The Sneaths Abroad

Moon rocks for sale!

2009-06-28T21:50:00.001-07:00

Hello! I trust that you are all doing well; probably better than us! I broke my left wrist yesterday evening and I hit Tim on the nose with a shovel yesterday morning! Oh well, we’ll both heal!

As a result of the broken wrist (will tell saga in a minute), the blogs are going to have to be briefer and may be in more bullet point form; typing with one hand is very s l o w!!

Overall we have had a good few days. Silas and E went to school on Thurs for their last session. S was a bit upset at going in but was OK at pick up time. Met Jo and girls for a cold picnic at the park after school, which was fun. Girls scooted. Silas climbed!

On Friday we met Ulrike F&F and her parents at the park. Had good time! N and Fr found some old tarmac rock which they then called Moon rocks and walked round the park shouting “Moonrocks for sale”. They charged 1 cent per small bit (No-one took them up on the $1per large bit!!) and they showed a good entrepreneur spirit! They made 16 cents between them (courtesy of Granny, Grandpa and the mummies!!), I was very impressed!! Coals to Newcastle anyone? Watch out Mr Gates!! They gave small bits to the children at the park and they had a little gaggle of children behind them wanting some.I’m sure the other mums were delighted that their children had rocks to bring home!

Yesterday was our playset build day and it was great! There were 25 + people building and it was a good community gathering. Unfortunately, Tim and I were shoveling bark and I hit him on the nose with the shovel by mistake. He is OK though. I left after about an hour and spent some time preparing dinner for our friends in the evening. We had a lovely couple of hours with our friends: the children were playing in the water with toys and we were chatting. As it was a nice evening, I thought it would be fun to have dinner outside, but unfortunately I somehow fell over the door and hit my hand against the leg of Silas’ high chair, which pushed it backwards and broke my wrist. It was very painful – more than having a C-section! They have given me a soft cast for today and I will have a hard cast tomorrow. I am hoping that I will be able to drive once I have a hard cast on, but we don’t know this for sure yet.

Other than that, we have had a nice weekend! Tim is off to help for the next couple of days and has arranged someone to come and help Wednesday and Thursday. I might write on Wednesday, but if not, I’ll try again next weekend. Lots of love!

Reading schemes!

2009-06-24T21:09:00.001-07:00

Hello! I hope that this finds you well, we are fine here and settling into our summer holiday nicely! The children are getting used to each other and not going to school and we have had a good couple of relaxing days. The weather could definitely be better but it is mostly dry so I am not complaining too much!

We went to the Library and the park on Monday morning and collected a reading scheme record sheet for Naomi. If she reads 1000 minutes over the summer then she gets a prize and since she is reading a lot anyway, I thought it would be a good way to encourage and reward the reading. On Monday and Tuesday she sat and read for 20 minutes together after lunch and then read on top of that so she is well on track. Today, we were out and about in Seattle but even then, Naomi still read for 20 minutes or so over the course of the day. I have however, cheated a little bit because we also collected a record sheet from Barnes and Noble and we will use the longer books that Naomi reads to complete that one so that she can get a free book!

On Monday afternoon we went to Bellevue Square to buy new sandals for Silas and Naomi as Naomi’s old summer sandals were not working well and Silas’ feet had grown! It took a while but we got there in the end!

It has been lovely not feeling the need to rush home in the afternoon as well as not worrying too much about bed time but I do get a little frustrated that Naomi in particular will not sleep in in the mornings. It doesn’t matter what time she goes to bed, she’s still awake at 6:40! I wish that she would learn to sleep in a bit as otherwise it really is quite limiting, especially when we go away! Any tips anyone?

Yesterday, Silas and Esther went to school and Naomi and I had a tea party! It was fun! In the afternoon we went to the Dragon Park on Mercer Island which they all love and we had a great time! I am able now to bring my book with me and I can get a small number of pages read from time to time, which is a bit of a treat for me too! I still push them on the swing and help them climb etc but it is nice to be able to read just for a bit!

Today we had our first day trip out and we went to the Children's museum in Seattle; I haven’t been there for a long time (I think Mum and Dad must have taken them the last few times!) and so I was surprised to see some new things. The children, as ever, had a super time! They loved making clay shapes and painting as well as playing in the shop. I was very proud of Naomi as she was very helpful at unloading all the trollies that were filled with the toy food and consequently there were none on the shelves! The lady working there realised that Naomi was being helpful and gave her a sticker to say thank you! I thought that was a nice touch!

We were at the museum for a long time but it was worth it – they all had a great time. They enjoyed playing in the Theatre and it was funny watching them singing and dancing. They have been watching a few musicals on TV lately – things like Annie and Dr. Doolittle and it was really evident in their ‘play’! I had to laugh!! For the first time ever, we didn’t go into the Under 3 section – it was quite a milestone!!

We had quite a long queue at lunch time for the lunch but the children were very good and very resourceful. They found a large table for me and a small table for themselves and made sure that we all had enough chairs and then played a game whilst they waited for me! I was very impressed!

Silas is static in his toilet training as he takes one step forward and then one back! He was able to tell me this morning that he needed to go to the toilet before he went, if you see what I mean, and so I was very delighted as this was the first time but then, less than half an hour later, he did another wee on the floor so no progress at all!! Never mind, we’ll get there and he is OK to start school in pull-ups in September if needed, but it would be lovely if we didn’t need nappies when we are in the RV!

Tomorrow is Esther’s last day at pre-school and then we are seeing Jo in the afternoon. Naomi and I are unable to go swimming which is a shame, so I am not quite sure what we are going to do!

Hope that this finds you well – I’ll write on Sunday! Take care!

Father’s Day Gathering!

2009-06-21T21:45:00.001-07:00

Hello! Happy Father’s Day to all those Father’s and Father Figures! We hope that you have had a cool day and that you know how much loved you are!

We have had a good weekend and enjoyed celebrating Father’s Day here with other families. Originally, Church was going to have a Father’s Day picnic at a local park but the weather was a bit iffy and so it was cancelled at the last minute. However, one of our friends who lives on Discovery Park invited us and some other families back to their house to have a picnic lunch there, which is what we did.

Our friend is in the Navy and he and his family live in one of the very old, very beautiful yellow houses in the park (I know that Mum and Dad know which ones I mean!!) and they have the most amazing view across the sound and across the park. Their house is ‘very old’ (about a 100 years) and is a listed building, which made me laugh! However it is a lovely home and we all enjoyed being there. All the children had a great time playing with the various playmobil sets (Sneath children were very happy!) and computer games for a while and then, when the weather improved, we went to the little park area for a while. All in all it was a very pleasant afternoon and we didn’t get home until 5:30!

Yesterday we saw our friend Victoria and the children; unfortunately we didn’t see James as he was working but we had a fun day and enjoyed meeting their new dog and going for a walk to the park. Poor Silas though, fell over twice and had a huge bump on his knee. HE has had a plaster on it today and it is looking a lot better but it was so sore and he hated having it washed and bandaged, poor boy!

Last week, Naomi and I enjoyed our morning together on Thursday; we didn’t do anything too exciting but hope to this week. I think I am going to take Naomi swimming as she missed out on a lesson 10 days ago when she had her ear infection, but we’ll see; she might decide to do something else! She and I went shopping and then in the afternoon it was Naomi and Esther’s last swimming lesson for a while, which was good. I went out in the evening to help my friend Pam clean her old house before the inspection on Saturday. We worked hard for ages – I was finally home at 12:25am but we finished and she is now officially out of that house and can unpack her boxes in her new house at her leisure!

On Friday we had a great morning as Grania and the children came round. They all enjoyed playing with each other and then the children did some craft for a while before they went home. In the afternoon, my children and I went to PCC to do some shopping and then made some truffles for Father’s Day. This mixture worked but we still had to leave it in the fridge overnight before we could make them into sweets to give to Daddy today. WE also gave some to Uncle Chad, as he is Silas’ God Father!

Well, that is about all our news here! Tim is watching the Grand Prix and I have been looking at the new Harry Potter Trailers! The film looks impressive by the trailer but I was disappointed in the last one, so we’ll see! Perhaps though, with our new Friday night out plan in place we might be able to watch it in the cinema rather than in 6 months time on our TV! you never know!

Well, I hope that this finds you well! I will write on Wednesday! Take care!

First Day, Last Day…

2009-06-17T21:08:00.001-07:00

Hello! School’s Out, Summer’s In, Let the Fun begin! Or so they said today! Yes, Issaquah Schools finished today and so summer is officially amongst us, although the weather needs to improve really! We had a really busy but very fun day. Naomi went off to school this morning and it was "Crazy Hair” Day; Naomi was very conservative and just had some gold and purple streaks in her hair but some of the other children had really gone to town!! Green was a popular colour for some reason!

Esther, Silas and I had the morning at home before going up to the park bus stop in the neighborhood. One of the Mum’s had organised for us to have an ice cream party as the children got off the bus and it was lovely! Thankfully the bus driver let all the children off as we were at that bus stop today! Then we fed them all ice creams! The kids thought it was great! We took their photo as a group too and so I hope to get a copy of it at some point. It was a great way to start the holidays and it was fun to celebrate the end of the school year with our neighbors!

After this we went to meet Tim in his new office for lunch. Microsoft have these shuttle buses that connects all the buildings and we had a ride in one to get to the lunch place! Silas thought it was great! It was very efficient – we didn’t have to wait any time at all. Once we had had lunch, I had to go to the Doctor in Kirkland but we were only there a short time and so we then went onto the Castle Park as we were in the area. The children enjoyed it and it is always a special treat to go there as we can’t go very often.

Yesterday was Silas’ first day in Preschool with Esther and he did really well! Ms. Lee said that he followed Esther around a lot but he didn’t cry and joined in the singing in circle time. They sang ‘slippery fish’ which he has then been singing at home! He was very happy to see me when it was finished and said “missed you, Mummy, missed you”! He is however, excited to go back again tomorrow and was keen to go today too, so that is a good sign!

Whilst Esther and Silas were there I went to Naomi’s school to watch her Kindergarten Graduation. It was very sweet! They had made paper graduation hats and were given scrolls by Ms Howard. Afterwards they had cake in their classroom. Ms Howard was very emotional saying Good bye and so were all the parents! She has been a wonderful teacher and the children have adored her. Naomi in particular had a hard time yesterday and today with it all, she was very upset yesterday evening, poor girl. She has been out of sorts today too at times but I am hoping that now that school is finished and we can have a few quiet days she will improve.

Ms Howard has made some wonderful memory books with the children which is such a lovely memento of their first year at school.

On Monday, Silas had his last swimming lesson and then we went to meet Jenny for lunch with some other friends as it was Jenny’s birthday! We had a good time and got home just in time to collect Naomi from school!

That is about it for now! I will write on Sunday! Until then, take care!

A surprise Night away!

2009-06-14T19:42:00.001-07:00

Hello! I hope that this finds you well; we are fine and looking forward to Naomi finishing school on Wednesday. Esther has officially finished now although she has 4 sessions of Summer School with Silas of course. It means though that she is off tomorrow which is nice!

We have had a good weekend! Melinda and Chad offered at the end of last week to babysit the children to allow us to have a night away and so that we could both attend the church meeting. In the end, I declined to attend the church meeting but we did have the night away! It was fun!! I had a wander round Seattle in the early evening and then came back to the hotel and watched old British TV on the PBS channel! Tim and I met up with them all at Church this morning. They had all had a great time, the children had been very good – no problems at all!

Yesterday morning, Silas went to his first very own Birthday Party. He has been to parties before, but always as a group with the girls; this time only HE was invited and he was very excited! It was his friend, Hudson, from church who was 3. Tim took him and stayed which meant that the girls and I had some girly time together, which was fun too! The girls did some painting first of all and then I painted their toe nails a very pretty shade of pale pink. After that we then went and bought their Goodbye presents for their teachers and had lunch in the Panera Bread bakery. It was lovely having them on their own for a change and it meant that we could do more grown up things, which was good.

Silas and Tim came home and Silas was bursting to tell us what he had won and about the party. He had won a lot of little cowboy and Indian figures, which he played with for ages once he came home as well as today. He shouts at them “Come on Guys!” which is very funny and I have no idea where he gets it from!

Silas was shattered though when he came home and I didn’t want him to have a nap as it was quite late and I wanted him to sleep well for Melinda and Chad. I put Nemo on for them all and they had just finished it when Melinda and Chad arrived, which was good; they were all a bit revived afterwards and had then had a good play by all accounts!

On Friday, Naomi had a short demonstration of their acting skills that they had been learning all year and so I took Silas and Esther to watch. It started at 8:30 so I was very very grateful for Tim helping me out on Friday morning! I would have never have made it on my own! We watched their little mimes and then we went onto Esther’s school, which was having their end of year carnival. When we arrived, the children were outside and so Silas and Esther played on the bouncy castle, had their face painted and ‘fished’ for a prize. When we came inside, I had volunteered to help and so I made a craft with the children for the rest of the morning.

It was a nice time and the children all enjoyed it. It was especially good for Silas as he was also in the classroom with me, but doing his own thing but hopefully when he goes on Tuesday, he will remember that I was there with him on Friday.

After school on Friday we went to Target so that I could buy a digital timer for Silas’s clock! A few weeks ago we bought a Buzz Light-year clock that had a fluorescent rim to it (and an Ariel one for the girls) but you have to plug in the clock to the mains for the fluorescent rim to work. Now, we have the timer plugged into the clock, it is set for 6:30 in the hope that Silas will stay asleep (or at least in bed) until the light comes on. So far, so good but we’ll see! I am hoping that I can slowly move it back to more like 7 as time goes on, just because he has been waking up so early (5:45 on Friday!) and then is so tired by tea time as he won’t sleep in the day!! I know it is only a phase but it is a very frustrating one!! I will let you know how we get on!

Well, that is about it for now, I will write on Wednesday I hope! Until then, take care!

Elephants in the Sandpit!

2009-06-11T21:17:00.001-07:00

Hello! Welcome from Seattle and I apologise for the blog being a day late this week. More on that later!

I am not going to bore you with our usual calendar of events tonight mainly because I have a huge amount of clearing up to do and then the ironing. But instead, I am going to tell you all the funny – and not so funny – things that my adorable children have been doing this last week!

We’ll start with Naomi who was the cause of the no blog! As you know, all the children have been swimming twice a week for the last few weeks but yesterday when I collected Naomi from school, she said that she hadn’t felt very well during the day and had had to go to the office to see the First Aider because she had ear ache. School had tried to phone me but I was swimming with Silas at the time and hadn’t checked my phone when I got out. I have now made a mental note to do so! However, I don’t think I would have got to school any earlier than I did because I still needed to collect Esther!

Anyway, Naomi seemed fine when we first got home but did complain about ear ache a little later on. Her friend Charlotte came to play in the afternoon and they all had fun playing in the garden for most of the time. As Charlotte left though, the earache came back very severely and Naomi was very upset. It wasn’t helped by the fact that she had had some paracetamol in the early afternoon and couldn’t have any more for a while.

Thinking it was something called “Swimmers Ear” I gathered everyone together and went to Target to speak to the Pharmacist there. He was very helpful but unfortunately, the drops that he recommended had all sold out so we had to go to find some elsewhere. We eventually found some in another pharmacy and was assured that they should have an immediate effect. When I first put them in, they did indeed seem to be miraculous as suddenly the pain went away but by the time we were half way home, the pain had returned although to a lesser extent.

By this time, Tim had come home and we decided that he would take her to the Emergency Doctor and I would bring the other 2 home so we met up at the doctors and Tim took Naomi in. The doctor looked in her ears and said that she did have an infection in her outer ear and so she is now on Antibiotics for the next 10 days or so. I kept her off school today as I was not sure whether the pain would come back; it didn’t but was still tender, I think. So that was our evening last night! By the time they were all in bed, it was late and then Tim and I had to eat and clear up! I’m glad that she is OK though! Poor love!

The age of the ‘Knock knock’ jokes is upon us now! Naomi has been coming home the last few days with very surreal knock knock jokes and then laughing uproariously at her funny joke! She had a good one the other day whereby she asked you questions that resulted in the answer being “Louise Blew UP”, which was funny! She liked that one a lot!!

Esther has her last official day at school tomorrow, but will go back on Tuesday and Thursday to be with Silas. I don’t think it has dawned on her that she won’t be with the same group of friends next year so I hope that she will be OK when it does. It is the school carnival tomorrow so I am going to help in some way, although I will have Silas with me, so I hope that they don’t want me to do anything too complicated!!

Esther went swimming on her own today as Naomi needed to miss it because of her ears. She and her friend Gwen (who came to her party) were the only 2 in her class and I was so impressed with how far she has come on this time. She can float on her back, she’ll go underwater, she’ll swim underwater with help, she can blow bubbles in the water and can even make a few strokes on her own before sinking!

Esther was a great help yesterday with Naomi in the car, she helped her buckle in to the car and fetched Naomi a blanket to keep her warm. She did also wail solidly all the way home because she hadn’t seen Daddy but she was also a great help!

Silas has been a right pickle today and has coloured on his legs in a permanent marker! They were all having some quiet CBeebies time on the computer this afternoon before swimming when all of a sudden, Esther came and said “Mummy, Silas has drawn on his leg and it is all black”. And sure enough he had, all the way down the front of his leg and even onto the soles of his feet. I tried washing it off straight away with soap but no luck, then I tried a lemon, which did help a bit and then some friends suggested some nail varnish but nothing has shifted it completely! It now looks grey rather than black but it is still very obvious! I couldn’t believe it! he does look a sight!

Silas was funny the other day though; he was climbing on the lid of his new sandpit and I asked him to get off, explaining that I needed to cover the sand pit to stop the animals doing a poo in it! He looked at me and said, seriously, “Elephants do poo in sand pit?”, so I said no, and explained that I meant the coyotes, raccoons and rabbits but Silas was not convinced. He said “Elephants as well”! I’m really hoping that there WON’T be a herd of elephants (or even just one) using our sand pit as a potty!

Talking of which, Silas is making slow progress with his potty training and I am thinking that when we are at home a bit more over the summer, I will see how he does without a nappy on for a longer period of time. We did catch him the other night standing over this tiny pot trying to do a wee in it! It was very funny but not at all effective! His own potty was right there but he thought he would just try and aim for a small bath toy instead!!

One thing that Silas is not keen on is Wasps and he came running into me the other day to tell me that there was a wasp in the garden. He held out his arms about half a foot and said “It was this big”! It was funny! He also said “I sneezing, Mummy, look” and then went ”achoo, achoo”! I have no idea where he gets it all from!

Silas is also mad on Spiderman at the minute which is odd because he has never even seen Spiderman apart from this terrible $1 book from Target! But he loves all things Spiderman related – a ball, card, toy, cake etc! HE has already told me he wants a Spiderman cake when he is 3! I on the other hand, am hoping that he will change his mind!

Anyway, that is it for now ) I have writers fingers and need to stop! I hope that this finds you all well! Much love!

Moving a friend…

2009-06-07T17:27:00.001-07:00

Hello! Welcome from Seattle. I hope that this finds you well; we are fine here. The weather has cooled off dramatically since last week and it has been cloudy and chilly today. In many ways, the weather has been reminding me strongly of Yorkshire as it has been hot, cloudy and windy all within 15 minutes! We had a wind storm here on Thursday night – it blew out of no-where and caused power cuts even here (albeit for only a few seconds!) and yet it was a warm wind. Very bizarre!

Tim has been up grading my computer so it was out of action some nights last week and only has some things running on it now, but it does allow me to write my blog so I thought it would be a good opportunity!

The children finish school in the next couple of weeks. Esther finishes on Friday but then will attend summer school for 2 mornings for 2 weeks with Silas to give him the opportunity to be there with her before he starts in September. Naomi finishes on the 17th, so the end is in sight now. Swimming will also finish the same week as Naomi which will be good! Silas and I are there 4 times a week at present which is rather a lot!

Naomi was tired and a bit grumpy when we picked her up on Thursday to go swimming and when we got to the pool, we saw her teacher outside. He realised that Naomi was grumpy and made a joke and when we came through to the pool, he squirted water at her to cheer her up and made her laugh! It worked!

Silas enjoyed his gym class on Thursday and I signed him up for his classes in September, which was good. Esther is also signed up to do a 3 day Cheerleading Camp one of the weeks of the holiday; Naomi is going to go to a Girl Scout Day camp not far from here so that will be nice for them.

On Wednesday afternoon I took the girls to the Splash Center in Bellevue, which is great fun. It was a scorching hot day but the children had a great time splashing in the water and then playing in the park. It was busy, but we didn’t get there very early and so it had started to quieten down, thankfully!

Esther has been in a better temper this week, and she and I had a nice lunch time on Thursday playing games together for a bit. She can be so sweet at times and then a right pain the next! Naomi had a busy day on Friday as it was Field Day at school and she came home wearing her ribbon proudly. School sent home a stationary supplies list for next year, which included an old sock and a pair of headphones! Who knows what they want the sock for!!

I bought some sand on Friday for the new sand pit that arrived this week! Tim had to carry it out of the car for me because 300lbs is quite heavy even if it is split between 6 bags! We have put it in the new sand pit and the children have been having fun this afternoon in it! We’ve had a quiet afternoon today having had a busy morning at church and a busy day yesterday.

We helped our friend Pam and her boys move house yesterday – or start to at least. We packed up the kitchen and the boys rooms and moved them across to their new house. Eric, Pam’s husband, is in the army and is currently stationed in Kentucky; although he had leave the week after the Bank Holiday, he had to be back in Kentucky last weekend. However, there have been a lot of helpers over this last week and weekend and will be a few more this coming week so that has helped I think.

We were incredibly proud of our children yesterday as they were so good and patient all day; we were at either the new house or the old house most of the day and they all played well together, they helped pack a few things as well as label boxes for me when I had finished them! Pam will be incredibly surprised when she finds a box though as they all had a bit of a mixed selection of things in them! However, it was really just a case of getting it into a box to take the 2 miles to the new house so it didn’t really matter!

Silas LOVED playing at Pam’s house! Pam’s boys are older – 10 and 8 so have some very exciting toys from Silas’ perspective!! There was a dinosaur, some Spiderman toys as well as a robotic dinosaur which made Esther jump!! Silas also knows Pam very well too as she teaches the nursery twice a month so he loves her too and so all in all, he was a very happy boy yesterday! He made us laugh yesterday – Tim asked him “what do you have round your mouth?” and Silas replied “LIPS”! What a good answer!

The older children watched Aladdin yesterday afternoon which they all enjoyed too. Our children made their own ice cream sundaes yesterday for dessert as a treat for being so good! They had lots of sauce and sprinkles! Tim was sitting next to Silas and Silas obviously decided that Daddy needed sprinkles on his ice cream too and so poured a whole load on top of Tim’s ice cream! It was very funny!

Tim and I had a fun evening out on Friday night; we decided that the children were old enough to have a regular babysitter that could, if we needed them to, put them to bed and so we asked one of our neighbors who then gave me a list of names. One of our younger neighbors came round on Friday and Tim and I went into Issaquah for the Art Walk. I’ve heard a lot about the Art Walk since we’ve been in Issaquah but never been able to go. It was a little disappointing really as the bands weren’t much good but it was fun looking in some of the glass shops that are in Front Street. After we had wandered for a while, we went and had dinner in Stan’s BBQ, which was an experience. There were no frills at all but that was fine! The dinner tasted good!

On Friday morning, Silas and I did a bit of shopping and then bought the sand and in the afternoon, we met up with Lisa and the twins in the park for a short time, which was fun! We’ll see them again once the children finish school.

Anyway, better go now, need to get tea for the children. Hope that this finds you all well!

A surprise trip to Walla Walla!

2009-05-31T22:56:00.001-07:00

Hello! I hope that this finds you well, we are fine here and returned this evening from a wonderful, relaxing weekend in Walla Walla with Becky and Darin! It was a spontaneous decision that worked out brilliantly! More on it later…

On Thursday, we had our usual day; Silas went to Gym class in the morning and then did the shopping. Once Esther came home, Silas and Esther played with the play dough for a long time whilst I unpacked the shopping and then the girls went swimming once Naomi returned home from school. In the evening, after the children had gone to bed, Tim came home and it was lovely to see him after his two days away.

It was when we were in bed on Thursday evening, that we realised that we had a clear weekend and so we were discussing what we could do. Tim suggested that we went away, and the more we thought about it, it seemed the best opportunity to go to Walla Walla if Becky and Darin were free to meet thier new daughter. For the next 6 weeks or so, we have plans at some point over the weekend and we really didn’t want to leave it too much longer before meeting Birtukan.

Anyway, on Friday morning, Naomi had a singing concert at school, which Tim, Silas and I were able to attend and, once it was over, I phoned Becky to see whether they were free to meet up. AT first, I couldn’t get through, but when we did speak at lunch time, we decided that it was easiest for us to go to Walla Walla rather for them to come to us or for us to meet halfway for the day. So, once we had decided this, I had a mad pack up of things that we needed to take with us and was very grateful to Esther for being a superstar and helping me with things for them! Thankfully, she loves going to Walla Walla, so she didn’t need asking twice! We collected Naomi from school and came home just as Tim arrived and were out the door by 3:45, which was good going!

We had a smooth journey down, stopping in Burger King on the way down for something to eat. The children were very delighted with their free toys, one of which was a little Spock figure from the new movie that says “Live Long and Prosper” when you push a button. Well, as you can imagine, the little mechanical man is hard to hear and so Naomi said to us, “what is he saying, Mummy?, Don’t talk in Costco?”, which made us laugh! Consequently, he has been known as the “Don’t talk in Costco” man!

We arrived in Walla Walla about 8:15 and the children were soon in bed although they took a while to go to sleep. Becky, Darin, Tim and I had a great evening chatting, which was lovely! On Saturday, we met Birtukan (she was asleep when we arrived on Friday night) and she is a sweet little girl. She is very happy and loves to be with other children, she got along with Naomi and Esther very well, especially and they were very good with her. Birtukan is quite fearless and, although the youngest, not to be outdone! It was great to finally meet her and she was very receptive to us as a family.

Eli and Zeke had stayed the night at Becky’s parents’ farm on Friday, which is their usual night to stay over, and so we all went over to the farm on Saturday morning to collect the boys and to say hello. We had a fun time playing at the farm for an hour or so and then came home to have lunch. Once Silas and Birtukan had had a nap we went to one of the outdoor swimming pools in the area.

There are 2 outdoor swimming pools less than an hour away from Becky and Darin, one very close and the other a bit further away but both are great and have slides, a gently decline into the water and other fun things like buckets that tip over when full of water and a water fall area. The closest pool closed between 4 – 5:30 which we were amazed by – that is rural Oregon, I suppose – so we drove to the one that is a little further away and it was great! All the children had an amazing time, Silas was so content in the car on the way home, he just sat there and said “Happy”, which summed it up for everyone I think! We have NOTHING like these pools here at all so we love them and were glad to have the opportunity to go on such a hot day here.

Today we went to church this morning and then came home and had lunch and packed up. The children played outside on the trampoline for a while and Silas and Zeke played a long game of Frisbee which was fun to watch! Silas likes Eli and Zeke and calls them “Elizeke” which is one word for them both!! He will miss them tomorrow! Silas was very sweet this morning and asked me, “where other mummy gone?”. He knew that Becky wasn’t his Mummy, but also knew that she was “Elizeke’s” mummy and wanted to know where she was! My awkward son did well in nursery this morning, but probably because Zeke was with him!

We left just after lunch and had a smooth return journey. We were amazed at how much of the snow has disappeared in just 2 days! It has been hot here though!

Naomi was lovely in the car today. On the way to church she made a thank you card for Becky and Darin all by herself without being asked and on the way back to Issaquah she drew a beautiful picture for Ms, Howard as well as make her own passport!

Esther was funny today too as she was giving me a ‘nose-kiss’ as she called it which is where she rubs my nose with her nose and kisses me at the same time! It was a very funny kiss but she was laughing away! Despite being tired by bedtime, they were good children whist we were away and especially when we travelled.

Well, that is it for me know! I will write on Wednesday. I hope that this finds you all well.

Ring a Ring of Roses

2009-05-27T22:02:00.001-07:00

Hello! I hope that this finds you well, we are fine here and have had a great time at the park this afternoon with Grania, Aoife and Hugo. It has been warm and sunny each afternoon here this week, although a little chilly until lunch time; it is forecast to get hot though over the next couple of days.

I hope that you enjoyed your Bank Holiday on Monday, we certainly enjoyed ours! We spent the morning at home on Monday and then went into Seattle for the Folk Life Festival which was being held at the Seattle Center. It is such a fun event and so bizarre!! It is Seattle through and through! There is such an eclectic mix of bands playing, some are really quite good (these guys tend to play on a stage) and then there are some that are awful (these are the ones that are unofficial and just play sitting on the ground, along the road) as well as some unofficial ones that are pretty good.

You can guarantee to see some pretty wacky looking people at the Festival and smell some interesting smells! I always get a bit nervous when I can smell marijuana when the children are nearby and want to say to the children “don’t breathe” for a minute! But of course, I don’t and they seem fine! Despite this, it is a good atmosphere and fairly family friendly. We were pleased that we were able to meet up with our friends there and had a fun couple of hours altogether.

Just before we all parted, we went to the children’s area, where there were several stalls with craft activities. All the children wanted to make a wooden boat, which was a really cool activity that we all enjoyed (adults too)! You were given a boat shaped piece of wood and had to drill a hole into it which you then added a mast. Then you banged in nails, tied string around the nails to make the sides and had a sail. All of the children went away with excellent looking boats, which the girls have taken to school this week to show their teachers.

It became very obvious, to all our amusement, that I had been to an all girls school and had had no experience at woodwork!! Silas on the other hand was truly delighted to be able to hold and use a proper grown up hammer and would not let it out of his hands! I gave up trying to persuade him after a while!! He was so happy!!

Unfortunately, Silas wasn’t very well on Monday night again, although was fine yesterday and today. He ended up being very sick and was coughing badly. He is still coughing tonight but less so, I’ve gone back to giving him the old antihistamine rather than the new one as I was nervous that it was the new antihistamine that had made him sick on Monday night. If he doesn’t pick up, I shall take him back to the doctor.

Yesterday was a bit of a shock as we had really quickly settled into holiday mode! The girls went to school and swimming and Tim went to San Francisco until tomorrow. Silas and I played a long game of Ring a ring of Roses yesterday morning, which he loves! We also played it today in his swimming lesson. Silas is doing very well swimming and was able to put his face in the water today, which was very good!

Silas was very cheeky yesterday. At bed time, I was getting out the mugs for the girls milk and he came up and said “where dummies", expecting them to be on the side and so I said “Oh, I’ll get them”, to which he gave this deep sigh and said “For goodness sake, Mummy”! I was shocked and explained that that was a rude thing to say, but I did have a little chuckle afterwards as it did sound very funny!

Well, that is it for now, I must go and do the ironing! I hope that this finds you all well!

A day off for Mummy!

2009-05-24T20:05:00.001-07:00

Hello! Welcome from a warm and summer-like Seattle! It has been beautiful here today and is set to be warm again tomorrow, which is lovely! We have had a lovely couple of days, taking it easy and relaxing, which has been great! I’ve even had the day off today as I stayed at home whilst Tim took the children to church; I’ve had some much needed rest and feel better for it!

We haven’t actually done too much, so I don’t think the blog will be too long. Thursday was our usual gym class, swimming day and in the evening I did a very large pile of ironing. Friday after school we went down to North Bend to the Factory Outlet and bought the children their summer sandals, which they were delighted with!

Yesterday we had a lazy day at home before heading to a park in the afternoon for a short time; it was a day for catching up and getting straight again, which was good, but took all day! Today, I read and read and read but also enjoyed a walk, a meander through a couple of shops before meeting Tim and the children this afternoon at the bookshop before heading to the park again. We may go to the Folk life Festival tomorrow but not sure yet.

Silas made me laugh the other day; he suddenly took a real interest in the map of the world and I was showing him where we lived, where his Grandparents live, where Aunty Helen and Sophie live and he was talking about going on a big plane. He suddenly asked “go upside down big plane, me?”, which resulted in a very firm, no from me! We’d seen a plane go upside down last week end at the Viking Festival and he was most upset that I wasn’t going to let him go upside down in a big plane!!

I had to take Silas to the doctor on Friday as he has been coughing and coughing at night and I was worried. The doctor thinks that he has an allergy to something and prescribed him some zyretec, which seems to have helped. He was terrible on Friday, he was itchy and his skin was bad too. He is much better today and hasn’t had any zyretec tonight, so we’ll see how he gets on.

It was funny at the doctors though, as Silas was wearing the Dutch clog slippers and when we were in the waiting room, a man noticed and commented. I explained that they had come from my sister who lived in Holland and he said that he also came from Holland originally! He was very impressed with Silas’ slippers and even spoke to Silas in Dutch!

When we went to North Bend the other day, Naomi was fascinated by the mountains that surround the town and said “are we in a ditch, Mummy?” as it looked like it to her! I explained that we were in a kind of ditch but that it was called a valley rather than a large ditch! I liked her logic though!

Well, that is about it for now, except to say that we had some very delightful but very surprising news on Friday morning. Our friends, Vanessa, James, Maddie and Alex are returning to live back here for a couple of years in July; James is responsible for a new project and so they are coming back! Needless to say that I am very happy about this – we’re hoping that they live near us!!

Hope that this finds you all well! Enjoy your bank holiday tomorrow! We are going to enjoy ours!

Goodbye to Helen and Sophie

2009-05-20T21:17:00.001-07:00

Hello! It is a beautiful Seattle evening here with a blue sky and a pretty sunset; the weather has been a bit overcast today but the evening is making up for it!

We’ve had a busy day today and a sad day, saying goodbye to Helen and Sophie first thing. I know that their plane took off on time and is due to land in about an hour’s time I think so I hope that they have had a good journey and that Sophie has been a good girl on the plane for Helen. Helen had some new things for her to do, which was good, so hopefully that will help Sophie be entertained a bit more!

We have had such a wonderful time with them that none of us wanted to see them go today. I told Silas this afternoon that we were going to see Felix, who is his little buddy, but he just said “No, Felix, see Sophie”, which was very sweet. Silas and Sophie have been good friends especially in the car as they were next to each other in their car seats and would giggle, play peek-a-boo and remove their shoes and socks each journey!

Anyway, we took Esther to school this morning and then dropped off Helen and Sophie at the airport. They were there very early but Helen had to check in and then they were going to do a bit of window shopping and play in the play area for a while I think.

Silas and I got back to Issaquah early and were able to do a bit of shopping before going to Silas’ swimming lesson. It was our first lesson today because we missed it on Monday. Monday was all very odd. Helen, the children and I had been to Fred Myers first thing to buy some swimming nappies for Silas’ swimming lesson later that morning. I bought a brand that I have used many times before. Once we got home, the children had a quick snack and we set off to the swimming pool. As we were getting in the car, Silas wanted to hold his swimming nappy, which I didn’t think any thing of, but as we started to get going, he became more and more itchy and was more or less permanently scratching his head and face.

During the short journey to the swimming pool, Silas’ face became very red and swollen, his lips swelled up and he didn’t look good at all. We took him into the changing room and washed his face and hands but he still didn’t calm down at all, so we decided to take him to an Urgent Care center in Issaquah. They were very good and took us straight through to see the doctor as soon as we arrived and he very quickly had a dose of Benadryl (antihistamine) and started to calm down. Silas was clearly not himself until the Benadryl started to work as he had not made any complaints about leaving the swimming pool after we arrived and just laid on the bed at the hospital initially. We were not there long, though, as once it was obvious that Silas had improved with the Benadryl we were allowed home. He has needed a couple more doses of Benadryl but is much much better.

The mystery really is what caused it. Helen and I both blame the swimming nappy as the rash started as he was holding it'; it is possible that it has something on the outside of it that touched his face and made him react to. I have ordered a washable nappy from Amazon and so am hoping that we will not have any repeats of it!

To make up for the fact that we hadn’t been swimming on Monday, Helen and I took the little ones yesterday morning, which they both enjoyed very much! Today in our swimming lesson, we moved the children in the water and sung a few songs; Silas is definitely one of the biggest children there but he enjoyed it very much today!

This afternoon we went to the park with Fritzi and Felix, which was good fun! the children were making fairy houses I think and had a great time. Silas took his new slippers to show Felix!

Silas was a clever boy yesterday and did his first wee on the potty! For the last couple of weeks,he has had a nudist streak and has been removing his nappy and his trousers at some point during the day and yesterday, I thought I would see how he got on with using the potty. I was very impressed as he has been able to go to a wee when I asked him to. This morning, at home, he also kept his nappy off and although he was able to use it, he didn’t do a good job of telling me that he needed to go. However, it is a good start and we are proud of him!

Anyway, that is about it for now, so I am going to end it here. I hope that this finds you all well.

A Viking Festival

2009-05-17T20:41:00.001-07:00

Hello! It has been a gorgeous weekend here – hot and sunny which we have all enjoyed very much! IT was a bit of a shock yesterday as it got very hot and I wasn’t prepared for it at all! I didn’t have hats or sunscreen but thankfully Helen had some sunscreen and we managed without the hats!

As we knew it was going to be such a warm day yesterday we decided that we would go out for the day and so took Helen and Sophie across on the ferry to Bainbridge Island. We were so lucky with the ferries both ways and caught them both with only a 10 minute wait! We drove up through Bainbridge to Poulsbo where the children and I had been in February with Pam and Ken and as we arrived we realised that there was a special Viking Festival going on. Apparently there are lots of Viking Festivals around here this weekend as it is a Norwegian holiday this week. We were able to park the car and walked back down to the town where we saw that there was going to be a parade. We bought some lunch in a bakery (very nice too!) and then found a spot to sit and wait for the parade to start. Unfortunately, we were at the end of the parade so we had to wait a while but the children were very patient.

The parade was very good and the children all enjoyed it. Sophie was enthralled by her first parade and our children enjoyed seeing all the marching bands and funny dressed up people. Being at the end, we were in a good position for receiving any sweets that people had left in their bags and so we had quite a stash!! The family behind did very well too as we were throwing back a lot of the sweets to them! Naomi was very thoughtful and ensured that the little boy behind us was not forgotten! I saw his baseball cap at one point and it was laden down with sweets!!

One funny moment at the parade was when the Viking ship came past. Silas was delighted with the ship and was laughing and we were all waving to the Vikings that were walking along side it. Three of these Vikings came up to us and threw us a good load of sweets and then stood in a line, leant forward and Roared at us at full volume! Well, we all shrieked, not expecting it, poor Silas burst into tears but, surprisingly, Sophie didn’t cry although she was a little nervous! The girls laughed with us afterwards!!

Once the parade ended, we came home as it was getting late but we were home quickly and we all had tea and the children were in bed in good time. Once Sophie was asleep, Helen and I went out to Bellevue Square for a quick shopping expedition. I did very well and bought some new Capri trousers and a couple of tops. Helen bought a very smart new bag too, so we were both happy with our purchases!

Today we went to church this morning and then met up with Helen and Sophie at the Seattle Center, where we had lunch. Melinda and Chad were looking after a little girl called Marigold this afternoon and so they came down to see Helen and Sophie, which was nice! We had a good couple of hours together and I was pleased that Melinda and Chad got to see Helen and Sophie.

Last week, Helen and I went to Hanna Anderson on Friday morning and then we all went to the park after school. Tomorrow, Silas and Sophie, Helen and I are going swimming as Silas starts his swimming lessons, which he is very excited about. I can’t believe that Helen and Sophie are only here for 2 more full days! It has gone so fast! I’m thinking of kidnapping them and will only let them out if they promise to stay a little longer!

Anyway, that is it for now! I hope that this finds you all well!

Sophie can say No!

2009-05-13T21:51:00.001-07:00

Hello! How are you? We are fine and have had a wonderful few days together this week; it seems hard to imagine that Helen and Sophie arrived last week! It has gone so fast! We have had a lot of fun though.

On Monday we had a quieter day, which was good and much needed. Helen and I took the children to Target to do a bit of shopping on Monday and in the afternoon we all walked round to the park in the neighbourhood for a breath of fresh air. Naomi, Esther and Silas took their scooters and Sophie insisted on walking most of the way round, which was good for her! Naomi announced that she isn’t going to have any more homework for the rest of the year, so I am thankful for that!

On Tuesday I had a dentist appointment and Helen took Sophie and Silas to Target again but I was only half an hour so we soon met up again. In the afternoon the girls went swimming, which Helen and Sophie both enjoyed watching. Naomi has done especially well this term and could have moved up a class. However, unfortunately, there aren’t any spaces in this class and so she will have to stay in the current one that I had already booked her up for. It is a silly system, in that the tutors recommend which class the children should be in the next session too late for the children to move up as the classes get booked up so quickly. When you have to book the classes a month in advance, hearing the week before which class is recommended is not soon enough! Esther is OK though and has to repeat this class again! Silas starts his classes on Monday and he is very excited!

Today, Helen and I took the little ones to the park for a short time before Helen went to have her hair cut; it looks lovely and she is hoping that she will be able to manage it herself well. I took Silas and Sophie to Safeway whilst Helen was at the hairdressers and then we collected Esther. This afternoon, it was very wet and so we went to the KidsQuest museum in Factoria, where all the children had a great time! Sophie loved it! She had such fun playing in the water area and in the area designed for the little ones but also liked the big noisy truck too! I was surprised!!

Sophie walked about 6 steps this evening carrying a bag – she does quite well if she forgets that she is not holding onto you! She is starting to make a move to stand up by herself quite often I have noticed so once she gets that, I am sure she will be away! She really pulls at your finger when she wants to walk in a direction and she is in fact very strong!!!

One bad thing about her coming here is that she has learnt how to say NO, loud and clearly! it is actually very funny but not always very helpful! Helen said that it was time to come out the bath tonight, “NO” replied Sophie! Ah well! Sophie is delighted with Uncle Tim and gives him beaming smiles and waves whenever she sees him. This morning she stretched out her hands for me to pick her up and when Helen said “do you want to come back to Mummy?” Sophie just waved bye bye!!

Helen is not feeling too lonely though, because my children are all over her! Silas gives her lots of kisses and Naomi loves to sit and chat. It is lovely to see them all getting on so well together too. Silas has been very good at sharing his toys!

Silas has been funny this week; Helen bought some slippers that look like clogs from Holland and all of the children liked them very much but Silas ADORES his. I can’t tell you how much he likes them! He takes them in the car, he wears them constantly – even in bed! This afternoon, I had removed the slippers when I changed his nappy before bed and then foolishly left them on the floor and then I heard Silas shouting and crying “Slippers, slippers, slippers”, so I had to go and find them and put them into bed with him! He has also been attached to a yellow spade but no where near to the same extent as these slippers!

Silas has a new phrase this week too - “as well” – which he has been using a lot. He found some princess body paint sticks that Tim had bought for the girls one morning when they were at school and he came to me asking if he could put it on. Well, I didn’t want him using it when the girls were not here so I said that they were for the girls and Silas said very pointedly “Boys as well!” He was very funny! He has starting to choose his clothes for the morning this week too and has done quite well at choosing good things but he does like me to come and check which is good, otherwise he ends up with 4 tee shirts and no trousers!

Naomi brought home some lovely Mother’s Day presents for me today. There was a photo of her in a frame that she had decorated as well as some vouchers for me to use. So I can have a hug or a kiss for example when I produce the vouchers! It was a lovely idea!

We have a busy day tomorrow! Silas and Sophie are doing a gym class at 11:45 once we have collected Esther and then we have swimming as normal. When we come home we need to wash hair and then have tea as then there is Esther’s song festival in the evening! Naomi has a school trip tomorrow too!

Anyway, that is all the news for now! Take care!

Helen and Sophie arrive!

2009-05-10T21:07:00.001-07:00

Hello! I hope that this finds you well, we are fine here and have a lovely weekend with a lot going on! Helen and Sophie arrived safely on Thursday after a good flight and we have all been enjoying spending time with each other. It was Esther’s birthday yesterday and the American Mother’s Day today along with our 12th Wedding Anniversary today! It has been a busy but exciting few days.

Last week was very busy what with one thing and another. I spent every night doing something, be it clearing up, getting ready for Helen and Sophie arriving, wrapping presents or making the birthday cake. On Thursday night, just to add to the chaos, the HOA held a vote for a one time payment to replace the play set that was pulled down 18 months ago. We were delighted that the vote passed and we are therefore hoping that the new play set will be up by the end of the summer. We passed by a huge margin – 130 yes votes to 23 no votes and the ironic thing was that the people who voted no were needed to reach quorum! Without them, it would have not passed this time round! We were very grateful to them!

Monday and Tuesday happened as normal; the girls went swimming on Tuesday and I had my car serviced and walked with Ulrike in the morning. On Wednesday, I collected Naomi from school and in the afternoon we all went to Charlotte’s birthday party at the Bouncy Place. All the children had a great time! It was lovely that it was much quieter than normal and so they all had plenty of chances to do what they wanted to do and for as long as they liked.

On Thursday, Silas and I went to Gym class first thing, dashed to do the shopping and went home and unpacked it before going to collect Esther and then Helen and Sophie from the airport. We arrived in good time and Helen and Sophie were soon out. It was lovely to see them! Sophie looks so grown up and is so delightful! She was a good girl on the flight out and has been very good here. She has been tolerant of having Naomi and Esther give her kisses and cuddles and she and Silas are already partners! They sit next to each other in the car and just giggle at each other all the journey! it is very funny to listen to!

Sophie has been very keen on coming to give me cuddles and soon warmed up to Tim too. It is really funny because my children always go to Helen without a murmur (and always have) and Sophie came up to me and put her arms up to be cuddled right from when the arrived! She is so lovely! Helen and Sophie are gradually getting over the jet lag and should be feeling a lot better tomorrow, I hope.

Helen and I have had a great time catching up with each other and will have more opportunities this week. On Friday, we went to Esther’s school for her Birthday circle and were able to stay for recess afterwards which was fun! It was great for Silas as he will be in that class next year and he was soon running around playing with the other boys. I kept on hearing “Silas” from them as they were all running and climbing together; it gave me hope for next year!

In the afternoon, I made the cake and then we went to the park to meet Charlotte again for a short time. The girls were all tired and so we were only there a short time. Once the children were all in bed, I set about making the cake into the plane! Helen made me a runway whilst I made the template to cut out the cake. I have to say, I was very impressed with it! It actually wasn’t too difficult once you had worked out your template and not too long to make mainly because the plane was white and so the icing didn’t need colouring which takes the time. Tim took some photos of it so he will post them up on Facebook soon.

Esther was thankfully delighted with her cake, which was all that mattered! The party went well, although it was a bit odd as 2 of her friends didn’t ever get here. One family rang earlier and asked for directions, which I gave and then kept on ringing during the party as they then got lost (and I promise the directions were good!) and the other family didn’t want directions given but then got lost, phoned as the party was starting and then never made it! It was odd to say the least. We are an old neighbourhood and so easy to find on a map directing service. Anyway, Esther didn’t notice too much as she was absorbed by her friends that did arrive!

In the end, there were 4 friends – Brooke, Elisabeth, Natalia and Gwyneth. Brooke’s Dad and Gwyneth’s Dad stayed as well as Natalia’s Mum as Natalia was very nervous and shy; I think that Natalia enjoyed it but she frowned the whole party through! The children started off by colouring in wooden shapes and then we played Hullaballoo. We also played pass the parcel, find the matching pairs and musical bumps before lunch and then we made the pizzas. The pizza’s took forever to cook but the children made fruit sticks which they ate before their pizza!

Esther was a great hostess and Silas and Naomi were generous and happy for her and enjoyed her day, which was good! Esther had some lovely presents from her friends – Brooke bought her an Ariel bath game which has been a big hit and Elisabeth bought her a gorgeous dress, to name just 2!

After we had had a rest and a clear up, we then opened her presents from the family! She is a lucky girl and loved all her new presents, so a huge thank you to you all! She loved the pilot’s hat, Hannah and the Ariel hair styling dolly was a huge hit too! She said “I’ve been wishing and wishing for one of these” to both the Ariel doll and the musical box and Naomi has her eyes on both of these two!

Lastly, she opened the playmobil plane, airport and cargo set, which she was truly delighted with. Tim has spent HOURS today putting it together and it is huge; I am really nervous about the size of it and am seriously quite worried as to where we are going to put it! We had no idea it was so large when made up!! I think we shall have to convert the office into a Playmobil room! The girls have loved it and Tim has enjoyed making it too (and playing with the plane)!!

Today we went to church just to the service rather than c group as well, which made for a more relaxing morning and a lie in for me! Helen and Sophie went into Seattle and we met them at the waterfront for a picnic and a play at the beach which was fun. Sophie enjoyed the sand and giggled when she put the sand on her head! She also took a few steps on her own on the sand – Helen and I laughed as she will just about walk a few steps on the carpet with persuasion but will voluntarily walk a few steps on uneven sand!! That said, Sophie has been walking a bit more, especially if you persuade her to hold something first! She might be walking within the next 10 days yet!!

All the cousins have been getting on very well; Silas has been happily sharing his toys and Naomi and Esther have been very good keeping an eye on her and playing with her.

Silas wanted a nursery rhyme about a dinosaur the other day and this is what Tim made up:

(to the tune of “I’m a little Teapot”)

Have you seen the scary dinosaur,

Creeping slowly round the floor

Have you heard him roaring, roar , roar, roar

Eating Silas, gnaw, gnaw gnaw!

To say that this has been a huge hit is an understatement! Silas has been singing “gnaw, gnaw, gnaw” all day and loves it when you pretend to eat him at the end as it involves tickling! You can substitute any name at the end, so all the children have loved it when we crawl round pretending to be the dinosaurs! It is very funny!

Anyway, I am going to end it here! I have been writing for over an hour! By the way, if you were expecting Tim to be in India today, his trip got cancelled so he is still with us, which is good!

I hope that this finds you all well!

Silas loves stripes!

2009-05-03T20:49:00.001-07:00

Hello! Hope that this finds you all well; we are fine here and have had a lovely weekend. The weather has been warm and sunny for us today and so we had a good time at Pine Lake Park this afternoon; the children were able to have a little paddle for 10 minutes at the end and the water wasn’t as cold as I thought it might be. I wouldn’t have wanted them to be in for any longer though!

Yesterday we went to the Museum of Flight, which is a fantastic museum with so much to see and enjoy for all ages. Naomi was interested in learning more about the planes, so I was thankful that Tim was there to answer her questions! Silas loved seeing all the planes and was particularly fascinated by the space exhibit. He was so funny though because you could see the light going on in his head when we were looking at one of the early Apollo rockets and he said “Buzz to the Rescue!”. And that was it! Suddenly it all made sense in his little head that all the space stuff was about Buzz Light-year! He was very funny!

We had primarily gone to the Museum yesterday for Esther as an early birthday treat but she was a bit of a madam and took a while to calm down; she did eventually and she said that she had had a lovely day but she was just awkward and grumpy for a while! She enjoyed going into the Concord and an old Air Force One that are on display and she also enjoyed sitting in the cockpit of an old fighter jet. Part of Esther’s problem though is that she wants to touch everything so she was happy outside when she could touch the walls and see inside but when all she could do was see the outside it was not so fun for her!

We had our picnic sitting outside of the museum which was, in itself, fascinating as there were planes taking off. One was a fighter jet plane and it was so LOUD!! My Goodness! It made us all exclaim and poor Naomi burst into tears, she didn’t like it at all. The bit that made Tim and I scared though was that the plane shot off the runway and then tipped 45 degrees upward and soared into the sky. It was alarming to watch!! We had a fun day!

On Friday morning, Silas and I went into Seattle for a few hours to meet up with Katey (the Children’s pastor at church). Katey came with her sons, Ezra (just over 2) and Josiah (about 6 months). Silas and Ezra know each other from church on a Sunday morning and play together very well for 2 year olds! They entertained themselves very well whilst we were chatting, although they did fight over the free toy hammer that came with a Thomas Magazine that Mum had brought over when she and Dad came in April!!

During our time with them, Silas came up to me and said “Mummy, smell” and then went away; about a minute later he came back and he said “Mummy, Ezra done poo” and sure enough he had! I had to laugh, it was so funny!

Silas has been very particular about the clothes he is wearing each day this week and there has been a recurrent theme! He likes stripes! Consequently he has worn a variety of tee shirts that are stripy and then a variety of socks that are stripy. Thankfully, he has enough stripy things for him to wear a different one each day with out running out! He and Esther are rather similar in this!

Naomi lost another tooth yesterday morning and had written a long letter to the tooth fairy to put under her pillow with the tooth. Late last night we remembered that the tooth fairly needed to visit and so we found some money and wrote a letter from the tooth fairy! Naomi was delighted with it this morning especially as there was a lot of fairy dust around! I was impressed this morning at how much of the letter she could read by herself as there were some difficult words in there! She is doing very well.

The girls both had a good swim last week; Esther seems to have got over her funny turn from the week before. She was jumping in on Thursday happily enough, too which was good. Esther is looking forward to her birthday this week although she needs to learn party etiquette! She had said to her friend from school who is not able to attend her party that it was OK as she could bring a birthday present to school! We hurriedly explained that this was not a good thing to say!

Esther made us laugh on the way home from the park this afternoon. For some reason, she wanted to play hangman, which is amazing when she can only spell cat and dog really! Anyway, nothing daunts Esther so play it she will! Firstly I am guessing all the vowels only to be told that none of them are in the word, then realise that she thinks that I need to get each letter correct in the order they are in the word. So, when I said ‘a’ she was saying no as the first letter was a ‘c’. Well, eventually, I guess the word is cat and then it is Tim’s turn. Well, poor Tim ends up guessing most of the alphabet only to have his ideas rejected and so we give up and she tells us that the word is “M A S S”. So Tim points out that he had suggested A and S and she said “Oh, I forgot that they were in there” and then we said, “so what does the word mean Esther?”, to which she said “Oh, I don’t know, I just made it up”!! Well, it was the funniest thing I had heard all day! Thankfully we were home then so the game had to stop!

Well, that is about it for now; I will try and write on Wednesday but may not, it’ll depend as I have a LOT to do this week!! Take care!

Naomi has new Glasses!

2009-04-29T20:57:00.001-07:00

I’m finding it hard to remember it is Wednesday this week – it is going so fast and yet we haven’t done too much; I doubt it will be a long blog.

We are fine here and watching the development of the swine flu carefully. There hasn’t been a case in Washington yet, which is good! The weather has been cool and cloudy but Ulrike and I did manage to get a good walk yesterday in the Botanical Gardens in Bellevue which was lovely! The boys enjoyed it too as they could smell the flowers and then we went to a fun park for them to play in for a while.

Yesterday afternoon, Tim came home early and was able to come swimming with us to watch the girls. The girls did really well, Esther especially! thankfully there were no more repeats of her panicking last week and yesterday she was blowing bubbles in the water and bobbing under very happily. She was very proud of herself and we made a big fuss of her. Naomi did well too and can nearly swim a width on her back and her tummy on her own. Her group do little races against each other and she beat her opponent yesterday too which was a good boost for her too.

I feel a little more confident this year that I would be able to take all 3 of them to the lakes in the summer and let them in the water but I am currently finding it hard to imagine that it will ever be warm enough to need to do that!

On Monday Brooke came home with Esther and they had a good time playing all together. Silas has really given up his daytime nap now though but I have been able to persuade him to sit and read in bed for a short time, which he is happy to do. Unfortunately, he is waking early which is a pain as that means I am up early and he isn’t really getting enough sleep. Oh well, he’ll get used to it! I am not having a good run of nights this week – I have been awake every night and it is taking me ages to get back to sleep, so I am hoping that tonight is better.

We went to collect Naomi’s new glasses on Monday – they are very smart and have reactor light lenses in which is making a difference to her already. They change back relatively quickly to a plain lens once she is indoors, which is good.

I found a great cake website the other day whilst looking for ideas for Esther and now have a clear idea how to make her cake. For those of you who don’t know, Esther has decided to be a pilot when she grows up and wanted an aeroplane birthday and an aeroplane cake! I need to go and buy a large tin tomorrow to make it. Apparently, if you are planning on shaping your cakes, you have to freeze them first which makes sense but I never knew that! Consequently, I shall make the cake early next week, freeze it and then shape and ice it on Friday.

Today, after school we went to Target to to a bit of shopping and then to the library. It is swimming again tomorrow and then Friday again! This week has flown by. We are hoping to have a family day out on Saturday as Tim is expected to be going away next week so it will be our last opportunity for a while.

Well, better go and make lunch for Naomi in the morning! Take care!

Talk Something Ear..

2009-04-26T19:49:00.001-07:00

Hi! Hope that this finds you all well. We are fine here and have enjoyed a sunny day today. It hasn’t been very warm but it has been OK and the children had fun in the park in the afternoon.

We’ve had a couple of lovely park days this week. We met Elisabeth and Amy at the Highlands park on Friday; Amy and I were able to sit on the bench and have an uninterrupted chat, which was a real treat! On Friday morning, Silas and I had to do some shopping and then went to a cafe that I knew about that had a large play area. Silas loved it and it meant that i could get on and do some much needed email.

In the evening, Naomi’s school had a Cultural Event where there were about 30 different stands representing different cultures that are in the school. I am not sure if there is a child from each country in the school or whether some of the stands were about countries that people had an interest in. Either way, I was on the England stand with another lady which was fun. It was tiring but it was fun.

Yesterday it took all day to clear up and do some different jobs but in the evening I went to a friends house and watched a newish version of Sense and Sensibility. I’d seen it before but it was good and fun to watch with some friends! It was a late night and an early start this morning so I am tired today!

Today we had church this morning and then went for lunch with Melinda and Chad. Silas was very sweet with Melinda and came to sit on her knee when they had both finished dinner. He snuggled into her and they had a lovely time playing! I am so pleased because Silas was such a what-sit when he was a baby to Melinda and wouldn’t go to her at all but now, he is very happy to see them both!

We said Goodbye to Melinda and Chad and came back to Issaquah for the children to have a play at the park for an hour or so. Silas kept running up to Tim and I and saying “talk something in ear”, so we would have to bend our heads and he would then very carefully move my hair out the way and then whisper “Buzz rescue Jamas. Big bed” [Buzz Light-year to the Rescue pyjamas], which are his favourite! He must have done this about 4 or 5 times and it was very funny! It is such a tickly whisper and very wet too! Silas thinks it’s funny thought too!

Esther wrote her birthday party invitations on Thursday lunchtime and did a good job writing all the children’s names on them all. I haven’t had any replies yet, so I only hope that they have all got there OK. I will ask Brooke’s Mum when I see her tomorrow to check that they have got theirs. She is very excited and I learnt today that I really need some sort of template for my aeroplane cake!

Naomi is fine and very grown up these days most of the time! She can be a bit bossy but is very reliable and good with Silas. She and Silas played very well together and had a fun time on Friday afternoon at the park, which was good.

I have been using my new GPS system that Tim bought me for my birthday a lot this week and it has been very useful. I learnt though that I need to enter in the address when I am at home and can check things rather than doing it in the car but that is OK! It got me to a difficult place on Friday and Saturday so I am already grateful for it and it will be useful in the summer when we take our RV’s down to California.

Well, that is about it for now! I hope that you are all well and I will write again on Wednesday. Thankfully this week is much quieter for me which is a relief!

Book Club

2009-04-23T21:03:00.001-07:00

Hello! I hope that this finds you well; we are fine here, although I will be glad when this week is over – it is a little too crazy for my liking!

I had a great time at Book Club last night. It was my turn to host our group and it was fun to have everyone here. I made some proper English scones with butter and jam which people enjoyed; we did discuss the book but it wasn’t the focus of our evening! It is just fun to sit and chat and share stories and I have so enjoyed getting to know them all better.

The book that we were discussing last night was called “What is the What” by Dave Eggers and it is about one of the Lost Boys of Sudan. When the civil war broke out many years ago, many small boys not much older than Naomi fled their homes and walked across desert to reach a temporary safety. The book is about one mans story. It was a compelling if not very cheerful read. A few of us had experiences working with refugees in one way or another and so it was interesting pooling all our knowledge and relating it to the book.

Yesterday was fairly busy as I took the children to the park to meet with Ulrike and Rosie yesterday afternoon, which was lovely. Unfortunately our lovely weather broke yesterday but it was dry enough to go to a park that had a good scooting space for the children to scoot. Rosie also brought some bubbles which was a brilliant hit with Silas although you have never seen such a wet and sticky boy in all your life at the end,. I stripped him off before he was allowed in the car! It didn’t help that he had decided to go down a very wet slide. Oh my, he was so mucky! He wasn’t bothered though!

Esther and I wrote all her birthday party invitations today. She wrote the child’s name and her name and stuck all the stamps on. She did a good job and she was very proud of herself. When I was talking to her about it the other day she said “don’t worry, Mummy, I have it all sorted out!” If only!! She was so funny! We are going to have a lunch time party so that the girls can make pizza’s! Also it gives Tim and I the chance to go out that evening if Helen doesn’t mind babysitting!

Naomi is doing well with her swimming. She is able to swim quite a long way on her own either on her front or her back but needs a bit of help from time to time. Esther was doing very well too and loving it but she had a panic today and came out crying. She doesn’t like putting her face in the water and something happened to upset her today. Poor love, she was saying that she never wanted to go swimming again so I hope that she has got over it a bit by Tuesday. I don’t want her to hate swimming – she has always enjoyed it so much!

Silas went to gym class today and loves it! He told Tim that he “did it self” and he does. I am in the room but I only have to watch really and he is quite happy and does what he is asked. He is very proud of himself and is a good big boy!

I had an HOA meeting on Tuesday night, which took up an evening and was busy on Monday too. Tomorrow I am out for a couple of hours for school as they are having an International Night and I am helping with the English Stand! I am looking forward to a more quieter week next week!

Anyway, that is it for now. I will write on Sunday!

Kitchen complete!

2009-04-19T20:55:00.001-07:00

Hello from Seattle! I hope that this finds you well, we are fine here and have a productive and pleasant weekend. The sun has been shining which was great and the children played out in the garden yesterday afternoon and when we came home from church today. Tim and I both had very productive days yesterday – Tim cleared out the garage after it was used as a carpenters workshop and I unpacked all the boxes and got the kitchen straight again.

Our kitchen is now 99% finished; all we need now is an electric socket in the end island panel which we can arrange soon. The hood is up, the cupboards are straight and secure and the trim is finished top and bottom. We both feel much happier with it and it looks as it should have done 9 months ago. It is funny, because you get used to things but it just looks so much better, I am actually pleased with it now! It is taking a while to get used to the hood being up though. Tim and I both duck slightly as we go near the island, not that it over hangs the island but that you suddenly see it looming out of the corner of your eye!

Our new little table is proving good too and it means that when it is just the four or five of us we can eat in the kitchen, saving the carpet in the dining room. All in all, we have made some improvements and changes over the last month which are working out very well; I just feel sorry that Mum and Dad had to arrive into the chaos AGAIN!

We moved Silas’ crib out of his bedroom yesterday and got it into the spare room in readiness for Sophie and Helen coming to stay soon. Silas was very happy about it going in there and it helped a lot that he knew that it was for Sophie. He was so funny though, because, once he had finished pushing the crib into the room with Tim, he went back and fetched his changing mat “for Sophie” he said. He took some convincing that he still needed the mat now. He kept saying “No, baby mat, I big boy”, which I think is a good sign but not very helpful right now! Silas is not showing any signs of wanting to be toilet trained at all; I must start introducing the potty now that he is in his big bed as I would love to get him out of nappies in the day time this summer.

Silas then spent quite a long time sitting in our bath playing with the playmobil! I have no idea why! He was quite happy and was there a while! Funny boy!

Today we had church and our C group as normal and then went out for lunch with Pam, Jamie and Alex, which was good! Eric (Pam’s husband) is in the military and will be living and working away from home for the next 12 months. We all had a good time – the children all get along reasonably well, which helps and the adults get along very well!!

On Thursday, Silas and I had an extra session at Gym class which will now be our regular day. It was great! Silas was nervous for all of 10 seconds as the children were doing a different kind of routine that he wasn’t used to, but he was soon joining in. Sandy (the teacher) is very very good and uses this time to prepare the children for being in the independent class in the Autumn. Silas was very proud of himself for doing it on his own whilst Mummy watched from the edge.

On Thursday afternoon, Naomi and Esther had their swimming class which went well. Esther is repeating the class that she did last year and is a great role model for the teacher as she is reasonably confident in the water now. Some of the other children are still clinging onto the teacher for dear life so the fact that Esther is there is a good thing. Naomi is doing well too and is swimming quite a lot on her own. she hates getting her face in the water though and comes up splattering.

I am going to have to take the buggy in to strap Silas in I think though as he is too keen to go and jump in when the girls are getting dressed. I tried it this week without and on Thursday he was not so good! It is a pain though as it is something else to carry in and manhandle and there is hardly any room in the changing room but I am not sure that I have much choice. Alternatively, I could take the monkey restraint and either hang onto it or hook him up to the post!! I will have to see!

On Friday after school we went to the park for a while before coming home. Tim and I had a nice quiet evening in and a lie in on Saturday morning as all the children slept for a long time! It was very nice! We have been watching the series “Life on Mars” which we have been enjoying very much.

This week, I need to write up the minutes for the annual HOA meeting as well as have another HOA meeting. It never ends! Well, it will, in about 11 months! Not that I am counting or anything! On Wednesday I have a book group and on Friday I am helping at the International Fair at school for a bit. It is a busy week!

Anyway, I will end this here. I hope that this finds you all well. I hope to get written on Wednesday but it’ll depend on what time the book club finishes; I might not get the chance until Sunday though. Sorry!

“I big boy, I big bed”!

2009-04-15T21:54:00.001-07:00

So said my son to this rather timid little girl of a similar age today at the park! He was chasing after Felix and they were climbing up the ladder and going head first down the slide, giggling and laughing the whole time. Anyway, Silas comes down the slide, runs over to this little girl, puts his hand on his hips and shouts “ I big boy, I big bed” to her much to the little girl’s surprise and all the mothers’ amusement!

Silas has done really well this week and has slept in his big boy bed without any fuss or bother; we are so proud of him and very pleased! I am going to move the cot out in the next couple of days so that he has some more room in the bed room. He has managed to go to sleep without getting out even when he has had a nap in the day time and settled last night after he had had a nightmare. So he is doing well!

Mum and Dad arrived safely in Boston yesterday and are now (hopefully) enjoying all that Boston has to offer! they left very early on Tuesday morning which meant that Monday was our last day with them. I went into Naomi’s classroom on Monday afternoon to make chicks with the children and then took her for her eye appointment. Her eyes have really not changed much this last year and we are hoping to go to annual appointments from this time next year! I took Silas today to have his eyes checked but he is fine, so that is good news!

Silas had his gymnastics class on Monday and actually has one tomorrow as well. I am switching him from a Monday to a Thursday morning as he has clashed with a little boy in the Monday group a few times and was reluctant to go to Bump Bump on Monday which is not like him. We had lots of “Yucky Ben, no like Ben” on Monday morning! I am also not too keen on the Monday teacher so we will return to Teacher Sandy for the rest of the term, which will work better I think.

Naomi and Esther started swimming lessons yesterday which they were very excited about! Silas is very keen to go and so I have signed him up for lessons in the next session – it is a parent and tot class so I hope it is good! HE is very excited and it will, I hope, stop him from wanting to leap in after the girls each session! The girls did well in their sessions, Esther especially as she is in a class of new swimmers who don’t like being in the water much; she is an example to them all!

Esther is very excited about her forthcoming birthday and said to me yesterday that “she has got it all sorted” and proceeded to tell me who she wanted to invite, the cake she wants and the games she wants to play! She is very excited about Aunty Helen and Sophie being here for it!

Silas has been playing with the magnetic letters over the last couple of days and gets very excited if he sees a ‘s’ anywhere!

I collected new glasses for myself yesterday and they are certainly different! I am not too sure if I like them yet! Maybe they’ll grow on me!

Anyway, it is late tonight as I took Naomi to Daiy’s and was out for just over an hour; it is time i ended it here and will write again soon!

Birthdays at Rockaway Beach

2009-04-13T00:02:00.001-07:00

Hello! Welcome from an incredibly wet Pacific Northwest! We have been amazed by the amount of rain that has fallen upon us as we have driven from Oregon to home! And then it had the cheek to stop soon after we got in and brighten up!

We have had a lovely couple of days away. We set off on Wednesday morning in my car and went a longish route going west from Olympia and picking up the Coast road (the 101). We drove across the HUGE bridge that crosses the Columbia River and then eventually came down to Rockaway Beach where we had our house. When we first saw the house I was disappointed with it as it looked old and tatty; inside wasn’t much better as it was also old and musty, but we opened the windows and drew the curtains and it looked a little better.

The house was however, very near the beach and we could see the sea from the lounge windows. The girls were very excited about their bedroom as it was upstairs on its own and it had its’ very own toilet! Naomi kept on calling it the “Nursery”, which was very funny! We hadn’t taken Silas travel crib as he is too large for him to be comfortable these days so he slept in a double bed and I put lots of cushions down on the floor so that he wouldn’t hurt himself if he fell out. He did really well in the bed and went to bed this evening in his own bed so we’ll have to see how he goes! I would like him to be in a bed of his own as he is really too big for his cot these days!

On Thursday morning, the sun came out! We were so surprised and so we left quickly and we went out to the beach! Rockaway Beach had miles of golden sand that was just perfect to play on, especially when the tide was out. We had such a great time! The children enjoyed drawing and running on the beach – we found a large piece of sea kelp that looked like a snake, that we had a lot of fun with! It wasn’t very warm on the beach and we were sandwiched between two very large clouds but we managed to last an hour!

We then had to go shopping which was interesting in the little shop in the town! The town wasn’t anything special really, quite run down in places, but there were a lot of holiday homes and hotels that obviously support some of the more boutique shops in the town. The local store was well stocked and we bought what we needed for our few days there.

After lunch we drove a little way up the coast to a lovely little village called Manzanita, which I would recommend people to go to as it was very quaint and charming and also had a wonderful beach. The day had warmed up a little by this time and so we had a good time building sandcastles. The children were so happy!

That evening Tim came down too but he had a long journey so wasn’t with us until quite late. Soon after he came and we had just gone to bed, we could hear a siren going off, which was very alarming (ha-ha!) as we knew that there was a Tsunami warning alarm nearby and we weren’t sure what the noise was! I telephoned the police in the end and was told that there had been a medical emergency so we were very relieved that we didn’t need to evacuate immediately! The alarm was to summon the emergency personnel!

On Friday, it was another beautiful day so we went to Tillamook for the day. We started off by going to the Tillamook Cheese Factory, which was really interesting as you could see them at work. We all watched for ages as we saw them cutting and wrapping the cheeses. After we had sampled some of the cheese (we were supposed to take only one piece each, but Dad managed to help himself to more than one piece at a time!) we had some lunch. In the afternoon we went to the Pioneer Museum and saw some of their artifacts. There was a Native American area, stuffed animals, fossils and a lovely doll collection that Esther loved! We spent quite a while there and all enjoyed it.

After we left there we went back to Tillamook for an ice cream and then came back to the beach outside our house for a while. The children had to be dragged off but they had had fun. Mum and I then went to buy fish and chips from a shop for their dinner (Tim and I were going out) and we had a disastrous time as they overcharged us for awful food. I went back and complained later but didn’t get anywhere! However, it was too late to do anything else so Mum, Dad and the children ate what they could and supplemented it!

Tim and I had a wonderful evening out! WE found a truly marvellous restaurant in the most extraordinary place just by chance and had a delicious meal. The Chef and his wife had lived in LA and they had moved to Nehalem 5 years ago. The place is Nehalem River Inn and also had a small number of rooms and I can definitely recommend a drive out for dinner there if you are anywhere near it!

On Saturday it was my birthday and I had a lovely day. Thank you to all those who sent cards and well wishes! They all made me feel very special. We went to an Easter Egg Hunt in Manzanita in the morning and made it by the skin of our teeth, but the children enjoyed it and then we went for a bit of a drive around. In the afternoon we went to a Lighthouse and had a tour up the top of it. We all enjoyed it and the views were splendid. Naomi asked Mum and Dad to take some photos of the cliffs so that she could show Ms Howard at school, which was very sweet!

Today we celebrated Mum’s birthday and had to drive home in all the rain. WE had a very twisty turny road at the beginning which had a sheer drop on one side of it too but it wasn’t too bad; it was slow but interesting. When we got onto the I5 it was harder in some way as the visibility was so poor with all the spray.

So that was our few days away really! The children have had a great time with us all, they’ve played a lot of games and have enjoyed colouring and drawing and playing on the beach. The girls go back to school tomorrow, which is a shame as we could’ve done with another week. They have 10 more weeks of term and then we are finished for the summer, but we only have 1 day off in that time, so it is going to be a long hard slog by the end!

I am going to end it here as it is late and I need to go to bed! Hope that you are all well!

A Warm, Sunny Weekend – at last!

2009-04-05T22:09:00.001-07:00

Hello! How are you? I hope that this finds you well, we are fine here and have enjoyed a beautiful weekend in the sunshine. We have made the most of it, I can tell you!

The warm, sunny weather was a surprise in many ways as we had an incredibly wet day on Thursday. We really didn’t go too far on Thursday but in the evening Eli and Darin came to stop overnight as they were going to a wedding in Minnesota and left early on Friday morning. It was great to see them and to hear from Darin all about his and Becky’s trip to Ethiopia to collect their daughter, Birtukan. Apparently she is a little darling – she looks it on the photos! – and we can’t wait to meet her in person!

On Thursday afternoon we also spent a long time putting everything back in the cupboards after the carpenter had refitted them to the wall. They look a lot more secure now and I was glad that we managed to get the boxes unpacked quickly. It has been a bit chaotic this week with the carpenter here and the electrician comes again tomorrow but hopefully they will be done soon and we will have a better kitchen as a result! I have been glad this weekend though that we haven’t had to worry about them for a couple of days!

On Friday the weather improved enough for us to get out a bit and so we went to the toy shop, at first. Then I had a dentist appointment so Mum and Dad looked after Silas whilst I was there. I don’t mind going to the dentist here as you are allowed to wear TV goggles which makes the whole thing a lot more pleasant! Instead of lying there thinking about what they are doing, I was pleasantly distracted by the programme I was watching! Definitely a good thing!!

In the afternoon, we met Naomi from school and popped in to her classroom and then I went for an opticians appointment whilst Mum and Dad took the children to the park. THE girls took their bikes and had a great time cycling up and down, even Esther so that was good!

Yesterday the weather was beautiful and we went up to St. Edward state Park for a picnic, a play at the playground and a lovely long walk in the woods down to the beach. The play ground is a fort like one which all the children loved so we were there for a while before setting off for our walk. The lake was very pretty when we got down to the bottom and it was worth the hike up and down! The children were very good, although Silas charged down the path getting to the lake and fell over a few times! One time he landed in the mud and got a muddy face! He worried me a bit as there was quite a drop on one side but he was fine and we all had a good time.

Once we finished our walk we went to Woodinville to do some shopping in the Hanna Anderson Outlet and in Eddie Bauer. The children, Tim and I ended up with some nice new clothes which was good! I have worn one of my new shirts and my new cardigan today and it looks very nice!

We got home quite late and the children had been watching Tom and Jerry in the car, whether this was the problem, we don’t know, but Esther had such a funny turn when we got in. She suddenly couldn’t breathe and was coughing and making a retching noise as if she was going to be sick. It was really peculiar, I turned her upside down at one point and gave her a good bang on her back but nothing was stuck in her throat. Just as we were about to get very worried, she coughed and was a little sick and started to breathe again and eventually she calmed down and was fine. All of a sudden she said “I’m going to watch TV now” and got up and walked over to sit and watch the television! It was so odd! We were thankful that she was OK but alarmed as we have no idea what caused it! She ate a good tea and slept well and was as right as rain today! All very odd and preferably not repeated!

Today, Mum and Dad took the “Underground Tour” in Seattle which they enjoyed whilst we were at church. We met them in Seattle for lunch and then a walk along the water front to a small beach at the lower edge of the Sculpture Park. The children made their own sculptures and through stones and sticks into the sea which they enjoyed and then we came back to the car. Silas was exhausted at bed time as he hasn’t had a nap in a couple of days and so he was asleep very fast tonight. Hopefully they will all sleep well!

Tomorrow we are going to have a quieter day at home and then will return to Seattle on Tuesday to go up the tallest tower in Seattle. We are going on our little holiday on Wednesday and I don’t remember whether or not there is internet access from the house, so if you don’t hear from me on Thursday morning, you know why!

Anyway, I hope that you are all well! Take care and I will write soon!

Busy Days!

2009-04-01T23:04:00.001-07:00

Hi there! Hope that this finds you well, we are fine here and have enjoyed our first day with Mum and Dad who arrived last night. Mum and Dad had a very delayed flight and thankfully had arranged a shuttle express bus to bring them here. The children saw them first thing this morning.

We haven’t done too much today as the weather was pretty awful! Still snowing here in places and very cold, especially for April. This morning a carpenter arrived to start sorting out the cupboards in the kitchen; tomorrow the Electrician is coming and we can remove the oven and reset the large cupboards which will be good. We should also hopefully work out a way to install the hood tomorrow too, so I am hoping that things will be completed soon.

On Monday we had the carpets cleaned which was a good job done! Silas and I went to Gym class in the morning and then did some shopping. In the afternoon the children all had their hairs cut (Silas was a start!). Yesterday we were busy clearing up and putting things back after the carpets had dried so we were busy!

Last night was our Homeowners meeting, which I was not looking forward to but it was a really good meeting! There was a positive atmosphere which we appreciated and our adversary didn’t make any comment which was brilliant! We hope now to get things up and running for the play set!

Mum and Dad arrived during the meeting and Tim came down to the meeting once they were here so we saw them when we came back!

That is about it for now! Take care!

A Sunny Sunday afternoon

2009-03-29T19:14:00.001-07:00

Hello! How are you? I hope that this finds you well; we are OK. Tim is slowly recovering and the girls are very tired so I am glad that we only have one more week at school before the holiday. I am only sorry that we only have a week off as I think they could do with longer, but still.

We have had a beautiful day today, which was a real treat especially as we woke up to snow on the hills this morning and it was so wet yesterday, it was miserable. We made the most of the sunshine and went to the park this afternoon with Melinda and Chad after dinner in our favourite Thai restaurant! The children had a great play and we adults were mostly able to sit and chat which was good! The park was well set back from the car park and had plenty of space where the children could run and we could still see them, which is unusual for here.

Yesterday, in contrast, was such an awful day that by the evening I was ready to take the next plane to Hawaii!! Tim was still taking things a bit easier yesterday so we went to the library in the morning and then went to IKEA in the afternoon. We were successful in buying a small table for our kitchen space which is great as now the children will have somewhere to draw and do craft projects and somewhere where we can eat. The carpets are being cleaned tomorrow and we are going to try a new approach to try and save the carpet a little bit more! The plan is to eat breakfast and lunch in the kitchen and then only eat dinner in the dining room when Tim is here to join us. Obviously this week when Mum and Dad are here we will eat in the dining room each day but on the days when Tim is not coming home then I plan for us all to eat in the kitchen. WE are hoping that by using the dining room less, we will be able to keep the carpets cleaner!

Naomi and Esther were able to go into the Play land in IKEA but unfortunately, Silas wasn’t. After an initial upset, he was actually very happy coming along with Mummy and especially Daddy, so it worked out OK!

On Friday, Esther stayed for lunch at school and Silas and I went to get me a new driving license as mine expires next month. It surprisingly didn’t take too long and I was able to get home for a bit before leaving Silas asleep and going to get Esther. Once Esther came home, she helped me make the signs to advertise for the Homeowners Meeting on Tuesday (Oh joy of joys!) and then she and I went to put them up. It was quite fun doing it together and it helped a lot that Silas was still in bed!

After school, we went to the bookstore with Naomi’s friend Charlotte and then onto the pet store and for a game of hide and seek round by the lake area. IT was fun and good to see Jenny and the children too! They are going to see family in Colorado over Spring Break week and have a return flight for $100 each! I couldn’t believe it!

The refugees left on Thursday lunch time and we hope and pray that they are surviving reasonably well. They were happy to leave us and excited about starting their new life in their appartment! In the afternoon, a young girl called Jennifer came round to play with the children whilst I stripped beds, put washing on and cleared up before Angelica came on Friday morning.

Anyway, I have a lot to do this week, so I am going to end it here! I hope that this finds you all well! Much love from us all here!

A new Haircut!

2009-03-25T20:46:00.001-07:00

Hello! Hope that this finds you all well; we are suffering from coughs and colds here and Tim isn’t very well. He has a cough, a high temperature and saw the doctor this afternoon. I am hoping that he will take it easy for the next day or so and improve quickly. I think he has what Esther had last week.

Other than that we are fine. The children have all been at school this week (well, the girls, not Silas) and are looking forward to having Spring Break in a couple of weeks time; they finish next Friday for a week. Mum and Dad arrive on Tuesday night so we are all looking forward to that! I am hoping that they bring some warmer weather with them as we haven’t seen any yet. We had snow today on the Issaquah Mountains and we were only just below the snow line. I saw one car driving in Issaquah at lunch time and it had 4” of snow on the roof!!

We haven’t done too much outside our normal routine this week, although Naomi and I did go to the swimming pool last night for her to take a swim test to see which group she should be in for swimming lessons after the holiday but when we got there the man said that she didn’t need them after all so I enrolled her and Esther for a session on a Tuesday and Thursday afternoon. Naomi has been finishing her homework so quickly and easily for the last few weeks now that I think we can branch into doing something short a couple of times a week and I’d like them to be better swimmers.

This afternoon after school, Naomi’s friend Peyton came to play for a while and then we went to Target and to the park afterwards. It did finally stop raining late on this afternoon and the children were able to use their scooters for a bit, which was good. Silas shows no fear and will copy the girls who whiz down the slope at great speed. Thankfully they all wear helmets but I would rather that they were enclosed in a large piece of bubble plastic myself!!

Our refugees leave us tomorrow which is good. They are much more relaxed now, the children especially and all the children have been spending time together, especially Silas and Esther who have been with them more of each day. They were all sitting together watching TV this afternoon which was nice. The refugee children are very much enjoying playing with our toys and will miss that tomorrow when they leave us. I am tempted to buy them a small toy each in Target before they go as a parting gift; we’ll see how the time goes!

I am still fearful for the family as they have such a short attention span and switch off quite easily. It is also impossible to impress upon them the importance of what we are trying to explain with no language but I have managed to get so far. I was able to show them the different prices of milk etc in the shops and was able (I think) to get over that they need to buy the largest, cheapest stuff possible! I discovered today that another family that speak our family’s language have just arrived in Seattle with 2 teenage girls who also speak English which gives me some encouragement that there might be some interpreting available if it was needed. I also spoke to one of the staff members of World Relief today and she said that the family are going to receive extra support because they are going to be so isolated, which is good!

I went to have my hair cut tonight and I like it! The lady did a good job and it looks different but similar and should be easy to manage. I will have to post a photo soon!

Anyway, I am going to end it here as I need to make Naomi’s lunch for the morning and I have a large pile of ironing to do!!

Take care!