What-What?! Week of November 12th

Yesterday, we headed out in the rain for a hike at the Saint Edward State Park in Kirkland.  The park borders Lake Washington, with trails leading down to the edge of the lake.  It was way more up and down than I had anticipated, and by the time we had finished hiking back up the hill to get to the car, we were all very worn out.

There were tons of trees with moss and these fern-things on them.

The trees were giant and very gnarly -- the growth in this forest dates back a century, so lots of older growth to look at.

This big mushroom was the only of it's kind that we saw.  All the other ones were little and white/tan or a shelf fungus.

Crazy roots were everywhere.  There were times these made for some slick walking, though.

Normally when you see a tree stump, the center is hollow.  This is the opposite of that.  Pretty interesting.

Saw tons of these mushrooms.

This is a tree that had started growing on top of the trunk of another tree, with the roots going down around it.  The tree itself is actually very tall -- it stretched up a good 20 feet or so.

In this picture, you can see all the roots from the trees -- this is probably the most we saw in one area that were along the surface.

Little stream heading for Lake Washington.

The view across Lake Washington was beautiful, especially with all the trees in different colors on the opposite bank.

Saint Edward State Park borders (or is part of? Not sure) a historic seminary.  This building is still in use by a local university, and was constructed in 1931.

It was nice to get out and see some nature, though by the end the kids were definitely done.

What-What?! Week of November 5th

Okay!  Lots of pictures this time, on account of Halloween and Saffron's Birthday.

This year, the kids went as a popstar, a snowy owl, and Santa Claus:

Corwin's costume has real feathers on the wings, which turned out to be more work than I had anticipated in terms of getting them attached.

You can't see from this picture, but Saffron's vest has little heart-shaped sequins, and she's wearing glitter makeup.

Poor Ozzy kept eating his beard; otherwise, this was an excellent costume for Halloween.  Warm, comfortable, and easy to move around in.

Sunday, we celebrated Saffron's 10th birthday.  It was pretty low-key; we did an ice cream bar instead of cake, with tons of fixings.  She got tons of craft things and activities like that; unfortunately, this week has been super busy, so we haven't had much time to get started on them.  We also got her some disposable cameras, because she had been asking for a polaroid-type camera, but we're not sure she's responsible enough for it yet.

This is the book that goes with a sewing kit her grandma made; the rest of the pictures I have from this are all blurry, though -- kid spent a lot of time going through all the different pieces, though.

Yes, that is Christmas wrapping paper.  No, you can't tell from this picture.

She was way more excited about this one than I was expecting.

This is a needle felting kit to make small animals.

Serving the birthday girl her ice cream.

You see all that pink?  That's all sprinkles. O__O

Bonus picture of Corwin at Starbucks <3