Silas Sweeps!

Hello! Hope that this finds you well; we are fine here! It has been very cold here today and there is snow on our hill; it looks very pretty but I hope it doesn't come any closer to us!

We have had a quieter day today and have managed to get  a few jobs done which is good. Most importantly, we have bought a new mobile phone for me, which is great! My old one packed up a week before Christmas and so I needed one for school emergencies mainly!

Yesterday we had a lovely final day with Pam and ken before they flew home; they were on the later plane and so we had all day with them which was a bonus! We went into Redmond and then across to University Village. The U. Village car park labels its floors with animals, which make the appropriate sound when you press the button for the lift; we had to go up to the top so that we could hear them all for Naomi on our way back to the car! Silas was impressed!

When we came home, Tim took the lights down from the tree and the remaining decorations and then we hauled it outside for Tim to chop up today. A large tree leaves a lot of needles behind and so Pam was sweeping them up. Silas wanted to help so we found him the little dustpan and brush and he was 'helping', which was very sweet! However he was even more funny when, after tea, he realised he had made a mess and went and fetched his little brush and started sweeping under the table! He is lovely!

On Friday we had a jobs day and we went food shopping and to Target to get a few things. The girls were at school in the morning and then went to a one-off Cheerleading camp in the afternoon, which they enjoyed! It was fun to watch their cheer at the end too. Naomi was very good and had strong straight arms and listened well. Esther was very enthusiastic with her pompom waving but cheerleading obviously needs more co-ordination than she has yet.

Pam, Ken and I took Silas for a walk around the Gilman Village area of Issaquah but we took a long time to go a very little way! He is only just getting used to walking outside and so is fascinated by everything he sees, so it takes a long time! He wears his monkey on his back which is like a backpack with a long tail, that Mummy can hold onto him surreptitiously! He likes walking outside thought and is good at holding a hand which is good. We also had a nice cup of coffee in a cafe too.

On Thursday after school, we went to the Museum of History and Industry in Seattle which was brilliant and I was surprised that I hadn't been there before! THE children really enjoyed it and the girls were obviously very photogenic as the official photographer was taking their photos! I am not sure what she is planning on doing with them, but she sent  a few to me that showed the girls playing with the salmon in the 'boat' area!

The girls went back to school without any problem on Wednesday, although Naomi's teacher has had to go on a visit back to India as there is a family emergency. I don't think she is going to be away long and I really hope not as Naomi is not keen on the teacher that has been left in charge. Esther is fine though. They have been playing well and were very cozy reading stories today before we went shopping.

Silas loves to copy us all at the minute and has been saying new words, although sometimes, without understanding I think. He has been saying "baa" and "moo" and "brmmm" for anything that moves. Today at church he was playing with the train table and was saying "brmmmm" as he played with the trains. I am amazed that he just does that all by himself. It must be a boy thing!

It was funny this morning at church! All parents of really small children are given a pager when we drop the child off so that the carers can page us if there is a problem. Well, Silas has now moved up a class which is much better for him and so he has been settled in the new room for much longer than before. However, after about an hour, he started to cry and was really upset so they paged me to come and fetch him, but, unknowingly to them, the carer had hit the "page all" button which paged every single parent whose child was in the nursery classes (about 20 people!). There was a mass exodus in church as we all went down to our children, getting quite panicked as we realised that we had all been called at once and so there must be a major problem, only to discover that it was just me that was needed for Silas and that the others were there as a mistake! It was funny! Poor Pastor Eugene must have wondered what he had said!! At least they now know that if there was a problem, then we would all be there in seconds!!

Well, I think that is it for now, I will write on Wednesday. Take care!