Thunderstorm art by Ava

Today was cozy because we had a rare Seattle thunderstorm. This is Ava's drawing of it....

Sydney on the bike

Sydney is doing such a good job riding her bike lately. She has been going up and down the street all on her own!

Luke's turkey bone

We tried out the relaunched Red Hook yesterday. Luke ordered his first meal that wasn't a kid meal.

The ZOO!

We had such a great time at the zoo today with the Blekens!  We ate some yummy food together,  played in the zoomazium, got to pet a bearded dragon, fed birds, saw owl skulls and felt theirs wings,  rode the carousel and got our faces painted.  We didn't even have enough time to look at more than a couple animal exhibits.  This was our first visit to the zoo this summer!

Backwards Numbers....

Ava was practicing her numbers tonight while I was making dinner and every single one of them is backwards. Auntie and (Family Dr.) Jen assure me that it is normal!  With Luke just getting a dyslexia diagnosis, I have to admit that I am a bit paranoid.

But kudos to Ava and her determination of mastering her number writing and alphabet.  She does this a good part of the day, every day.

Dog days of summer...

We are enjoying the last couple weeks of summer with friends before the kids go back to school. Good thing though because all three are looking forward to going back. :-)  I am wondering if this insanely good weather we have had this spring and summer is ever going to end.  I hope not.

The other day Ava told that she is "in love with Nicolas."  She is to the point where it doesn't even embarrass her in the least to say it.  Megan and I are completely happy about their plans to be wed in 20 years!  We call them "lobstas in love."

Our Visit to Wisconsin 2013

We visited the Boettcher clan last month, the week of the 4th of July and had a GREAT time!  It was the kids first time on a wave runner, BIG water slides and kayak.  We visited Lake Michigan and many pools/lakes.  Here are some of the outdoor fun photos.  Of course I took so many pictures, I need to break them up as different posts.

Ava and Daddy on the wave runner.

the kids collected snails at the beach.

My Salesmen

Luke has been wanting to sell things so this weekend, we made some mini muffins and the 3 kids set out to ring door and sell them.  They sold each one for 5 cents and made $2.25!!!  Ava and Sydney did most of the talking at each door and they did it all by themselves!  I was proud of them!

Ava's Portrait of Sydney

I love children's art.  Ava drew this portrait of Sydney in her Ariel pajamas this morning. 

My Peaceful Sleeping Babies...

I went through a few hard weeks with the kids where they were misbehaving and not getting a long as well as usual.  Maybe just a product of their schedule changing so much because of the summer.  When you have 3 kiddos so close in age, it is so hard for them to get alone time and/or quiet time.   I am happy to say those naughty days are gone and I have my sweet babies and my patience back.  Sometimes I wonder if their naughtiness is just a product of me being impatient and not spending as much quality play time with them... like getting on the floor and really playing with them.

Anyhow, my sweet babies were sleeping so sweetly last night and I felt compelled to take out my camera and shoot some photos of them while they are sleeping so peacefully.  These days, Sydney is our bed at bedtime and through the night.  We are upgrading her bed in a month or two to a full bed and then I will put in the hard Mommy hours of getting her back in her bedroom.  Ava sleeps in her bed every night no problem.  She is usually so wound up and the last to actually fall asleep and wake up in the morning.  Luke still loves to come in our bed in the middle of the night.  Despite him telling us he is not scared of the pirate and scary shows he loves to watch.  We can usually bribe him to stay in bed but sometimes that doesn't work.  After watching his first PG13 movie today, Pirates of the Caribbean, he of course was too scared to go to sleep in his own room.... even thought he assured me that wasn't the case.  He ended up climbing in bed with Ava.  Came down a few minutes later and said, "Ava was being mean."  I told him to go into his own room and when I went upstairs 30 minutes later, he was snuggled up next to Sydney, fast asleep in our bedroom.