Seattle Aquarium

When we went to the Woodland Park Zoo a while back, I purchased a city pass--tickets to 5 Seattle area venues that are good (one time at each venue) until March 31st. Today we visited the Seattle aquarium. What fun! The kids loved it. Marine biology used to be a passion of mine. I've forgotten most of what I learned in the numerous classes I once took...but I still find looking at fish calming. Scratch that. There is nothing calming about watching fish while one toddler runs one way at top speed in a dark aquarium tunnel and the other toddler runs the other way at top speed. But--in theory--looking at fish is calming. I've always wanted to have an entire wall in a house, preferably my bedroom wall, as an aquarium. Not realistic. Instead, for Valentine's day the year after we were first married, Tadd bought me one fish. I named her Frances and took care of her for a year and a half until she died. Almost like a wall aquarium : )

This picture is out of focus but somewhat cool. We were watching scuba divers hand feed fish in an 18 x 38 ' aquarium. A million pounds of fish, water and scuba divers all held back by one foot of high quality fiberglass window. Ezra volunteered to give the diver a "high five" through the glass to show how thick it was.

It's hard to get too many good pictures while chasing toddlers and juggling a back pack and camera alone. But I did manage to take enough to make this post way too long. The kids had fun looking at the animals in these colorful paintings.

Octopus Caroline (and a small boy who wouldn't leave my photo, I assume no one knows him so his privacy is somewhat intact).

Playing with the sea life on the felt story board.

First you have to knock down all the animals, then start with a clean slate--er, felt.

We ventured upstairs for "toddler time". I'm not sure how many days a week the aquarium sponsors these activities--but I highly recommend them. It goes from 9-12. Call ahead to see when it is scheduled if you have toddlers. The room is filled with arts, crafts, books, stuffed sea life animals, a pretend fishing pond and real animals in small tupperware for feeling and learning about from aquarium staff. We had a grand time. First, the kids painted small rubber fish and then made imprints. These photos are not great. I was squished in a corner with a huge backpack on and couldn't move around for picture taking.

Caroline chose a skate to paint. And Ezra chose...um, I don't know. It's a fish.

The finished products hung on the wall to dry while we kept playing.

Then we went to the craft station to make paper plate sea turtles. So fun!

Ezra trying on a stuffed whale costume in the stuffed animal corner. He wrestled with some other boy's mother for this stuffed animal. She won (thankfully) and then later made her son give it to Ezra for a turn : ) Kids sure do keep me humble--and humiliated. Funny how one begets the other.

It was a fabulously gorgeous day. Clear and cold. The view of the city from the docks outside the aquarium.

She walks slowly, slowly, slowly...

And he charges ahead at full throttle "I'm going to run away from you!"

She had to touch all the exhibits. I know, there aren't many pictures of fish here. Funny thing--it's all my kids. How did that happen? I must be a mom. Plus, the coolest exhibits require "no flash".

After we paid the parking garage double the entrance fee to the aquarium, we drove back up the hill from the water front to 7th and Pike to visit daddy at work! Two different parking garages down town in just one day--lucky me! We stopped by Starbucks (they have a couple in Seattle) and bought daddy a love offering--a double short Americano. He has a new office we hadn't yet seen. Lunch in his office is much better than in the car.

Ahhhh, isn't he cute?

This is looking straight out his window. You can hardly tell, but in between the two buildings you can see a sliver of the water.

And that wraps up our day at the aquarium. We came home and napped (Caroline), refused to nap (Ezra) and tried to get chores done (mommy) before heading to the high school parking lot for a bike riding session. Whew. I'm tired, how about you? Night folks!

Full Friday

Friday was full and Friday was fun--but I promise that this post won't have as many pictures as the last one : ) Also, I'll leave my font black today since last week's pink was a little hard on the eyes.
Last Friday was Mommy Group day. We headed south to enjoy a morning of fellowship with the women (for me) and the kids (for E & C). Lisa had some amazing quiche and scone-type coffee cake with fresh strawberries. It was worth the drive just for that! But, even better, I was able to enjoy a long chat with my girls. Here are some pictures to enjoy.
Sweet grown up A holding her newest cousin, two week old B. (B is a he).

Sarah is practicing holding little baby girls. This is Lisa's newest addition, Baby E. You can't see it in this picture, but Sarah's bump is just too darling.

Here is Baby B's big brother.

And Ezra had a blast. Grown up A read him a HUGE pile of Curious George books and then taught him how to play Uno. She is always so nice to him and he just loves her. He always looks forward to seeing her at Mommy Group and talks about her a lot at home. In a lot of ways, they are two peas in a pod. I wish I could take her home with me for a few days! But, I think her mommy would miss her too much. Look at her sparkling eyes!

After Mommy Group, we grabbed some Subway sandwiches (as if I needed to eat anything more!) and drove to Grandpa Tractor's place of employ. We had a quick visit with him and hit the road for home. The kids had short naps back at the ranch and then it was time to prepare a meal and pack up to hit the road again. It was Friday night Fellowship at the meeting room. Dinner and games for all. The kids love to play with cars and the garage while daddy got to play ping pong and it was Rummikub for mommy. Ahhhh...grown up games :)

Caroline was not enjoying this ride that J was so happily willing to give her. It was so kind of him to try. She's a little grumpy with anyone but mommy or daddy these days.

I'm not sure who is having more fun here--the dads or the kids.

This little wrestling match was sure fun to watch. Don't worry--no one got hurt.

And finally, after all the fun was done and the kids were jammied-up, we hit the road for home. The rest of the weekend was fun too--just not photo documented. We took advantage of two sunny days and played at a couple of parks, road bikes at the high school and ran about in the yard. Thank you Lord for sunny days in February!

Bring on the Hearts!

Yep, it's February all right. Time to break out all the cutesy crafts and baking. While I'm not gaga over the actual holiday, I do love all the ideas it generates. Below are some cupcakes we made to take to the teachers at the school I previously taught at. They were from the cover of the February edition of Better Homes and Gardens and the recipe can be found on their website. It is chocolate with cinnamon. The cinnamon lends an air of subtlety to the cake and makes one think about the color pale red when one bites into it.
On to the crafts. We tackled cute little Valentine Heart Men. This is a project that my good friend Mrs. Williams did with her class every year. I always enjoyed looking at the Heart Men hanging in her classroom window as I walked to my own classroom. First, cut out large hearts for the body of the man. I used all pink, red, white and purple. You could use any colors you want. You'll want to do the prep-work before sitting down with little munchkins. If you have a heart punch or die-cutter, you can use it for the hearts. Otherwise, start folding paper in half and cutting out hearts for an hour or so(it doesn't really take that long). You'll need large hearts for bodies and various smaller hearts for hands, feet, eyes, mouth, nose, etc. This is a great symmetry lesson for older kids. In addition to hearts, you will need four strips of paper for each heart project. These are for arms and legs. Accordion fold the strips of paper.

Now that you're prepped, begin. Glue the arm and leg strips to the heart body. Glue sticks are the easiest method, but we were out--so we went the messy route. Ezra loved it! Add hearts to the ends of the arm and leg sticks for hands and feet.

Then add the facial features. I drew mouths on the kids' heart men. For my man, I used a bunch of hearts in the shape of a smile. Make sure to save scraps and cut out eye brows and eye lashes if you so wish. Or, add them on with crayons.

Here is Caroline's little man.

And below is Ezra's finished product. I love the upside down and sideways hearts bearing witness to his independence with crafting.

Working. And cheesing.

Let the kids play with leftover paper, hearts and glue. You never know what they'll come up with.

The finished masterpiece.

We first had planned to add the arms and legs with brads so that they would be movable. However, I didn't get to Michael's in time. Use whichever you have on hand. These festive little guys are adorning our fridge now.

Yesterday we had story time in the morning and 18 month and 3 year check-ups for the kids in the afternoon. We linked the two together with a trip to Michael's for more Valentine craft supplies and then a picnic lunch at the park. The weather the past week has been quite warm and sunny. Notice in the park pictures--no jackets! We visited a park we've only been to one time before. Always fun to be on new turf. Here's a little taste of playtime after lunch.

Racing cars around the track.

The below pictures crack me up. Ezra is holding out his hands to Caroline to say "Come down the slide, I will catch you." Mind you, this slide is really, really slippery and fast. And the bottom is a good two feet off the ground.

Oops, missed ya. Every time she'd go shooting off the end and land with a thump on the bark below. She's well padded and loved it.

A spider in his red web.

Going down and up the slide.

The kids love this giant swing. Ezra went so high he kicked a hole in the clouds for the sunshine to burst through. That reminds me. On Tuesday, the kids played out back for an hour before lunch. When I convinced them to come in and eat, Ezra kicked off his shoes and exclaimed "It's a gorgeous day!"

Our check ups went well. Both kids are healthy. They weigh a combined total of 66.8 pounds. I won't tell you how that is split : ) I will tell you that Caroline is no longer off the charts with her weight...but Ezra is. Ugh. My back cries just thinking about it. The doctor asked me if Ezra uses his imagination much. Oh boy. Did I have a story for him. Scorning the typical "imaginary friend", Ezra has an imaginary wife. Yep, you read correctly. He's had her for a week now. Her name is always the same--Ho Ho Ha (sounds suspiciously like "Ha-Ha George", his Curious George stuffed animal). And Ho Ho Ha is always lost. The man cannot keep track of his imaginary wife. He's always asking me where she is. And he's got Caroline involved. She walks around saying "Ho-Ha? Gone?" I hate to be a bad mother-in-law already, but I must admit that I'm a little sick of her. While we're on the topic of Ezra and his silliness, I have to share that yesterday when Caroline dropped some of her breakfast on the floor, Ezra threw his head back for a hearty laugh and then took a deep breath and said "That's ridiculous!" I've noticed him sprinkling what word in a little more often the past few days. Also, after the doc had been in the room with us for about five minutes he commented that he really loves having a drama queen for a daughter and we'll enjoy it too. Grrreeeaaat.

This final picture is Caroline hanging out this morning while Ezra played soccer in his sports class. Caroline was playing with another little boy only a month older than her. I don't want to post his picture as I don't have his mother's permission. But, boy was it cute to see them running around playing together.

Stay tuned, I'm sure we'll be spreading a lot more love in the next week before the 14th arrives!