Father's Day Weekend Re-Cap

Whew!
It's been too long!
I've got a few pictures to post from father's day weekend:
On Saturday we attended a birthday party for Simon...it was a surprise party and I'm pretty sure it was pulled off because he just turned 1! Simon has a great back yard with 2 huge wonderfully playful dogs, TANK had a blast running around while Trey and August tossed the football. It was a wonderful day spent with friends.

On father's day we went to the KEXP dance party. I'll be honest, it was a bit too crowded for my comfort level, but we managed to stick around for some REAL fun dance moves:Not sure why those photos aren't turned the right way...they are in iPhoto...oh well...
After the dance party we went back home to let TANK play with my sister's dog ROYAL...TANK was as playful as ever which just made ROYAL look like a grumpy old man...he had very little time for TANK.

The kids are out of school (finally) and we've officially started summer vacation. A group of families from Olympic View (August's school) were heading over to Carkeek park to play for a while so we made our way there as well. Hazel quickly found a group of girls to run around with while August played baseball and kickball with a group of schoolmates. We stayed for a good 2 hours before we'd all had enough sunshine and fresh air...
August got to decide what we were having for dinner (McDonald's...big surprise!) and the kids agreed to watching Charlotte's Web. Trey had some shows to go to tonight so the kids and I walked over to Snappy Dragon to pick up MY dinner and then we headed home.

While watching Charlotte's Web Hazel said the following:
"I would block my dad. I would block the door. I wouldn't let him kill anything. I don't want anything to die. I would not let it happen." The whole time she was making this declaration her face was getting redder and redder and her breath was getting shorter and shorter. I'm pretty sure she meant it...note to self, DO NOT TRY TO KILL A PIG IN FRONT OF HAZEL!

That's all for now, have a great weekend.

the best one yet:

ok, i was looking at that same blog that i posted about before and she had a new (and oh-so-much better) personality test.
this one is a bit more adjustable with the answers...take the test (it's 11 pages) and you'll see what i mean. scroll over the color blocks and it will tell you what each color means...who knows, maybe you'll learn something about me...
my results:

The Many Family Band

as noted in previous blogs i am involved with the PTA at the kids school. i am the official "arts chair" which means i'm in charge of the school t-shirt, the reflections art program and anything else art related that goes on in the school. this year i thought it would be fun to have a talent show for the school community. i won't go into the details of the program but i will tell you that it was a huge success. we had 76 students perform and 4 families who went on stage to do their thing.
we knew that we were going to do something that night but went through a few different songs until we found the right one off this record. we chose the snow patrol song because it was easy to learn and quite cute.
our video camera was missing the charger and we could not record the event...we're super sad but we did get some pictures:
we're hoping to do the show again next year and already have many more families interested in showing off their talents too.

Just a Few Notes

We have had a BUSY weekend and i don't have enough time to write about ALL the things we've done but i have put up a bunch of new pictures on the flickr page so have yourself a little lookey-look.
here's a quick list of some of the highlights:
*Hazel had a huge dance performance on Sunday
*We rode The Duck around Seattle on Monday night
*2 trips to the Sculpture Park
*1 trip to the Aquarium on Tuesday
*First appearance of the Many Family Band on Friday night

We also did a bunch of walking around all weekend and found this strange plant. Do any of you happen to know what it is?


those leaves...they are fuzzy! like Tank's EAR for heaven's sake! august and i found it walking around queen anne (right in front of Hilltop Yarn for those of you living out this way). we were both a bit afraid to touch it for fear it was sticky or prickly or poison, but it was the softest thing you've ever felt.
i'd love to know what this plant is called. anyone know anything about it?


***UPDATE***
after doing a bit of investigation on line i have found out that this plant is actually called LAMBS EAR. i might have to git me some!

kids movie review #1

we loaded up the van today and headed out to see SURF'S UP.
i'll admit that we'll see just about any kids movie that comes out because well, we love to see movies in the theater, for example, we also saw SHREK III...but that's another story.
so, yes, we saw SURF'S UP and yes, we saw it on opening weekend. and YES, we loved it. it was very different than the other computer animated movie out there. this one not only looked amazing but it had a great story and was a mock-umentory. the fake cinematography was flawless.
we laughed and laughed at the "candid" conversations between the characters. even the secondary characters were great.
so...all that to say...it's worth your hard earned money.
let me know what you think when/if you see it.
(SHREK III does not get my recommendation, can't stand any of them)

running hot and cold

believe it or not it has been very warm in these parts lately. today, however, is rainy and c-o-l-d.
gone are my iced white mocha's with my little star coffee ice cubes:(

i've been getting a bit more involved at the school and oh boy-it's not my idea of a good time. lessons learned:
1. always ask for help from the person who took on the project in the past.
2. always ask for help from said person BEFORE you begin the project.
3. when placing an order for t-shirts based on order forms filled out by parents always order extra shirts.
4. when placing an order for t-shirts based on order forms filled out by parents always assume that they ordered the wrong size and order the next size up.
5. when thinking that a family talent show would be a good idea, STOP! assure yourself that it is not a good idea.
6. when ignoring your inner voice that is yelling at you to STOP! accept the fact that you will not please everyone and that there will be the occasional person who is offended by the fact that you allowed a student duo to play Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer on the piano while they *gasp* sing the words! i mean, come on! it's not Silent Night! they're not singing a PRAISE SONG. they're singing about a fictitious reindeer! LORD!

let's take a break and look at the kids. we all know that's why you came.
august on Ann-Kresten's front porch.


hazel at the ballgame on sunday (three rows from the very last row!)

Crafty

every once in a while the bug bites me. i can go for months without knitting or sewing or even thinking about doing anything creative, but every once in a while i go a bit crazy with the crafty. despite the glorious sunshine and the warm air i made my way to the fabric store and then to target to get some supplies.
here's what i came home with:
cloth diapers, snap in front baby shirt and some pretty fabric.

i have a few reasons to get creative. august's teacher is having a baby soon and the class is throwing her a baby shower AND i'm a part of this website called Project of the Month (there's still PLENTY of time to join in gals).

so.
i whipped up some all purpose cloths for the spit-up/messy food/drool that Ms. Marcia will be faced with on a daily basis.

and a cute little onesie . dude. i love the shirt. i used the same fabric from the cloths and some heat-n-bond type material. super fun. super easy.

now that i've been bitten i may have to spend some time this weekend sitting in the cool of my basement cutting and sewing.