Joshua's Birthday: Olive Garden

After bowling, we hit our favorite family restaurant...Olive Garden. We had the waiters and waitresses sing to Joshua and bring out a cake for him. The food was great and fun was had by all.

Joshua's Birthday: Bowling

To celebrate Joshua's birthday, we took off to Bellevue for some bowling. I am getting quite adept at banking my ball off the bumpers at the proper angle in order to make strikes and spares. That is an amazing skill, let me tell you. I am not looking forward to the day the boys are old enough to get rid of the bumpers.

Seattle Aquarium

We took a field trip to the Seattle Aquarium today with our friends the Caswells. Dori and I had some fun adventures navigating the Seattle streets, and the kids had a great time seeing all the sea creatures. We ate at Ivar's for lunch...fish-n-chips...and then the kids each took a turn feeding some seagulls.

Easter 2008

We had a wonderful Sunday celebrating the Resurrection of our Lord. Patrick led worship at our church and it was a rockin' morning. We sang "O Happy Day" and "My Redeemer Lives" as well as a song that one of our church members wrote and Patrick helped arrange the music for called "Blessed Assurance." She even pulled in the chorus of the old hymn and it was beautiful.

After church, we had Easter dinner with our friends Jen & Dan and Dori & Keith and their families. Jen baked a ham and we all brought side dishes and stuffed ourselves. The men hid Easter eggs for the kids to find and then the ladies taught the kids how to make Resurrection Rolls. We all had a fun time together.

Orange Belts

Both boys are doing a great job in tae kwon do and love their instructors. They go to classes twice a week and have learned lots of forms. Joshua picks the new forms up quickly and works with Matthew at home to make sure he learns them in time for the test.

Matthew's Missing Tooth

Somewhere around the middle of March, Matthew's first loose tooth finally gave in and let us pull it out. We had tried several times before and nothing doing. This particular evening, I rounded up the dental floss, wrapped it around the loose tooth, tied it and yanked, and out it popped. Matthew was proud and announced the next day that the tooth fairy left him two dollars. I guess even the tooth fairy has to keep up with inflation.

Valentine's Day

Here are some pictures from Valentine's Day. Aunt Cheryl sent the boys some tattoos, and Matthew enjoyed posing with them. We also had a homeschool Valentine's Day get-together at a friend's house. Around 22 kids came and they exchanged valentines, decorated cupcakes, and made some crafts. The boys got another nice stash of candy.

Here we go again...

Okay, so I am a blog neglector! I started out with such promise last summer, and once winter came, I shamefully neglected it. Will I do better now that spring is here? Stay tuned...(actually, don't stay tuned...it could be a long wait.)

So let's see, what's been happening since my last post? The boys are already orange belts now in tae kwon do. Matthew lost his first tooth! We are now gearing up for Joshua's 10th birthday. (wow, how did THAT happen?). Baseball season started. We joined a home group that meets bi-weekly and includes the children, which has been fun. And...that's all I can think of off the top of my head. I will post pictures of the missing tooth (or actually of the boy with the missing tooth) and of the orange belt boys.

As for baseball, Joshua is on the Red Sox team and has a wonderful coach. He is busy with practices three days a week. Matthew may get to have his dad as coach this year! He has graduated from t-ball to sluggers (coach pitch), so it will be fun to see him bat this year. The slugger season won't begin for a few more weeks, so we'll know his team and coach later. I'll try to remember to post it when the time comes.

Hey...Where'd Last Month Go?

Wow, it is well into February, and I am so behind in my blog that I don't know where to begin in order to catch up-to-date. I guess I'll just start with the most important day in January...the 17th! We celebrated my birthday with a trip to the bowling alley and a lunch at Olive Garden. Later that evening, Patrick presented me with a cake he had baked and decorated himself.

That evening, the boys had their second tae kwon do testing and were awarded their yellow stripe belts. Here are some pictures of them that evening.

Other January notables: Joshua got to go on a skiing trip to Snoqualmie Pass with our friends the Hieberts at the beginning of the month. Also, a pub opened up in our neighborhood...just like ones we visited in England! We have enjoyed their fish-n-chips. And Patrick and I got to join the boys in their tae kwon do class the end of the month for Parent's Week. I wasn't too sure about it at first, but it was fun to learn the forms with them.