It's HOT!

What a nice day! It was really nice all weekend. I bought the kids a silly bouncer thing that you blow up and then they can jump. Here's a picture of them jumping on it.

Friday started out so nice! We decided to meet Sarah, Chelsea, Ana and their kids at Martha Lake to play on the toys there and then wade in the lake and have a picnic. The kids had a great time. Pictures from the lake:



Gillianne and Nathaniel:

Ana, Aiden (Cam's age), Liam (Paige's age)


Yesterday, Jenn and I went to University Village and discovered they were having their sidewalk sale. Lucky us! I found some sheets for Paige and a fabulous Pendelton wool blanket for Cam for WAY cheap. It was the last day of the sale and Land of Nod just kept marking their stuff down and by the end of the day they were selling at 80% off. My favorite kind of sale :) Jeff dropped us off there and then took the kids down to his favorite local camera store where he bought this super fabulous lense and a case for all his camera gear that he can carry on the plane to take with us to Paris. WOO HOO!! I'm so excited for Paris. Here is a picture of his lense.. it's really huge. It's a fixed 200mm F2.0. Big. I'd put a picture of the bag on here too, but it's not as impressive.

Seattle Bride ad and Cammy is silly

Jeff's ad is out in Seattle Bride! We got an advanced copy. Looks great! I'll take a picture of it today.

I had to post though... I was talking to my mom this morning and we were teasing Cam at the same time. We were talking about people and Mom said Cam isn't a person, he's a kid and kids don't count so I relayed that to Cam and he said "YES WE DO!" then I hear "1...2...3..4..5.." It was hilarious!

On Tuesday evening, Cam promised he would give his 'tootie parts' to Mom and I could have the rest of him. Then, this morning he let out a loud, stinky toot and I said "CAM! You said you gave your tootie parts to grandma!" he said "Actually, Mom, I can't unscrew my tootie parts. I would have to take off my legs and they don't come off."

Heather, Mom, a pergola

Last week, we went to Heather and Andy's for dinner. Heather's birthday was the week before, so we celebrated that and we opened our Christmas presents! We were so late for last Christmas, it could have just as well been early for next Christmas. I gave Heather's boys sleds which couldn't have been too thrilling to open in June! I think they can use them as floats in a pool though. Haha. Paige got some VERY cute new clothes and a baby doll that she adores. She carries that doll everywhere and is constantly feeding her milk and juice and then putting her to bed and saying 'shhhh, baby sleeping'. When she gets mad though, she throws her down. I guess she isn't ready to care for a real baby yet. :) Cam got a remote control car that flips around all crazy. Of course it is his newest treasure and it is 'very special' to him so no one else can touch it. Here is Cam being crazy as usual:


Friday, I took the kids with me to Wenatchee to visit their grandparents and then left Cam with them so he could have time with his grandparents and the neighbor kids, Gracie and Nolan. They have the best time together. Mom sent me some pictures of him playing in the water with his friends.


On Monday, Mom and Cam drove over to visit us here while Dad was in tri-cities for some training. I bought some plants including a wisteria and then Mom and I (mostly Mom!) built this pergola for the wisteria to grow up and over. Once it gets up there (it's down at ground level and the pergola is on the second floor of the house) I'll train it to cover the wood and then I want to hang little glass jars from the beams and put candles in them to have dinner on the deck by candle light. I saw a picture in Martha Stewart that I want to copy. You can't really see the view, but if you sit under it and look out, you can see trees and a tiny tiny bit of Hilton Lake. You can see more of the lake in the winter when the trees drop their leaves, but I don't sit out there then because it's brrrrrr!!!!


Tonight, Jeff has a party for Seattle Bride magazine. We'll get a sneak peak at the magazine that comes out next week. He has a full page ad in it.

Oh, AND I didn't ask the neighborhood watch (officer BOB) if it was okay to put up the pergola and so far, no word from anyone. Yay!! :)

New tires and new shoes

Today after I got home from work, the kids and I picked up Jenn and Collin and drove to Kirkland to get new tires on my Touareg. I went to Kirkland because my neighbor is a manager at a tire shop there and he is very nice. He gave me a deal on the price, but I also like supporting him. After that, we went to Merry Go Round for a little shopping and then over to the mall. While we were at Merry Go Round, Paige had a really big tantrum and bit my arm. It didn't break the skin, but it's quite red anyway and it's bruised. Ouch! She was better at the mall. Cam got some new shoes like his gramma and papa.

I'm falling asleep, so goodnight.
Sara

Zoo, Barking Frog and Dora

We had a busy weekend! Friday night, Jeff had a rehearsal dinner to photograph, and then the wedding the next day... all day. Mom and Dad arrived Saturday morning and the kids and I joined them for brunch at the Barking Frog restaurant in Woodinville. I had Dungeness Crab Cake Benedict. It was soooo good! Yummy. From there, we went to the zoo.

Of course the kids had a great time. Paige was funny, you could always tell when she found an animal because she'd yell out what it was. I think her favorites were the Hippopotamus, gorillas, and lions. She seemed to like the Tapirs too. I was impressed by them. I thought they were the size of pigs, but they are much bigger! They are really cute too. They have silly noses. Sort of a cross between a pig and an elephant. Here are some pictures. Cam as a butterfly, Cam and I as caterpillars.. we tried to get Paige to join in, but she was just really annoyed about the whole thing... and then Cam on the hippopotamus sculpture.







We went home exhausted, expecting to go to bed early, but we ended up staying up until 11. Paige was being a princess with her cute jammies and stylish diva glasses. She had a lot of fun posing. Lauren gave her those glasses and this is the first time she really enjoyed wearing them.


Sunday, we got up all excited because the kids were going to see Dora!! Mom, kids and I met Jenn and Collin and drove out to see Dora's pirate adventure. About 10 seconds into it, I knew I was in for a horrible 2 hour nightmare. It was awful! The voices of the characters were screechy, LOUD, echo-y and freakin annoying!! It was truly horrible. It was so loud that I spent a lot of time with my hands over my ears. The characters also weren't really right. They didn't act the same as on the show and it was terribly over-acted. I bet the local grade school could have done better. On a positive note, the kids thought it was amazing! Cam danced and danced his heart out. He yelled out the answers to Dora's questions, waved his Dora pirate flag and watched the entire thing. That's what's really important :) Paige also enjoyed it, but fell asleep about halfway through. Jenn bought the kids Dora light up stick things that they love. They played with those all afternoon. I'm never going to that show again, but at least Cameron had a wonderful time.

I got Cam some new shoes to take to Paris and a new pair of overalls. He wouldn't take the overalls off so I guess he likes them.

Our train tickets, reservations, car vouchers, museum passes and subway passes finally all arrived. It's so much fun to fondle all of the tickets and vouchers. It's starting to feel real. Mom is very excited to see a lot of the masterpieces at the museums. She has a lot to teach Cammy about art. I think they are planning to get sketch pads and set up outside and draw together. We are going to Euro Disney, castles and wineries in the Loire Valley too. Less than a month away. Woo Hoo!!

Jeff's next ad

Jeff has a full page ad in the next Grace Ormonde Wedding Style magazine. It will be facing Mike Colon's ad which is awesome placement. Here's a copy of the ad.

Paige says some of the ABCs, especially when she gets in trouble. It makes laugh. If I catch her doing something and tell her to stop, she'll sing "ABCD.. FG!!!" and smile all cute. I remember when Cam would get in trouble at two, he'd say "Hi, what's your name?"

Heather's birthday was yesterday. Happy Birthday, Heather!!!

Collin and Jenn are over today and Collin started crawling! Look out world, Collin is mobile!

Tonight Jeff has a rehearsal dinner to photograph, a wedding tomorrow and a wedding next weekend. Woo Hoo for Jeff! Tomorrow, my parents are visiting.

Ooh, Paige goes to bed without crying now!! She still wakes up at about 1:00 and cries and then again at 4:30 and I go get her. That's a big improvement. We can put her to bed and she'll say 'night night, bonne nuit, j'taime, bye bye". It's nice to have time in the evening to knit or work or read or watch a scary movie.

Jeff has nice camera gear

Wow, even I was impressed. Plus, the camera he's using to take the picture :) Amazing though, he still has a huge wish list.

Daddy Tags

Jeff likes the mommy tags so I ordered him a set of Daddy tags.
They make kid tags too so I might get them some if I like the parent tags.

Cam's conversation

I just had the funniest conversation with Cam. He came running in the house to ask me how I poop and pee out of my penis. I told him I don't. He then asked how I poop and pee because I don't have a penis. As I carefully explained the basics (very basics) of female anatomy, Jeff sat back and laughed at me. What a helpful husband he is! Cam was satisfied with my answer and took off to continue playing.

Saturday morning

This morning the kids got up and had their yogurt and then drew some pictures. Cam drew pictures of Collin and then gave me a lesson on how to draw him. First, draw his head.... then his legs, then his arms, then his fingers...
Up in the right corner he drew a snow man with buttons and a scarf.

This is Paige enjoying her yogurt and also drawing pictures of Collin and Jenn. She used a pencil and drew all over and kept pointing to it saying "Collin (coweeeeen)" and then drew a little more and said "Jenn!" In this picture, she's actually saying "nooo" because she didn't want me to take her picture.

Here is Cammy with his turtle picture. He has been drawing lots of turtles lately. This one has a little sequin on on of his legs. I'm keeping this drawing for his baby book.

Mommy Tags, Paige's pool, Cam

I ordered myself a necklace with the kids' names and birth dates on tags. Here's a picture of their sample:
I have to wait a few weeks to get mine.

Yesterday, Cam had a hard time controlling his anger and he was quite rude to his grandma. He woke up in the same twit of a mood today, but he's working on it and he's been getting better. It's funny how he will be so good for a couple of weeks and then BAM! he's testing again. Hopefully he will take a nap today and we can all have a rest. It must be hard being four. I don't really remember. Then, he's all cute like this picture and you wonder how you could get upset with him!


I think Paige needs a pool.

Anniversary

Oops. We forgot our anniversary. Hahahahaha!! It was May 30th. Happy anniversary to us. Actually, we remembered about 3:00 that afternoon, but it was too late to have any plans. We went out to dinner at Applebees and watched a movie after the kids were in bed. Woo Hoo. We ARE exciting people!

Sleeping Paige, beach shots

Here's my Paigie Binks sleeping last night in her own bed. It didn't last too long, but she's so cute there. Cam always says 'We lost the Binksy. Look, she's catching flies!' I love how babies sleep with their arms up over their heads.


Last week, Jeff was in CA learning new photography tricks and marketing strategies. Here are just a couple of his pictures from on the beach. The last is my favorite. There are a few more on his website. If you go to the main page at www.jefflaplante.com and either keep clicking refresh or click the tiny arrows at the bottom right of the main photograph, you can scroll through some of his photos. There's a great one of the two against a rock.