walk on the wild side

Today I am going to put away winter coats, hats and gloves. I apologize in advance if this brings on a blizzard this coming week end.

bossy boots

Amelia is a wee bit bossy. I have no idea where she gets it from. The other night Dale went into check on her before going to bed. He was rubbing her back, she rolled over, opened her eyes, looked at him and said "put on your jammies, Daddy." And then she closed her eyes,rolled back over and went back to sleep.

catching dinner

This week end was the start of the fishing season. Aiden and Dale went to Padden on Saturday morning and caught three fish. Last evening we went back out and did a little fishing and had a picnic. Amelia had requested a hot dog at the Starbuck's drive thru in the morning so we made her wish come true. Hot dogs for dinner. We brought the camp stove and had some fun. Only one fish was caught and there was a bit of squabbling on who would carry it back to the truck. Ahhh, the joys of two.

how to blow the perfect bubble

by Amelia. Wear your poofiest tutu and rubber boots. Pitch a fit until you get to hold the bubble bottle and try your hardest to blow a bubble. Get frustrated and dump the bubble solution all over the driveway. The End.

makes me happy....

those mornings the kids wake up loving each other and run upstairs to play Lego together after breakfast. Why can't every morning be this peaceful?

spring has sprung!

Yesterday was a wonderful treat. Sunshine and 70 degree temps. Makes me and the kids so happy. We headed down to the park in the afternoon and soaked up some rays.

carrot cake

This is the recipe I ripped off from Martha Stewart. My twist was putting it into a bundt pan instead of 2- 8 inch cake pans. Aren't I original?

Ingredients

Butter, for pans
4 medium carrots
1 cup golden raisins
1 cup walnut pieces
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
Juice and zest of 1 lemon
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground allspice
3/4 cup vegetable oil
4 large eggs
Directions
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Butter cake pan and dust with flour. Grate carrots; measure 2 cups, and transfer to medium bowl. Add raisins, walnuts, applesauce, and lemon juice and zest to carrots.
In a separate mixer bowl add flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and allspice; pulse to mix. With motor running, pour in oil and eggs; process until smooth, scraping sides. Add carrot mixture; pulse. Pour into pans; bake about 50 minutes, until tester inserted in middle comes out clean.
Cool in pan on rack for 20 minutes. Remove; cool completely, right side up.
Frost with your favorite cream cheese frosting recipe and sprinkle with chopped nuts and brown sugar.

the un tulip fields

Dale is a tyrant when it comes to 'to-do' lists. He is furiously working through his own list around the house. But then he found my spring to do list on the blog. He wanted to stop off at the tulip fields on our way home from Seattle. "We'd get two things off your list in one day!" I tried to explain that the tulips weren't blooming yet but he wanted to check it out in person. We found a daffodil field and he proclaimed he wouldn't be coming back this year so I better take pictures if I wanted to. I was a little peeved. Yellow is not my favorite color and the kids were grumpy and tired after a long day. After taking pictures for 30 seconds I realized I wouldn't be coming back to the tulip fields because it is impossible to take pictures of my kids where they are standing still, looking at the camera with their eyes open and not making a strange face. I did find a few pictures out of the 75 I took that I kinda like. Maybe we will return for the tulips....

Woodland Park Zoo

Dale had some time off work this week and we decided to take advantage it! We picked Aiden up from school early yesterday and headed to Seattle. We were able to enjoy the zoo on a sunny weekday with no crowds. Wonderful. I was surprised that the kid's favorite animals were the snakes and lizards. I thought for sure the lions, elephants and giraffe would be the superstars (they are in my book). We stopped to watch a Peregrine falcon lunch on a mouse with his trainer. She asked if we had any questions and Amelia asked if she could hold it? When we arrived back at our car we realized Aiden's window had been left down with my purse and Dale's laptop sitting in the vehicle. We are so lucky!

the case of the rapidly disappearing bunny.....

hmmm. I'm pleading the fifth.

easter day

Yesterday passed by in a whirl. The kids slept in until 8:00 which was our Easter surprise. We followed the jelly bean trail to the baskets. There was a little drama regarding a certain squishy lizard that we will have to try and fix at Target today. Then we headed to church with the Oscarson's. Aiden really enjoyed Sunday school but I think he'll be a little surprised that every week doesn't involve large amounts of candy, prizes and birthday cake. Next we made the trek to Grandma's house. We stopped and picked up my grandparents on the way and we (including the kids) had a nice visit. We joke that my Grandma who was sitting in the very back with Aiden should just turn off her hearing aids so she didn't have to listen to Aiden's incessant droning about Star Wars and Bionicles. She said she liked it, she's too nice. We had a nice visit with family, delicious dinner ( I did decide on Haggen pies {but I didn't like their key lime too much}) and the Easter bunny visited Grandma's house too.

easter egg hunt

Saturday morning we went to our fun annual Easter egg hunt. I think this was the fourth year. It's great to see friends that we don't see as often as we'd like. Everyone is getting so much older (kids not parents). Amelia is a chocolate fiend (I wonder where she's get that from?)and we had a hard time keeping her away from the eggs. One of these years I would love to hunt for eggs in sunny 70 degree weather! I had to include the only picture I have Amelia's Easter dress as evidence I did sew something for her. I'm going to have to wash it now and I don't have alot of faith that something will not fray or a seam will fall apart.

my soccer ham

Yesterday I took Aiden to his soccer game by myself. Amelia napped and Dale did yard work. I tried to get some pictures of Aiden playing but he's pretty involved in theatrics of playing soccer. Lots of falling over and getting tangled in the net. Here's a few of my favorites.