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Man do I have some catching up to do! The biggest news of the last week is that school started! All kids are in school ALL day! Don't you worry, I have yet to be caught twiddling my thumbs in their absence.


We all walked down to school on a beautiful day:
My goal is to have the kids write their name on this slate every year to watch their handwriting grow as well.


Lots of fake smiles... they couldn't get why I would take their picture in front of a school bus when we're walkers?!

I can't believe they're all in school. Brady being a 3rd grader, wow. I mean, I remember being a 3rd grader! I had Mrs. Davies (and she was rotten to me). Brady has Mrs. Fritzler, which reminds me of the teacher from the Magic School Bus books, Ms. Frizzle. Mrs. Fritzler was one of Brady's summer school teachers and she uses "clickers" in her classroom which Brady loves. By his description they're like a gameshow controller that they enter their answers into and they post to her computer. I don't care if it shoots sparks and whistles, if it keeps his attention then I'm all for it! The 3rd grade is also doing a specialist rotation that seems to be yet another positive move for Brady. The students rotate out of their homeroom to each of the other teachers for science, math, and reading/writing. Another way to break up the monotony of the day and keep Brady excited for school. The science teacher is also his teacher from last year so he looks forward to seeing him every day.

Natalie Sue is a big First grader, she has Mrs. Wartenbee. I loved first grade. It's when all the separate skills you learned in Kindergarten get applied and learning really explodes. But you still get to have a lot of the fun that you had in Kindergarten. She's doing amazing already, her schoolwork is 100% everyday and her homework comes easily for her. BUT... she said a girl from her class last year is pulling the nasty-girl crap already. She'll say "Hi, Natalie!" when it's just them, but out on the playground with other girls around, the girl sneers at Natalie when she says hello. Girls are mean. I hate that it's happening to Natalie (already!) but proud that Natalie is not one of those girls. She has a loving heart and is surrounded by friends and being a good friend herself.

Makenzie is SO excited to be a Kindergartner! On the first day of school, she walked home in the front of the pack like a proud peacock, you could see the pride emanating from her. Mike got a call Friday before school and Makenzie got the last full-day spot due to a sudden opening. And she is loving every minute of school so it's a great stroke of luck that she got in! She is bringing home all sorts of wonderful art, and sings a new song every day on the walk home from school. And I'm rediscovering some books that are classic Kindergarten reads (Chicka Chicka Boom Boom; The Gingerbread Man; The Little Red Hen...)

I can't wait until the teachers get into their routine so I can start volunteering in each of their classrooms!

Today I am 36

My family took me out for an ice cream cone for my birthday day (following a fantastic steak dinner) and this superdad was treating his son to a scoop too. It must have been a spur of the moment idea for them since he forgot shoes... blech! And what is wrong with his ass?

Cousin Cortney took Natalie out for a quad lesson on the island.

Me and my sweetie rode the bike into Langley and played tourist and it was great. We also discovered that the house my Grandma Alice lived in when I was little was the same home that Michael lived in when he came home from the hospital when he was born!

My friend Shu had to fly up from Salem for a seminar so we got to catch up (and drink on her hotel meal credit, woop!)

The kids and I stopped at the antique mall to play while we waited for Shu to arrive.

Not a shabby shot for an iphone, eh?

My Favorite Papparazzi shot ever.

And it's not of me making fun of anybody.

I snuck it this morning; Michael and our dear neighbor Max looked so sweet together sitting on her patio having a chat. So I snuck a picture before I got caught wandering the alley. And those shrubs that are a little overgrown got trimmed, lets call it our morning workout! We rewarded ourselves with an awesome day on the Harley with a group of great guys!




When we got home this evening, we found this:

I appreciate how Pickles stuck the mouse in the food bowl. It's poetic justice, since cats eat mice, don't you think? I thought the girls were going to be the ones driving me crazy with their stuffed animals laying around the house, but I think Pickles is putting his name in the race.

This last Friday Fritter (Kenzie) turned 5. Her mom forgot the pinata, and I was already on the island; so wonderful Uncle Mike stopped at the party store and picked it up for her! (P.S. check out the gun show. Reason #127 I love him. **sigh**)

Lazy days of summer

I think we finally had our first one (lazy day of summer, that is) on Saturday. It only took until August 20th get it!
We had to head to Bellingham to pick up my Little Miss who got to stay in CA a few extra days with her Grandma, so we invited ourselves to the Campbell compound to play for the afternoon.
Erin and I had a lovely day just lounging on the patio (minus the time she had to get up 3 times to make over 11 pb&j sandwiches for 7 ravenous children) while the kids kept themselves entertained (it helped that our two oldest disappeared down the street for hours to play, leaving the littles to have free reign of the back yard).


Nothing says 'summer' like knocking one back on a hot August day.


Jelly Joker Face.

Taking a time out to refuel.

Does it get any better than this?

The Kids Rooms

I'll beg for forgiveness now for the poor quality of photos, but being sick does nothing for my already shaky hands. And I've forgotten my "real" camera on the island twice now, so I can't rely on it to compensate for my poor skills.

While the kids were gone for 8 days, Mike and I had grand plans for the kids to come back to Extreme Home Makeover-style bedrooms. But Mike ended up working A LOT of overtime, we ended up crabbing A LOT, we squeezed a date or two into our week, and I had to make multiple trips to Bellingham for various appointments. The next thing we knew, the kids were due back!
So the girls' rooms didn't get the paintjob we (or they) had hoped for, but everyone seemed tickled with the transformations (and no I didn't do before pictures because their rooms were pigsty's before).

First up: Brady! His room was two shades of light blue before; his is the only room we got painted. Our first plan was to do cool Nautica stripes on the walls. With the amount of time we had, we decided a nice light-khaki was the right color palate ;) There is going to be blue and yellow corner shelves installed, but there was an incident with dry-time and sticking-to-surfaces problems; I'll be sanding and repainting the shelves in the near future.


Victim of the shaky-hand... My mom got Brady this old school map while whe was in Bakersfield and we finally got it up on the wall. We kind of worked his room around this theme and I'm really happy with the whole concept.

Natalie's room came with purple walls, and we're still working on what to do with them. She wanted a panda bear theme, which is easier said than done! I found a few panda bear items, then went black and white for the rest. I also went to Costco.com and found a huge library of images and found a panda bear that I had printed poster-size that I'm going to hang over her bed (I just have to get to Michaels to get a frame, and going there with 3 children just doesn't appeal to me).

I went cheap-o and repurposed a bunch of matching frames in her room by removing the back and just leaving the glass (I did this in Makenzie's room too), and adhearing wall vinyl onto the glass. I did this because our house is textured with 'heavy knockdown' and is not vinyl-friendly.

Makenzie's room is a sea of pink. And she wanted a Hello Kitty room. The pink seemed an easy start point, though I still plan on toning down some of the PINK of it all... I put little Hello Kitty bows on her shadow boxes, and lined her lampshade with the bows. I don't think there's any question what theme was trying to be achieved in this room! A world-wide marketed icon makes decorating easy!

Attack of the blury hand again.

Alone together

Our week of being childless ends today. We haven't been without our kids for more than 2 days in over a year and a half. And we made full use of our time! We actually ran out of time! Here's a quick highlight of how we spent our week (you know, besides the dozens of appointments, tedious chores and errands):

Crabbing. Lots of crabbing. And cooking of crabs. And cracking of crabs. And eating of crabs. And freezing over 5 pounds of crab meat. I love dungeness crab!

A friend couldn't go to the Mariners vs. Red Sox game last Sunday so I scooped up her tickets and they were amazing seats! 3rd row off the field!
They'll always be King beers to me...

Me and my super sweetie during the 7th inning stretch... Time to rally for the win!

We took the train from Everett to the game and it was terrific (after I switched seats so that I could sit forward. Heather and riding backwards do not mix!). Affordable, no traffic, and no concern about having one too many beers at the game! Perfect!

Seaside

Reason #98 Why I wish my finger was done being broken: Typing is difficult and I'm spending more time correcting typos than actually typing.

That being said, here is our weekend in photos: