Sand In The City!

I can't tell you how much I love the Sand In the City event that is held every year to raise money for the Olympia Children's Museum. I love, love, love it! They have tons of different activities for kids that all revolve around science, the arts and being creative. They have music and dancing, bubbles, side walk chalk and best of all, they have the most amazing sand sculptures that local companies make. This year was the tenth anniversary of Sand in the City and it was a GREAT one! My favorite this year? Every child got a free book. Love it! Darci, Emilie, Trey and my mom drove to Olympia to witness this event for the first time and we all had fun watching the girls do different activities. As you look through the pictures you'll notice that Maddie is missing; this would be because she stayed up until 10:30 the night before and promptly had a melt down upon arrival. As soon as she was home she slept for over 3 hours! Poor tired pumpkin!

They have two huge sand pits set up at the event and it's always a favorite!

This was Taylor's favorite activity of the day. How easy and fun! Future birthday party activity for sure....

Taylor making her vase.

Aren't these incredible? Toy Story 3.

A mermaid reading! My favorite.

Mom on the way home...Dave had to take Maddie home so we were down to one car! 3 adults and 3 kids...lucky mom :)

Emilie and Taylor showing off their Seaweed hats!

Walmart Camping!

Oh...I mean, The Pine Village KOA in Leavenworth, WA! My fault! We went on a spur of the moment camping trip this week with our friends the Koval's who we bought the motorhome with last year. The girls have been begging to go on an overnight trip with everyone and so we figured we better get on it as our days our dwindling very quickly until we are all back in school. I did some research on this location and based on the pictures from the internet we were all really excited about this place. Until we got there. Talk about false advertising. A pool that is heated to 81 degrees? nope. Campfire's at every lot? nope. (who doesn't have a campfire while camping??) Wagon rides? Really? Tie Dying? Really? I could go on and on. Let me tell you that the adults were very unhappy with these arrangements but the kids? oh, they had the best time ever. So in the end is my complaining about all this important? NO! But someone has to listen right? We ended up calling this the Walmart parking lot because we were so close to our neighbors that we could hear them go to the bathroom!

The rock was a favorite hang out! All the girls! Maddie (4), Kaylin (5), Taylor (6) and Macie (3)

Dave was trying to liven up our moods our first morning....Love this guy!

Hanging out by the Wenatchee River was very fun! The kids climbed rocks all afternoon!

A rare thing! A picture of the two of us!

Breakfast! Please note...this is not our motorhome that you see!

Fasion Show!

Every year as the new school year approached, my Grandma would take each of the 5 grand kids, seperately to go school shopping. This became something that I looked forward to each year! Time alone with Grandma- and oh, how she would spoil us! We shopped for the entire day and always got to choose our favorite spot to eat (mine was always the Nordstrom Cafe!). We would come home anxious for school to start because we desperately wanted to be able to wear our new clothes. That was the one big rule with the school shopping. We had to come home and hang up our new clothes and NOT wear them until school started. We did get to try them on one last time because a fashion show was always a must for mom and dad.

Fast forward 15 years and here I sit writing about my mom, who just started the tradition all over again with my kids. And she didn't leave anything out; favorite place to eat? check. (McDonalds for Taylor, Olive Garden for Maddie), spoiled? check. Way too many new outfits!, Rule about not being able to wear the clothes until school started? check. Fashion show watched by the parents? double check!

Oh how they were comical in trying on their clothes. Maddie insisted on throwing herself down on the floor to model her clothes and Taylor had the whole strut and walk thing going on.

To my mom, Thank you, thank you, thank you for starting this tradition with them! They had a blast! We love you!

Everett

So....our adventure jar took somewhat of a back seat this past week! We had drawn on last Saturday to do something because Dave was heading to Vancouver for a concert so I thought that would be fun....I was kind of wrong! We each got to choose two things we would like to play at the house together. We would set the timer for 20 minutes for each activity and rotate to the next one after the timer went off. Our first 20 minutes we spent playing tea party- I believe that's where the arguing began- I want this cup, she got more then me, etc. A LoNg 20 minutes....

Next up was toe and finger nail painting. Dave was just leaving at this point and snapped this picture. Taylor as you can see is acting rather silly, I'm completely fake smiling and Maddie is turned around and quite frankly, upset as all get out! Good times I tell ya! After this was done, I quit the activity all together. I just couldn't handle it. From there, we attempted to finish our activity on Sunday- we failed. On Monday, we drew a new tag from the jar; a visit to the library. We never ended up going- we had a small issue with not wanting to put underwear on....and it wasn't me! Tuesday rolled around and I had bunko that night at our house so I went into my mad cleaning self and we didn't do anything that day from the jar. So...I am hoping that because it's a new week that we will be able to attempt to do something from it. We shall see!

On Wednesday we headed up to Everett for a 5 day stay. Our first activity was to celebrate the upcoming arrival of Lilly. Ashley, who is Katie, Jill and Brent's cousin (and feels like she should be mine as well!) is having her first baby in September. Oh what a joyful time this is for Ashley and her husband Darren! They have been trying for a very long time to have a child and this was truly a wonderful shower- she is gorgeous, glowing and so excited. It was so much fun to watch her and I can't wait to meet baby Lilly! Congrats!

Taylor took the roll of handing gifts to Ashley!

What's not to love about Trey? He was very good at the party!

I love this picture of Maddie and John! They didn't last long while Ashley was opening gifts so they headed outside to get some fresh air!



Our sweet little girls! They love Connie and Rich's porch that opens up from their bedroom!
The next day, Connie and my mom hosted a golf party for my Grandma! She had all of her golfing buddies over for a little thank you/celebration for all their love and support during her battle with cancer. Grandma is currently not doing anymore Chemo. Her body simply isn't responding anymore to the Chemo and so her doctors have stopped it for awhile. They told her to just go home and live her life! And that's what she's doing! She actually golfed 9 holes last week- a huge accomplishment after all that she's been through. AmAzInG! I'm sorry to say that I don't have any pictures from the party....I was too busy serving up Margaritas from a bucket!

Next on our list? Friday, we visited Aunty Amy, Uncle Matt, Drew and Luke at their new house! Love, love, love it! So homey and the yard was the selling point for me! This would be their back yard! They have a fun little Creek in the trees that you can see in the back of the picture(and we had entertainment when we went to the creek when Luke fell in!) , a great place to ride bikes, horses next door and it's quiet....gorgeous! Thanks for having us over!
On the way home from Matt and Amy's we got stuck in traffic (something I don't miss!) and so we took a pit stop at Forest Park to cool off and run around.

The girls loved the little petting zoo. I felt so sorry for this cow- look at how HOT he looks. Poor thing!


Taylor fell in love with this bunny. She really wanted to take him home :)

They especially loved the horses!


Up next? The playground and the water park! When in Washington do you get to play on the toys in your bikini? Taylor is very much in love with doing the monkey bars and this sliding thing-a-ma-bob these days!

The little water park was a huge hit! It was so hot that I almost went in as well! I resisted though.

Maddie would have stayed here all day if I would have let her! She was loving life! Look hard...she's next to the yellow pole!

I had the hardest time getting the girls into the car to go home! Here they are being silly sisters! I love that they have so much LOVE to give to one another (most of the time!)



Goofballs!

We finished off our stay by going up to Roger and Lynette's for a fun filled (and very HOT) day on Camano Island! The kids had so much fun hanging out with their cousins, aunts and uncles and grandmas and grandpa! Swimming at the community pool was a must! We are so proud of Taylor's swimming and how far she has come this summer! No swim lessons as of yet- not bad for being self taught!

Maddie girl is our official lover of water!


My favorite picture! The cousins having a water fight with the other kids in the pool! Love, love, love this picture!

Maddie and Dave headed back to Olympia on Saturday night and Taylor and I stayed another night in Everett. On Sunday, Taylor got to go school shopping all by herself with my mom. Don't worry....we are having a fashion show soon and I'll post pictures! Let's just say my mom spoiled her rotten! I stayed as well and headed to Lynnwood on Sunday to do a Stampin Up party at Kori's! It was hotter then heck but Kori was an amazing host and her friends were great as well! As most of you know, I am selling Stampin Up these days, mainly to support my habit of buying products that I love! But a HUGE thank you to Kori, Amy, Lynette, my mom and Dave for all their support as I've ventured into doing this!

Maddie is with my mom right now shopping her little heart out as well! Can't wait to see what she picked out :)

Until next time! Live, laugh, love!

Friendly Grove Park!

Another day, another park! As Dave pointed out to me today: The weather is supposed to be turning so it's a good thing you are doing all of your outdoor activities this week. The girls were most excited about going to Friendly Grove Park for one reason; the bike trail! It was absolutely perfect. I could sit (and read!) and keep an eye on the girls as they rode around this little trail. Taylor went around 7 times! Maddie only went once because a little baby (conveniently also named Maddie) showed up and she was history after that. I tell you that girl is going to make an amazing Mommy one day! Another great day!

Can anyone guess what Maddie's favorite outfit is these days?? If you look back in the last few posts you'll see her with this same outfit on!

Taylor LOVES to ride her bike!

The girls on the bike trail!

I'm not sure if we will be pulling from the jar tomorrow. Dave has to interview for a Math teacher in the a.m. and then is hoping to get off early. His mom is taking the girls over night so that we can go out and celebrate our anniversary. I am so looking forward to some alone time with my guy! Not sure what we are doing yet but just being with him will be plenty good for me!

Happy Anniversary!

It's hard to believe that Dave and I have been married for 10 years today! I feel so lucky and blessed to have come across this amazing man while coaching girls basketball at EHS all those years ago. It's been an amazing journey so far filled with Coug games, trips, kisses, children, house building, animals, change in jobs, hugs, motorhome adventures, laughter, cribbage, music, parties and oh so much more! I happily look forward to what's to come in our next 10 years of marriage. I couldn't ask for a better husband and father. I love you always and forever Dave!

Priest Point Park!

Day 3 of our Adventure Jar told us that we would be going to one of our favorite parks (okay, here's the deal- we love just about ALL the parks in the Olympia, Lacey area!) that is about a 7 minute drive from our house; Priest Point Park! This park has a gorgeous, wooded setting and the girls love that the play area is shaped like a boat. Imaginations can run wild at this park. Today, along with 4 or 5 other kids who were at the park they invented a game involving Pirates and how the pirates couldn't come onto the ship. Oh, how I loved sitting on the park bench (with the sun beating down on my face), listening to the girls play with others and interact with them. It was refreshing and beautiful. I will be one sad mom when the day arrives that the girls out grow going to parks- there is something special about them and the innocence that they bring to the girls. At the end of our trip to the park we had a surprise visit by Daddy which was a huge hit with all 3 of us! Daddy ended up taking them to get a slurpee for a hot summer cool down treat while I ran a few errands. We finished off our night with a yummy dinner- hamburgers, homemade fries and milkshakes! Yum! It was a unanimous vote today around the dinner table tonight as well...all of our favorite parts of the day? Yep, Priest Point Park!

This picture doesn't do how beautiful it was at the park any justice!

One of our favorite things about this park is this old rocking swing!

Here are the girls taking a break from the sun in the swing.

Taylor!

Maddie!

Ahoy Mate! A Pirate ship it was today!

Make An Art Project With Mom Day!

This morning Maddie drew from the jar: "Make an art project with mom". When we were brainstorming ideas for the jar I knew the girls would love this one but honestly hadn't come up with any ideas yet for it- and of course it was pulled on day 2! I quickly ran upstairs and got onto the computer and have to say a big thank you to family fun! Hundreds of cute and easy projects! I found one that I knew I had all the materials for and then we were set to make painted candles! The girls both love doing art projects so they eagerly got started. They were able to make their own design with a sharpie, then I took a pencil and re-traced over the sharpie marks and then they used Q-tips to fill in where I had made the marks from the pencils. Not only did they have fun I now have a souvenior of something they made from the summer of 2010! I love those kinds of things to put around the house!

Step 1- make design with sharpie pen.

Step 2- Paint with Q-tips.

Step 3- Smile!