Leelee's Book Order

This morning at the breakfast table Leelee says to me "mom, this is one of the hardest things I've ever done in my life".  He was referring to making a decision about which book he wanted from the book order...

I didn't notice he put the price with the exclamation point until just now.... So cute. My rule for book orders is that they have to pay for half of whatever they want. I love getting them books but if they didn't have to pay for any of it I know they would order a whole bunch of stuff that they wouldn't read. Anyway, we get these coupons for a free book ($5 and under) with purchase, so I told him he could find second book for under $5. (Now that I think about it I think the original purchase has to be $10. Uh oh...)

My 2 new Lodges. Now I can easily do two loaves at once! I was very excited to see these on sale at Fred Meyer yesterday. 

W Sharing Sound

Every week at preschool, there is a sharing sound where the kids are encouraged to bring something that begins with that letter. This entire year, Olin has pretty much declined to bring something. He usually says he will bring a word in lieu of a sharing sound. So for example, for M sharing sound he would just say "Me" when his turn came.

Tomorrow's sharing sound is W so in the car today I asked Olin what he wanted to bring, if anything. He said: "I know what I'm going to do. When Teacher Terri says 'Olin Lee - your turn!' I am going to say 'What did you say?!'" ...and then he laughed so hard at himself.....

Bunnies and Olin's Asia Report

Kelly took the kids to go see newborn bunnies. They are so cute!

Olin has been so very excited to finish his Asia map and go on to his Oceania (Australia) map. He says Oceania only takes a day. He brought home his Asia map + report last week and look at his description of the snow leopard, or snow lebrd...."He has fur vat lux like snow and grass" is supposed to be "he has fur that looks like snow and grass". His phonetical spelling, when incorrect, is so funny. He must think the word "that" is pronounced with a V. I assume some of the words are directly copied from a book, but obviously some aren't. hahaha.

Hot Temps in May

First day at CBRC outdoor pool! There weren't too many people there so we had a nice time climbing the pool rock wall and not being too embarrassed because there wasn't anybody to watch us do it. haha. Here Olin was after the pool time either asleep or pretending to be asleep. Never know with him.

Howard Amon park - kids are little specks on the teeter totter.

Leelee told me to pose so he could draw a portrait.

Leelee said he was being a bridge for Olin. Nice positioning...

My dishidrotic eczema has reared its ugly head for about 6 months now. It was so leather-like I finally went in to the dermatologist, who prescribed me some clobetasol cream to use. I hope to get back to normal, non-itchy skin soon.

This hermit crab has been real active. He molted last week and Olin and and Claira came downstairs and said "the hermit crab is dead! His shells are everywhere!" and then they went back up, then 5 minutes later they ran back down and said "he's alive! he's naked and he's trying to find a new shell". So of course that perked my interest and I went up to find indeed a naked hermit crab. We put a couple of larger shells closer to him, which he tried out, but after a few days we found him nestled in to a seemingly smallish shell. Strange. Olin knows everything about hermit crabs thanks to teacher Terri. Apparently when they are about to molt their claws are blue. And when they just molted they are orange. And they only need 5 specks of food at a time. 

The kids love to ask about God and Jesus - like can God and Jesus do anything and stuff along those lines. A couple days ago Olin asked "If there is a contest, are angels the best at flying? If God and Jesus aren't in the game?"

Mom's Day, Mother's Day, and 2 Field Trips

Mom's Day at Olin's school. They sang songs and gave us a gift.

Olin said they had to practice this Maypole Dance quite a few times to get it right.

Finally, a couch! And our TV arrived later that day so now it's a proper home :)

Got the kids Rubiks' cube. Olin just leaves his completely untouched so that it appears to have been 'solved'.

Leelee's pretty good at it. He can get one side at least. Better than me or Dae. As luck would have it, our server at Ding Tai Fung knew how to solve them, so he solved one for us in about 2 minutes. He then gave Leelee tips on how to start. According to him you start with the white cross, and then line up the colors on each end of the cross over to each color's center. That's where we got stuck, and then Olin was even asking if we could go back to Din Tai Fung so we could ask the server for the next step! We never did but I totally would have if time had permitted.

Dinner at Matt's in the Market. Awesome ambience and very cute, but prices were very steep for quite small portions. 

Mothers' Day! Dae ran out and got crumpets to bring back for breakfast, made me an espresso on my new Nespresso (LOVE that thing) and then got to work on assembling a variety of Ikea pieces I had picked out (Poang chair, 4 stools, step stool, a picture to go above Murphy bed). Leelee was very helpful at Ikea when Dae had an episode of hypoglycemia and had to make a sudden pit stop at the Ikea cafeteria for a juice! Olin, meanwhile, was at the Smalaland play area, where he reported "there were no TV's or video games"...

Mother's Day morning

Stopped by puo puo's house on the way home and helped to celebrate Tyson's 7th birthday.

Field Trip #1: Olin's trip to McNary Wildlife refuge. I chaperoned this same field trip for Leelee so felt it was only fair to do both. 

They spotted: yellow-headed blackbird, great blue heron, turtles, one tadpole, a walnut tree (whose leaves smell absolutely delicious - I never knew)

Drawing the animals

Onnie assigned Leelee Fur Elise! Just Part I. He loves it of course. What kid does not want to play Fur Elise? Onnie had said she thought she could challenge him more than she had been. He's happy!

Field trip #2. Field trips aren't exactly right up my alley (I'm no lover of hiking, nature, etc) but I am always glad I chaperoned field trips afterward. And the kids are always happy when I come. Leelee's field trip was to Coyote Canyon Mammoth Site Dig, past Kennewick.

Leelee at Camp

Leelee left for camp on Wednesday. This year I shed no tears, and I was MUCH more comfortable with the thought of him a year older, 3 hours closer than last year, and excited about camp. He was excited last year, too.

This year they are at Camp Lutherhaven at Lake Coeur d'Alene. Luckily Alaina's husband Matt is chaperoning so he has been able to sneak off to a Wifi location and send photos. haha. He said they have campfire skits at night which crack the kids up (photo #1). The scenery looks beautiful (photo #2). Canoeing in photo #3.

Last week Christian had his guild adjudications. They have 7 (or 9?) memorized pieces and scales. He had practiced sufficiently, but this time he got nervous and actually forgot to play a couple of measures of one of the pieces, so the teacher nicely reminded him and he got to play it again. I think he was bummed, but afterward he said he thought he did well, so that's good. He played all the other pieces really well. I am always proud of how he does in piano.

In bread-making news, I am up to two loaves/day. Not every day, but today I baked two. One to give to landscaper Barb, and one for our family's usage. Last night I told Dae I had made the best loaf yet and he goes "great, I'll have some!" and I was like oops, I already gave it all away. So today, two loaves. I'm pretty much giving loaves away left and right, whether people ask for them or want them or not! And eating quite a bit myself, of course.

Then & Now

July 2012

May 2017

New Growth

Area of new growth this past week: bread-making. I made a loaf yesterday, it was surprisingly pretty good, and I happened to wake up this morning bright-eyed and bushy tailed at 3:30am so I whipped up another loaf. Ha!

Inaugural loaf. I've never made bread before but it was pretty easy. This loaf was a little denser than I like, so I made a few adjustments.

Today's Loaf (#2). More white flour than yesterday, and a little bit less salt. Better consistency (less dense).

In other areas of new growth, I went to Woods Nursery and picked out some succulents (my favorite word, haha). When I was there perusing the inventory, I noticed that a lot of their really nice looking pots had these white rocks on top, so I picked up a bag of them and they really made a big difference in esthetics.

Barb (landscaper) planted these big planters in back. I love when they are blooming. Embarrassingly, for almost a year, I think there were humongous weeds actually growing out of these planters, and I had no idea until I finally paid attention, saw them, and pulled them. I bet Barb is horrified at some of the stuff she sees in our yard. 

Movin' on Up (To the Westside)

We did our official move-in last weekend! We got the keys, hauled up bedding and kitchenware and various miscellaneous items and then awaited our furniture delivery on Saturday. Well we weren't so lucky on Saturday with deliveries (1 for 3) as the 93-inch couch wouldn't fit through the corner entryway to our condo, and the mattress delivery of 6pm was outside of the loading dock hours of 8-5.

(But, besides the fact that we didn't get our bed, couch, TV or internet, it was seriously glorious. I feel so lucky.)

Honey sticks. Olin's favorite. He likes sour apple and cherry right now.

We stayed 3 nights. Every single morning, I'd wake up and walk in to the living room and was consistently surprised by the beauty of Puget Sound. I still think there is no view prettier than this view (in the world)! haha. 

Precious cargo. These movers work so hard. They have 19-21 deliveries per day and these are some serious deliveries.

Pretending to operate a restaurant out of their storefront window.

Yogurt at our new table. This West Elm delivery DID make it, so we had a table at least!

Crumpet shop. I got lemon curd. Dae always gets strawberry and cream cheese. Kids usually get some variation of strawberry.

I don't think this was the most exciting weekend for the kids. This photo showcases it. We went to Best Buy to pick out TVs and set up delivery and the kids were really tired by this point. All through the weekend the four of us slept in one bedroom, with the kids on the floor, and we spent most of the weekend trying to coordinate deliveries and buy stuff, so I think the kids were tapped out. Anyway, Dae took the kids over to the gaming console at Best Buy and he said they perked right up when the games commenced...of course

I included this photo to remember that we hit Ding Tai Fung downtown for dinner two times. When in doubt, Din Tai never disappoints! We are excited that they just opened downtown within walking distance, and the Farmer's Market is expanding, and a streetcar is coming. Good timing for us.

In bloom outside Target

We finally took them to this play structure by EMP in Seattle Center. It was kind of scary. This net was really high, and the kids climb it to get to the top to slide down.  They liked it.

Olin's audiology test at his well-child visit last week. We were a little concerned that he hadn't seemed to grow much in the past 6 months, but it turns out he's still on his trajectory (at the 3rd percentile for height...poor guy)

Olin took this photo. Baseball baseball baseball. It was so cold and windy this game. This is Mrs. Knirck (my Russian teacher in high school!) behind me.

Leelee loves science with Mel. He was learning about topography this past week. I think a lot of it is over his head but Mel makes it fun.