Inspired

I discovered Jim's Pancakes this week, so had to give it a try. Ryan was pretty excited to try it out as well. I think we might be having some very special pancakes around here from now on.

My Friend and Me.

Sand In Our Nose

We love owning the Prius because even when we don't have any money, we have a bit more freedom to do something fun with the kids. So a couple weekends back, after I spent all our money on crumpets we went to the beach - a kids favorite playground. We haven't spent a lot of time going to the beach...it's not quite the same as the Oregon coast, which we love - but I can say that we'll definetely be going more often now that it's only a couple gallons of gas. Ryan got to dig his big hole. Annora was reminded how much she truly likes that grit between her teeth, and Maddie learned to dive for a frisbee. Oh, and I got to sit in the sand in the sun an d watch my family smile.

Super Mystery Adventure Day!

I'd been planning on taking the girls to the Tacoma Art Museum for quite a while, but with cars breaking down and other life getting in the way, it got put on the back burner. Also back there simmering with it was their first real teatime, which I had been prepping them for with our "good manner's" mini tea sessions in the playroom. Since things finally settled down, and I had a full tank of gas in the prius, and my Mom was free for tea, I quickly made plans for a BIG day of adventure that the girls didn't know was coming. I laid out their clothes for the day, and made them hair accessories that evening. I hid their "new" special vintage dolls in the car and made sure to get up early. We packed them a snack in their new purses, and off we went. The art museum was a bit how I expected it to go. They were curious, but were not enthralled. But it was a perfect museum for my little ones. It's fairly small, with only a few small galleries, a nice selection of artistic jewelry in drawers to open, and a wonderful art studio where anyone is welcome to create their own art with available supplies. Maddie and Annora very much enjoyed the Chihuly exhibit - I think that for this age, sculpture grabs the attention more. I think I will look around to see where I can find some more sculpture exhibits for us to look at. We did a lot of prep with some WONDERFUL books by Lucy Micklethwait and some other Can you Find it by the Metropolitan Museum. We did get to see from very interesting art - and I wasn't really expecting it - and I wasn't really sure how to talk about it with my 4 year old.

















Do you see what I mean? That's what art is about though. I love art.

















































So, back to the car we went where their special dolls were waiting for them in their car seats and we jetted down the road to meet Grandma for teatime. Maddie had very good manners and enjoyed pouring her own child sized cup of tea from her tiny teapot and nibbling her ham sandwich and scone. She used her napkin and used appropriate words. Annora was...well, she was Annora. And Annora is 2. So, that's all I can say. Upside down crowns and eating sugar cubes and spilling water just happens at 2. But we all had a great time, and I'm very glad we could share our experience with Grandma.

I was going to extend our day down to the zoo not far away, but the day was getting expensive. At the same time I wanted the kids to enjoy their time with Grandma a bit more, so we found the gardens next to the zoo and went to smell all the roses. We also were able to see some baby ducks and a turtle in the pond!

And then...it was time for bed.

Boating Life.

So...Ryan's dream come true turned into a nightmare when we discovered that the transom had a SERIOUS crack. That meant that the back of the boat was about to fall off - and with no experience in fiberglass work or boat repair, Ryan was feeling rather desperate and depressed. But, we ended up being able to have it repaired rather quickly and have been using it these last couple weeks quite a bit (to the lake patrol's dismay) to tube and ski. Maddie seems to enjoy tubing, and Annora seems to enjoy riding in the boat, and we're all enjoying sharing our boat with friends and family. Boating on our lake has been pretty good. It's quick to get the boat launched, and we found the perfect park at the end of the lake that has never been crowded and has a great swimming and picnic area. BUT our lake also has a lake patrol. I think they flag us down every time we're out, either they can't see our lot numbers on the boat, they want to make sure we're owners and have registered the boat, or we're going too fast after 7pm (we're docking at 7:06), and sometimes we're driving too erratically. It's frustrating to live at a lake and not be able to use it during the best ski hours. I'm sure it could be worse - as the lake patrol was trying to impress upon Ryan last night - but it still stinks to have an old man drive down to the dock so he can yell at you to get your boat back to the dock. No matter what, the boat has been fun.