Big Air!!!!!

My girl wants to party all the time!

This weekend we celebrated our little girl's 3rd birthday, with a Hello Kitty themed party, with "Dizzy's Tumblebus" as the big entertainment. Mackenzie was so excited to see the house all decked out in Hello Kitty decor, with the color pink splashed around generously.

I bought pink roses for my little girl. She was SO excited!

Hello Kitty balloon bouquet and pink utensils, plates and cups

Kenzie's actual birthday is today (July 27th), and we will be having family over to celebrate and open presents, but this weekend was all about partying with her friends. For entertainment, Kenzie opted for "Dizzie's Tumblebus", which is exactly what it sounds like: a big party on wheels. This magical school bus rolled up 15 minutes into the party, parked in front of our house, and all the kids excitedly hopped on for 2 hours of bouncing, climbing, spinning, and general all around monkeying around. At the end, they all received hard-earned gold medals, which was very exciting to Mackenzie (be on the look out for a future blog post where I transcribed her musings on the gold medals while she was in bed trying to fall asleep that night).

Looking out the window as Dizzie's Tumblebus pulls up

Party on wheels!

Kenzie and friends awaiting their instructions

so excited!

Monkey bars
Parallel bars
"Dizzy spinning"
Gold medalist!

After all of the goofing around, it was cake and presents time. Mackenzie's friends gave very thoughtful presents, and she has been enjoying all of them for the past couple of days. Thanks everyone for coming!!

Finally, later in the day, while playing with Jackson and Mackenzie in the backyard, we heard the siren song of the ice cream man, and went running to the front yard to pick out some cold treats. Jackson picked a snow cone and Kenzie got a popsicle... two perfect treats for a hot Sammamish afternoon.

Ballerina belle

Kenzie's eagerly anticipated ballet debut has finally transpired, with a short ballet "camp" last week. We were mildly apprehensive that she might exhibit her own version of stage fright, which loosely translated means "I perform on my own terms, not yours". However, we were delighted to find that she took to it like a mouse in a cheese factory. As always, we are so proud. She was the tiniest ballerina in the group, but her personality shone brightly.

In the fall she will be enrolled in a regular ballet class, which will be the second leg of our experience of girls being more expensive than boys (the first leg of course being her wardrobe & shoe collection).

Below are some pictures from her "recital", which consisted of a short run around the bases, with a different ballet move at each station. I will post a video of the sequence as soon as I figure out how to connect my new video camera to our computer. For now, I hope that these action shots will suffice:)

Trains and Automobiles... no planes

Last week we were thrilled to have family in town for a visit. Jack and Doreen (Great grandma and Grandpa) and Steph's Aunt Linda and Uncle Mike came up for the weekend, staying at Dave and Marsha's house and we made the most of the weekend, with the kids trading turns spending the night at the grandparents, and getting as much time as possible with their relatives.

We started the weekend off with Thomas the Tank Engine Day, up at the Snoqualmie train station. It was a gorgeous day, and the kids had a great time with their favorite pal Thomas, and riding the train above the Snoqualmie Falls.

The remainder of the weekend was spent at the grandparents house. Jackson had fun showing off his strength, doing his own version of a parallel bars routine with Jack's walker. Kenzie spent half the weekend putting her dolls to sleep and waking them back up. The kids were great, they had so much fun with Jack and Doreen, and they look forward to seeing them again as soon as possible!

And a big high five to Uncle Mike and Aunt Linda for their heroic journey from Houston to Walnut Creek to Seattle... all by car. We were all so lucky to have benefitted from their generous effort to make this trip possible for Jack and Doreen.

Photography tip #1: don't give a 5 year old boy a small sip of root beer and then expect him to smile for the camera while he watches his Mom drink the rest.Thomas tattoos!!Jr Engineer know her way around a Thomas trackAll smiles on the bus taking us to the big event!Daddy and Jackson on the train ride

mmm.... Nectarines! Little kids eating fruit makes for some fine photos!

Kenzie and great grandpa JackGracie and great grandma Doreen

Jackson unsuccessfully attempting to teach Uncle Mike how to play with his Leapster

Aunt Linda reading with Kenzie

Independence Day weekend fun in the sun

The epic run of tropical weather continues, and we were able to celebrate the extended holiday weekend in style. The kids continue to thrive in the sun, spending as much time as possible outdoors, handing out smiles and laughter like candy at a parade.

We filled the kiddie pool on Friday morning, put the slide, some rockets, and a couple of balls into the pool, and the kids knew what to do from there. Kenzie in particular enjoys getting in the pool as often as we'll allow, and managed to talk us into letting her splash around 5 or 6 times in three days.
Home-made ice cream suddenly seemed very American to me, so I ran down to Target and came back with an ice cream maker and demands for my family that they make me some cookies and cream ice cream. Thankfully they are always happy to indulge my whims.

Jackson requested a home fireworks show, and there is a huge fireworks stand just down the road from our house, so I took him down Friday morning and picked up a big ole mess of fireworks. I think I've decided I want to work in marketing for a fireworks company some day, after seeing Jackson's excitement and wonder as I read the names and descriptions of the various fireworks. Old Glory, Spinning Panda, Purple Rain, Monster Truck, Morning Glory, and parachutes were fan favorites.

Below, Jackson holds a sparkler for the first time (Morning Glory). Not pictured: Steph, wearing a very forced, very fake smile as Jackson does his own version of a Hawaiian fire dance.Smokey's endless summer continues. He has taken to starting his days with a nice sunny nap in the bark in our back yard. He has never been happier in his life than this summer.

Jackson had a picture perfect 5th birthday, which was timed nicely, one day after Kenzie declared that she was going to start being nice to Jackson when he turned five.

Jackson got everything he wanted for his birthday, including lots of Star Wars stuff (now that he has let us know that he is finally into Star Wars), and a remote control Pirate Ship.

He also got $50 from his great grandparents, which he is going to use to open his own savings account. We were quite pleased with his choice after a long discussion with us about saving money for important things down the road... that is until I overheard a part of his phone conversation with his great grandparents, in which he told them "um, I'm not sure yet, but I'm definitely not going to college!" I guess we still have some work to do :)

All smiles after getting his pirate ship Our patriotic little girlHappy Independence Day!!