Handsome

Out of nowhere today from the back of the car, Olin says "Mom, I look kind of handsome"

Cousins

They love their cousins, no doubt. It's always a good time and this 2-nighter quickly filled up with various activities:

• Pelican Bay x 2
• India Hicks party for Ev 
• Granny's Buffet
• Lemonade stand @ home
• Farmers' Market
• Spudnut Shop x 2
• Barracuda Coffee x 2

Pelican Bay

India Hicks Party

Smoothies in the morning before all the unhealthy food commenced.

Farmers' Market

Making their Lemonade sign

Business started slow and picked up.

First customer. They say they made a grand total of $12 each. I am not sure about that calculation as there was a bit of adult capital initially invested. haha.

I knew something was amiss when Leelee asked me what $2.15 + 75 cents equalled. They were only charging 50 cents and 75 cents so I was wondering how he got to $2.15. Turns out there was a small miscalculation at the $1.40 mark, so all the prices from there on were a little difficult to compute. :) So, keen-eyed folks could get in on a discount at the 2 cup mark, but after that...full price!

The Beginnings of Summer

Coupla funny notes:

1. Olin spells the number 3 as "fry". The reason he does this is because he pronounces 'th' as 'f' and he was taught that a Y can have an "ee" sound. Hence....fry.
2. Last night Christian and I had a foot-race in the backyard and he is so close to beating me. It's a testament to his quickness, and my slowness :)

Field Day at Olin's school

Water balloon toss. Yes I did the face paint on the boy in back :) He asks for skeleton face every year. And he's VERY particular about it. If it gets even a tiny bit smudged he will come back repeatedly to make it perfect again.

Leelee's last day of school play. "How the zebra got his stripes". He played the eagle and memorized all his lines.

Dragged the kids to Yakima to pick up some Kirkland golf balls for dad for Father's Day! Here we are checking out Harley Davidson for fun.

Bill's Berry Farm stop on the way home from Yakima. It was completely deserted, which was fun because usually it is packed and bursting with people.

Strawberry fields.

Health food stop at Target

Father's Day! A shaver and golf balls for baba, aka Babz, aka Bob Lee (Olin says "Olin Lee, Christian Lee, Mom Lee, and Bob Lee")

Sourdough, beer, and Seattle. We got an e-mail last night that they are planning on building a hotel that would block our view, basically right where Dae's head is in this photo. What timing, that we just purchased. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't totally bummed....but I am sure we all will survive.

Seattle Center.

Waiting for the laser show at Seattle Center.

Watching Beauty and the Beast in bed.

End of Year Teacher Thank You Cards

Reader!

Leelee read 18 chapters of this book in one day. Hooray!!! I've never seen him that absorbed in a book and I would NEVER have guessed it would be a horror story. So I'm on a mission to scout out every single Goosebumps book I can get! ha!

Early June in the Northwest

Christian had his first violin lesson last week with Sherry Danielson. She was recommended by Onnie. He has been asking to play violin for about 6 months so Sherry said she had an opening this summer and I took it. I made sure he understood he'd have to practice both piano and violin, and he seems to understand, so we're going to give it 6 months and re-evaluate! He is starting with a quarter-sized violin which we rented for $23/month at Music Unlimited. 

I kept seeing these new packs of water balloons but never understood that you can actually blow up 35 at a time until we visited Mal and Didi last weekend. So I bought a pack from Costco and they had a great time having a water balloon fight last week in our yard.

Olin and Leelee were playing around and Olin fell back and hit his ear on the corner of our coffee table while coming down. He was crying really hard. I felt so bad for him - it started bruising immediately.

Olin had been begging to do tae kwon do for about a month, so we visited this dojo about a mile or so from our house (heaven!). I was hoping he'd love it due to proximity to our home, but he just thought it was ok. During the summer they have one mixed-age class so I think he was a little intimidated since it wasn't a white-belts-only class. He's still "thinking about it" he tells me.

They both fit, and they love it! I am a little worried that the back tire gets pretty darn flattened when they both ride on it, but I think these bikes and tires are good quality and hopefully built to somewhat last.

Mandarin house after PJ day at Olin's school. He chose Christmas PJ's that are way too small. Of all PJ's to pick! And he wasn't embarrassed at all to wear them to Mandarin house.

Pike Place Market love. Wearing my new India Hicks scarf - India Hicks being the only thing that Auntie Ev talks about these days....hahahaha.

Mounted Police in Seattle! These policemen and women were so nice.

The lighting was good at our condo's rec room, where they have a nice little piano for Leelee (and me) to practice. It's ideal!

We biked upon this mound of pretty white sand, leftover from the new sand they delivered to the volleyball courts at Leslie Groves Park. So I let the kids play in it for about 20 minutes and they had a fun time.

Mad, Still Cute

I was really mad at the kids this morning. Olin climbed in to bed around 6am and asked for a show. I agreed. (I give them a show, in bed in the morning, about once a week.) Leelee woke up a few minutes later and partook in the show. Neither of them made a move to change their clothes, even though I brought outfits over to the bed they were laying on. Then they came downstairs and Leelee asked what was for breakfast and I said smoothies and eggs. He asked why, and why do we have smoothies and eggs so often. I said because they are healthy. Neither made a move to come over to the breakfast table. Both of them were laying on the floor, doing nothing, playing (somewhat) and began to fight. They were fighting about Leelee bending a sword on Olin's ninjago figurine, and kept fighting even as I went outside to water plants, at which point Olin came out crying and said Leelee was being "so rude". So I basically snapped at them and told them that this type of morning was not going to happen again and that it was fine with me if 1) they did not get breakfast and went to school hungry and 2) Olin went to school in his PJ's. And I really did have no problem sending them to school hungry if they were going to complain about everything. Everything which is handed to them, literally, on a platter.

So they shaped up, apologized, changed, and scarfed down their eggs and smoothie in time for carpool. Anyway, that was not their shining moment but then this morning I looked over at their restaurant pad (that I couldn't resist picking up at Cash & Carry because Olin looooves taking orders) and it was so cute.

Bread updates: I took my bread show on the road! ha! Ev and I attended a sourdough class together in Portland on Sunday and we had a great time. Sourdough is MUCH harder than my regular no-knead bread that I've been popping out at a rate of two loaves per day. Sourdough requires a live starter, which you have to feed every 2 weeks, and a lot of steps. So, I've been keeping a tally of the things in my home I am keeping alive by feeding:

• kids
• kefir
• kombucha
• sourdough bread starter
• hermit crabs
• 3 plants in back
• 3 plants in front

Sourdough making class

Teaching Ev my regular no-knead bread that morning prior to class

Finished sourdough bread this morning. I haven't tasted it yet. It looks good, but the inside isn't quite as filled with air holes as his loaves were.

Robertsons' new trampoline - always a big hit

Picky meat eater (me - left) and non- picky meat eater (Ev - right). Leftover bones. Or in my case full wings remaining!

I was brushing Olin's teeth in daylight today and noticed his front tooth has definitely discolored. It's not mobile but I do think that tooth has been dying a slow death. As long as it hangs in there for a few more years, even if it turns black. Ha!

Memorial Day 2017

We spent a sunny, food and activity-filled weekend with the Safranski family over Memorial Day weekend. We managed to sausage the 9 of us in to our unit (ha!), where the kids spent mornings like this, watching Octonauts before hitting the Crumpet shop...

 

Dae got them ice cream about 3 minutes after we had the biggest breakfast...

Nespresso and Starbucks espresso cups

The new pig...forgot her name

Cool painting of Chief Seattle in an alleyway on our Underground Tour

Seattle Underground tour was cool. I never knew there was a real underground!

Jenga fun

Getting sunblocked by Adrienne

Duck Tour. 17 of us! We took over the back of the Duck.

Piroshky Piroshky were a daily hit.

They fully utilized the indoor pool, hot tub and sauna. Christian got a gash on his shin when he was carrying water to the sauna and slipped.

Asleep on the Duck. Real sleep, not fake sleep this time.

 

 The kids always beg for watermelon but I am usually too lazy to carry a watermelon to my car. It was worth it - this one from Costco was nice and sweet.

 

Completely passed out with Christmas PJ's on in June. He loves his Christmas PJ.s

 

Christian's field trip to Farmers' Market opening day today. I was bummed I had to work. I love the Richland Farmers' Market.

 

Finally, my bike is all tricked out, front and back!

 

More Farmers' Market. So cute that they are each carrying their strawberries and produce. They were allowed to bring $5 to spend. Looks like Christian got strawberries, and maybe honey sticks in that brown bag?

Something about Olin's handwriting looks like adult handwriting to me. I am always surprised when I see it. (Just now, I noticed that he mixed Territory and Northern to spell "Territhern". He must have copied it incorrectly. hehe.)