A few more days

Hello! Hope that this finds you all well; we are fine here and are getting very excited about our forthcoming trip to the UK! Only 3 more sleeps until we leave!!

Tim and I have had a lovely few days away this week; we went to Whidbey Island from Tuesday to Thursday and had a great time just relaxing. We stayed in a lovely little cottage that was totally un-child friendly which was wonderful! We explored all the art galleries in the little towns on Tuesday and Wednesday and went into the Premium Outlet mall on Thursday on the way home as it was very wet!

Mum, Dad and the children had a good time whilst we were away too; they went into Seattle on the bus on Wednesday to the Children's Museum which they had all enjoyed. Silas was apparently mesmerized by the bus and sat there silently for the outgoing journey! The museum had an Alice in Wonderland exhibition on which the girls had enjoyed and they had also had fun painting and sculpting in the craft section!

On Monday, the girls stayed for lunch whilst Mum, Dad and I went to do some shopping in North Bend which was good and then we went to Target in the afternoon. On Friday we went to ToysRUs to buy the girls some proper bikes, ie ones with only 2 wheels and stabilizers for their birthdays. We all felt that they needed the bikes now, at the beginning of the summer, rather than in October or when Mum and Dad next visit, so they have them to return to in April. I feel confident now that the girls can cycle without much in the way of help from me, which means that I can concentrate on Silas either in the buggy or on his own trike, which is good.

Dad managed to put the bikes together on Friday afternoon and the girls have been riding them around the garage a few times as it has been wet here. They are doing very well! Silas has now got a small basketball hoop and ball which he loves and really enjoys getting the ball in the hoop and likes you to do it too! When Mum and Dad took the children to the park when we were away, he was looking for a  hoop but there wasn't one there, but at least he has his very own one now!

Yesterday morning Mum and I were playing at airports and aeroplanes with the children to help them remember what happens when we fly on a big plane! It was fun and, we hope, helpful! Tim and dad took the stuff to the 2nd hand store in the morning and in the afternoon we went swimming. The children all did very well swimming and Naomi even managed to take a few strokes on her own. Esther is now so much more comfortable in the water that she will let go of us and swim using her ring which is good! Silas was OK too, but he is still not a great fan!

Today we had church this morning and then came home to clean carpets, thanks to Dad and dinner, thanks to Mum! This afternoon we have played and then Mum and I took the children to Target to buy the girls cycle helmets, which took forever! In fact it took so long that Tim phoned us to ask where we were! We were in fact in the garage at that point but still!

The next couple of days will be spent getting sorted out for our trip home; we don't have to be at the airport until 5:30 pm on Wednesday which gives us all day to get ready as well as the next couple of nights. We have at least finished most of our other jobs which is good!

Anyway, this will be the last one for a few weeks but we are so looking forward to seeing many of you whilst we are in the UK! Until then, bye for now!!

Park Days

Hello! Hope that this finds you all well; we are fine here and getting excited about our forthcoming trip to the UK!

This week the weather has been fine and consequently we have managed to get to the park on the days we have wanted to which has been great! The children have had a good run around and have enjoyed games such as "What's the Time Mr. Wolf" with us all. Even Silas has managed to join in which he has enjoyed, although he prefers it if Mummy holds him as she runs as it jogs him up and down!

On Friday we let the children stay for lunch at school as I went into Seattle to have coffee with a friend and then in the afternoon the girls had their sports class. They only have one more next week and need to practice their bouncing skills as they are playing Basketball and are not very good at dribbling! After the sports class we went to the toy shop in Gilman Village, which has been extended and now has a wonderful large Thomas section.

Yesterday we went to Pine Lake Park in the morning which was fun but cold! I had forgotten that Pine Lake Park was always 10 degrees colder than the rest of Issaquah! However the children enjoyed playing with the train area and with Daddy! In the afternoon the girls went to a party and then by the time they came home it was almost dinner time. We moved our clocks forward last night and so are now only 7 hours behind the UK.

Today, Mum and Dad took Silas to the Aquarium whilst the rest of us were at church. Tim and I were at a meeting to try and establish what sort of family activities people would like. After church we went to Alki Beach, which Mum and Dad had never been to before and had a great walk along the beach, a play in the park and fish and chips for dinner!

Naomi made us laugh the other night; she was looking at the title in her "God Book" and asked what the word was. The word was "Possessiveness" and she took one look at it and said "it has a lot of "S's" in it!!". Silas has been amazing everyone with his talking and Esther has been chatting away!

Tim and I are away this week for a few days and so there won't be a blog again until Sunday. After that, it will be a while!!

Naomi's school

Hi there! Hope that this finds you all well; we are all fine here. Mum and Dad arrived safely yesterday and we have spent an enjoyable day today talking and playing in the garden. We also went to Target which was fun too!

The children had a long day yesterday with lots of waiting around as I had a doctor's appointment in the morning as well as having to take Esther to the Immigration office again for another stamp in her passport as she still doesn't have her green card yet! Then after that we went to the airport to meet mum and Dad but it took a long time for them to come through! However they were very good!

Today I enrolled Naomi in her new school for Kindergarten in September. We are not sure yet whether she will be there full or half day but all the paper work is filled in and she is officially on their roll! WE had a chat to the principal which was helpful for me and we are going to be able to do a school tour in the next couple of months which will be fun! My baby is growing up!

Not much other news here and so will keep it short! Going to bed now!

Mummy is a giraffe!

Hi! Sorry that this is a day late but we ended up having an old friend of Tim's visiting last night and I wasn't able to write the blog before she came, unfortunately! Sorry!!

We are fine here and are looking forward to Mum and Dad arriving tomorrow. Tim left for Las Vegas this afternoon having worked from home today, which was good as this meant that we saw him before he went away. The girls were very upset that he had to go away - poor Naomi was in tears but she cheered up when she thought that she might get a present out of it! To be fair to Naomi though, she did also say that we should buy a present for Daddy and the girls made him a card to take with him, so he didn't do too badly either!

Silas if course took it in his stride until bedtime when we came up the stairs and he started calling for Daddy. He was OK and went to sleep quickly as he was tired. The girls were awake for ages though tonight! I was not impressed!

We have had a few interesting occurrences this week that I thought I would share with you. They probably won't be in any order and so will confuse you totally but there you go!

Firstly, when we were at the mall on Wednesday with Lisa and the twins we started off on the upstairs boat, which was fine but Silas was getting adventurous and was starting to wander off and so we thought that we would go down the lift to the bottom boat which was more contained! However when we got to the lift, it just wasn't there!! We were most confused and didn't know where the nearest lift was. In the end we went to the escalator and took 4 trips to get 5 children, 2 adults and a buggy down! We started off taking my girls down whilst Lisa stayed at the top with Silas and her girls. I made sure that my girls stayed put and went back up the escalator to fetch Silas, leaving the buggy on its own at the top. Then Lisa took her girls down together and I gave her Silas and went back up for the buggy. Then I came down with the buggy! Thankfully, Silas was quite happy with Lisa and she took him to the boat to wait for me without him murmuring which was very good!

My hope that Silas would be more contained in the downstairs boat was short lived and he spent the whole time running off with great glee, especially when he realised that next tot he boat is a jewellry store that has pretty shiny things in it! At one point I asked Sarah to hold his hand, which she did but then instead of Silas being led by Sarah back to the boat, Sarah got led by Silas into the jewellry shop! Oh dear! At one point Silas got confused as to which twin was which and was trying desperately to take Katie's hand and she was not having any of it!! Given that Silas is 27lb and the twins weigh less than him (each, not together !!!!) it is not really surprising that it is Silas that is leading them astray! he could knock them over with a sweep of his hand!

On Thursday at the park, Silas was playing with a ball and it was fascinating to watch him. Suddenly, as he was playing with his ball, an older girl (about 8 I think) came over and picked up her ball. AS she did so, she started to bounce it, which Silas noticed and then he started to make his ball bounce too. Since then he has been trying to make the balls bounce when he has been playing with them and was laughing and laughing when i was trying to get the ball through the hoop on Friday when we were watching the girls play basketball!

Naomi and Esther did well at their sports class on Friday and managed to also shoot the ball through the hoop during their time. After Sports we went to Barnes and Noble to buy a copy of Northanger Abbey for me,  a birthday present for a friend and then went over to Trader Joe's to buy a couple of things from there too. IT was very wet on Friday afternoon and it was  a good way to spend it!

On Friday I was wearing a new jumper that has a diamond pattern on it. It is blue but the pattern is in black and brown. It is nice, I liked it but I was very put off it on Friday as every time Silas saw me (especially if I had been in the car or when he hadn't seen me for a few minutes) he pointed at me and said "arf" ("giraffe")! It was very funny and kept on happening throughout the day! Even when Naomi and Esther asked Silas "where is the giraffe?", he pointed at me! Oh well, it could have been worse - he could have called me an elephant!

On  Saturday we went back to clearing out the garage! I have not itemised most of what is in the garage that is going to be sent to GoodWill but we still haven't been able to get rid of the rubbish. I think we are just going to have to pay someone to come and get rid of it for us! The girls had a good play outside on Saturday morning and Silas enjoyed playing in the house for a long time. In the afternoon we went to a park in Klahanie (another neighborhood) which was fun but we weren't there long as it started to rain again.

Yesterday we went to church in the morning and then went to lunch with another English family who also attend. The family have 2 children, a little girl (Rebekah) who is in Naomi's class and a boy who has just turned 3. The children played really well and it was lovely for us adults to be able to get to know each other! It was a cold but beautiful day yesterday with wonderful views. Unfortunately, my glassed broke and I had to spend the afternoon without them before Tim managed to mend them! I went to the optician this morning to get the screw tightened and so hope it lasts!

If i told you that our clocks were going forward this weekend, I apologise, they haven't, it is next weekend but I have got so muddled up! On Friday I was reading the Issaquah Council information that is sent to all the houses in Issaquah and in it, it said that the clocks went forward this last weekend. When Tim was speaking to his friend on Saturday night, I reminded him to tell her that the clocks went forward but also (thankfully) suggested that she check with the hotel. Well, we then promptly forgot all about it and went to bed, got up and went to church (on time) on Sunday morning and it wasn't until half way through the afternoon I remembered that clocks were supposed to go forward according to the Issaquah information. Well, I was horrified as I thought that Tim's friend may not have checked and would've just moved her clock an hour forward last night! I realised that they couldn't have moved though as we had all been at church on time! I was so relieved when Tim's friend arrived last night and hadn't put her clocks forward and hour after all as the hotel had told her not to!What a silly thing!!

Well, this is it for now as I am tired and need to go to bed! I hope that this finds you all well! Bye for now!