1st day of school at The Children's Garden

Emmie had her much-anticipated (by her and her parents!) first day of preschool at the Children's Garden last week. Despite her normal uneasiness in new surroundings, she did great and appears to be settling in very well, and loving it! What a great place, where all the kids, families and teachers are very creative, involved and supportive! We are looking forward to two years of many fun activities and school memories.


Meeting teacher Bonnie

We had all the girls over for a playdate before the first day so Emmie could get to know them - what a great group of fun girls!

Trying to figure out what to wear on the first day!

Emmie's masterpiece

I left Emmie alone for about 15 minutes, and I came back to find her just putting the finishing touches on this beautiful painting! I've always known she is a natural artist, but this just floored me. It is a picture of one of the Disney fairies, Rosetta. You can see her wings, of course, and in her left hand is a flower (because Rosetta is a garden fairy), and the line at the bottom is the ground, but of course, Rosetta is higher because she is flying! The thought she put into it just amazes me, but more than anything, I can't get over how proportionate the whole picture is - I really think I could not have painted a fairy this well! She clearly did not inherit her artistic abilities from me. :)

Trip to Whidbey

While daddy stayed home for a long weekend of campaigning, mom and all the girls (even the dog) went out to Whidbey for a relaxing weekend with grandma and grandad.

Hayden is 10 months old!

Miss Hayden is now 10 months old! It seems like I say the same thing about her every month, but it's still true - she is such a fun, happy go lucky baby! She makes us laugh constantly and we love her to pieces.

This month she began sharing a room with big sister, which was a risk for us all! However, so far, it's turned out to be alot of fun. Hayden is sleeping pretty well, just up every few nights once or twice, and it never seems to wake Emmie, thankfully! My favorite thing about them sharing a room is to hear them "talking" to each other when they wake up in the morning. I am always so tired in the morning that it buys me a few extra minutes of laying in bed while I listen to them chat away with Emmie calling out "good morning sis!" and Hayden responding with lots of shrieks and clapping. This continues for 10 mintues or so until Hayden remembers that Emmie cannot actually get her out of her crib, and then it turns into crying so mommy will come get her out to play!

Hayden has perfected the art of "turbo crawling" - she is sooo fast it's hard to keep up, and she is still into everything, putting it all into her mouth so fast that I'm sure she's managed to sneak in quite a few pieces of fuzz, dirt or leftover cheerios off the floor before I notice her! Her little stubborn streak shows itself when I say "Hayden, no, no no" when she's trying to put something in her mouth, and she responds by shaking her head and laughing at us! She is pushing her walker along like a champ and it was the oddest thing to see her take off doing that for the first time! Her best new trick, though, is giving kisses! If we say "Hayden, give me kisses!" she will plant a huge slobbery one on us - basically she just opens her mouth wide, sticks out her tongue and licks us! It is so sweet and cute and wet!

Emerson goes to cooking school!

Grandma Betty started taking Emmie to cooking classes at Cookalicious Club in Issaquah. Emmie has been a huge fan of mixing, cooking and concocting her own recipes for quite some time now, so going to cooking class has been great fun for her. She has been learning all the "correct" techniques to use, so maybe she can teach mommy a thing or two!

So far they have made sweet potato casserole, tilapia w/dill sauce and banana cookies! Though Emmie told grandma before the class when they made tilapia that she doesn't like fish, she tried it like a good sport and told grandma afterward that she "loves fish!" yay!!

So cute in her very own chef jacket!

Swimming lessons

Both girls started swimming lessons this summer. Auntie Erin took Hayden to hers every week, and she loved it! She was a natural, already going under water with no problems at all!



Daddy took Emmie each week, and true to her nature, she was very hot and cold about swimming. We knew it would be tough because she's naturally afraid of the water. She started out a little hesitant, but then did great for awhile, followed by a couple of not so great classes. So she will be a work in progress. :)

Summer Fun

Since I am waaaay behind on keeping up the blog, I'm going to do one big post with a bunch of pics from all our fun over the last month! It's been busy, but fun! I think we are all ready, however, to get back to a bit more of a routine schedule with preschool starting soon!

We went to a kids' concert at the Kirkland waterfront and Emmie has gotten so brave around the water - she actually waded in up to her chest!

Fun playdate at Lola and Abbey's house

Family hike to Denny Creek and the natural waterslides ... lots of fun, minus the million flies!

Emmie and Rhea watching the Blue Angels

Emmie went to an adorable tea party with all the little girls from her new preschool that she will start in a couple weeks!

Great-grandma Shaha and great-uncle Bill came for a visit.

We went blueberry picking - do you think Emmie had a few to eat?! :)

Great-grandma Evie came for a visit, too!

Our sweet little angel :)

Lots of summertime fun with Jordyn - they are pretending to be mermaids.