Day 151

Now that Mike is back in town and I have this great new stove, I am back to cooking for the family. I got a great deal on leeks at the farmer's market on Wednesday and I turned those leeks into Leek-y Chicken with Rice. It only took about 20 minutes to make dinner which is always a plus in my book.

Day 150

Today was a rare event in my life these days; baby shower for a little girl coming in July. One of the families in our Sunday School class is excepting their second child this summer. Their oldest is a little boy a couple of months younger than Aaron. So, if you know that Aaron is nearly 20 months, then the brother and sister-to-be will only be about 18 months apart. I say, God Bless your family and may you have lots of fun. One of the gals co-hosting the shower put together the diaper cake and it's just so adorable.

Day 149

Today was an absolutely gorgeous day that God has just blessed our socks off with. Not a cloud in the sky and shorts were definitely a must. This weather is somewhat rare for May as summer doesn't officially begin until July 5th in the Seattle area, but no one is complaining.

Day 148

The ultimate question of overnight attire: To wear underwear versus pull ups. I was getting tired of paying for pull ups, so we have been working with Andy on keeping his pull up dry, so then he could wear underwear. Well, after over a week of having to wash sheets EVERY SINGLE MORNING, I decided I was pushing Andy with my agenda and he needed to go back to pull ups until he was ready.

Day 147

MY NEW STOVE!!!

When we moved into our house four years ago, the stove was beginning it's downward spiral. This last week, it really started giving up the ghost, so we decided it was time to replace it. Mike did all the wheeling and dealing and we purchased a Samsung, glass top, convection oven unit. I love it :)

Day 146

I have started another quilt project for my BFF's little girl, Caleigh. The fabric and block design have been chosen for over a year and I am now getting motivated to begin the quilt. The colors are all based off the blue print second from the top. The colors are fun and remind me of sherbet.

Day 145

Today is the unofficial start of the summer season, but most importantly, our nation sets aside a day to remember those who gave their lives to fight for our freedom. Mike had the day off and we spent the evening with his parents enjoying a nice BBQ. I was inside the house helping my mother-in-law put dinner together and Mike was outside living it up watching the boys play outside.

Day 144

After four years of complaining about my stove, it has finally started to give up the ghost. Part of me is happy about getting a new stove, but we had first started talking about installing new hardwood floors and instead, I'm getting a new stove. Since Sunday School was canceled due to the holiday weekend, we hit a couple of big box stores and appliance stores after church. Shopping for a new stove is almost as bad as shopping for a new car. Hopefully we will make a decision soon.

Day 143

This morning after my yummy cup of coffee, I grabbed my gardening gear and headed out to the front yard to attack the weeds. Our front yard was completely out of control when we moved into our house four years ago. It was overgrown and you couldn't see the house from the street. Mike spent weeks taking almost everything out and we are slowly starting to get the front yard looking like someone cares.

Day 142

I am starting a new quilt next month with the quilting group from church. We will be learning a new method of cutting out a pattern and assembly of the quilt. My starting off pattern is the bottom fabric and the top three are fat quarters I purchased to add to my need of 30 fat quarters. Yes, I need 30 different fabrics and praise the Lord for my mother-in-law and her stash. I'm really excited to start this new project.

Day 141

Taco night at the Sorensen's! This was our cheap dinner night as I got all the fixings for taco's including the Kona brew for a great deal at Top Foods.

Day 140

After spending most of my day enjoying running errands without my boys, I headed over to grandma's house to join the rest of the clan and head to the farmer's market. Well, the little stinkers left without me, so I had more free time on my hands. I grabbed my camera and started shooting pictures of grandma's flowers that are starting to bloom. This has been my favorite one at my in-laws house ever since I moved to the area. I just love the orange, coral blend of colors.

Day 139

It's crazy to think this is the last week of preschool for the school year. The last field trip was an afternoon at Teacher Kim's house. The kids rode their bikes and scooters, got to see the rabbits, chickens and pigs, eat ice cream sandwiches and play with the parachute. It was a fun afternoon to end out the school year. Andy is the one in the red shirt.

Day 138

Our weekend of fun has come to an end and it's time to go home. We packed up the car and made the 10:20 ferry back to Anacortas. The ferry ride is nearly a two hour ride which gave the boys a chance once again to run and explore the boat. There were a few video games to pass away the time and Aaron just wanted to drive the car. That particular video game was unplugged, but it didn't matter to Aaron. He had fun driving the car.

Day 137

We have been staying at the Moran State Park for our weekend away of family camping. This park is fabulous with many family activities. It has many miles of trail hiking in various levels of difficulty. The hike we choose to do today was around Cascade Lake. It is nearly 3 miles and we walked about half of it. Andy was a rock star and walked the entire way with very little complaining. Little brother managed to fall asleep in the carrier for most of the hike. As we are walking around the lake, we come across the tree that has been growing along the cliff. It looks like a bonsai tree on Miracle Grow.

Day 136

One of the cool things God created on Orcas Island was Mount Constitution. It's 2,400 feet above sea level and the view is just WOW! You can see all the way to Canada on a clear day and back down towards Seattle, although not quite that far. One of the gals that was up there offered to take a family photo and even though it's all camping glamorous, it could just end up in the Christmas photo. Or not.

Day 135

This morning I got a phone call from my husband asking what our plans were for the weekend. This weekend was wide open with possibilities and one of those choices was going camping on Orcas Island in the San Juan Islands. The weather looks promising with sunny skies, so why not. We hurriedly packed the car, the boys and the dog and took off for a weekend of family fun.

For those who are not familiar with Washington state, going to the San Juan Islands takes a bit of time and knowledge of the ferry schedule. Luckily, Mike went online to find out that we need to catch the 6:30 boat or wait 3 hours for the next one. We made the ferry and settled in for a bit of a boat ride. The boys were troopers about the long car ride and were rewarded with some time to run around the ferry. I believe this was Aaron's first ferry boat ride as well. They really enjoyed "sailing" as Andy put it and I think the photo proves it.

Day 134

Forecast for Sammamish, WA for Thursday, May 14: 57 degrees and rain. Four year old who dresses himself: shorts and a short sleeved shirt.

When it was time to go to preschool, he slid on his rain boots and rain coat and was all ready to go. I just honestly had to laugh. It is way easier to let him dress himself than stand over him trying to get him to wear pants.

Day 133

Tonight was ABC's season 5 finale of "LOST." Mike is a huge fan and I have gotten into the show as well. We were invited over to some other Losties for a Lost party to watch the finale. My girlfriend found the Dharma labels for the food items online and had a lot of fun with it. Now we get to wait 8 months for the last season.

Day 132

We have some ground cover in front of our basement window that has survived the clearing of the bush at our house. I noticed that some of the flowers were blooming, so I went outside today to photograph the splashes of purple mixed in with the green.

Day 131

Ah, the Costco run. Tonight was our turn to leave some hard earned cash at one of the greatest stores out there. Our freezer was running a bit low and it was time to stock up. We let the boys hang outside the cart and walk around for a bit. Mike took this picture of mom with her boys. It was nice to be the one holding hands instead of pushing the cart.

Day 130

My favorite bead store has a Mother's Day event where women, usually moms and daughters, can come in and make the bracelet the store has designed for the days event. This year, my beading partner in crime and I were given permission to do as we wanted, so off to Woodinville we went this afternoon. We (SIL & I) have somewhat of an 'in' with one of the owners as we have been going to beadclub since the doors opened and we have a lot in common including the fact that all six kiddos have been born weeks apart. The owner gave us a heads up on the indigo sapphire beads. She had made a sample bracelet with the indigo beads and then realized their stock probably wouldn't last the afternoon, so she took the bracelet apart and put another one together. I decided I would do the indigo sapphire beads in my bracelet and here is the end result.

Day 129

Tonight I went out for dinner with a few of my girlfriends to celebrate my birthday. We went to Pallino for a casual, Italian dinner were we could just grab a table, order what we wanted and just hang out without having to worry about reservations. We had such a good time that we closed the place down. I am super blessed with the group of women God has given me as friends.

Day 128

For the past several months, the Seattle Children's Museum has had an exhibit on Curious George. Today was the second time this week we had gone as the exhibit goes away after Sunday. We were joined by our cousins and the two younger cousins are the feature of the day. One of the features of the exhibit is the front entry to the building where George and the Man with the yellow hat live in the city. There were two doorman costumes and my sister-in-law and I managed to get the little ones dressed up and snap photos of them. Aaron just cracked me up with the hat on sideways and totally wore it that way for a good 4 minutes.

Day 127

THIRD DAY!!!!

Tonight was the Third Day concert at Overlake Christian Church. It was so much fun!! A new band from Australia, Revive opened the concert, followed by Brandon Heath. All three were fabulous and I have listened to Third Day for many years, so it was fun to see them in concert again and also to hear some of the old school Third Day from when I was in college. Okay, that makes me sound old and I'm really not.

Day 126

Today it's all about me, as it is my birthday. I spent half the day in the car driving Andy to get his new glasses, to the DMV to renew my driver's license and finally home to do as I wished as it was not only grandma day, but my birthday. My boys took me out to dinner to the local Mexican restaurant and gave me my birthday gifts then. One of my gifts Andy picked out for me (with just a small, little help from mom) is the Vera Bradley jewelry book in the color Purple Punch. I will use it to probably store most of my jewelry until my jewelry storage project is done. It will also be very handy to travel with as I used to use small storage baggies and would usually have to untangle a few pieces.

Day 125

Today is Andy's birthday and what better way to start off the day than a visit to the eye doctor. Oh and we broke our glasses this morning too. Children's Eye Care is finally in their new offices and the room we were in had this really cool pirate mural. The boys loved the pirate room and ships to play with as well.

Day 124

This morning was absolutely gorgeous with a promise of a beautiful day, so I tossed the boys outside on the deck to play with Andy's new play-doh he received for his birthday. The boys had so much fun playing nicely together. I'm glad I snapped this shot from my kitchen window.

Day 123

How's that for a view?

Today was an absolutely beautiful day in the greater Seattle area. We ran a couple of errands this afternoon and on the way home, Mike wanted to show me this house he found for sale. Lucky for us, the house was open this afternoon, so we took turns walking through the house since both the boys fell asleep in the car. This happens to be the view from the front side of the house. I snapped this shot while Mike was inside looking at the home. It was a beautiful home with over 7,000 square feet of living space, a seven car garage sitting on a bluff over looking Lake Sammamish. I hope my mansion in heaven over looks a lake, since I highly doubt any earthly dwelling will be that nice.

Day 122

Nothing says a birthday party quite like cupcakes. For Andy's birthday party, the activity for the boys was making their own chocolate cupcakes. I have been wanting to make the Barefoot Contessa coconut cupcakes for awhile and decided the adults would want their own cupcakes the kids haven't breathed all over. The cupcakes were moist and yummy and were enjoyed by those who tried them.

coconut cupcakes....

Day 121

I spent the day cleaning our house for Andy's birthday party tomorrow. After getting most of the cleaning complete, my evening event was a night out with girlfriends celebrating my friend's birthday. Her birthday is actually on Sunday, but we went out for dinner tonight. I was chatting with one of my friends and realized I should take a picture of the menu so we could have a memento of the evening.