The way his mind works

I'll never get tired of watching Tyler be inspired by something.  It happens often.  The inspiration can come from a tv show, a book, a magazine, something he hears, something we've been talking about, whatever.  Most recently.....Tyler was watching a show on the Discovery channel about the world's tallest buildings.

About 3/4 through the show he sat down at the table with paper and a pencil and began drawing his own tall tower, complete with components discussed in the show (somehow didn't get a pic of the final product).

 

And then the next morning he heads to the playrrom where he built this extremely tall tower without any help.

Tyler, may you always follow your inspirations!!

Calendar

And  September begins.  The calendar has gone from this:

to this:

I'm obviously way behind on blogging, again.  We've been to an outdoror movie, mukilteo beach, school shopping, playing in the yard, started soccer, and had Hailey's teacher night.  I'll get caught up one of these days.   

She's like a brother

Who really needs a brother when you have a sister.....who is more or less the same as a brother.  She's willing to fight all evil or be a villian at a moments notice.

Happy Birthday Mom - Dad's Got This! St. Edward's Park

One of these days I am going to be able to send my bride to a tropical island for a week for her birthday with no husband and no kids (ok, maybe a husband and no kids). This year we sent Val to a hotel and surprised her with a dinner with Mary-Pat (Thanks Jon for holding down the fort with 4 kids for that) and then a brunch the following day with her cousins Julie and Christy for some adult conversations surrounded by some much needed shopping for herself.

Me and the kids decided to check out St. Edwards State Park in Kirkland and had a blast. It was so fun we went back the next day. We experienced; the playground, hiking trails, banana slugs, wood peckers, garbage stealing squirrels, a few bumps and bruises and of course ice cream cones. We finished our Saturday off with Legend of the Guardians in the movie room (it ruled). Running solo with the kiddos certainly makes me appreciate and love Val more for all she does.

Happy Birthday Val, I LOVE YOU!

We are ready for our hike, Dad! Camelbacks and everything.

What goes down must come up and not a peep of complaint from either. They were awesome!

Rest breaks are frequently taken to examine the critters on the path.

Can you believe how strong this little girl is? Very impressive, she's gonna rock gymnastics!

Ty just flew up the wall and did a good job showing Hailey how to do it too.

Tent

Earlier this month the kids decided they wanted to sleep in tents in the playroom.  We knew they would not get any sleep so we told them they could sleep in tents in their bedrooms.  Tyler lasted about 10 minutes before he decided his bed was more comfortable.  Hailey put the tent on her bed, filled it with snugglies and was in heaven.

Yummy

Farmer's market goodness.  The kids gobbled this up in a day.  I pretty sure I took this picture within an hour of getting home and they are already half gone.

Bubbles

The kids have been enjoying our huge bubble wands the last few weeks now that the warm weather has arrived.  They are in their jammies.  It's either mid afternoon and they haven't but their clothes on yet or It's early evening and they are already in their jammies.  Either is possible, we are having a relaxed summer around here.

Cousins

 Tyler's cousins Dominic and Rene were up from California visiting a couple of weeks ago.  The kids had several days of fun playing with them!

School Shopping

I always thought school shopping would be a blast.  I enjoy buying clothes, for myslef, Dave, the kids.  But wow, has my tune changed this year.  Ty is officially the hardest person to shop for.  He is incredibly picky.  His pants have to black.  His jeans have to be very dark or black and the pockets have to be in just the right spot and the legs have to not too baggy and not too tight.  I bet I've bought 20 pairs of pants and retuned 18 of them.  Half of them don't pass the "look" test, meaning Tyler doesn't like how they look before he even tries them on.  The other half fail the fit test.....to long, to short, too tight in the legs, too loose in the legs, or the adjustable waist doesn't get tight enough and they won't stay up.  I honestly would let him wear shorts to school all year at this point.  Of course, right now he's refusing to wear shorts, even though summer has finally arrived. 

I did successfully fine a hooded zip up sweatshirt with a "nice" looking skull and crossbones on it that he thinks is the most awesome thing ever. 

The whole process is not what I envisioned for a 6 year old boy.

Bend - Darth Vader

Tyler's Darth Vader drawing.

Careers 2011

I don't think I ever got around to a careers post so I thought I'd pick it back up this year.

So this years career predictions for Tyler and Hailey are:

Tyler:  Architect/Engineer/Graphic Designer

Hailey:  Vet/Marine Biologist/Zoo worker/Singer/Actor

Bend - Frisbee

Photobook.  This is another one of those posts that will probably been meaningless to anyone other than Dave and I (for any of you readers out there).  It's just a million picutres of frisbee throwing in Bend.  You sort of had to be there for these to have much meaning.  Happy kids playing frisbee.