busy, busy, busy

I promise I'll get back to this, but it might be a while, our next month is looking absolutely CRAZY!!!
Here are the things I haven't found time to blog about in length yet.

• Oregon Coast Trip with my family and John's folks who flew out from Chicago. We didn't have great weather, but it wasn't horrible either. Some of the highlights included making sand castles, flying kites, bocce ball, card games, Mo's clam chowder, the Oregon Coast Scenic Train trip, salt water taffy and sea foam in Cannon Beach, an amazing mural painted by my mother in law for my upcoming class in VBS, and time together as a family.
• Having my parents up here while John was backpacking in the Cascades. They helped me spread mulch in our yard, we ran errands together, visited Gig Harbor for a day, and the Bellevue Sprinkler Park with a picnic.
  
• Emilio lost his first tooth at the beach, and then a second one this past Monday. He loved getting $1.00 each time under his pillow from the tooth fairy.
  

(Expect pictures later....sorry)

A few reasons why I just don't have a lot of time to blog

• the obvious is three kids to keep busy, and a house to keep up on while those said three little kids are right under my feet. :) the laundry pile is never-ending.
  
• I'm preparing to teach VBS all next week starting on Sunday evening. My church always does it up big with decorations so I'm trying to be creative, with little time and money. The theme is High Seas Expedition, so a nautical feel.
• Preparing to go to Portland so that Gabi and I can be in my friend Sabrina's wedding soon.
  
• Doing some crafts to get ready for a bridal shower I'm helping my mom throw for my friend Theresa the day after Sabrina's wedding.
  
• Starting to think about Emilio's 6th birthday party coming up in September. We are thinking of doing a robot theme and having each guest build a robot with recycled materials.
  
• Bachelorette weekend coming up for my friend Theresa that I need to provide some crafty things for.
  
• Need to shop for school supplies with Emilio so he's ready for Kindergarten.
  

The list could go on and on. Exciting, busy days as we round out the summer here. I'll be sure to take lots of pictures so I can catch up on here at some point.

Sun, Glorious Sun!

You've probably caught the bitterness in my recent posts about the S-L-O-W to C-O-M-E Summer we've been having. Well, last week God finally decided to shine warmth down on the good ol' Northwest. We packed a lunch picnic four out of the five days, we slathered on sunscreen twice a day, we filled up and emptied the wading pool in the backyard EVERY day, we went swimming in a pool, and traveled to a sprinkler park, and we got hot and sweaty and it was just perfect Summer weather. Here are some visual highlights of our week.

4th of July

This year we were invited to our friend's parents home down on a lake. This house was the quintessential party house......a huge kitchen and living area to entertain with, a basement full of toys for children, an indoor pool (yes, you read this correctly, IT WAS AWESOME) and a series of different balconies, patios and decks that overlooked the lake (and a boat to boot). Even though the weather wasn't exactly fourth of july-ish (not sunny) it didn't rain, and we all had a blast enjoying the big party. The kids even dresses up in red, white and blue attire and got to parade around and then have a boat ride around the lake. The extra bonus was that my parents were there to enjoy the day with us and help keep a careful eye on the kiddos, what with all the water around us.

a sandy spot

Last weekend our dear friends Mark and Ann came for a visit. They are originally from the Midwest, but live in the country of Turkey now, so we don't get to see them too often. Anyway, the kids adored their attention, and we just enjoyed having them around and learned all about their new life in another country. We also had fun showing them around Seattle since they had never been before. We hit up Pike Place Market (even visited the Turkish cafe there and got to try Turkish Delight and wonderful Baklava too) on Saturday and had lunch at the Pike Pub.





On Sunday, we had a picnic in a park after church, and then John took Mark on a hike up Cougar Mountain.

On Monday we all hit the beach, Alki in West Seattle. Although we've lived here for three years now, we hadn't been to Alki either and were so pleased to find such a fun sandy spot. We spent almost ALL day there playing in the sand (the beach was like a treasure trove for the kids, they collected shells, crab bodies, seaweed and rocks in their pails ALL DAY), building Crab Village (see picture below), getting in a game of Bocce Ball (the girls ruled!), enjoying an ice cream cone, walking around and people watching, and finally getting the best chowder for dinner at Duke's. Plus, did I mention there was sunshine? Yeah, it has been very hit and miss lately, but it was so nice on Monday that we actually all were sun-kissed by the end of the day (with the use of sunscreen). It was a great day!

matchy girls

My mom made the girls some cute outfits for the summer. Here are our cute matchy girls last Friday.




Cousin Eloisa, Luciana and Gabriela

And here are the silly boys, just for the fun of it.

Butterflies

A few weeks ago we purchased a Painted Lady Butterfly kit for the kids from here. A few days after ordering online we received 6 small caterpillars in a jar and the butterfly house and feeding system. We watched the caterpillars for about 8 days as they ate and ate and grew and grew. It was amazing to see how huge they got from where they had started. The kids observed them and wrote in little booklets we had made each day. Finally, the caterpillars crawled to the top of the container, and hung upside down in a J shape. Overnight they became chrysalises. We watched for changes for about 9-10 more days as the chrysalises became darker and FINALLY, butterflies hatched. We happened to miss each of the hatchings unfortunately, but the kids didn't seem too disappointed. Five out of the six survived, although one had a very small wing that didn't allow him to fly (a Nemo of sorts). On Saturday we finally let the butterflies go. It was so fun to watch the whole process.

butterfly books

names the kids chose for their caterpillars, don't ask me where they came up with these names.

Emilio's observations

Gabi's final butterfly drawing. Can you tell she's a girl butterfly?

checking out the butterfly house

some of the Painted Ladies (p.s. the red stuff is leftover coloring/tissues from the metamorphosis, not blood).

being very gentle

the first two Gabi tried to take out instantly flew away. She was so pleased that this one was happy to sit on her finger for five minutes before it flew away. She truly believed it was her friend.

Gabi and her butterfly