Valentine's Day and the Science Center

We had an awesome Valentine's Day yesterday. The night before Pete and I sat out the boys' valentine gift bags filled with a few surprises. While we were getting breakfast going the next morning (yesterday), the boys opened their gifts as well as some valentine cards they received in the mail. I convinced Pete to make heart-shaped pancakes using a cookie cutter. We topped them them with fresh sliced strawberries, whip cream and powdered sugar. After eating, cleaning up and getting ready for the day, we headed to Seattle to spend some time at the Science Center. Last year Pete's parents bought us a family pass to there, which expires this coming June. Well, for the boys' birthday, their Aunt Janet bought them a pass to the Science Center as well. So the Science Center just tacked that new membership on to begin when our other membership expires. So we still have another year to explore! The nice thing is one of the exhibits is always changing about every 3 or 4 months, so that way you can see something new. Last time we went, it was "gross-ology". The new exhibit they had up was "facing Mars". Pete and I liked this exhibit a lot better than the last one. Unfortunately is was really busy and crowded that day, so the boys didn't get a chance to fully enjoy everything. Luckily, with having the family membership pass, we can go back again before that exhibit leaves in June. I'm hoping to take the boys at least once a month to the Science Center, and even more once summer begins. Anyhow, we hit up the live butterfly exhibit and caught an imax movie before we left. We saw "Roving Mars". The boys thought it was boring but Pete and I were entertained! Oh well, can't make everyone happy. All together we hung out there for about 4 hours before heading out. We stopped over at our friends Gordon and Michelle's place to say hi. They invited us to dinner, so we all gorged on some delicious bbq ribs!! (thanks to Gordon cooking an awesome meal!). Michelle brought home with her two balloons for her two little valentines (the boys loved it!). The boys fell asleep "camping out" on the living room floor while we watched "Couples Retreat". We didn't get back home until about 1am! but it was an awesome day!!!!!

(oohh! notice the picture of Pete with a butterfly on his shoulder. that was his little buddy that stayed attached to him the ENTIRE time we were in the exhibit.)

Happy Happy Birthday!

Starting this week both boys are off from preschool for mid-winter break. Kristjan's birthday is this coming Sunday, so before they left for the break, he had his "birthday" snack day on Friday. He wanted to take pudding cups instead of cupcakes to share with the class. Everyone sang happy birthday to him and his teachers made him a purple (his favorite color!!) crown. He had the biggest smile on his face when I picked him up from after school!

Valentine Projects

Here's some pics of the boys from last week. They cute valentine-themed crafts. One pic of each boy is of them wearing their valentine hat they made and their treat bag.

Party! Party! Party!

Last Saturday we invited family and friends over to help celebrate Clifford and Kristjan's 5th and 4th birthday!! Since their birthdays are a month apart we combined the party so everyone only had to drive over to our place once. We did an "army theme" and Pete decorated the cake!! The party was a blast and the boys had tons of fun.

Photo Opportunity

My family arrived for the boys' birthday party last Saturday an hour or so before everyone else. It was the perfect time to get some family photos in with the boys.

More Projects

Preschool is going great for the boys. Clifford is continuing learning his ABC's. He actually has a "homework" assignment. The class is working on learning their phone numbers (they even made "cell phones"). So Pete and I are going to start practicing with Clifford. Hopefully he'll get the hang of it. During the last few weeks both boys' classes have been learning about the season of winter, winter animals (polar bears, penguins, etc) and careers. Last week the boys took there favorite stuff animal and became "veterinarians" for the day. On another day, Clifford's class loved being "letter" detectives, and had fun discussing their "clues" over "coffee" and donuts. Here's some pics of their recent projects.

A Great Weekend

Last Thursday our good friend Jolie and her three kids (Joanna, Jaclyn and Jayden) came to visit and stay with us until Sunday. When we lived in Ellensburg we were each other's backyard neighbor. Our kids have played with each other since they were babies. Joanna had a preschool field trip to the Seattle's Children Museum on Friday. So Jolie took her and Clifford on the field trip while I took her two youngest and Kristjan. Clifford had lots of fun with Jolie and Joanna. I decided to be brave and ran errands and grocery shopped with three kids 3 and under. That was exhausting! Lets just say I was ready to drop by the time we got home!! We all had fun visiting and keeping the kids busy with swimming and tons of playing.