Rain, rain go away!

It was a rainy "Seattle day" today. Cloudy, drizzly, no fun at all. We tried to go outside to play twice, but had to come in, twice, because it started to rain.

Oh, something fun...Maggie the wonder girl ditched her training wheels and can now ride "big girl style"! She can't get started yet by herself, but she goes off like a champ and knows how to put her foot down to stop. She's the first one on the Cove to get rid of the training wheels, this includes a 7 year old, 6 year old and two 4 year olds. Yay Mags!

And, Maya can do a forward roll. It's the cutest thing! She's like a little rolly polly bug rolling all over the living room. : )

Landscaping and camping

It has been a busy weekend so far. I spent most of last week removing the old mulch, taking out the edging and digging and laying the new edging bricks. The soil (- if you can call it that) was hard as a rock so it took quite a while. Our new rocks were delivered yesterday and we got them all put into the flowerbeds. Of course we were short, so we'll have to order a little bit more. I think it looks really great though. (I forgot to take a picture today...maybe tomorrow.)Yesterday was beautiful, so the men and kids had a campout in the backyard. We had a fire in the fire pit and roasted weenies and marshmallows first, then the men and kids headed into the tents. Mags actually went to sleep right away, which is a first for her! Maya slept inside with me. Aaron went golfing this morning with 3 of our neighbors for some male bonding, and the girls and I took another neighbor, Amy, to Babies R Us to register. Maya wasn't feeling well. She had a temp of almost 104, which I didn't realize until we were already at the store, so I ended up holding her for most of the 2 hours we were there and she rested and slept through the baby extravaganza. Both the girls were pooped and went to bed early tonight. Our neighbor Becky and I had a "date" tonight and went out without husbands or kids. We first did a 14 mile bike ride, then went and had a pedicure, went to church and then to dinner. It was very peaceful! Aaron is down at another neighbors right now watching the Ultimate Fighting matches on Pay Per View. The men around here are really into that stuff.

Roasting hot dogs over the fire pit.

The little campers!

Aaron and Brian shoveling rocks.

We bribed the girls with a snack to keep them out of the way and off the rocks!

Maggie with a lovely bouquet of dandilions (how in the world do you spell that?)

Rainbows

So our summer landscape project is in full swing. We're replacing the yucky mulch with rocks and taking out the ugly black border and putting in paver edgers. I think it will look really nice, but right now it's a mess as you can see from the picture. Yesterday I got all the mulch out and neighbor Brian helped me pull up the black edging, so today I'm gonna start digging the little trench and laying the edging stones. It'll be a lot of work but I was in need of a project!

The weather has been nice. Sunny but not terribly warm. The kids have been playing outside most days and everything has finally turned from brown to green and has blossomed. Maya is obsessed with bikes. Tricycles, big wheels, two wheelers with training wheels...it doesn't matter. If it's in her sight, she MUST ride on it. Maggie has really been into bike rides lately. We go on one almost every night. Usually it's her and I, since Aaron doesn't have a bike and we ride a mile or two and that's just about right for her. She does great riding up hills, and stopping and looking for cars at intersections

Where are your clothes???

Megan Z, Maggie and Jacob having a snack in the sun.

Maya riding on Abhi's spiderman bike!

"I feel the need for Spidey Speed!"

The other day we had a little rain and out of that came the clearest rainbow I have ever seen. Actually there was a double rainbow. It looked like the pot of gold should have been right next door in the neighbors back yard. Are they hiding something from us???

Maya is sleeping right now so I'm gonna take advantage and go do some work outside. Mags says hello to everyone (she's fully dressed in princess gear with Hayley strapped to her back in her Snugli). : ) Hopefully by the end of the weekend you'll get a picture of the finished yard.

Green clothes disaster

So now we know...crayons and the dryer do NOT mix. Mags had put a green crayon in her pocket that I didn't know about and it went through the washing machine and dryer and basically turned the ENTIRE load of mostly her clothes green. Really, it looks like someone went crazy with a green sharpie pen all over everything. More than 3/4 of the load is ruined. I was just googling how to get (if possible) crayon out of clothes. It sounds like I might be able to get a few spots out of the few lucky garments, but I think most of them are gonners. All her jeans, sweatshirts, new spring fleece, new dresses, princess jammies, tinkerbell shirt, 3 tank tops never worn and about 20 other things. Luckily it hasn't been warm and it wasn't a load of new summer stuff. It did make for a really bad day though.

A whole garbage bag of clothes to throw in the trash. : (

Having a good day!

Mothers Day...not so good!

Ear aches (This is old..written 5/22)

It's been a while but we've been busy dealing with Maya and her ears. About a week ago she had an absolutely horrible night, screaming pretty much all night long. Of course it was a Friday night so we took her into Urgent Care on Saturday morning suspecting an ear infection. Turns out we were right. The left one ruptured, oozing puss and gross ear fluids, and the right one was just plain old infected. So we got some antibiotics and ear drops and were on our way. Went back in today for a re-check and everything is healing up just fine. Other than that, we are sickness free....finally!

Aaron took Mags to work with him today. He's been wanting to try one of his tests on her - to see if a 3 year old could sit still enough for it. He said she was scared of the machines, but stayed relatively still. But she got to meet daddy's friends, puruse the bookstore, have lunch at Applebees and ice cream at Ben & Jerry's. All in all a magnificent day for her. Maya and I ran a million errands and then I spent 2 1/2 hours scrubbing the kitchen while she napped. I know, I know - you're asking why in the world it took me 2 1/2 hours to clean the kitchen? I don't know the answer to that, but it did. I did get out the toothbrush though if that helps!!! It is now sparkling. : )

It's been cool but nice this week, after a couple inches of snow last weekend. It's really depressing waking up to whiteness at the end of April. We may get a little this weekend too. Anyway, the kids have been playing away outside. Mags just zooms around on her little bike which she's almost outgrown already and Maya is on and off of all the toys. She loves to wear her bike helmet and knee pads. She looks like a total corky, but is so cute in that huge helmet.

When we went to the library last week, Maggie chose a Francis book. At the end of the book, Francis and her mother bake a chocolate cake. Anyway, one night after reading it, I hear Maggie and daddy whispering "you ask her...no, you ask her!" Finally they asked if I would bake them a chocolate cake just like Francis's mother did. How could I resist??? Mags helped me frost it and they both helped eat it. : )

Aaron's off to Phoenix tomorrow for a meeting. He gets to see Dan Shields while he's there (he was in our wedding and I don't think they've seen each other since). So, it's just the girls for the weekend.

A new snack we created...Ritz, chocolate pudding, slice of banana! Yummy!

Hoochie mama!!!