Happy Birthday Rudder and Obie!

Happy birthday rudder


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wusfKG5-SI0

Randomness

I came home on Wednesday to a tornado. B-Z, thank god, decided to help me out a bit and organize Allie's closet. She filled up a big bag of clothes to be donated and instructed me NOT to go through it. I was physically restrained from going through it. After she left though? Haha, I only pulled ONE thing out and then called "the big blue truck" and all of the stuff, plus a few more that I added out of Maddie's closet, has been hauled away. The closet looks amazing. Everything is organized and put into marked bins. I am one lucky girl.

We leave this Sunday for Paris and then Italy. Excited but also very anxious about leaving the girls for that stretch of time. I keep having thoughts of, "should Kip and I be on different flights??" And, "I'm not going unless I can bring Maddie and Allie." Fortunately for everyone around I have kept 95% of my crazy thoughts to myself. Unfortunately given the vast quanity of said crazy thoughts people have had an earful. Rudder gets to spend the week with Baba and Zaide. I am sure he'll come home about 10 lbs lighter! Baba LOVES to throw Rudder's ball. Maddie and Allie will spend Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday with Nonna. Chris and Sophia are taking Maddie to her swimming lessons. Chris and Sophia, Maddie is totally looking forward to doing open swim with you after her lessons! On Friday Zaide and Baba come and get Maddie and Allie and have them until Monday. We return Monday the 11th.

We have a new "do-do" (stroller) and I LOVE it. I went for a run the other day along the Cedar River. It was so beautiful and felt so good that I thought, "hmmm, maybe I SHOULD do another half marathon." Two days later we had an actual jogging stroller and it's SO easy to run with. Love it. The girls, so far, seem to love it as well. I know that novelty will wear off soon enough and I'll be cranking the volume on the music once again.

Don't turn your back on these two

All Banged up

My student gave me a gift certificate for a haircut at Seven Salon. Maddie was the lucky recipient. We went with bangs this time around. The lollipop was a bribe as Madeline who never gets stubborn about things, was totally freaked out about having her hair cut. She kept trying to throw Allie under the bus but unfortunately for her Allie was not in need of a haircut. In the end she decided that she really liked the hair washing part. (who doesn't??) But of course, still insisted that I pay up.

Really bad before and afters

We've been working on our basement trying to create a finished laundry room, a much bigger shop for Kip and a garage to actually park a car in. 1 and 2 are done. Still not a lot of room for the car but it'll happen. Before the first frost. Then I have to drive into our narrow little driveway which honestly freaks me out a little bit. I'm hoping that new car doesn't get any new racing stripes down the side.

Anyhow I know have a nice cozy laundry room that I can drop things on the floor and not have to burn because of how disgusting it was (think multiple remodeling jobs, a flood and an old coal furnace) and I got rid of our front load washing machine. I LOVE wasting water. Our clothes don't stink anymore.

And see that black thing in the first picture? That's Rudder. I had too much time on my hands and entered him into "doggie duel" on Kiss 106.1 Vote for him!

http://kissfmseattle.clearcontests.com/front/image_contest2.asp?s=A6889271C4BCB3A3557BA5BEA5B19D84939EB49BB6B4678DD1CF8B998EAFA6BDBD777CA6CCC6C2BCA1897D68658072907FA4BC6F91786D66A6B5AF948C6A618499A7A0737C7D656C736A8D6E9791B58DA0626C59

I'm hoping by March she'll be able to haggle for us

And that the most we'll pay is $10

Prescolar Alice Francis

(sorry this one is out of order...this is her "pez" (fish) picture that she drew at school

Maddie had her first day of preschool today! I got a picture halfway through her day from the director that said, "she's doing fantastic." It was taken next to the train table, are you shocked? Maddie surprised me. I thought she'd be full of trepidation about going to school for four hours but she was SO excited and couldn't wait to leave the house this morning. I wasn't emotional either, except for the small happy dance I did when I dropped her off. Allie and I toured the city and had a fun four hours one on one. When we went to pick up big sis' we were greeted by a very excited little girl who immediately told me, "mama, i want to go back to school." I am considering refinancing the house so she can go full time :-) We got home around 1:15, had some grapes and went up for a nap. She is still sleeping. It's now 4:30.

this is her summary of the day:
I played basketball
we sang songs
I colored
I didn't speak spanish, I just listened.
I had lunch. I had chocolate milk.
I had fun.
I sat next to the teacher.

9.14.2010

Neener Neener

Allie loves to make this face. When you make it back she laughs and laughs and laughs. And then squishes her face even more in return. So cute.

we grew beets!

This picture is random but I felt the need to give myself a shout-out. Kip left me his car on Saturday so I could take it to get a new battery. Well, it wouldn't even start trying to leave the house. Batteries FUH-REAK me out. I am always paranoid they're going to explode. So, I had to text Chris to make sure I was doing it correctly. Anyhow, got the car started and started to drive down to Costco when I realized THE CAR HAD NO GAS. Awesome. Two girls, no gas, car won't start if I shut if down. parked near the tire center at costco so they could help me out. I figured if I played damsel in distress well enough someone was bound to help. THEY DIDN'T HAVE THE BATTERY I NEEDED. So, got jumped at Costco and onto the next store, and the next. I had Siri with me so at our next stop she stayed in the car with the girls and the car running on fumes was left on. No dice. I dropped Siri off at her house so she could prepare for a dinner party and we sputtered into our last stop. two hours later we had our new battery purchased and put in. next stop after that? the gas station. Can I tell you how much I LOVED Kip that day? I did contemplate washing the car for him. I stopped at the contemplate part. :-)

On Sunday we went up to Anacortes. Here we are enjoying a classy breakfast at the San Juan Lanes. Who doesn't enjoy a good bowling alley meal?

9.12.10

Beautiful Day

Wow yesterday was gorgeous! Chris and Kip are the two "scuba steve's" in the picture. They had to work on a boat lift. Maddie jumped into the water and immediately got out with red/purple thighs. It's COLD! Today we start preschool! 9.14.10

say cheese!

So last Sunday we had a cheese party and it was so much fun. I set my camera down for the night and someone picked it up. Here's what we got:

okay, just kidding, I took the first 3

Not shown:

Hugging intervention: Sonja and Kip feeling the need to make me want to like hugging.

The copious amounts of wine that I thought we'd have around the house for months that all got consumed that night.

Allie being brought back downstairs at 1245 AM by Kip

People sleeping on the couch and in the guest bedroom

Me sending large quantities of cheese home with people

The total awesomeness and fun of the party.

To all that made it out, THANK YOU! We had a blast!!

Sicky

At 4:00 this morning Maddie came into our room.

M: Mama, I have to go poop.

L: Okay Maddie, go ahead and go.

(Kip is waking up to go to work at this point so I stay in bed while he helps Maddie but I can still hear them talking)

K: Whoa Maddie, you are having some huge-y poops!

M: My tummy hurts. I have poop bubbles.

-------------

After this Maddie goes back to sleep for a few hours and then around 6:30 as I am getting ready for work she wakes up and says she's hungry. We go downstairs where she eats three little bowls of cereal and then off to Nonna's we go. Apparently as soon as I left Maddie began throwing up. When I got back and we were loading up in the car Maddie wanted to call her dad and tell him how she was feeling.

M: Dada, I grew up.

K: You grew up?

M: Yeah, I grew up out of my mouth.

Poor little bean! I think she's milking it now because every time I get ready to turn off the TV (which we don't watch a whole lot of) she tells me, "Mama, my tummy hurts." But fortunately everything is staying down now.

Before and After

Allie had her first real haircut yesterday! 9.3.2010

She was a little hesitant at first and tried to bail out of the chair but after a few brushes through her hair kind of sat their mesmerized. (who doesn't like having their hair brushed?) She looks ADORABLE with her new little bob if I do say so myself. Madeline was a bit disappointed that she didn't get to cash in and get a balloon. Apparently kid's salons on Mercer Island don't stock balloons. Mercer Island does have Starbucks and Starbucks has chocolate milk which is almost as good as a balloon.

Thomas the Train

So way back in July Zaide and Baba took Logan, Hads & Mads to see Thomas the Train. Maddie had been talking about this event for MONTHS. The babysitters at Kids Club would ask, "are you seeing Thomas this weekend?" I'd have to try and explain to Maddie that we still had a lot of sleeps before she was going. Eventually the big day came and my oh my did they have fun. Maddie still talks about it to this day.

The day started out a bit rough. Zaide bought Thomas t-shirts for the girls. Being the stubborn girl that she is Maddie refused to put hers on. We let it rest and Zaide figured she'd just put it on when they got to Thomas. Let's just say a public tantrum was seconds away when Thomas came "punching along" and Maddie was starstruck. Arms up in the air, as compliant as could be, t-shirt went on.

I think every cell in her being was ecstatic when they actually got to RIDE ON THOMAS. They handed their tickets to the conductor, hung their heads dangerously out of the windows, and off they went. After spending a few hours up there the whole troop went up to the cabin where they got to open goodie bags filled with more Thomas paraphernalia.

Seriously, Zaide and Baba, you're the best. Thanks for making this little girl's dream come true. Can I make a list for some of the things I'd like to do and have too? :-)