Picture of sweet innocense

Not many words can desribe this picture....

Is she all girl or what? Note the vanity, high heels, ballet leotard and skirt, jewlrey box, and of course the lipstick :)

1/2 yearly tradition

Every half birthday Hailey and I go make a special painted pottery piece. My only request is that it is something that we can use for entertaining and incorporates a hand print but she gets to pick out what she paints and all the colors.

Well, something unfortunate happened to this year artwook that we did in April. It accidently ended up on the floor in many pieces 2 days after we picked it up 2 months after we had painted it by someone who is to remain unnamed and who felt very badly that it happend.

So, we finally made it back to create a new masterpiece and I am kinda glad that we did. The handprints turned out better and I remembered to write her name and year on it. She was also much more into the painting part so it turned out a bit better with some better colors.

We get to pick it up tomorrow and I am super excited to get this years piece to add to our collection.

We tried out a place in University Village but I honestly was not that impressed so we stuck to our usual hometown studio in Mill Creek which is great. Everything is in one room, there are less people and it is much more condusive to kids. The artists there are also much more engaging in the works that people are creating and will help out with handprints if needed. I now know that I need LOTS of help with those as mine turn out to be big blogs of paint.

Last Monday I took a day off from work to origianlly go swimming with Kristina and Arcani at Coleman pool but because our weather has been anything but enjoyable these past couple of weeks, we had to change our plans and head to the Zoo. Hopefully there will be a post this summer though about our adventure to Coleman pool as we are very interested in checking it out.

We met up with our friends Erika and Jordyn for our last minute excursion and had a great time petting and looking at all the animals and hanging out with the many bronze statues that are sucah a hit with the kiddos.

Hailey and Jordyn looking at the bunnies gettin ready to pet the sheep. I learned something too from this trip, the difference between a sheep and a lamb. Do you know the differance? :)

Our next stop was the African Tundra where all the animals were out which was veally cool, we could have watched them all day!
Hailey especially loves the hippos, why? I am not sure as they don't really do much. I guess they are kinda cool to watch. This girls of course like riding the bronze hippo though.

My Favorite exhibit is the new penguin exhibit. They have finally finished this entrance too so the entire exhibit is open now. It is so much better then the old blue pool that they had. The other recent addition is the ZooMazium for kids. It is an indoor play area that all sorts of climbing structures and activities. Unfortunatly Erika and Jordyn had to take off around this time to get Jordyn down for a nap so we finished up just the two of us.

Hailey running through the under ground maze - I cannot believe that she did this by herself and was not scared as it was pretty dark in there.

We then hit up the gorilla's and had to do some planning as the last time we were there they really scared her. She was Mommy's brave girl this time and couldn't get enough of them or the bronze stature.

How could I resist getting her an ice cream cone when she was such Mommy's little trooper. I was having so much fun, we started our 2nd trip so we could see some of the animals on the other side.

We saw the hippos again, but this time they were sunbathing...

We saw these guys, the meerkats, which are super cute to watch scurry around. This is a brand new exhibit too. And to our luck, there was an elephant demonstration going on which was super excitng as that was the main reason for going round the second time. We got to see two elephants super close for almost 15 minutes.

And my favorite shot of the day.... she was out in about 2 minutes. She was such a sport though, walked alot of the way and I carried her alot too which was A OK as we just don't get enough of these fun day off's with special friends. We have to make them last as long as possible.

Happy Birthday to our cutie pie Arcani Grei

Grei had his first birthday today (actual birthday is tomorrow). I just cannot believe how fast the year has flown by. Shoot, we almsot have a 3 year old on our hands...

Kristina and Ry (Mom and Dad) put on a beautiful birthday for him and we were so excited to share this special day with them.

Grampa Dexter with the 2 little GrandkidsHailey looking like a moose next to these one year olds. (Grei is on the right) Getting ready to blow out candles...
Not so sure about this cake thingThese girls will show him...
Playing outside with bubbles and sidewalk chalkDrawing "bodies" all up the sidewalk, even one in the street! haha that will get some looks... Hailey drawing a "happy face" on her body - note the face is on her tummy though...

Even Gamma got in on the action.... What Hailey says, Gamma does.... :) This is why I don't listen to her complaints during the day about "what Hailey did this time" :)

Happy Birthday Grei, looking forward to swimming tomorrow! Better get some rest after such a busy day!

First spray park of the summer

I sure hope it is not the last too....

This summer has been so hectic with swimming lessons, super fun weekend activities, a batt with pink eye, and the $H!&% WEATHER, we have just not had the opportuntity to get out to spray parks.

Nothing says summer like SPRAY PARKS and I finally committed to it on Saturday - we were going and there was nothing going to stop us. I can definitely vouch for that one right Hailey? ;) When I say nothing, I mean nothing :)

We have a great spray park about 5 minutes away in Snohomish that we found last year and fell in love with it. We hope to check out a few more this summer now that swimming is over and our weekdays are much more open to find fun summer activities to do. (Not that I didn't enjoy watching you in the pool sweetie, but I want to get in the pool too!)

She was a bit timid, much more this year then last but I think that after a few more times she will be back to her usual self of splashing and filling buckets with the rest of them.

But we had a great time at the adjacent park...

Another fun day with the Moss'

We met up with our good friends Julie, Greg and Chloe for a fun filled Friday night of Jumping, Pizza and the Park.

We all me up at Sky High Sports in Bellevue for a little bit of trampoline jumping fun, I think Julie and I had more fun then the kiddos, Hailey of course did not take a nap and she was a bit cranky. She fell asleep on the way to the Pizza place 10 min away though that gave her a bit more energy for the rest of the evening. No pictures just a bunch of videos and I don't know how to upload my flip videos to the blog yet. If you want videos let me know and I can add you to Hailey's flip channel.

Our Greg met up with us at dinner at MOD Pizza in Bellevue which is super yummy. You order when you walk in and then they make it for you in about 3 minutes. I like it because it is not greesy and you can pick the toppings you want or choose one of their delicious signature pizzas.

After dinner we headed over to Bellevue Park to let the girls run around and us parents get a bit of chatting in. We then headed over to see the ducks to end our evening.

Feeding us ice creamThe girls giving us a dance show - SO CUTE! Watching the ducks
Bored with the ducks, sand is much more fun

Just a pretty pic of the Bellevue Skyline

We love our friends the Moss' and the playdate adventures are just never long enough, thanks for being such great friends and we are looking forward to the Crossroads spray park at the end of August.

Take me out to the Ball Game...

We went to the Mariner Game last weekend courtesy of one of my Directors. We had great seats and had a great time cheering on the Mariners to a win over the Boston Red Sox.

We headed over to the kids area to check it out and it just happend to be at the same time the Moose was in the cave taking pictures with the kids so we got one snapped with my phone as I left the camera back at our seats.

And yes, I did put my 2 1/2 year old in a halter that showed her tummy, it was from last year and it was too big, this year a bit too small but we just had to do it. There were shoes to match but she would have nothing to do with them as she had to wear flip flops. I felt that this was probably the last year that I could get away with putting her in an outfit like this so I just bit the bullet and took off the longer tank top that I had underneath which looked a bit prudish.

Dressing up Fancy

So, we have fallen to dress up clothes. We have been "blessed" with lots of hand-me-downs that Hailey has had a blast with over the past week. Who would've thought that MY daughter would like to dress up and run around the house saying that she is "as pretty as a princess" - thank you mom for the wonderful camera and flashlight that I believe started this escapade.

I will take credit though for buying her the little tikes vanity and the Build-A-Bear make up kit - I just couldn't resist the vanity and I needed help getting her to brush her hair. We have pretend beauty sessions and if she is sitting in front of the mirror it works! Can you blame me for thinking creative here?

Below are pics from the dress up box, we also have a few Minnie Mouse outfits and many Tu Tu's that complete the box. More pics to follow as we add to the assortment.

Happy late 4th of July

I know it is almost a month late but I still wanted to capture at least some of the fun that we had.

In the morning we headed to the Bothell 4th of July Parade and then in the evening we went up to our friend Jeff's house in Monroe and let of a TON of fireworks.

We started off on the far side of the sidewalk but then started talking to some people that were right on the street and they let up squeeze up with them so Hailey could get closer to the parade and see what was going it. Apparently, you have to get your chairs out at noon the day before if you want a place on the street for your chairs.

Hailey figured out real quick that if you wave they think you are cute and hand/throw candy at you.


She was a bit caught off guard by the pirates and especially the lound sounds from the cannon but she did think they were kinda interesting as long as she was on my lap.

Unfortunatly I forgot the camera of the fun lit up festivities but you can just take my word that we had a great time and all the kids were having a ball.