, meats a few fruits and veggies we were set.

 The cake turned out better than my wildest dreams.  I was afraid of it becoming a feature of cake wrecks, or being just off enough like the midget princess cake I made last year for Gabby.  This dragon was so much fun!  Marshmallow and chocolate chip eyes, circus peanut claws, laffy taffy spikes and nostrils, fruit roll up wings.  candles in the mouth and he truly did breathe fire!

 Every Knight and Princess had a helmut or hat, and they all got foam swords.

 A little Princess fit in perfectly 

 These lovely Princess cousins also looked the Royal part.

 The fire breathing dragon proved no match for this Knight.

 His big 18 year old cousin passed down this awesome castle, which included accessories like a cannon and even a few knights (with the agreement that if Sir Elliot ever wants to get rid of it, Sir Josh wants it back!)

It was such a fun day, and Elliot was beyond happy to have so many people to share it with.  Plus he got some majorly cool presents, now if I could just get us to finish his Thank You cards.....