There is still a duck in my garden!

Hello! Hope that this finds you well! We are fine here; Esther and Naomi are getting excited about Esther's forthcoming birthday party this weekend. I am hoping that it all goes well and that I don't forget to do anything crucial like make the cake!!

We have had a good couple of days here. The weather, although cold in the mornings has been good and so we have managed to get to the park each afternoon which has been lovely. I was surprised to still see snow on top of Tiger mountain this morning though! It is the end of April! And they were doing avalanche control at Snoqualmie Pass today!

On Monday, Silas had his 18 month check up which was fine, and then he and I went for a walk and a quick play at the community center, which was nice for him! In the afternoon we met Elisabeth and Amy at the park and had a great hour so playing there before it did actually start to rain and we came home!

Yesterday we did some shopping for Esther's birthday party whilst Naomi was in school and then the girls had swimming in the afternoon. After swimming we went to the park for half an hour, for Silas really as otherwise it is not much fun for him! In the evening, there was a vote for the Homeowners to increase our dues and so I was there helping at that for a couple of hours. Unfortunately, there weren't enough people so we have to re-do it again in a month. We were expecting that though!

Today, I met up with Ulrike this morning for a long walk and then we went over to her house in the afternoon for a play, which all the children enjoyed. The journey home was terrible and I was glad that we had taken a DVD for the car and that dinner was in the slow cooker ready to eat as soon as we returned home!

The children have been watching the duck sitting on her nest with great interest and we have discovered that we can see it from the dining room window which is good as we can observe it with out it being scared. I am still hoping that she survives each night and will be seriously amazed if these eggs hatch in about 3 weeks time! Silas is very funny and wanders over to the window and shouts 'ack-ack' loudly at it from time to time and Naomi goes and checks it first thing in the morning and when we come home from school or the park! I have ordered a couple of books from the library that I hope we can read and learn a bit more about it! There is nothing like having an experience on your doorstep to aid learning!! We shall see! It has certainly proved to be a talking point this week, although mostly people look at me as if I am daft!!

Anyway, that is it for now! Hopefully I will have enough energy on Sunday night to write and tell you about Esther's party!! Love to you all!

A Duck's nest!

Hello! Hope that this finds you well; we are fine and have had a busy but lovely weekend, although I could probably do with another one now!

We spent yesterday morning catching up with ourselves really and for the first time since we had been back, we went out into the garden. The children hadn't been out for more than a couple of minutes when they came running in to say that they had found a nest and that I needed to come and see, which I did. Well, you can imagine how surprised i was to see that it was a duck's nest under the tree in our back garden with about 9 eggs in it! You can imagine how even more surprised I was tonight to see the duck sitting on it!! Well, goodness knows what we do now!! I think i shall have to ring someone tomorrow and find out! I will be surprised if they hatch to be honest and even more surprised if they are not eaten by the wildlife here!

Silas was very excited by the nest and almost dragged Tim out to see it! The children had a great time washing the slide and house yesterday morning but came in very wet and mucky! I didn't even bring Silas in but stripped him off outside and put the clothes in the wash! After lunch, Silas had a sleep and I took Naomi to do a bit of shopping. In the afternoon we all went to the park so that the girls could ride their bikes and Silas could play! The girls did really well on their bikes and were a lot more confident but I am a bit concerned about Naomi's stabilizer as it is causing a lot of bother and I am sure is causing her to fall off now and again. She is doing really really well but I don't want her to be put off.

When we came home we had tea and the children went to bed. Tim and I did a few more jobs which was good! Today Tim went to church early to play the piano and I made a picnic to eat after lunch. We went to church and then had our picnic and a quick play at a park before heading back to Issaquah. I had read of a "Home Tour" in the paper that was this weekend and we wanted to see some of the houses to  get inspiration for our own! We had a fun time - we all enjoyed seeing the different houses. We then came home and had tea and hopefully the children are now all asleep!

We had our roof pressure washed on Thursday and Friday as the weather was good and now it looks very clean and moss free! It took the guys ages but the job is now done and they even cleaned the drive at the same time, which was an added bonus! The children were fascinated at the men being on the roof. Silas was particularly taken by the long ladder! In fact he likes ladders a lot!! There is a large ladder that takes the person up to the little loft area at church who works the projector and Silas really beamed at it this morning when he saw it and made a bee-line for it!! One day he will get to the top when I have turned my back for 10 seconds!! so far I have managed to stop him getting on the first rung!!

On Thursday morning, Esther, Silas and i spent some time at home and then went shopping. We had waited for the men to arrive to do the pressure washing and it had made us a bit later than I thought. We had time to do the shopping but not much spare; anyway, when we got back to the car with the man who was "helping out" Esther was dawdling badly and so I said "Esther move please" loudly and made the man jump and load my car up very quickly!! It was very funny!!

In the afternoon it was swimming and then we came home which was nice! On Friday I went to the doctors and then Silas and I went to the park for a bit before collecting the girls. In the afternoon we met up with Jo and Zoe in the park which was lovely! The sun was warm and we had a great time! Tim was home when we got back and the children were watching him play Rockband!!

The handyman (John) came yesterday and fixed my tap, but not before he caused a large shower! He removed something from the tap which caused water to shoot out all over him, the bathroom and the floor! It took us ages to dry it up but all works fine now! He was very surprised as it shouldn't have happened! Silas was watching him very intently and was trying to shake the girl's closet door just like he had seen John do! It was very funny!

Well, that is it for now! The weather has turned again but it is wet and warm now which is good! Hopefully it will be nice next weekend as it is Esther's birthday party! until Wednesday, lots of love!

Warming up...

Hello! I hope that this finds you all well and enjoying  the spring! We are fine here and have been enjoying slightly warmer weather these last 2 days. We have even seen the sun which was good!

The children have had a lovely afternoon today playing with their friends at the park. I was watching them all (Naomi, Esther, Silas, Fritzi, Felix, Caitlin and Cameron) and was smiling at how well they were all playing and the fact that when we all first knew each other there was only Naomi, Esther, Fritzi and Caitlin and Esther was smaller than Silas is now! It is good to remember sometimes how far we have come and certainly all our boys are a good, if mischievous, addition to the group!

Esther and Caitlin invented a mad game this afternoon whereby they would sit on the towel together and then they whizzed down at such speed that they flew off the end onto the bark! It was drying and polishing the slide all at the same time!

We also went to the park yesterday after swimming and the girls took their bikes to Tibbetts Valley at the bottom of the hill. It was a little difficult trying to keep Silas and the girls going at the same time but we managed for a short time. The girls were a bit nervous as they hadn't ridden their new bikes for some time and they are both bigger bikes than the ones they were riding in England but they did manage sort of! I think I will try to go with Tim as a general rule but as the girls get more confident then it will be possible for me to take them on my own. I will get good at Bike DIY I think as Esther's handlebars needed tightening and so did Naomi's stabilisers!

The girls enjoyed their swimming yesterday too and Naomi got to jump in which she likes the most!! There are only a few in the pool at a time with one teacher and they have to stand fairly still until it is their turn to do something, then the teacher will hold them. Esther gets so cold in the half an hour that she can barely walk to the end of the pool to get dried off but she is soon under the shower and in dry clothes so it is not too bad. Hopefully when she starts to swim more on her own she will be warmer or I will have to investigate her wearing a wet suit! So far she seems to enjoy it though but I will keep checking that she does. I can always cancel the next session if she wants me too.

In the mornings this week, Silas and I have walked a couple of times, this morning with Ulrike and yesterday we all went to Costco which was good! Silas and Esther do quite well in Costco because there is so much to see and lots of "trying food" for them too, so it works quite well!

This morning the insurance man came and assessed the  work that needed to be done as a result of our leakage whilst we were away. I was astonished that he then left me a cheque there and then and told me that he would reimburse us if there were any more expenses! Now we have to find someone to do the work although we also need to wait a few weeks to let it dry out fully!

On Monday evening Tim went to a meeting for parents whose children are starting Kindergarten, which was useful and we were also delighted to hear that Naomi will be going to Kindergarten for the full day in September. I was so pleased!

The children are struggling a bit this week! I think the novelty of being at home has worn off and they are finding it hard to readjust; never  mind, they will be fine! Naomi has been finding it hard when she gets thwarted or frustrated and Silas has been a right pain at the dinner table and throwing food on the floor. Esther has her moments as usual!!

On the positive side, Esther and I had some lovely stories today, including My Naughty Little Sister, and Naomi has had fun with me starting to make a bag that Aunty Hannah bought her when we were in England. Silas has also been funny with the new words and has been shouting them out when he hears them on the Cd in the car!! So we had lots of "BA" (bear) and "poo" (pooh) this afternoon when we were listening to Winnie the Pooh. We also had "bee" as well and so he was very happy!

Anyway, that is all for now! Will write on Sunday again!

April 20th: Snow!!!

Yes! I kid you not! We woke up yesterday and today with snow on the roofs, on cars left outside and on the grass. In some parts it didn't clear all day either and so it has been cold. Apparently it hasn't been this cold in Seattle since 1976! So there you go!! So much for me saying to the girls that when we returned to Seattle the weather would be getting better and we would be able to go to the park and it would be warmer!!

WE have finished the week better than we started it although I am still tired and a bit warn out by the evenings! Thursday was a difficult day as we had all not slept too well and so we were all cranky! Thankfully we didn't have to do too much; Silas slept twice and then I took him and Esther to the community drop in for a while before collecting Naomi. In the afternoon we had swimming again which was good and then we came home and had tea.

Thankfully we all slept fairly well on Thursday night and so Friday was  a much better day. The girls went to school and Silas and I stayed at home to let in the man to fix our leak. Once he had gone it was more or less time to collect the girls and we called in at the shops on the way home to pick up some milk and bits from Safeway.

Over lunch time, a man came to give us a quote on having a new furnace installed and he was with us a while. After he went and Silas had woke up, I looked at the website for the inflatable place not far from here to find out if there was a session on that afternoon. Well, it was 2:25 and I discovered that the session started at 2:30, which was a surprise as it is usually later on. Anyway, for once the girls got out the door in super fast time and we were there by 2:45! 45 minutes is usually plenty as they run around and bounce like mad and are tired out by the end!

The children all had a great time and for the first time, Silas was really able to enjoy it, but I had to be with him. The girls were brilliant at including him in their bouncing and they were all laying on the floor giggling like mad at several points, which was fun to watch! I was proud of the way the girls looked after Silas and it was great that they could all enjoy something together!

When we came home, we made some cookies, as I had promised the girls that we would do that before knowing about the bouncy session. Silas watched and helped a bit but he wasn't interested for all that long which was good! He had fun playing with the spoon and cup which was good enough! The girls were very good though and are learning to be quite careful cooks although they still like licking the bowl best of all (well,  who doesn't?).

Yesterday we went shopping to Redmond as we had a voucher from Eddie Bauer that expired, which we wanted to use! We had lunch out at a great place and then went to Borders Book store for a read and a browse before coming home. Today we went to church and it was lovely to catch up with friends before coming home and catching up with a few things here!

Silas has been very communicative this week and has been shaking or nodding his head appropriately when he is asked a question! He is definitely talking more too and points out things that he sees (like dogs or buses) as we are driving along. He was very concerned about the snow yesterday morning - even he knew it was bizarre to have snow in April!!

The girls have been enjoying their fairy story books at bed time and wait excitedly for the next installment each night! Tim and I are slightly horrified that there are 80 in this series and hope that the girls don't want them all! Silas has been enjoying his books on planes and trains but is not interested at all in the others in the series (trucks, fire engines and diggers) which is a surprise! Silas loves making up his jigsaw bus each day and it has been made several times by all of  us so far this week!

Naomi was making us laugh this afternoon by speaking, singing and laughing into the microphone that comes with Tim's rock band game. Well, it does actually amplify her voice and so she has been pretending to be spooky and she does sound very funny!

Well, I have a huge pile of ironing to do so I must end it here! Will write this week, sometime but it may not be Wednesday! Take care!

Returned to Issaquah

Hello! This is going to be a fairly short blog as I am only half awake! We returned to Issaquah on Monday evening after a good flight home from London. The children were very good and even slept for some of it, which was nice!

We are obviously all a bit jet lagged and are waking up early but hopefully we will be feeling better in the next couple of days! We have managed to have a normal couple of days though, which is good. Naomi and Esther started their swimming lessons yesterday and will have them twice a week for the next 10 weeks! It seems to be a good set up with a teacher having 5 pupils. The girls are looking forward to going tomorrow.

The girls went to School today and this afternoon we met up with Ulrike and the children at the park which was good fun! It was certainly good to see them again! We may even have a weekend away all together in May if it all works out, which would be fun too!

All the children have been enjoying being at home again and playing with their toys. Silas loves the bus jigsaw that Mum and Dad brought out with them in March and we have made it several times already! The girls have played a bit with their toys but have also done a lot of colouring.

Silas was a pickle this morning when I was attempting to unpack the suitcases. He found a small bag of chocolate eggs in the suitcase and then proceeded to stuff it down the shower drain! I managed to fish it out thankfully but really, I only turned my back for a second! He was also playing with the washing basket this morning which then went bump down the stairs. He was really impressed with this and then went about finding other things that could go bump down the stairs, which I was not as happy about! He is so cheeky!

I took the girls to see the chiropractor this morning as they were both complaining of stiff necks and Esther had obviously enjoyed it as she told me this afternoon that she had now hurt her shoulder and needed to see the "kipractor" again!

Well, I am about finished! Will write on Sunday! Love to you all!