Tulips . Tulips . Tulips

We finally made it up to the Tulip Festival today. The weather was in the upper 60s and we were probably dressed a little too warm. I can't remember the last time we were overdressed...it's been too long since we've had good weather here. It was a beautiful day and the drive was amazing. I love driving through the city of Seattle and then passing it to see the beautiful snow peaked Cascades. We really live in such an amazing place. The kids were real troopers traveling alone with me--poor Mike was on call today and couldn't be with us. If I didn't love tulips so much I probably wouldn't have made such an effort to go, but since tulips are my favorite flower, I just couldn't miss it this year.

We all enjoyed the flowers and had fun walking down the dry (yeah) paths to see the different kinds of tulips. As long as Peter and Emma had their sunglasses on and I kept reassuring Andrew that there were no bees, then all was well. Andrew is terrified of bees and so after many times of telling him he was fine, I finally told him he was just being paranoid to which he said, "what does paranoid mean?" Oh yeah, I forgot I was talking to a 6 year old. That being said, you can understand how hard it was to get him close enough to the flowers to take just one picture of him with the tulips. Is it too much to ask for just one picture? Apparently so! I did the best I could to let the kids enjoy the scenery without bombarding them with pictures. BUT, I managed to get at least one picture of each of my kids next to the tulips and a couple of more pictures of those beautiful flowers. After two different fields of tulips, the kids were anxious to get going. It was off to get ice-cream and then go see daddy for the remainder of our day.

The Best Kids CD Ever

Ever since Mike and I have been married we have listened to "They Might Be Giants." We actually went to see them in concert downtown DC on the mall when Andrew was really little. Mike has always loved them and I have grown to love their music as well. On long trips we will usually listen to their classic songs. Well, now they have this great CD out for kids and it is GREAT. It even comes with a DVD of the videos to each song. All of my kids love it. Yesterday I was in the car and Peter was singing the words to all the songs. I couldn't believe that he picked up on the words that fast---we have only had the CD for 3 days. It was really cute to hear him sing. You can actually view one of their videos on youtube--it really is quite funny. And did you know that the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Higgleytown Heros theme songs are sung by "They Might Be Giants?" Pretty cool!

Peter Turns 5

Our little Peter finally turned 5 today--hooray! I can't believe that he will be going to Kindergarten this year. It seems like only yesterday I was holding my little chunky bald baby. He truly was a sweet baby and lucky for us his sweetness has continued! With a few of his good friends over to celebrate his special day, he happily enjoyed the cupcakes and opened up his presents to each of which his response was, "This is what I wanted." Oh how easy it is to please a 5 year old boy.

Look at that concentration. This year we decided to put the number of candles on the cupcake instead of the number candle we normally use. A little more energy was obviously required.

Peter initially asked me why he wasn't having a cake. I told him that cupcakes were just better. What I didn't tell him was that cupcakes are just easier for mom. What is great about Peter is that he is usually agreeable. These cupcakes were inspired by a friend and I just love their simplicity.

I like the idea of everything homemade this year. These were the party favors. I had good intentions on making party hats but it just didn't happen. Oh well!

One of his favorite gifts were these classic Lincoln Logs given to him by Grandma and Grandpa Kelsch. Thanks for putting a smile on his face. Happy Birthday to our sweet Pete!

Braces at 30

I will not be posting a recent picture of myself but you can take my word for it that I look ten years younger. I've been told that I look like one of the teenagers. I guess that could be a compliment as I approach 30 years old next Friday. I finally decided to get braces...oh yeah baby! I figured that I could handle it seeing as I have gone through things more physically exerting and challenging. Well, it has been a rough start to say the least. My mouth is sore, my lower lip looks like it is going to explode, I can't talk very well, and my diet has succumb to yogurt, eggs, oatmeal, pb&j, and milkshakes. I feel like an old person gumming my food because I can't fully bite in the back. So what do my kids think? Well, Andrew has already told me that I look good in braces. To be specific he said, "Mom, you look better in braces!" Thanks Andrew, I love you for your honesty! Andrew has probably been the one most interested in it all seeing as he has already been told he will need braces when he gets older. I hope I can make my experience positive for him. The one good thing so far has been that I have not even focused on my pregnancy aches and pains. So to all of you who have had braces or have braces now...I congratulate you. It really is as bad as everyone says!

The Girls

Today was beautiful to say the least. Emma and I took advantage of the nice weather and got dressed up to take pictures and see all the beautiful flowers coming out in our yard. We were going to head up to the Tulip Festival but heard they weren't quite out yet. So, we enjoyed the couple of Tulips that have popped out in front of our house. We will have to venture up to the Tulip Festival this next weekend. We also went on a little walk together--just the two of us! I love my girl and can't wait to share these moments with both of my girls. I feel so lucky!

Great Wolf Lodge

So enough of being in the cold and rainy outdoors...this day we headed 30 minutes south to a great place called the Great Wolf Lodge. It is a hotel with an indoor water park inside....and it is the COOLEST place ever...next to Disneyland of course! Water, water, everywhere and the temp inside was 86 F. It doesn't get much better than that! Andrew and Mike spent most of their time going down the big slides while Peter, Emma, and I hung out in the wave pool and the kiddie section. It was so neat to see Andrew trying all of the water slides including their famous Tornado slide which is a four person tube that shoots down a big funnel and down a big twisty slide. This kid had no fear of the water...maybe this means swimming lessons will be a snap this summer. Aside from the awesome water park, there are so many things to do in the hotel. This hotel is definitely family friendly with lots of activities throughout the day for kids. Oh, and did I mention they had an arcade. We definitely took advantage of that one. This is the place you want to go when the weather outside is less than favorable. We will definitely be returning again next year!

Ruby Beach

After our little hike in the rainforest we headed down to Ruby Beach. Does this scene look familiar to you Goonies Fans?? These are the famouse sea stacks that were filmed in this classic movie. Remember when the kids were looking through the coin at the rocks in the distance...oh yeah, these are those rocks! It was quite a site to see but as you can see from what we are wearing....IT WAS COLD. This beach was unique though. The tide brought this crazy sea foam onto the shore and the kids had so much fun running in it. The tide was pretty strong and so of course they got a bit wet. We also had to climb over a big pile of drift wood to get to the beach part. The kids called it the beavers home. This wasn't your typical sandy beach but more of a rocky beach. The rocks were cool looking though---round and smooth. What a neat place!

Hoh Rainforest

There are so many interesting things to do in the state of Washington. We enjoyed a week of fun as a family while the kids were on spring break. We filled our time with some fun adventures. The first of which was a trip to the Hoh Rainforest in the Olympic Mountains. After a three plus hour drive to get there, we were happy to get out and go for a hike...actually, it was more like a walk! The weather wasn't too bad. With just a little sprinkle, we were able to walk through part of the rain forest without too much trouble. So what is the rain forest like you might ask? Well, it was really green, really wet, and had lots of moss. It was neat to be able to go there but a little too long to travel for a trail that looks similiar to others we have been on. However, we did get to see some cool things. As we were driving to the entrance we encountered many elk eating off to the side of the road. While on our hike we saw a little chipmunk and he actually let us get pretty close to him before running off. Everyone had a great time and we were just happy to be together as a family doing something we love--being in the outdoors!

Spring Time

One of our favorite things to do in the spring is blow BUBBLES. Every Spring our kids get new bubbles in their Easter baskets. One of our favorite bubble toys are these little bubble guns. They only take one battery, are under $3, and they are not messy. They just dip their bubble gun in a cup of bubble juice, push a button to activate the fan, and a million bubbles fly everywhere. Since our Spring weather has been a little crazy this year with some random days of snow and hail, we have to take advantage of our nice sunny days. Hopefully the sun will decide to stay out more often during the month of April. Let's keep our fingers crossed!

To see how I played with the colors in these pictures, Click Here.