How a week goes by

We recently found out about a great spray park. Its a fun place for the kids to run around and get wet. Aubrey Jane loves it, Lilah prefers the little pools. See Lilah in the polka dots and that's AJ sporting the bikini.

Here we are still at gymboree. The girls love art class, they love all the painting!

There's not beach close to us, but their is lake Washington and there's tons of parks with beach areas to enjoy. So here we are at Newcastle Beach park, one of our favorites. You wouldn't believe how tan Lilah is already despite her 50 Spf. I've got a pretty good watch tan myself.

You always here me saying "we're off to factoria time." Well, here it is. Its a program put on in the mall for free by the YMCA. Its great, they do parachute time, craft time, story, and songs. The kids love it. Then we always walk over to the pet store then do lunch which maybe a picnic, cheeseburger, target, whatever our mood. Here's Matty our neighbor with Lilah!

1st Annual Crawfish Boil

We hosted a crawfish boil at our house over mother's day weekend. We had 'em flow in from Louisiana, 60lbs in a big Styrofoam cooler. It was cheaper than getting them locally believe it or not. We made it a mother's day theme with big signs everywhere with a picture of a crawfish that read,"For the one who's there in a pinch..... MOM!" Its not so easy to think up a crawfish/mother's day concept, but never fear, your great party planner is here! And Bill of course did all the cooking, it went off without a hitch and we hope to start making it a yearly event! We had perfect Seattle weather for the party!

We had crawfish games of course for everyone to play! Here's the crawfish race. Everyone really got into it...... cheering their own crawfish to the finish line! We also had a crawfih relay. I don't know if i've mentioned it, but we've got a great neighborhood. The Moores and Evans attended and all the rest of these folks are our neighbors. I don't know if its the fact that we moved into a brand new neighborhood, so people felt more like making friends, or maybe its the community park in the middle of the neighborhood that helps people socialize, or maybe its just the people in it, but we really love it and have made some friends we hope to have for a long time. And with me being a stay at home Mom, glad to have the neighborhood be such a social spot, previously most of my friends were all made at work.

Here's a shot of the table. It was quite delicious! Nice and spicy and the corn was great!

Aubrey jane loved the watermelon. And if you notice how her hair stands up.... it stands up like this all the time, The Moores said Bill's hair looked exactly the same when he was little, just a different color of course.

We honored all the Moms at the party. I gave a sweet speech about how specials Moms are, I had medallions for each kid to present to their Mom with their picture on it, and then I had all the kids give their moms foot massages and paint their toe nails. It was messy, but hilarious! See my friend Allison laughing as I had just announced about the pedicures ,which would be given by the kids, I love when people laugh so well.

For me mother's day is bittersweet. I enjoy the day so much now because i'm a mom of course, but I also miss the two wonderful mothers I was blessed with.... My Mom and my Nanny. Doing something fun for all the Moms at the party was a special way to make the day special for me. I only wish I could have included some other moms in my life who live so far away to let them know how loved they are on Mother's Day!

A little more vacation fun!

Here we are at the beach, Aubrey jane's first time at a real beach. In Washington we hang out at Lake Washington, not a true beach. But it was windy and chilly, she wasn't so into it. It was a lot like Lilah's first time at the beach!

We rented a townhouse for the week which made meals and down time much easier with the girls. Here's Lilah and her cousin Katie enjoying an after dinner ice cream sandwich from the rooftop!

We had spa night for the girls. Everyone got their nails done, except Mommy & Aunt Liz, though we had several offers for them to do it for us!

San Diego zoo was very nice. But I like the Seattle zoo too!

A little carousel time with Daddy!

LEGO LAND

Ahhh, the vacation continues. Here we are at Lego Land. I'll say I much preferred Sea World. Lego land really caters to a specific age group, I'd say about 4-8 yrs of age. Of course our girls got in free, so I shouldn't complain, but there wasn't enough for them to get to do in my opinion. Also, if you've got 3 kids its hard. Most rides were with 1 kid and 1 parent. So if Liz and Jeff hadn't had us to watch Lauren they would have been hindered too. Its a nice place, neat to see, don't get me wrong, you just have a very specific window of opportunity for it to be a great spot for your family to visit.

Here's the boys in the Lego Vegas. They can't say we don't take them anywhere nice. This was really amazing to see. All the details were fun!

Here's how we rolled for lunches. We saved money with a picnic and found it easiest to control the herd if they were all in the trunk of the van rental. You gotta love it!

One of the few things Lilah could ride, we rode it a million times. It was fun!

They had a nice water play area. The day started off cloudy and cold so I didn't pack their swimsuits, mistake..... so we just stripped it down and enjoyed it anyway!

Sea World April 2009

We headed to California for vacation in April along with the Evans clan, (bill's sister) and we had a great time. Bill got us back stage passes to see a dolphin up close and feed it, the girls loved it! Hello Shamu!

Here we are ready to see the show, we're sitting in the soak zone, i didn't think we'd really get all that wet...... wrong... we got soaked thanks to the guys below us wearing ponchos begging the trainers to have us splashed. We were the only section to get so violently splashed. The big splash came and everyone started crying.... it was funny and terrible all at the same time. Luckily i brought lollipops which cheered up the crowd afterwards quite a bit despite their soggy attire!

Here's Lilah just running and having fun. This one is FULL of energy. She's got enough personality for 5 kids!

Elmo wanted to see Shamu too!

Happy Easter March 2009

Yes, Yes, its been a thousand years since we've posted. I'm sure you all thought the blog was dead! Long and short we had 2 camera failures then 2 computer failures, and by the time we bought new computers, cameras, set it all up, backed it all up..... well here we are June 09. I'll try to back track some of the things we've been doing the last few months. The girls are growing like weeds and having tons of fun.

This is Aubrey Jane at Easter devouring a cupcake. She likes to just lick the top, but who can blame her?

Here are the girls Easter morning, seeing what the Easter bunny brought. My only complaint about Seattle Easter is it was wet and cold. Its no fun to sport long sleeves, tights, and closed toed shoes with Easter dresses, its just not right. And the last 2 Easters we've had to hunt eggs inside bc it was just too gross outside. But we made the most of it. At church there was a teenager sporting her Strapless Easter dress with long sleeves and jeans under it..... Spring is the only time that I'm not so crazy about Seattle weather, the rest of the time I actually like it!

Miss AJ w ith her basket, bring on the eggs!

The girls the night before leaving the carrots out for the Easter rabbit!

We had a big neighborhood easter egg hunt on saturday, and here's Lilah all ready to head out the door for it. This is when my camera stopped working. I thought she looked super cute.

What we are up 2!

The girls now love art projects, or I should more acurately say Lilah does and Aubrey Jane just tries to eat everything or paint herself. Here we are using some polka dot paints.

Me and my girls. They each love a little lipstick before they go out in the morning.

Lilah now likes to tell us all the time she doesn't feel good so she can lay down on the couch with the chicken pillow, a blanket, and watch tv. She really was sick one day with vomitting, etc and this is what she got to do, since that day she tries to tell me everyday she doesn't feel good. My answer is "you'll have to go to your room then and lay down," and then she quickly replies, "i feel better."

Lilah loves to push the little carts at the store. She also reminds me to be careful when driving after Mommy got a speeding ticket a few weeks ago. AHHH from the mouths of babes!

Love the puffy vests.... got these on sale a few weeks ago. You'll be seeing them in them when they are 4 and 5. I thought they were funny in them. AJ had a big fall down the stairs while wearing hers. The puffy vest either caused the fall or prevented severe injury, not sure which!

What are we up to

Bill has started building the girls elaborate forts which I don't have a picture of, but now they love to hide together in all kinds of places, here they are hiding while I wash the dishes. Its all monkey see monkey do at our house.

Hello trouble maker!!! My sweet baby has disappeared and been replaced with a busy body! Helping mommy with the dishes you think.... this one loves to do anything that can kill her..... electric outlets, playing in toilet, trying to touch paper shredder, climbing up stuff, grabbing knives out of dishwasher.... you name it!

They love to touch the ceiling, a favorite game with Daddy!

Lilah loves to dress up, play with her tea set, paint, play with playdo, and run around naked. Here's my little southern belle sporting her finest pearls!

Naked tea parties in the bathtub while mommy get ready in the morning... you gotta love it!

Happy 1 st Birthday Aubrey Jane!!

Here's our little angels on AJ's birthday morning, ready to celebrate the day together!No first birthday would be complete without a trip to the pet store, its practically like going to the zoo! And how do you like her new dress from Aunt Liz. I thought the birthday girl deserved to wear something on her big day that wasn't handed down from big sister!

Does that look like fun or what? We had the Evans clan over for a double birthday for Lauren and Aubrey Jane. We enjoyed sliders for the grown up, hot dogs for the kids, and academy awards in the background, we're first class all the way

Our little girl is growing up. She took her first steps at the beginning of her 11 month, but didn't care to step again for a few weeks later. We took her to an indoor play area at the mall, she slid down the slide, and got up from the slide and walked like she had been doing it everyday. Lilah and I were amazed! Its so cute to see her and Lilah walking hand in hand!

Anybody going to follow in Daddy's footsteps? This was AJ assessing Lilah during her last cold, what a thoughtful little sister! Happy Birthday big girl.

I have some astounding news.... Aubrey Jane is no longer a baby. We went into Babies R Us on the day of her birthday to buy a gift for a friend and it wasn't till I saw all that little infant stuff that we no longer need that I truly realized my baby isn't a baby anymore. My how time does fly!

Happy Tet!

book Here's necessary to get ready where we read Ten Mice for Tet while the kids ate their oranges. Its a cute little about all that's for Tet!

Here we are doing a dragon craft out of a paper cup. We also had a dragon parade. I made a dragon out of a box and red table cloth and if I must say so.... it was awesome!! I saved it for our next new year's party! Its a shame i'm the party planner and family photographer. No one took a picture of the dragon dance. I couldn't take the photo, I was helping lead them. I'll try to get a picture later of the dragon for you to see.

Since 2009 if the year of the ox all the kids made ox masks. So we also had an Ox and lantern parade. How cute!

Chuc Mung Nam Moi! Happy Tet!!

Happy Vietnamese New Year to everyone or if you're feeling really brave, Chuc Mung Nam Moi! We started our New Vietnamese New Year off right with a breakfast at Oma & Opas of ban quan (sp?) or Vietnamese pancakes as Mom calls them. Its one of my absolute favorite things she cooks, I could eat a million of them! Its nothing like an American pancake, think more dim sum or dumpling like with meat inside. Delicious!

We then headed home for our neighborhood Vietnamese New Year/Combined birthday party for the girls and our neighbor party. We started the party with a little coloring.... as any good party should!

We then educated the kids and grownups on the zodiacs for Vietnamese new year. Each person got a tag for what they were, Lilah is a dog and Aubrey Jane is a rat. Bill is an ox and i'm a rabbit/cat depending if you're talking Vietnamese or Chinese calendar. And I'm sporting a shirt Oma got me from Northern Vietnam on her last trip in case you were wondering.
The kids then planed pin the orange on the tree and got a cutie to eat. Oranges represent good fortune and health for the new year, or a million other things depending on what you read. The kids were wild about the oranges, you'd think I was giving away gold!

Here's the kids eating their cupcakes. This was the quietest moment of the entire 2 hours party! Lilah passed about red envelopes with chocolate coins inside for party favors! I think everyone had a great time and learned a little something too! As usual lately i'm having some posting problems. I'll go back a post a few more photos.