Fun at the Kids' Fair

At the end of last month, a local shopping area (U. Village, for you locals) hosted a kids' fair, and we decided to check it out with a few of our friends to see what it had to offer.

We convened at the covered play area and burned off some energy as we waited for the two other families to arrive. It didn't take long to realize that our kids probably aren't going to fit in the play area much longer. They hardly fit in the play cars and Annika could scale the climbing structure in 3 steps. (Wahhh!! Our babies are growing up!!!!)

After finding everyone, we headed over to the fair, where there were a variety of vendor booths, as well as a fire truck, police car, and performance stage. The kids were highly impressed with the fire truck and all its splendor. Conor was less impressed once it was his turn to talk with the firefighters and climb into the rig, though; he left that to Annika. Unlike her little brother, Annika had no qualms about climbing into the fire truck and poking around a bit.

After peeking in a few booths, everyone agreed it was time for lunch. Fortunately, we picked a close restaurant that didn't have a lunch rush yet... considering we had 5 adults and 6 kids, we needed a decent amount of space. Our lunch was tasty, but loud and chaotic (go figure!).

We'd promised the kids they could have balloons before we left for their swim lessons. They REALLY wanted to go to the balloon animal guy's booth, so we waited in an insanely long line and anxiously kept an eye on the time and how slow the line was. (I think Eric was about to break out in hives due to the slow line ... he hates cutting things close when it comes to time and we were definitely cutting things close.) As a distractor, Annika and I jumped out of the balloon line  and hopped over to the hair booth so Annika could get her hair braided. The gal was amazingly fast and even sprinkled some glitter on Annika's hair to make it extra fancy! Fortunately, we reached the front of the balloon line JUST in time. Annika requested a heart wand; Conor asked for a flower wand. Both kids got exactly what they wanted! Eric and I were highly impressed with how fast the balloon guy worked and how versatile his designs were!

AND, we made it to swim lessons just in the nick of time.

Conor in the play area

Our climbing champ

Checking out the fire hose

Firefighter Annika to the rescue

Teeny tiny kids .... HUGE fire truck

Spring Heat Wave

What we deem to be a heat wave here in Seattle is probably nothin' compared to what people in other parts of the world consider worthy of being called a heat wave. I tell those people, deal with it ... we're usually soggy here, so anything over 60 is a heat wave, darn it! :)

Last week, we had a play date scheduled with Annika's little buddy Allison. Fortunately, the weather was stupendous and the kids were able to have a play date that included running through the sprinkler in our front yard. They had a ball with the new sprinkler that I picked up for just such an occasion.

I'm pretty sure the kids' feet hardly touched our lawn most of the afternoon. As I look back through the pictures I took of them playing, hardly any of them included land based children. Instead, most pictures had leaping, jumping, hopping, or running little ones. So much fun. So many smiles.

After they tuckered themselves out, the kids headed to our deck, which was still bathed in warm sunshine, and enjoyed a picnic snack of grape popsicles and refreshing water. They set out towels (aka the tablecloth) as well as plastic plates, cups, and silverware on our kid-size picnic table. I'm not sure why they insisted on plastic forks, knives, and spoons, but who am I to judge what is and what is not proper popsicle picnic protocol??

Around and around and around they went

Up and over

Right on through

One of the few feet-on-ground moments of the afternoon

Allison leaping through the water

Airborne Annika

The girls enjoying their water and popsicle picnic

Popsicle boy

Fulfilling a Childhood Fantasy

When I was just a wee one, I attended a Catholic school that had a uniform policy.

The girls wore plaid jumpers or skirts (depending on grade); gray, white, or navy blue socks; a white shirt (polo or blouse), and a blue school sweater (cardigan or pullover). The boys wore navy blue corduroy pants, white shirts, and the blue pullover sweaters. After 8 years of staring at the same uniforms, I was pretty darned tired of wearing plaid.... to say the least.

As an adult with many years of perspective, I appreciate the idea of school uniforms. It makes getting dressed a snap; there's no "what do I want to wear today" issues each day. You have one thing ... put it on, eat breakfast, hit the road.

Annika's school also has uniforms and an annual auction, which was this past Friday. One of the silent auction baskets had an eco-friendly theme. I decided if I could get my hands on a uniform, I could turn it into a reusable bag. One of the gals on the auction committee with me offered up one of the uniforms her daughter had outgrown. Perfect! Recycling to recycle.

As I prepared to take the jumper apart to create a bag, I couldn't help but hear a little voice in the back of my head. That voice was my childhood self giggling with glee. Taking a rotary cutter to a school uniform was the fulfillment of so many uniform-related childhood fantasies!! It didn't even matter that the uniform wasn't mine! 

I started off by removing the jumper top and then opening up the side seam to have a nice rectangle of fabric. I quickly realized that I wanted to retain the pleats to keep the feel of a uniform, so I sewed along some of the horizontal lines.

I also cut off two of the pleats to create the handles for the bag... everything must match, you know!

I ran the bag through my serger to finish off the edges and then through my sewing machine to create the actual bag. After attaching the handles and turning down the top edge, I was done.

My inner schoolgirl and I worked very nicely together and are both quite happy with the final results!

My little helper

Last night, I made a batch of brownies. Almost immediately, Annika rushed up to offer her help. She was bummed that I'd already cracked the eggs, but was mollified when I let her finish whisking them in and let her add the flour.

Both of our kids are amazing helpers when it comes to baking projects. They love to put the ingredients in the mixing bowl, crack the eggs (always an adventure), and stir everything together.

More than that, though, they like to lick the spatula/beaters/whisk when all is said and done.

Our little chocolate fanatic

Conor's First Solo Swim Lesson

Please pardon the delay.... this post should have happened a few weeks ago, but that silly busy life thing got in the way. So, without further ado...

Once Conor turned 3, he was eligible to take solo swim lessons. What are solos swim lessons? I'm glad you asked! He no longer needed a parent in the water with him AND (this is the part we're most excited about) he and Annika could take lessons at the same time. We officially were able to say adios to making two trips to the pool each Sunday - HURRAY!!!!

Conor was a bit unsure of getting in the pool all on his lonesome, but quickly worked his way over that hurdle. A big plus is his teacher was the same person he had during his previous swim lessons. The kids started out standing on a platform that keeps them at about tummy level in the water; then, the teachers take them out into the pool (1:1) to practice kicking, blowing bubbles, using their arms to reach and pull, etc. About mid-way through the class, Conor started warming up to the idea of being in the pool without Eric or me with him. I think the turning point was when his teacher put him on a big yellow floating thing with another little one and zoomed them past Annika's swim class. Conor loved being able to wave at Annika and get a response from her. (Side note: This same teacher also used to be Annika's teacher; he's pretty darned familiar with our family at this point!) By the end of the class, Conor was happily blowing bubbles and sticking his face in the water.

A few weeks into the lessons, he is proving to be a little fish, just like his sister, and LOVES going to swim lessons.

A wee bit apprehensive at first

Kick! Kick! Kick!

Still not quite so sure of the whole thing

Annika LOVING her lesson

Look at her go!

Getting a bit braver

Kicking away

Pool fun!!

3-Day Cookie Bouquet

One of my co-workers recently approached me and asked if I'd be willing to make something for the dessert dash portion of her upcoming Komen 3-Day fundraiser. OF COURSE I'd help her out. Baking and helping breast cancer research ... win and win! After pondering a few ideas (including breast cakes, breast cupcakes, etc.), I settled on making a pink ribbon cookie bouquet.

I used the cookie and royal icing recipes that I almost always use... they are definitely tried and true. The twist to this project was the colored sugar used to decorate the cookies. Until now, I never really had much success getting the sugar to stick like I wanted. A few days ago, I looked online to see if I could find any tips and one video I saw on YouTube suggested not using water, but using a 1:1 ratio of water and meringue powder to adhere the sugar to the dried cookies. I tried the method and will never look back; it worked perfectly!

I filled a jar with curly pink ribbon and used and inverted Styrofoam cone to assemble the bouquet. This morning, I carefully wrapped it with plastic wrap and hauled it (ever so carefully) on the bus with me. Fortunately, it got to the office safe and sound!

Our beautiful babies

Can't say enough about how much we adore these sweet little faces!