What-What?! Week of August 20th

So I spent all day yesterday sewing costumes for an SCA event next weekend.  I've made it through shirts for the husband and boys, and dresses for Saffron and me.  Still have three pairs of pants, some accessories, and then I actually have to hem everything... but I hate hemming, so that can wait 'til later. >.>

Other than that, the weather here has been pretty lovely.  I walked down to the county park with the kids earlier in the week, and we played with our Frisbee and giant bouncy ball.  The blackberries around here are ripe, and there are thickets fricken' everywhere, so we picked and ate some of those, too.

You can see the giant blackberry thicket on the right.  This also brings up the only thing I really do not like about this park -- you can see directly into one family's backyard.  We stay away from that corner generally, because they deserve some privacy.

Clouds

The big kids spent some time watching the clouds.

Mom!  Take my picture with the ball!

Mom!  Take my picture with the Frisbee!

What-What?! Week of March 26th

Yesterday, we had the tiniest bit of sunshine, so we took the kids to Lake Goodwin to play at the playground there.

I've never seen these spinner toys in California, but they have them all over here.  You climb on and can spin really fast if you have multiple people going around.

Pushing Daddy around.

Visiting with the ducks.

The views there are quite pretty.  It's impressive to see how much higher the waterline is than the last time we came in the summer.  There was one place driving to the lake where it was obvious that part of the road had been under a lot of water at some point.

What-What?! Week of December 18th

Snowed again yesterday, and then again today.  That's enough of that, don't you think? xP

We celebrated Corwin's 7th birthday yesterday!  It was alright.  We didn't really play any games, because Corwin would rather play with his gifts, and some friends had to go home early because they were sick.  So... could have gone better.  I didn't get any good pictures of him opening presents, because Corwin is just so wiggly.

Anyway, I made him a dragon cake:

Which he was thoroughly enamored with:

It was chocolate brownie with buttercream and a (failed) marshmallow fondant dragon.  I somehow botched the marshmallow fondant -- it wasn't the right consistency at all.  I tried solving the problem by adding more powdered sugar, but after messing with it for a while, it was obvious that I wasn't going to fix it easily.  So I just went with it.

Corwin is pretty excited by his presents -- he got a model tank and a model boat, some new Lego sets, an R/C truck, a Harry Potter T-shirt, and a Domino Rally set.  We already got out his model tank, and he's already had a miniature war with it, his army men, and his model fighter plane.  One of the Lego sets is a Batman one, and Saffron made a mini Gotham City to go along with it.

What-What?! Week of October 23rd

The name of the game this week is Halloween crafts. :D

Our house is now decorated for Halloween:

The husband and I made gravestones to decorate our front yard, with lovely quotes like "Oops", and "What?", and "Are you still serving breakfast?".

We also bought the kids some Halloween door hangers, which they had a good time coloring.

I only have a picture of Saffron's finished one, though?

Michael's Weekly Kid's Craft

Every week, Michael's does a kids craft event with holiday themed crafts.  We've never gone before, so it was new to us.  This week was yarn ghosts, and the kids also colored pictures of their costumes while they waited for the hot glue gun to warm up:

I love Ozzy's potato people.  So cute!

"BOOOoooooooooOOOOOOOOooooooo"

Corwin's has big BIG teeth.

Osric decided to color blood on the mouth of his ghost, to make it extra-spooky!

What-What?! Week of September 11th

This last week was pretty quiet -- it was nice to only have to work four days, though.  We never made it to a park or out hiking, but we have cleaned out closets in the anticipation of upcoming birthdays.  So it's nice to have less stuff, anyway.

Yesterday, I taught the big kids how to make breaded lizards:

(From left to right): Mine, Saffron's, and Corwin's

Saffron had some trouble figuring out how the beading part worked, but Corwin got it surprisingly fast.  He was looking at mine and using it as a pattern without me having to tell him what to do.

They want to make more today.  I have a feeling we're going to need more pony beads...

What-What?! Week of September 4th

Last weekend, we went to the Mukilteo Lighthouse and played at the beach there.

 

View of the ferry from the lighthouse area.

Ozzy refused to be in the picture with everyone else.

The lighthouse itself.

Some history.

There was a giant triangle that all the kids rang.  It was horrendously loud.

Then we went and played at the beach.

Building some sand castles -- these were more like mounds, since the sand here was very rocky, it didn't keep it's shape well at all.

The kids all had a good time, though.

Building stuff with Osric.

There was a rock out in the water that both the big kids stood on.

This is a great picture of Oz pouring sand on Saffron's foot.

There's also a playground at the beach, too -- so we had to play there as well. :)

A big totem out in the parking lot.

What-What?! Week of August 28th

This week was extremely busy; the husband's mother came to visit, and we hit up the beach, and we've baked and sewed and crocheted all kinds of stuff.  Not all of it is going to fit in this post -- probably beach pictures will wait until next week.

While my mother-in-law was visiting, she and the husband took the kids to the Freedom of Flight Air museum in the south part of Seattle (might properly be Tukwila?).  It sounds like they had a really great time, and the place is so packed with things to do and look at, they only made it through a small portion of the collection.

Learning about the V-2 rocket.

I think this is an original space suit?

Learning about Apollo 11.

Tons and tons of airplanes everywhere, of course.

Saffron posing with a replica Wright Flyer -- this was one of her favorite things to see.

The kids area had a lot of great things to climb into and explore.

The tiniest helicopter!

Saffron gets an idea how the controls on a plane work.

Investigating.

The air traffic control tower looks really cool.  It had a radio where you could listen to the live traffic going on.

Air Force One, conveniently near the parking lot.

Leaving Air Force One before heading home.


Next time, I hope to go with.  Seems like there's a lot of cool stuff to see.  There's also a reserve collection in Everett, which is far closer -- might go to that one sooner rather than later.

Next week, pictures from the beach!