Seattle Science Center

Yesterday, the boys, sara and her kids, and i headed to seattle for the science center. we spent the majority of the day there. the kids had a blast. sara and i were super exhausted at the end of the day; chasing after four kids is tiresome (i have no idea how my sister-in-law dee does it with her four kids. however, she doesn't have clifford as a son. i swear that child's energy equals two kids!!!). they loved the dinosaur and butterfly/bug exhibits. we were able to make it a "snake" presentation, where they told a cute story about "jake the snake" and then brought out on of their live boa constrictors. unfortunately, we were unable to catch one of the imax movies-it was completely sold out. instead, we headed out of the science center to the huge dome where water sprays out of it. the kids enjoyed playing in the water. the car ride home was great once all four kids fell asleep.

Look Mom, No Training Wheels!!!!

Since buying the boys' bikes, it's been super frustrating. On Kristjan's bike, his tire has gone flat twice (it's now fixed). On Clifford's bike, we've bought two different sets of training wheels for that bike, but they kept falling off and pieces went missing. After spending $30 within a week for training wheels (and contemplating on whether I should just throw the dang bike away and buy him a new one), Pete took the time to show clifford how to ride his bike without training wheels. It actually took only about 10 minutes before Clifford got the hang of it. Although in the beginning he didn't know how to stop himself on the bike, so he'd just peddle faster to keep himself moving (he ran into a few parked cars doing this). He still needs a "push" every once in a while, but for the most part, he can get himself started and balanced on his bike. My baby boy can ride a bike!!!! Without training wheels!!! I'm so happy and proud of him.

Allergy Testing

We took Clifford in for his yearly allergy test. It had been awhile since his last skin test, so we went ahead and had one done. We added a few more animals to the list to test. The results were he's allergic to cats, dogs, goats, cattle and horse.

Swimming!!

This summer has been super hot. We've spent almost every day making a trip to the pool for a swim. The boys have each improved their swimming. Clifford can swim on his own, does lots of crazy jumps, and loves swimming underwater. He seriously swims great for a four year old. We're super proud of Kristjan's improvement in the water. He started from being too afraid to go in the water, to thinking it was so-so. He was swimming with a (pink) floatie ring. The other day, our friend Sara let us have an old life jacket that her kids outgrew. All day I tried getting Kristjan to put it on but he refused. Finally, I was able to convince him that Sara wanted to see him wear it and would put it on him (Kristjan loves Sara and calls her his "girlfriend"). Sure enough, that worked! Now, he jumps in the pool on his own and swims around all day!!

Sunday Hike

This last Sunday Sara and I took the kids for a hike down to the beach while Pete stayed behind to relax and have a quiet house. It was blazing hot that day! The hike down was good-we were basically covered by the trees. But by the time we got out in the open at the beach, we were so hot, we were ready to jump in the water. We walked around a bit while the kids looked for crabs and shells. We turned over some rocks to the kids could look at all the baby crabs underneath. The boys and I have been to this beach lots of times. It was Sara's first time with her kids, and they really enjoyed it. We ate some snacks and walked around a little more before heading back home. All four kids did great hiking back up the trail.

Blueberries and Carnival Rides

Pete, boys and myself, along with Sara and kids, got together on a nice sunny sunday to pick blueberries out in Snohomish. Last year I discovered this u-pick blueberry farm and loved it! For this trip, we went on opening day. The kids had a blast. Kristjan ate more blueberries than he put in his bucket. It's a good thing they don't weigh and charge kids by the pound when you're done picking! Once we were done and paid for our blueberries, we headed down the road a bit to a mini carnival that was in town (I forget the name of the event, but Sara said they do this every year). The kids went on some rides. We shared some curly fries (way overpriced and took way to long to get our order), and Sara bought the kids a sno-cone. Towards the end, Pete bough a bag of cotton candy-all four kids were in heaven and were wired from the sugar by the time we left. After the carnival we took a little drive further in to Snohomish (i forget the name of the actual town we ended up in). There was a car show going on in the "old" section of this town. So we walked a bit looking at the cars and a few of the shops. Pete found a stand selling deep-fried snickers bars-I don't recommend you try that! All in all, it was great day and we finished off the evening with an awesome bbq!!!

A Walk to the Lake With Friends

This summer has been the best summer for me and the boys. There's so much to do with the boys (and all locally). And it's even better to share the fun with friends! The boys made friends with our neighbor, nikki and zach, and their mom sara and i get along great! Almost everyday for the past 2 or more weeks we've all gotten together and spent the day having tons of fun (it's wonderful that all four kids get along great!). One of the days last week, we decided to let the kids ride their bikes to Martha Lake and let them play in the sand and water.

Kristjan's First Bike

About a week or so ago, we were at Goodwill looking around. I went straight back to where they sell bikes, hoping to find a decent bike to buy for Kristjan. It was my lucky day! There was an old (but with lots of life left) thomas the train kids bike with training wheels attached!! I grabbed that bike and bought it for Kristjan. He loves it!!! The very next day, he was off riding that thing like a pro (he seriously did way better than Clifford did on his first time on a bike).