Esther's Breakfast.

Hi! I thought I would like to share with you the morning events in the Sneath household. Silas usually wakes up around 6:30 and shouts "mummum" until I get into him and then changes to "mlk" until we get downstairs. Once he has had his milk we read stories and make puzzles until Naomi gets up and then I get some breakfast.

At some point in this Esther wakes up and comes downstairs and, once she has decided whether she would like square flakes or hoops starts to eat her breakfast. She has a small bowl of her cereal without milk, some orange juice followed by some toast or bread with jam. Naomi has the same thing and takes about 10 - 15 minutes to eat and clear her things away but Esther can take an hour to eat this. It is unbelievable!

She sits there, talking, telling me about her "dreams", playing with her teddy vitamin tablets (she gives them names, they do a little dance, that sort of thing) and, if they are not available, she talks to Silas or Naomi. I cannot believe how much she can procrastinate over such a simple task! During the school year, I have chivvied her along every step of the way to ensure that she eats enough breakfast to go to school. Once we started on holiday, I thought I would try a different tack, that of leaving her to it so that she realises that she is missing out on the things that Silas and Naomi are doing, but it hasn't worked. She is no better!

It doesn't matter that I tell her that Naomi is playing and she could be too or that Naomi is going outside or that Silas is having a story, she carries on in her own little way! We have been off for about 6 weeks now and there is no improvement in our morning! I despair and now have to work out what I am going to do with her once September comes!! And as for next year when she has to catch the bus at 7:50, I don't know!!

So, once all the children have finally finished their breakfast this morning, we got ready to go to Point Defiance Zoo down in Tacoma. We like this little zoo as it is small, set in a beautiful location and has a good selection of different animals to the one in Seattle. It is a bit of a pain to get to but petrol was so cheap down there it was almost worth me going!!

We went with Ulrike and the children and we had a super day! The children loved seeing the beluga whales, the sea otters, the walrus' and the polar bears best of all I think. Silas had a love / hate relationship with the beluga whale as he was standing on the ledge and the whales kept swimming up to him on the other side of the glass. He liked this except for when they blew bubbles at him! He spent ages watching them but buried his head when they came his way and peeked out from the side! It was funny to watch!

We spent the longest time in the underwater viewing area as the whales, otters and walrus' were all very active and we had such a great view! Ulrike and I agreed that it was worth going all that way to see just those 3 things, but the polar bear was good too. I had never appreciated how huge a polar bear was until today! it was enormous!

Once we had done with the animals, the children went to the play area and had a great time playing in the sand and other bits. The children had ice cream whilst Ulrike and I had a cup of tea and then we came home. We had a good journey really and were home by 6:20, having stopped for petrol and not leaving until 5.

Yesterday we had, in contrast,  a quiet day. It was cool and wet and the children went to the dentist. We popped into the toy shop afterwards to buy a present for a little girl whose party we are going to on Friday and then we came home for a late lunch. Silas had a long sleep and when he woke up the children had a great play at being "scientists"! This basically means mixing a bit of sugar, a bit of milk, lots of water and bubbles together and generally having a splashing time! Silas put on his apron (of course) and stood at the sink filling up things with water! They all enjoyed themselves and as it let me cook tea, I was happy too!

After this they watched television for a bit whilst tea was in the oven and then I went out for an HOA board meeting. I can honestly say that never in my life have I come across such a funny set of people than some of those who live in our neighborhood. We have had several bizarre emails about all sorts of things -  my best one of this week is someone emailing me to see if I can get a portable toilet (like the ones at fairs) removed from outside her house. My guess is that it has been dumped there for some reason and she has contacted the police who haven't done anything so she thought she would email me!! Because of course I can solve the problem if the police can't!!  Sadly, I couldn't solve this one either!

On Monday we did a bit of shopping in the morning and then went to the park in teh afternoon. Silas was very sweet as Esther fell over at one point and he went running up to her and pulled her up saying"ok, ok?"! Bless him! He was funny the other day too when he went into the men's toilet with Tim to wash their hands. Tim used the urinal first and Silas was very disturbed by this and just kept on repeating "NO" until Tim had finished!!

We are still planning on going away whilst the kitchen is being remodelled but I think we will probably not go for a week or so. The cabinets haven't yet arrived and we haven't yet got a date for the appliances, so it has been pushed back a bit! hopefully they will come in soon and then we can get started. At least it gives us a bit longer to sort and pack things this end.

Well, I think I had better stop here and finish the clearing up! I will write on Sunday I hope.

An Arts Fair

Hello! I hope that this finds you well; we are fine here and enjoying a quiet Sunday afternoon at home, which is very welcome. We have been at church this morning and I was doing nursery but we came home for lunch and to let Silas sleep.

We had a lovely day at the beach on Thursday; it was one that we hadn't been to before called Chism Beach in Bellevue and it was very nice. It wasn't very big or as nice as Pine Lake Park but it did the job! There was a small playset on the beach and plenty of sand! We met up with the other English Family from Church, which was lovely. Naomi and Rebekah (the little girl) play really well together so it was good for Naomi to have someone her age to play with.

All the children had a good time as they were making a 'lake' that then needed damming and they were at it for ages. Silas spent a long time walking backwards and forwards to the lake and back - I had him on his monkey restraint which meant that although i had to go with him, at least he couldn't go in very far! He was collecting water but since he was using a spade and spilling most of it, he was adding to the  children's 'lake' about a milliliter at a time!

Mary-Jane and I had a good chat and a chance to catch up as we hadn't seen each other for a while; we had a picnic all together and a walk along the trails before coming home. The children and I slumped in front of the television for a bit before we did anything useful - we were all shattered!

On Friday we had the day at home as my car was being serviced. Naomi's friend Anna came over in the morning to play and then Elisabeth and Amy came over in the afternoon. Amy came over to help me start to pack up our kitchen, lounge and play room in preparation for our new kitchen. The children had a great time and I appreciated the help.

Yesterday we did a few things in the morning before having an early lunch and then going into Seattle. We went to the appliance store to buy our appliances for our new kitchen which was exciting! We then went to Alki Beach to meet some friends for the afternoon. We had a great time with Steve and Amanda; they have a little boy called Corin who is 13 months. We walked along the sea front up to the Arts Fair and the children coloured and did some sticking before having their faces painted. We then walked along a bit further and had dinner together before having a lovely evening walk back along the sea front and coming home. The children were late to bed but went to sleep quickly, although they are tired today.

Well, that is about it for now! We are around next week but not sure what our plans are that! Until Wednesday then!

A Drastic Hair cut!

Hello! Hope that this finds you well; we are fine here and enjoying the peace and quiet of our house this evening as our refugees finally went yesterday morning in the end. Mind you, even that was a mix up as they were supposed to be going today but going out for the day yesterday but in the end their case worker arrived and said that they were leaving there and then. Well, no-one was prepared for this (Tim hasn't even said goodbye) and so the family packed up in a rush. As a result they have left some things behind which we will have to try and get to them. I don't know,  the poor family; they still don't have an appartment and are now staying in a Burmese family's appartment in Kent I think.

Anyway, they are gone now and I am getting the house back in order slowly. Tomorrow Angelica will come and clean which will help enormously and so after that we will move back into our bedroom.

We haven't done too much this week really. We saw Grania, Aoife and Hugo at the park on Monday morning which was good. Naomi and Aoife had a great time cycling but Esther chose not to cycle this time. She needs to go somewhere really flat for a bit to build up her confidence I think as she is very nervous about going down even the tiniest of hills. Naomi did brilliantly though and is very confident, which is lovely!

In the afternoon we met up with Amy and Elisabeth at Pine Lake Park which was good - Pine Lake park is a little bit spoiled this year as they are building picnic shelters and so it was really dusty and noisy. Not that Silas minded of course - he just thought that the presence of trucks at the park made it even better as far as he was concerned!

Yesterday, Naomi and Esther's friends Brooke and Blake came round to play and the children had a great time playing in the bouncy castle and with the sand. Once they had gone, Naomi read me a story and I started to sort out the washing.

Today I took Silas to have his hair cut. I took him to one of the children's places where they have fun things to sit in and where he can watch the TV as I thought this might help. It didn't and to make it worse, the guy cut it really really short and so he looks a bit bald right now. Hmm, it will grow as I keep  telling Tim (who really doesn't like it at all) and as he hates having cut so much it is better to have it cut very short so that it doesn't have to be cut for a little while! It is too short though! There is a posh barbers in Issaquah that Tim occasionally goes to before he does a big event that offer a 'father and son' cut but  I think it will be a while before Silas will be able to go with Tim to a place where adults pay  good money to have their hair cut!

The children are now in bed and asleep but we had a late night tonight as we all went to University Village to enjoy one of their summer concert nights. It was good fun and the girls had their hair plaited! Amazingly neither of them screamed and they both look really pretty! I am hoping that they will last 2 days at least before we have to take them out! We had to wait for ages so I am hoping that we claim the time back from somewhere! However, the girls made a puppet whilst they waited and we listened to the music so it was fun! I took Naomi to the toilet at one point and Esther didn't want to go but literally the minute she was about to sit on the chair to have her hair done (having waited about 45 mins) she said she needed to go! I made her wait!

I had to laugh though because the lady doing Esther's hair started to part it to plait it and it all bounced back into it's wild and wonderful way. At this point she laughed and I thought "aha, at least it isn't just me"! The one thing that they used that we don't have were these really thin but stretchy bands. I don't think they cost a lot and so I must buy some for the girls hair. I would love to be a bit more adventurous with their hair but Naomi really doesn't like it being done and Esther's is so tricky, I don't try very hard.

A boy who had quite long (but short, if you know what I mean) hair had his all back combed to stand upright. Silas watched amazed! He doesn't have enough hair to do anything with now though!!

Well, that is about it for now. I need to do a bit of clearing up and then go to bed! Until Sunday ...

An evening service

Hello! Welcome from Seattle! I hope that this finds you well; we are fine here although Tim and I have been a bit washed out this weekend! Our refugees are STILL here but I am hoping that they will be gone mid week! It is a long story but the organisation that brought them here have not done their job as well as we think that they should have done and so the family have received very little attention and they have not found them an appartment yet.

The family themselves are very pleasant but I am increasingly concerned for the grandma who has taken to spending long periods of her day lying in bed. It is not surprising really as she probably would have preferred to stay in Thailand with her friends and family I should think. Anyway, Mum and Dad and the little boy are very sweet and all of the children get along reasonably well! Silas and the boy fight over the same toy from time to time, but that is to be expected at their age. The boy is going to miss having a companion and two big sisters to play with and entertain him when he does move into the appartment in the next week ( I hope)!!!

Anyway, that aside, we have had a good few days. I took the girls to camp on Thursday and Friday, which they thoroughly enjoyed. Esther says that all of it was her favourite and Naomi really enjoyed the science and the story time with my friend Jen. On Thursday Silas and I took the family down to Kent where they might end up living and they managed to meet some of their friends there whom they knew from the camp so they spent a happy day there and came back much happier and animated, which was good!

As I knew that the family were not likely to be home very early, I took our children to see the Troll under the bridge in Fremont and then onto the Seattle Children's museum for the afternoon. They all had a wonderful time; it was such fun for me to see them enjoying themselves all together and then I took them to the Carousel. I can't remember if Silas went on the Carousel in England but he loved it! His little face lit up when it started and he had such a fit when I had to take him off!!! He wanted to ride again, but Mummy was mean and said no!!

On Friday afternoon we went to the park with the family for a short time before coming home for tea. Tim came home from Atlanta on Saturday morning whilst we were all out at the market eating (no, sorry, buying) raspberries, blackberries and other bits! I was saying to Esther today how proud I was of her because she is eating so much fruit these days and enjoying them too. She loves the raspberries and blackberries as well as the cherries that we have bought recently! It isn't that long ago that all the fruit she would eat was apple slices or apple pots! I know that I can't get these in the winter but at least she is eating them at the minute!

Yesterday afternoon, Melinda and Chad came round for the afternoon, which was lovely but I ended up going to bed for a couple of hours as I had a bad headache. I have felt a bit spaced out today but feel better this evening. It was a shame though as I hadn't seen Melinda and Chad for ages, but the sleep helped a lot!

Today we decided that as both Tim and I were feeling a bit off this morning we would take it easy and go to the park this morning and go to the evening service at church instead. I have never been to this service and wanted to see it and we thought we would also see some friends who usually go to that service but then they weren't there!! Still, it was a nice service, small and calmer than the morning one but the children were entertaining, which was very funny!

Esther cannot be quiet. Seriously, she has to always sing, talk or hum to herself at all times. Her teacher (at school) has told her numerous times (daily!) to be quiet and when we have spoken about it at home she says that she likes singing and only sings quietly! I have tried to explain that she will disturb other people but she just replies that she sings nicely!! anyway, this evening we must have told her 10 times to be quiet and not sing or talk to her dolls or talk about the book she is reading, but with only a limited success. At one point, the girls had attached their play Mobil to the thin metal bar underneath the chair and so I turned round to see about 15 dolls hanging spookily in mid air! It was funny!

In the end we took the children into the room set aside for babies so that they could eat their tea and then came back into the service at the end. However, our 'newness' to the service became apparent when we stood up to sing the blessing with the children (like we do at bedtime) only for it to be another song before we sang that! During this final song, Silas, who had got hold of my label with my name on, was caught trying to push it down the air vent! Then finally, when we were singing the blessing, Naomi stood over the air vent and was watching her skirt bellow outwards much to her delight! By then end of all this, Joy, Pastor Ray's wife, was laughing loudly! It was very eventful and I can see why we have a children's ministry! Having said that, I would do it again over the summer as it did mean that we had the day at home and got to church too.

Naomi has been writing a book this weekend! She suddenly decided yesterday when we were webcamming Mum and Dad that she would write a book about a cat having a birthday and so she did! She wrote it and then painted it! She is very clever! Esther was clever too as she wrote a little card to Tim yesterday with lots of hearts on and saying "to Dad, frm Esther"! She knows most of her letters now but that doesn't stop her from trying to write! She likes to copy Naomi so much!

Silas is fine and spent a happy 10 minutes watching the skate boarders today at the park! He is such a yank!!! He likes to be with Tim when Tim is around and was very happy yesterday when Daddy took just him to the shop with Uncle Chad!

Well, that is it for now. I am going to bed - going to do the ironing tomorrow I think! Lots of love to you all!

Ba La Mor REE...

is our little refugee boy's first English word! He and Silas (and his parents) have been watching Balamory spell bound most evenings at television time as it is Silas' favourite programme! Silas calls it "Baba" and is very excited about it! He found the Josie Jump doll today that Aunty Hannah had bought for Naomi a few years ago and was delighted with it! I only had to say to Silas at the park that it was time to go home to watch Balamory and he was ready to leave! It is very funny!

This week is the church camp for the older children and so I have taken Naomi and Esther there each day. They have had a great time and have enjoyed the science experiments that they have been doing in their classes. It is a bit hard trying to work out what the experiments are from Naomi's descriptions (with Esther's add-in's!) but I think it is to do with air as balloons and baking soda have definitely played a role in it!! What ever they are, it is definitely a high point of the day!

However, Esther is not too keen on the drama as it is about Pirates and some of the more dramatic adults at church have been dressing up very effectively as pirates, which is not Esther's cup of tea! She has been OK but has made it clear that she is not keen! It is quite funny though as one of the pirates is Pastor Ray, who is a really lovely guy and a complete softee, so the fact that he is scaring Esther is quite amusing really!

The bible stories have been about Moses and Shadrach, Meshach and Abednigo today (I forget what yesterday's was) but it has been a bit of detective work on my part to work them out. Esther told me that they had a story about a princess of a bad king who said NO but thankfully Naomi remembered about the burning bush so that was easy! Today, Esther remembered men going into the fire and Naomi remembered that they had funny names so we eventually worked it out!!

Silas and I have been entertaining ourselves in Seattle whilst the girls are at church. On Monday we went to the cafe and caught up with some people and yesterday we took the refugees in with us and went to the Fountain in the Seattle Center which went down very well! Today, Silas and I went to the park with another friend whose son is also too little to go to camp so we had fun together!

We have kept it fairly low key in the afternoons. Silas has been asleep for quite lengthy naps this week and so we stayed at home on Monday and Tuesday. I took our children to the park today but not until 4:20 and only for just over an hour.

Our refugees are still with us and likely to remain with us for a couple more days. They are easy to care for, in as much that they cook for themselves but they haven't received much care from the organisation that brought them here, which is frustrating. The family know that our house is 'safe' and yet they also know that they are going to have to fend for themselves in this world soon and to not know when they are going to be moving in or even meet other Burmese families is causing them some anxiety. Tim has written a diplomatic letter and we hope that something is done soon as a result.

Anyway, this is all for now! Will write on Sunday! Hope that this finds you all well!

Thomas the Tank Engine!

Hello! Hope that this finds you all well! We are fine here and have enjoyed a lovely weekend with our family in the sunshine. The family are slowly coming out of their shells and the Mother has more English than we first thought, so, although a conversation is not possible, you can talk about things and answer questions slowly and make ourselves understood. It is interesting to note the difference developmentally between the girls as Esther has no idea that they can't understand her and waffles on very animatedly to them about various things whilst Naomi has cottoned on to the fact that they don't understand what she says and is learning how to show them visually or to communicate through non-verbal communication. The boys just shriek at each other if they want a particular toy which is also quite effective!!

On Thursday and Friday, we spent the mornings at home before going to the park in the afternoon. On Thursday, it was just my children that went to the park but on Friday, Tim was home too and so we all, the parents and little boy all went to Pine Lake Park, leaving the Grandma at home.

Yesterday, Tim went to the Farmers Market with the girls, the Dad and the little boy whilst Silas was asleep and in the afternoon we all played in the garden. I had bought some water toys earlier on in the week and now we have something for the girls to slide along as well as a ball that you blow up and then sprinkles water once you connect a hose. The children have all enjoyed playing in the water, Silas looks like a drowned rat most of the time but they are all laughing so that is a good sign!

For the first time, we managed to get the Grandma out into the garden for a while yesterday and the Mum and I sat on the bench and talked very slowly about living in America, which was good! It was quite restful sitting in the shade watching the children run around! Tim and the Dad weeded the back bed which was good!

Today, I took the girls to church as I was doing nursery and we then met up with Tim at Crossroads Mall for lunch. Very reluctantly, Tim had managed to get the Grandma out of the car and into the mall and we have discovered that she doesn't walk very far because of her chest. Well, if you had seen the awful looking things she smokes then you would understand why her chest was so bad! I only half hopeful that they contain a legal substance, but I can't be sure!! She seems to be only smoking one a day, so that is good!

After lunch we went to see Snoqualmie Falls which was fun (the Grandma did manage to walk the short distance from the car to the falls) and then we went into Snoqualmie Village to see the Trains. We discovered that Thomas the Tank Engine was there this weekend and, although it is astonishingly expensive to ride the Thomas Train, you can see it running along the track. Also, we discovered that if you go into the Train Depot area after the last train has left (about 4:30) you can enjoy the other entertainment for free!

So we left the Grandma sitting on a bench in the shade whilst the rest of us went into the area and had a great time. The children loved seeing Thomas when it returned and we had a ride on a maintenance train as well as the children had a ride on the bouncy castle. There were also loads of Thomas Train Tables to play with, but we didn't get much time in there. All in all we had a lovely time and I am tempted to suggest to Tim that we go back again next weekend at 4:30 to do a bit more!

We returned to collect the Grandma at just after 5pm (about an hour after we had left her) and she was mad! She shouted at her daughter and son in law and "WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?" is clear in any language!! We apologized but to be fair, she hadn't been doing anything more than she had been at home! Anyway, she came back to sleep and was a bit better later! She is a bit of a law unto herself and is the one that is going to find it hardest to settle in I think. She will do better when she can find other women to sit and chat to I think.

On the positive side though, the Grandma was very excited about the washing machine, which I guess is because she is the one that did most of the washing!

Silas has been very funny with the family, especially when they are eating. He seems to have a sixth sense when they sit down to a meal and wonders up to them with his mouth open! He seems to have quite taken to Thai food!! Strange child! Yesterday he even got down from his chair when he was eating his dinner when he somehow realised that they were eating something! This evening he was quite sweet though and wanted to give everyone a kiss; something that took the Dad by surprise I think!

Naomi and Esther have been lovely at looking after the family though. Esther did a jigsaw with the Grandma today because she realised that she needed something to do! She is very good!

Naomi has been doing maths this week all by herself and has been adding up numbers in her head! This must come from Tim as I would never chose to do sums by choice! She enjoys it though and is very good! She said to me today, when she saw a speed limit of 25 mph "are those the numbers that mean Christmas Day mummy?" I was very impressed.

Well, I am going to bed now, so I will write on Wednesday! take care and lots of love to you all!

Burmese Refugees: Family 2.

Hello! How are you? We are fine here and our Refugee Family who arrived from Burma yesterday evening are doing amazingly well! I keep expecting them to crash but they haven't done so so far! They are chatty and cooking right now!!

This family consists of a Dad (24), Mum (20), their son (2) and the Mother's Mother (58, but looks about 80, not kidding)!They arrived from LA yesterday into Seattle about 5pm which meant that they arrived here about 7 ish. This worked better for us all and especially for Naomi who hates waking up to them in the morning; this way the children got to see the family before they went to bed which took away the scariness very well!

The family are very sweet and are settling in nicely. They have already worked out the kettle and the hob and Tim has been showing them the money this evening. Mum and Dad have some English and have been prepared well for their life here somewhere along the line. The Grandma is not really engaging much with it all but will probably not have to much. If Mum and Dad have worked it all out then they will be fine!

We asked after our previous Burmese family last night and were pleased to hear that they are also doing very well; unfortunately, the Burundian family we had last summer continue to struggle which does not surprise us, but we had hoped that they would be OK by now!

To my great surprise, the family have arrived with a Myanmar / English phrase book, which I really shouldn't mock as it is more than anyone else has come with but the translations are awful and very funny! The one that made me laugh out loud was the sentence "Don't scream. If you scream, we will kill you". How is that going to be needed in a phrase book? Are you supposed to stop the person who is attacking you and look it up in the phrase book? The other one that I can remember is under the weather section. Apparently the weather can be hot, cold or "daup" which I guess must mean damp! I am hoping to have another look at it because it was very funny but I think the Mother understandably was a bit frustrated at me laughing at her book and has put it upstairs!! I couldn't help it!! I am sorry!

The family are currently eating their 3rd meal of rice - they must be sick of it!! I am going to try and introduce potatoes tomorrow!

We have had a quiet day today as a result but we did go to Fred Meyer's this morning. This afternoon my children played in a slip and slide thing that I bought this morning. Basically it is a very slippery piece of plastic that has a tube with sprinklers on one side so it gets very wet and they slide down on their tummies! They enjoyed themselves!

Yesterday we went to the KidsQuest Children's museum in Factoria which was good and then did some shopping. We arrived home in good time and the children ate their tea before the family arrived. We then did the tour of the house and the basic introductions then too. I am determined to get the interpreter back again at some point in the next couple of days as it is not enough just to have one here for the first couple of hours and then for them to disappear again!

On Monday we went to Rosie's house, which was great! We haven't seen them for ages and so had a great time with them!

Silas was funny yesterday, he was standing at the top of the stairs and I wanted to give him a snack and put him to bed before we went out. I asked him if he wanted snack and he nodded his head and said "nack". I asked him what he wanted and he made his funny noise for chocolate! I laughed and said no chocolate but said that he could have a few little chocolate cookies which also resulted in a nod of the head!! Bless him, he is funny!

Anyway, I am going to end it here as I need to go to bed!

Lots of love to you all!

July 4th Celebrations!

Greetings from us all! I hope that this finds you well; we have enjoyed a very pleasant July 4th long weekend! We all love 3 day weekends very much! We all like the fact that Tim is around for an extra day and that we get the chance to do fun things as well as the more mundane things like the gardening!

The weekend started on Thursday really as the children and I went into Redmond to meet Tim for lunch. The canteen was very quiet, which was good and the children were very excited about seeing Daddy and drawing on his white board! Silas was so excited that he made sure that he sat next to Daddy and not Mummy when we were eating!

After lunch we came home and Silas had a nap and then we went food shopping. When we came back Tim was already home which was great! Unlike most Friday nights, I was not so tired so we watched a documentary on Barack Obama (the next Democrat Presidential Candidate) which was quite interesting!

On Friday we went to Kirkland to watch the Parade there, which was have seen before and it is very good! The children sat on a mat on the edge of the road and watched it with great interest, even Silas. Naomi was very good at cuddling Silas if there were things that he wasn't too keen on but that wasn't too often! He loved seeing the Fire trucks and the cars!

After the parade we had a late lunch and then came home. Tim and I did a bit of gardening whilst the children played, which was good!

Yesterday we got out the bouncy castle in the morning and got it pumped up, only to discover a large hole in the base of it! Once this was mended, I got it pumped up again but there must be a small hole in the side of it as it has gone down again today. However, I think i can pump it up enough for the children to use anyway, so that is good! We need to work out a way to get the legs down for the sand table as Silas would like this but the legs are up on the top shelf of the garage!! A job for this week I think!

After Silas woke up yesterday we went into Seattle  to go to the Milk carton Boat races at Green lake park. We had a picnic at the park and then caught the last couple of races which were fun. As the name suggests, the boats are made out of milk cartons - you sort of have to just imagine it!! - but they are big enough to sit on and then paddle across a short distance, mostly!! Some of them sink which is quite funny! I can't imagine how many cartons they must use!!

There were also a great many stalls giving away freebies so we collected a few bits along the way and bumped into a couple of people to talk to so it was fun!

Today we went to church this morning and then went to the University Village shopping centre for lunch with my friend Jen and her son, Ian. Jeff (Jen's husband) is away and so it was nice for us all for them to be able to join us. I bought a couple of bits in Eddie Bauer and then we came home!

Silas has been funny this weekend and making us all laugh! On Thursday when we were at Microsoft he was shouting at the top of his voice "head" "Head" and pointing and touching as many heads as he could reach! It was making the people in the reception area laugh! It was so funny to see how excited he got realising that there were so many heads around!!

Silas has also been very attached to Tim this weekend which is good as he can be a bit of a mummy's boy at times! Silas likes his routines and doesn't like it if Daddy baths him or puts him to bed but he has been better the last few days!

Esther made us smile this weekend too! I asked her yesterday if she had put away the DVD's that were on the floor and she replied "It's more like it"! Well, what that meant was that she hadn't done that bit but the room was tidier than when they had started out! Unfortunately for her, I still wanted the DVD's put away so she had to do it until I was satisfied rather than when it was "more like it!!"

Esther also asked Tim this morning if she looked "squisite" which needed a translation but she did indeed look exquisite!!

This week we may / may not have some refugees with us so i am not too sure what we are doing after Wednesday but tomorrow we are going to see Rosie, Caitlyn and Cameron which will be lovely as I haven't seen them in a couple of months!

That is it for now! Lots of love to you all!

Fizzy hands and feet!

Hello! Hope that this finds you well; we are fine here although my tinnitus is very bad this evening! Someone could well be blowing a loud whistle down my ear right now and it is not very pleasant! We think it might be due to the air pressure as we had a sudden storm earlier this evening. The storm was tremendous and our road turned into a river!

We are having a busy week this week and I am determined to be less busy next week! On Monday morning, I took the children to a park so that the girls could ride their bikes. I took Silas' trike and his ball and they all had a good time. Naomi enjoyed riding around on the path very much. Esther suddenly has become a bit nervous about cycling but had a short ride on the flat basketball court that was there.

I think Esther's nervousness stems from us seeing an older girl who had fallen off her bike a week or so ago. We had just come into our neighborhood and I saw the girl lying in the road with the bike on top of her. I stopped the car and got out to see if she was OK and she was a bit shaken and had cuts on her knees. My girls stayed in the car but Esther now seems a bit scared to ride in case she falls off like the girl did! Hopefully she will get over it soon and return to enjoying it as much as she did at first. Naomi loves it and so yesterday when we met the twins at the last minute at Central Park in the highlands, I took her bike but left Esther's at home.

Anyway, that was Monday morning and on Monday afternoon the girls both had a play date with a separate friend. This was lovely for them but not as nice as it sounds for Mummy as Silas and I spent most of it in the car! We dropped Naomi off at her friend Anna's home for about 2:30. They live close to us in Issaquah in a lovely neighborhood, that I didn't know existed! After we dropped Naomi off, Silas cried and cried all the way to Esther's friends house! He just kept on saying "Nay mee, Nay mee" and it didn't matter how many times Esther and I told him that it was OK, he cried and cried!

We got to Brooke's house and dropped Esther off there and by this time it was 3 pm. Silas and I then had time to go to Target to pick up a few bits before we then had to go back to Anna's house by about 4pm. Anna's Mum catches the bus from Seattle each day and Anna and her Dad go to collect her in the car, so I had to make sure that I had collected Naomi in plenty of time. Silas was delighted when I told him that we were collecting Naomi - it was smiles and cheers of "Nay mee, rayy (hooray!)" all the way there!!

Once we collected Naomi we went to get Esther who had had a marvellous time on Brooke's inflatable slide thing that gets water sprayed on it to make it wet! I watched them slide down it and they went so fast!! Naomi was cross that she hadn't had a go so we came home and they went out in our garden with the hose for a bit before tea.

Yesterday, Lisa phoned to ask us if we wanted to go to the park so we went there for a bit before going to see Fritzi at the park in the afternoon. Ulrike and the children are very excited because Ulrike's family arrive tomorrow! They are flying into Portland and Ulrike is hoping to surprise them by meeting them at the airport! They are going to the Coast for the weekend, which will be fun for them!

I went to my book club last night, which was good fun and then today we met up with some church friends at Alki Beach. This family only live about a mile from the beach and we were able to park in the children's school car park and walk down to the beach. The school is next to the park with the Whale Tail and Boat if any of you have been there, so we had fun at the park first and then went for lunch and then went to the beach!

The beach was great fun - it was quiet and the children had a wonderful time playing with the balls and making sandcastles! My children and I came home via the Farmer's market in Sammamish and we bought various fruits and vegetables there. I came home and put the children in the bath as they were filthy - Esther looked like she had been up a chimney and Naomi and Silas weren't much better! We then had tea and they are now asleep!

Silas has been coming out with a lot of new words this week - I think it is because the girls and I are around all the time. The new words have been "milk, car, more and baba (which means Balamory!)" He is very clever! Silas has been enjoying watching Balamory and this afternoon asked to watch BaBa which I put on for him. Next thing I know, he is sitting on the floor singing along, it was very sweet!

Naomi made me laugh this morning when she suddenly said that sometimes her body went all fizzy. I was trying to find our friends house at the time so it took me a few minutes to work out what she meant. She means that she gets pins and needles but wasn't that a lovely phrase! I liked that very much!

Esther has been looking at the Human Body book that they have and has discovered that the tongue has specific areas on it for tasting different foods. The one that she can remember is the sweet senses at the front of the tongue so now, whenever she eats anything sweets, she sticks out her tongue to show me where it is!

Well, that is it for now! We only have one more day this week before we have a long weekend, which is good for us!

Take care!