Graduation Shirts!

With the start of school getting closer and closer I knew I needed to get myself in gear and finish a craft project. 

Since Ella is doing Kindergarten 2.0 her graduation shirt that I took pictures of her in last year isn't going to be accurate. So I needed to make a new one. Aunt Stephie had bought two shirt for Victoria for the 4th of the July because she wasn't sure what size would fit her. Victoria ended up liking the smaller size so Aunt Stephie let me have the bigger sized one for Ella's new shirt. 

I also decided that since I was going to make Ella's I might as well make Zeke's as well. I'll be 50 when Zeke graduates!!!

I used the iron on adhesive for this project. I ironed it on, cut the letters out with my Big Shot, peeled off the backing and then ironed it into place. 

It's really a simple craft it's just one of those intricate ones that takes time. As for Ella's shirt from last year...we are giving it to her friend Kendra and then I'm going to make one for Lily since she's starting Kindergarten this year! 

Escaping The Heat!

On Friday August 19th the kids and I were supposed to go to the sprinkler part with Kim and her kids, but Kim wasn't feel well so we rescheduled for the next week. The forecast for that day and the next day said it was going to be in the upper 90's. I can handle 80's, but 90 is a bit much! So I called up Ga-Ga to see if we could come down to her place to beat the heat....Ga-Ga & Pa's house has A/C!!!

Before we hung out at the house though we picked up Ga-Ga and went to Costco for lunch and shopping. On our way home we stopped at a few garage sales and the kids were able to use their spend money. 

Side Note: We are having our family pictures taken in September and I was having a hard time finding a shirt that matched everyone else's shirt. Well...the first garage sale we stopped at I found the perfect shirt for .25!!!

Once we got home from all the shopping Ga-Ga & I got the backyard set up for a lot of water fun! Jackson is all into American Ninja Warrior so we set it up as a course. 

First he had to go on the slip and slide....

then he had to jump in the pool....

run through and avoid other kids....

once he was out of the pool he had to go over to the play structure...

climb the rock wall....

come down the water slide...

run over to the sandbox and jump off...

make his way to down the path where he had to push the button to finish the course! 

Jackson is this years Backyard Ninja Warrior! 

Before we got to Ga-Ga's I had rented The Angry Birds movie so during the hottest part of the day the kids came in to refuel. 

They also had fun using these cool trays I found at a garage sale for $1 for all 4!!!  

We ended up spending the night and then staying until after dinner on Saturday. It was so nice to be able to enjoy both the hot and the cool and not just be smothered by the hot. When we got home on Saturday night the house wasn't too bad and to my surprise Michael did a bunch of work while we were gone. I was sure he was just going to chill out.....goodness knows the man deserves it! Instead of relaxing he painted all the mill work from the recent remodel and the door to the bathroom. He also touched up all the mill work on the stairway and in the hallway upstairs. Plus....he painted our bedroom the new color that I picked out to match my new bedding. 

Yeah for no white walls!! The color is called Simmering Smoke...it's a really light grey, but I didn't want anything dark. I wanted our room to feel open and airy! 

I love our new bedding! I found it at Fred Meyer's on clearance. It was originally priced at $149.00, marked on sale down to $111,00 and then I got it on clearance for $55!!! I had been planning on spending $60, but when it comes to King Size bedding that is almost impossible. I also had some money leftover from my gas fund for the month so I used that and got a set of sheets on sale for $34.99. I love finding deals! 

Giant Zucchini!

My garden has been hit or miss this year. The zucchini starts I got just did not do well in the backyard. I'm not sure if it was because they had a little too much shade, or if it was because we used steer this year instead of compost. Who knows? I am going to use compost next year because I think that's part of why my tomatoes didn't do the best. 

For Easter I got some fun seeds so I started those in the kitchen window and some of them made it and some didn't. I ended up with two pumpkin plants. I was super excited to not have to get pumpkins at the patch this year. It's so fun to grow your own stuff anyway. I planted the two starts in the front next to Michael's car. I really isn't a vegetable garden....it's where we have some of our bulbs planted and a few other ornamental bushes. It is a nice sunny spot though and it has a lot of room to stretch out. 

After a few weeks I realized that one of the plants wasn't a pumpkin plant it was a zucchini plant. Super cool! I didn't really need another zucchini plant, but that was okay. Thankfully I didn't decide to pull it out because the zucchini plants that were in the backyard gave me zero zucchini! This zucchini plant on the other hand has been a zucchini producing machine! My case in point.... 

My giant zucchini!

Giant zucchini next to an average grocery store sized zucchini! 

I had walked in the house holding it like a baby because seriously it was the same size as baby Jaymes! I swear the zucchinis can go from normal sized to jumbo overnight! I left this bad boy on the counter for quite a few days. I knew it wouldn't taste the best since the middle section would have so many seeds and be too watery. Then my mom made my grandma's zucchini bread and it was by far the best zucchini bread I've ever had. I have made lemon zucchini bread, chocolate zucchini bread....you name it and I never like them! This recipe has nuts and raisins and it's amazing!!! 

So I hacked up that jumbo zucchini and was able to get 10 cups of shredded zucchini even with not using the seedy center part. I separated them into 2 cup portions. Each of these bags will make 2 loaves of zucchini bread! I'm so excited to have all this in the freezer so I can make zucchini bread during the winter months. 

I did have another smaller zucchini on hand so I shredded that and made up a batch of bread right then. Oh my the house smelled so good! And just in case you'd like to make this deliciousness for yourself....here's the recipe! 

You're welcome! 

Indiana Bones & The Fantastic Day At The Zoo!

On August 4th the kids and I headed to Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium. My friend Renee and her daughters were joining us. As well as my friend Rachael, her 4 kids and her mom. 

When we went to the zoo with Michael in July we didn't make it to the show and I knew that was something I wanted the kids to see. We arrived at 11:15 and the show started at 12:00. It was perfect timing because it gave us a chance to walk down to there and then we were able to eat lunch before and during the show. 

One of my favorite animals that they brought out was the bald eagle. I love that they have just recently been removed from the endangered species list!!

Have you hugged a seal today?

Jammin' with the Jellies with these cuties....R to L - London, Owen, Reagan, Kendra, Ella, Lilyann, Jackson and Zeke. Not pictured was baby Jaymes...he was less than 2 weeks old and he was chillin' in the Bjorn on Rachael's chest. 

We seem to always get to the stingray section when they are getting some rest. No touching....just looking! 

Of course the kids favorite part we always save for last. Jack and Ella both brought animals to the zoo. Jack brought his puppy and Ella brought her pink elephant. You can see it coming down the slide in the background. 

Owen loves these spinning these. He goes around and around....it would make me so sick! 

Ms. Renee and her kiddos left after being there for a little while, but we hung out for another 30 minutes or so. 

Ms Rachael, her kids and her mom decided to stay after play time and see some more animals. 

Once we were done playing we just headed home. Ella wanted to play with Kendra after she got home from the zoo, but they ended up staying for a couple more hours so it was a bit late for her to go over. 

That ended up being a good thing since this girl was tuckered out!!! 

Hot Tub & Kandle Park!

Earlier this year my friend Renee offered to work with Ella over the summer. With her short term memory issues we were really concerned with her losing the information she worked so hard to learn. Renee has been coming over on average 2 times a week to work with Ella. There have been a few obstacles that have made us cancel like when her frig died and all their food went bad and then we had to cut one session short because Ella was just wiped out and needed to go to take a nap. 

The first week in August Renee wasn't going to be able to work with Ella since she would be house sitting her Dad's house in Tacoma. We thought it would be fun to still get together on the days we normally would, but not to work just to have fun! 

We originally were going to go to Titlow spray park, but then the weather showed a big thunder bolt and it wasn't even going to get much above 65 or so. Not exactly good sprinkler park weather! Renee decided that we should just come over to her Dad's and hang out. 

She gave us the tour of the house and then the kids wanted to get their suits on to go in the hot tub!!! 

I think this is the first time my kids have gone in a hot tub at someones house. I know they've felt the hot tubs at the hotel, but for the most part they are WAY to hot for them. Renee's Dad knew that kids were going to be in there so he turned his down to 98 degrees. It was like warm bath water. It was wonderful! 

After a while it was time to get out and eat lunch. I had packed up food and since we were at someone's house we were able to have warm food instead of the typical sandwiches. The weather had actually started to get nice...the sun was peaking out even though it was a little windy. We thought we could at least go to a park to play on the toys. 

Just a couple blocks away is Kandle Park....it has a great wave pool, but you have to pay to get in. No thanks! We had a blast on the toys though! 

I love exploring new parks with my kids! 

At first they were all over the place and it was hard to keep track of them. That always makes me nervous, but after a while they started teaming up and hanging out together so that made it easier to keep an eye on them. 

Ella and London had fun on the swings together. 

This was Ireland's first time on the swings and she LOVED it! Look at that face! She is such a cutie pie! 

Zeke was climbing all over. It's crazy that it's August and he's wearing a sweatshirt. I do remember that at one point he was wanting me to take it off because he was "Sveaty!"

Owen and Jack were playing some sort of chase game or obstacle course game. My kids are all into American Ninja Warrior so they want to make every playground a ninja course! 

This was a fun toy....there was a ramp and it was big enough so someone in a wheelchair could get on it. I had fun because I would hold on from the back and then jump up and down. I was able to get it moving pretty good like that. 

Zeke in a bubble! Sometimes I think it would be good for him to live in a bubble. I don't know how many times a week I hear...."I hurt me here!" and then he points to where he hurt himself. 

Jack was trying to catch Owen, but I was blocking his way...I told him the only way for him to get through was to let me take a picture! 

When we first got to the park you could see the nasty looking clouds off in the distance, but of course the longer we stayed there the closer they got. I decided to give the kids a 5 minute warning....our van was parked on the opposite side of the park and I didn't feel like getting drenched! 

It was only about a minute later and I saw a lightning bolt and said, "Ok that's our cue!" It was followed by the thunder shortly after. As we were walking to the van London was scared of the thunder so we told her what we always think it is....the lightning is God taking your picture and then the thunder is him clapping because you did a good job! Not sure if it helped though! 

It was such fun time hanging out with Renee and the girls. A couple days after that we hung out again...this time at the zoo! 

Federal Way Town Center Spray Park!

Towards the end of July I was really struggling with being in a bad mood. I had gone to my Naturopath and she had put me on some herbs to help, but I was still moody. I'll be posting an update about my depression soon. Anyways I thought a change of scenery might improve my mood. I needed to run a few errands so we did those first and then we ended our trip by going to the new Federal Way Town Center. I knew that the park had opened earlier in July and that there was a sprinkler park, but we just hadn't found the time to go yet. My friend Melinda had taken her two boys and said they had a great time so I thought it was worth a shot. 

There is a nice spray park with these 3 monoliths They spray water out the top and then there is water that is rushing out from the base. There are also other areas around the concrete circle that randomly spray water. My only complaint about the water park area was I felt they needed to make more of the sprayers go off at one time. There really was only couple of them spraying water at one time so all the kids would rush over to the those and they'd be filled up in no time. Then they'd switch to a couple other ones spraying on the other side and then ALL the kids would go rushing over there. I just felt like it might be better if they had a few areas spraying water at the same time so that one area wouldn't get rushed by all the kids. 

To the left of the spray park were some play structures. The zipline was a huge hit of course!!! 

Owen spent a lot of time riding them over and over. 

Jackson also had fun on the zipline. 

He not as crazy about it as Owen, but he did ride more than I thought he would. 

Here's another view of the spray park. The building up above is going to be a new Arts & Events Center. 

Here is the view of the field. They are still trying to get the grass to grow so they have it roped off in sections. If you look down at the horizon you can see Mt. Rainier. The parking garage on the right is the transit center where I used to catch the bus to work everyday for the last 3 months of my pregnancy with Owen. 

Speaking of Owen he just loved those monoliths....he would go stand right in the middle and just get soaked! 

Zeke man is more apprehensive when it comes to spray parks. It was so hot though that I finally just grabbed him and ran through the middle. It felt so nice to get cooled down and he was giggling so he enjoyed it too! 

Right past the zipline area is a littler kids play area. 

This was my other complaint about the park. I didn't like that the slide for the littler kid play area faced away from the other toys. I was trying to keep my eyes on all the kids so I sat down on this little hill that had big rocks on it. I could see everything....the spray park, the spiderweb climbing toy and the zipline. The only thing I couldn't see well was this playarea. 

I ended up hanging out over in the little kid playarea so Ella and Zeke could enjoy it and that's when I saw Owen heading straight for me on the zipline! 

The ziplines are designed so you only ride one way and then get off. There are platforms on both sides so the kids can form lines. So the whole idea is you ride one way and then get off and then another kids gets on and rides it back to the other side. 

Well some of the kids weren't doing that. They were riding it one way and then letting their momentum carrying them back to where they started. That meant that the kids on the other platforms weren't getting a turn. I was trying to explain the whole thing to a little girl and she was so sure she was right and I was wrong that I finally had to tell her I wasn't going to talk to her anymore. I mean seriously I'm already moody I don't need someone else's kid trying to tell me what's what! 

The big kids have been having so much fun playing with each other. 

Owen was chasing Jack and Ella and instead of them freaking out about it they were actually having fun! 

Jackson made it to freedom, but Owen took Ella captive! 

I love that she was enjoying the game though. Not too long ago she would have been screaming at Owen to let her go! 

They were struggling and smiling and laughing! 

Owen was trying to drag her into the water! 

Finally Super Jack decided to step in! 

Here I come to save the day! 

Let go of my sister! 

Come on Ella! 

Run! 

Phew...we're safe! 

After that fun they all decided to go over to the spiderweb. This thing is so cool! 

There are so many areas to climb on there can honestly be 20 kids on it at one time. 

Zeke was trying his hardest to get to the middle area, but the last gap up to it was just a bit to far for his little legs! 

Ella and Zeke wanted me to put them on this little hammock seat so I did and then I rocked it around like they were riding on a horse. They thought that was fun and a little scary! 

At the end of our trip Zeke got up the courage to ride on the zipline. This older girl was so sweet to help him get on the seat. It's nice to see him going out of his comfort zone trying to act like his older siblings! 

As for my mood.....it didn't really help I was still a grouch, but we did have a good time. The very next evening was when I got to go away for the weekend with my girlfriends and relax. A couple days away is always good for my state of mind!