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.