Our December Activities

This is our first year staying home for the holidays in, ever. We are pretty excited to see what Seattle has to offer for folks with little ones this time of year. And are looking forward to creating some of our own traditions that resonate with this little family.

A couple of activities we would love to share with you. We enjoyed a hay ride around Seward Park this past weekend that was coordinated by the Seattle Audobon Center in Seward Park. The Park is only a few blocks from our house and truely a treasure, one of the many reasons we are so smitten with our little place in the world. I had dreams of a hay ride pulled by horses around the lower trail, alas it was a city parks dept vehicle towing a large trailer full of hay, but was so much fun! We arrived at the park to find that there was also a girls running event, Girls on the Run a totally cool girl power-full event. Everyone running around with the bib number "1." Very awesome! It meant the hay ride was a little delayed, so we checked out the Audobon Center, one of Pera and Tobias' favorite haunts. During the week they have a lovely reading hour about particular animals that live in the park and then they hike out and try and spy said wildlife. Right up Pera's alley. They also have a great library and a resident tortoise wandering around named Lumpy. This morning they had set up ornament making in the large room downstairs, hot cocoa and hand warmers for the trip around the park.

After making some of our first ornaments together, we loaded into the trailer with an Audobon naturalist or two and got a very sweet little tour around the park. Binoculars were handed out and we even got to cross the finish line of the race!!

When we returned to the Center we had a little play time in the library all Pera could say was, "I want to do that again!!!" No better review than that.

One other event we totally loved this year was going to the Nordic Heritage Museum and making our own gingerbread house. Loved it! Dad did the rock wall, Pera made the gummy fish walls and Pera and Mama did the gum drop roof, with plenty of tastes had by all of the architects throughout the process.

A couple of trolls followed us home!

We are so looking forward to seeing this year's display of Gingerbread houses downtown. We might even check out the chocolate buffet at the Four Seasons downtown.. Oh that may be just too much decadence.. Maybe we will see YOU there!

P.S. Trying out this new camera app on iphone, ShakeItPhoto by Nick Campbell and loving it. It takes polaroids. After the click of the camera  the little polaroid comes down all grey and smudgey you shake the polaroid until it develops into a sweet brightly colored picture, with out all the chemicals. Got to love it! And great with toddlers too who love to shake it til the photo shows up! Alas the closeups of photos are not as clear as they are on the ole point and shoot so may be back to documenting with a regular camera soon.

Weekend in the sun

The Beach: Hermit crabs, climbing, sun and sand

We woke up Sunday morning and were lounging in a bed dripping with sunlight. Its October right? So we all agreed it was time to catch a ferry and go to the beach! I have lived in Seattle how long and have never been to Vashon Island, a 20 minute ferry ride away. It was time for swift corrective action (nothing happens swiftly around here but after 15+ years in Seattle we were ready to take the trip)! We made the ferry, hopped on shore and after a few twists and turns wound up in the sweet village of Vashon proper. We had a decadent breakfast at the Hardware store and then found ourselves at the local farmers market.

We thought we would hit a local pumpkin patch on our way to the beach but found ourselves at a local pumpkin carving contest with the Vashon Youth Council (VYC). Look for all entries on their website at the bottom of the left hand side. They graciously let us take our pumpkin home rather than displaying it in the town through Halloween. Thank you! Our first family carving.

After high jacking our pumpkin entry we headed to KVI beach. This is a private beach owned by a broadcasting company to house one of their broadcasting towers. That aside it is sweet, sandy, warm with wildlife galore and dog friendly. Very fun. Pera asked where we would be staying on the beach over night and then when found out we would not be camping was certain we could just stay anyways and sleep in the car.. We will be back.

September Daze

Well hello there! Long time no see blog land. I have been doing a multitude of things and ignoring my cathardic experience of documentation for way too long. It seemed like we were in the throws of sssuuuummmeeerrr until a week ago and then "the sky opened up and RAIN was the word!"~ Priscilla and the Splish Splash Surprise.

And now I will return to you and do some catch up photo posting and what not of the events of the past TWO months!

Here are some photos of what we did one week in September. We are firmly into climbing things and rocks at the Farmer's Market Park in Columbia City are a great destination. We also went and saw Reptile Man one rainy Saturday morning and met this little guy. I am not one of those parents who lets her child socialize with large snapping reptiles. And this one is smiling to boot. Never trust they say.. She did pee all over her handler, excuse me I live with a 3 year old so it can not be left unstated. Finally that same rainy morning we headed over to Gas Works Park and climbed the hill for some good puddle fun. Dad got a bit wet too.

More soon! Oh yes and there are crafts to share. xo

Its All Good

Busy few weeks and not much time to document (beyond flashing the camera here and there). We are in full create, play, experience mode around here. For Father's Day we went to A Midsummer celebration on Lake Sammamish. Really fun, lots of free child friendly activities including pony rides, water slides, floral head wreath making, face painting and balloon animal making. Was pretty fun for parents too! Happy Father's Day Tobias!

Weekend Festivities

It feels like it has been a long time since we were all home together on the weekend. Either Pera and I are running off to Grandma's or Tobias is off to rehearse for a show.. This weekend we were all home and got to do some really fun things together! We started Friday night with a picnic in the front yard. At least one meal a day right now is in the form of a picnic, either on the rug, in the back yard or under our sun tent in the front yard. We also took this opportunity to paint daddy's toes. He was a semi willing participant (Pera and I totally appreciated that!)

Saturday we made a trip by ferry to Bremerton and the Forest Theater to see a friend in Seussical the Musical. This was our first time at the Forest Theater. Really cool! We brought a picnic, a blanket, pillows, games etc down a trail through the woods and set up our little couch to enjoy the show (no I don't travel lightly but it was well worth it). This was Pera's first theater experience. Perfect! We ate and played, she was sitting far enough back that she could take in the show when she wanted while lounging on a pillow, sucking down hummos and crackers and playing with her Nana Jackie. Totally fun, and she made it the full (almost) four hours through the show. Highly recommend this theater to anyone who can't imagine sitting in a darkened indoor theater during the most beautiful time of year in Seattle.

You can't see the shirt with the sweet applique very well but you can see one of her summer skirts that I made last week at mom's from this free pattern (in the side bar of this blog).

All in all a fun weekend.

Tulips!

This last week we also went to the tulip festival. Fun day! Great to do during the week when there is not much traffic nor a huge crowd to contend with. Lots of color. My absolute favorite were the ones that looked like scoops of icecream. Alas for some zany reason my dad and I decided to switch cameras thinking I would take pictures of he and mom and he would shoot photos of Pera, Toe and I. We made the switch and got separated. So his camera contains some of the photos I wish I had to share.

Rainy day in Seattle

Today we went with Gina and went to the Seattle Aquarium. I think this is the first time we got to actually sit in the underwater room. Pera has been on the go, go, go since the day she was born, smile. But we had a snack and watched the manta rays fly over head. Tobias and I had our wedding reception here. So I can walk through the aquarium and still remember what went on and where that night. Great way to spend a rainy day.