FUN, FUN, FUN IN WASHINGTON

WOW -- we sure did have a good time on our trip to Washington........and we've got the pictures to prove it!! Here's a look at our vacation, day-by-day.....

We arrived into Seattle at about 7:30pm on Wednesday night and Stacy picked us up at the airport and took us straight home to their house. The girls instantly jumped on Megan's lap, Cameron & Alex pulled out the Lincoln Logs and Stacy made us all a snack.....

On Thursday Stacy had to work so we hung out at the house with Megan & Alex. The boys did some more building and the girls spent the day just having fun with each other......

My friend Lisa and her kids came over to visit on Thursday also........the kids were all on Spring Break so we had the day together. Emma, Lisa, Shane & Sara.....

On Friday Stacy took the day off and we went out to lunch with our good friend, Anne Roff......

After lunch it was back home. Megan spent the day (& weekend) printing them all some Easter pictures to color.....

This is what Stacy's living room wall looked like by the end of the weekend.....

Friday night Lisa came back over with her kids & Craig. We had a fun night just hanging out.....

We started Saturday off with some Easter Egg coloring.....

After we finished our eggs we met Grandma Lynne out for lunch.....

We had a "nobody's birthday party" (because it wasn't anyone's birthday and everyone got presents). The girls got these new outfits and loved them so much they had to put them on at the pizza place.....

Saturday night we got together with Craig & Lisa and family again. This time we were at their house for a surprise birthday party for Lisa......

On Sunday we didn't do to much. The kids had Easter baskets to go through in the morning and hunted for Easter Eggs. After that we made a trip to the grocery store, took flowers to the cemetery and took a tour of Puyallup -- I always like to drive around the old neighborhood and check it out when I'm home!

Stacy had all the fixins' for Sundaes for desert on Easter.......Yummy......

On Monday morning we headed out early for a drive over Snoqualmie Pass to visit Grandpa Jim & Grandma Gail in Moses Lake. Cameron had more Lego's to play with there.....

....while the girls did lots of coloring and card playing with Grandma.....

Cameron decided to cook his own dinner while we were there.....

On Tuesday morning Grandma fixed Maleah's hair.....

Cameron decided to take the John Deere for a quick ride around the yard before we headed out.....

After lunch with Grandma & Grandpa we loaded up and headed back West. We stopped in Snoqualmie Ridge to visit with our friends, The Mudd's.

Max & Cameron did a lot of playing and then decided it was break time - which meant they wanted to play the Playstation.....

The girls made themselves some very fancy jewelry.....

Max and Cameron.....

Rena, Isabella and Maleah.....

My good friend, Pamela, and I....

We headed back to sleep in Puyallup after visiting & having dinner at The Mudd's, but then got up early on Wednesday and drove back out to Snoqualmie Ridge to visit with more friends. We all gathered at The Brenne's, but the fun included a few different families - at one point we had 4 mom's & 12 kids in the house!

Beckett, Maleah, Campbelle, Cameron, Christian and Rena.....

Marie, Jill, me and Pamela.....

Marie, Jill, me and Laurel.....

All of the kids......

Campbelle, Maleah and Rena.....

Rena, Christian, Cameron, Adam, Marcus, Beckett, Maleah and Campbelle.....

Me, Laurel and Jill.....

On Thursday we took it easy in the morning, went birthday shopping for Megan and then just hung out with Megan & Alex when they got home from school. It was a nice, relaxing day!

On Friday Megan got out of school early to spend the day with us and then Craig, Lisa and family came back over for one last get-together. We had a fun evening eating dinner, riding quads, playing basketball (the kids all beat me!) and celebrating Megan's birthday.

Cameron thought the quad was pretty cool.....

I told Megan to go slow.....

Maleah loved riding with Mike.....

.....and Megan.....

Rena had no interest in riding, but had fun with Mike's dog, Hershey.....

Happy 14th birthday Megan (it's not really until the 27th, but I wanted to celebrate while we were there!).....

On Saturday the weather was nice enough for us to go see the Daffodil Parade in downtown Puyallup. The parade was a BIG deal when I was growing up (an all-day party at my grandparents) and I was in it atleast 3 times (marching for Puyallup High School), but I hadn't been to it in years......so, we headed over to McDonald's for lunch and then walked to the parade.....

After the parade the boys went home to ride the quads some more and the girls went shopping. We have such a great time with Stacy & Megan......even the girls have fun at the mall when we are with them.....

Saturday night we just hung out at Stacy & Mike's.

The girls were loving Hershey.....and he was finally allowed in the house since the girls were no longer scared of him.....

Mike and I played a few games of cribagge -- I won again and again and again.....

Mike built us an outdoor fire and we all headed out for some smores......

Sunday morning -- time to head home. The kids were just hanging out before we had to go (and before the tears started).....

At the airport saying our last good-byes to Stacy -- before the tears started again.....

Being silly.....trying to avoid the tears....(it didn't work!).....

We had such a great time and are so glad that we got to spend time with everyone that we did. Thanks Stacy & Mike for putting up with us (and the mess at your house) for 11 days. I can't believe how fast the 11 days flew by, but what a great time we all had!

NEIGHBORHOOD EASTER CELEBRATION

On Saturday morning we went to an Easter celebration hosted by the homeowners association at the park in our neighborhood. They served breakfast, had some games, did some face painting, did some dancing, had an Easter bunny for pictures and had an Easter egg hunt (we called it an Easter egg scramble because there was NO "hunting" -- there were just a bunch of eggs on the lawn that the kids ran for).

Here's Jeff and the kids in a huddle planning their strategy for scooping up eggs.....

They've got their buckets and they are ready......

After the scramble checking out their eggs and what's inside -- they got lots of candy.....

OPEN HOUSE

La Costa Meadows Elementary School had their "open house" tonight for parents to come see the school and see some of what the kids have been working on.

We started our "tour" in the cafeteria where each class had a display of art work done by each student. Rena's bunny is right above her head.....

Cameron's "Spring Time" picture is right above his head also.....

After looking at the art work we went outside for ice cream sundae's before heading to the classrooms.....

Cameron's classroom was first. This was his "I AM" person and poem that he made.....

Then, on to Rena's room where she was our official "Open House Tour Guide". Her sentence under her school says "In school I like to do math."....

We toured Rena's classroom and then headed outside to see her play area and watch her do her favorite thing -- the monkey bars.....

It was a fun evening and the kids were very excited to be able to show us where and how they spend their days!

RENA'S 6 YEAR PICTURES

WILD ANIMAL PARK

Maleah and I got to join Cameron's class (and the other 4 first grade classes from LaCosta Meadows) at the Wild Animal Park for a field trip. Once we got to the park the moms were each assigned a couple of kids and then we were off on our own for the day. We spent the day with a couple of moms and several boys from Cameron's class.

Adam, Christian, Cameron & Matthew ready to go.....

Matthew, Brenndan and Maleah.....

Maleah and Cameron.....

Time for lunch! The boys in our group....

Matthew, Cameron, Christian, Brady, Adam, Maleah and Brenndan checking out the giraffe.....

Maleah and Rover.....(Rover is Maleah's pet-dog in her preschool class that she got to take care of for the week since she was the "star of the week" in her class -- Rover had a fun time with us at the Wild Animal Park and Maleah kept very good care of him!!)

We got to see lots of animals and even learned a little bit about them......

It's hard to tell, but there are 3 elephants here......one was a little baby and so cute!!!

Time to go home! Waiting for the bus -- Matthew, Christian, Brady, Cameron, Adam, Joshua, Sarah and Star.....

It was a fun day.....but all us mom's were definitely ready to go home by the time the buses arrived!!! :)

STAR OF THE WEEK

Maleah is the "star of the week" this week in her preschool class. She has been looking forward to this week since the beginning of the new year when they started having one star of the week each week. The fun started today with a poster all about Maleah.

The first section of the poster, "My Family", was full of family pictures. The next section, "I love to...", was full of pictures of Maleah doing things that she likes to do - helping mom in the kitchen, helping dad in the yard, riding her bike, rollerskating, playing in the snow, going to the beach & playing in the sand, swimming, playing babydolls, doing gymnastics, playing dress-up and playing on her fort in the backyard.

The last section of the poster, "Favorite things...", was a list of some of Maleah's favorite things. It was funny listening to her come up with her "favorites" to include. We ended up with......"rootbeer floats, noodles & cheese, fruit snacks, wheat thins, sun chips, nail polish, the color pink, playing with friends, SeaWorld & Disneyland, slumber parties, footed pj's, arts & crafts - drawing, coloring, painting, cutting, pasting, taping, making dolphins, Cameron & Rena, picking flowers for mom & dad, WordWorld & Super Why, honeydew, apples, grapes, cutie pies (cutie's), strawberries, McDonald french fries and karating my brother".

She did really good presenting her poster to her class today and she's looking forward to being the "star" again on Wednesday......not only does she get to be the star for the week, but she also gets to be the "line leader"!!! :)

RENA'S BIRTHDAY PARTY

On Saturday afternoon we celebrated Rena's birthday with a house full of kids! We had the party planned at an outdoor park with a blow-up bounce house, but unfortunately it rained.....(yes, it does rain here in San Diego on occasion) so we moved the party indoors.

Here she is with her friends from school:
Rena, Myah, Hadley and Olivia.....

We had a craft table where the kids could decorate buckets, crowns and swords.....

When it wasn't raining we went outside and threw water balloons into a bucket (and a few at Jeff).....

We played "put Cinderella in the castle window" game.....

We played musical chairs.....

And we moved the party into the garage for a Tiara Pinata.....

Of course, we had cake!
Rena, Cameron & Frank patiently waiting.....

And we finished off the afternoon with some gifts.....

Even though the party wasn't what we had originally planned Rena had a great day! She had 5 friends from school, 5 friends from the neighborhood, 1 family friend, 1 sister, 1 brother, 2 parents and lots of other moms & dads celebrating her 6th birthday with her!

(Oh.......and it was also a big day for her because she lost her front top tooth.....and the tooth fairy brought her $3 that night!)

Rena is definitely a big girl now! :)