A Fun Little Fact About Zach

He has to eat his banana with the round side up.
If I give it to him with the broken side up he will turn it around and start eating it that way, but you will never find him eating the broken side first.
Quirky little boy! :0)

A Field Trip to Roach Gymnastics

Monday, 1-26-09
Elissa had a field trip today to Roach Gymnastics. We have been there before for a birthday party, so the kids were excited to go. Zach wanted to go wild as soon as we walked in the door. I spent most of the time following Zach around and trying to get a few pictures of Elissa.

While Elissa was following the teacher, Zach is running around and jumping in the foam pit.

Zach is holding his hands to his side because he is trying to mimic what the teacher did of putting her hands on her hips. He cracks me up!

The funnest part for the kids.

Our future gymnast!

Bubbles!

I wish this was in focus, but I think it is so cute. It is freeze dancing time. You will see in the video clips that she looks a little like Elaine from Seinfeld. All the other kids are jumping up and down and Elissa is serious about her dancing. Her teachers even commented on her dancing skills. :0)

Snacks!

Elissa is letting Zach know that snacks are coming.

And then she helps him get his napkin ready.

The kids had a great time and were very cranky when it was time to leave.

A Winter Walk Around our Loop

Wednesday, 1-14-09
Today was the first beautiful day of the New Year. We were so excited to get out and play and walk around. We just took a walk around our loop. It doesn't sound like that far, but the kids make it plenty long.....close to an hour today. Elissa really wanted to be the one to walk Sandy and Zach is a little speedster on his trike.

We headed around the loop and stopped at the open lot to go play on the rocky beach we get every winter when the water level drops on Lake Tapps. It is also fun to go on the beach and explore (find lots of golf balls) and throw rocks into the water. Usually the water is all the way to the steps.

Sandy really wanted to get in the water and retrieve sticks, but she is still recovering from surgery. This summer will be really fun with her.

Zach had a lot of fun throwing rocks into the lake, but for some reason he always wanted to pick up the biggest and heaviest.

The kids playing in a drain pipe.

Our beautiful view!

Back on our way further around the loop. This is a new house being built on the water. There was one of those 70's style round houses here that they leveled and have put up this.

The kids always have to stop and throw rocks from the side of the road. I try to tell them that people pay to have these rocks put here, but they don't listen very well. It is very hard to get Zach to get going from here.

Then Zach looks into some people's mailboxes....

Then they always have to walk along these bricks and I usually have to start carrying Zach's bike.

Here is Elissa way up in front of us.....

And here is Zach still playing with the rocks and I'm calling for him to keep coming....I'm ready to be home by this time. :0)

A new way to get Zach going.....let him walk the dog.

Yeah our home!

Then the kids wanted to ride Zach's trike down our little incline on our drive way. They get going pretty fast.

Zach is a real dare devil!

As I'm trying to now get them in the house, they go "exploring" in our little patch of woods.

They finally did come in the house and right through to the backyard. I was freezing, but they wanted to play some more. So I, of course, took that time to check up on facebook. LOL

When they finally came in I took them straight up to a warm bath with lots of bubbles.
Elissa said, "This is a great day!". :0)

Girls Annual Christmas Breakfast

Saturday, 1-3-09
Chrissy, Amy Jo, Amy and I get together every year for a Christmas breakfast and gift exchange. For many years we met at Cocoa's and would pile all our presents around our booth. it was quite a site! After a few years of that one of us, not sure who, suggested that we start having breakfast at each others house and so that is what we started doing. This was our 8th year of having breakfast at our houses. We usually have it just before Christmas, but we had to push it out this year. We also decided to fore go gifts and instead spend a day together shopping and hanging out. This year it was my turn to host the breakfast. I love this picture (though I wish I could see Amy Jo's face) because it depicts what the day is all about.....hanging out and talking (drinking coffee is a bonus) and catching up with each of our busy lives (though that is much easier these days since we are all on facebook LOL). :0) It was a very fun day that went WAY too fast!

Snow Scenes

Snow again and again......

Friday, 1-2-09

Wow, we are just getting snow day after snow day. As I am writing this on 1-4-09, we are getting more snow. It is crazy the amount of snow we are getting in Seattle this winter. The kids are loving it! Elissa even got a new snow suit and Zach's is coming so that they have waterproof instead of water resistant which does nothing. Looks like they are going to get good use out of them year as well as next! We got around 2.5inches that day.

Elissa with her snow castle

Wow, you can go really fast down a slide in snow pants!

Already a "snow bunny" :0)

Grandma and Papa came over with their dog Tess to meet Sandy.