Cars & Pudding

For Memorial Day Jairo took the kids to a classic car show in Everett. I know, not the traditional Memorial Day outing, but Ethan loves to check out cars and so far Ava is still happy doing whatever everyone else is doing. Ohhh yes, we know this will soon change. :) 

Ethan’s favorite cars consisted of any car that was green since he LOVES that color. Although his favorite green cars were the souped-up classic Ford truck and the Mustang (it’s a very light shade of green so it still qualified for Ethan). I liked (via pictures from the event) the cute little blue Metropolitan.

I worked that day so after visiting the cars the fam came to have lunch with me at work. Luckily it was a more mellow day than usual, since there were no scheduled surgeries or procedures, so I was able to spend some extra time at lunch with them enjoying pudding! And ooohhhh how Ava loved her pudding.

Princess fashion

For some time Ava has been enjoying the art of dressing herself. It’s usually with random clothes that she pulls from the laundry basket or dresser drawers, or her brother’s underwear (a particular favorite – I should add that thus far they have all been clean underwear). Anyway, we have a small basket of dress-up items that she enjoys playing with and decided that this little number was her favorite with which to parade around the house. During this particular dress-up episode Ethan was playing with his cousin, Josh, who was visiting. When Ava entered the room I heard a bunch of Ooohhhhss and Aaaahhhhs and “she looks like a beautiful princess!” It had me cracking up. These boys have an interesting idea of princess fashion. 

Tulips & Family

Stephanie, Melissa (Jairo's sisters), Joshua (nephew), Jairo, Ava, Ethan.

At the start of May Jairo’s sister Melissa decided to come visit from Utah with her son Joshua. Ethan was in heaven to have a buddy to play with!  The visit was a short one but we did take an afternoon to try and catch the tulips in bloom. This year they bloomed early so most of the fields had already been cleared but we did catch a few tulips. The kids just had fun running around on a sunny afternoon.

Ethan obliged us with one picture. He's now deciding that pictures are not a cool thing. It take some coaxing. 

Ava had fun just running around the gardens. Couldn't get her to stand still for a pic.  

Just a cool tree. Don't know what kind. 

Melissa & Stephanie with beautiful smiles!

We even had a visit with a few fluffy alpacas. 

Another Binky Farewell

This year our Cinco de Mayo was a celebration of no more binky for Ava! She actually made the decision herself the day before while I was getting ready to put her down for her nap. I gave her the binky at which point she showed me that she had bit all around the nipple and the tip was just hanging by a small piece. This is the second binky that has ended in this fate. I thought for a brief moment that I would just throw that one out and head down stairs to get our last binky. But, it happened to be trash day the next morning so we had just taken all of our trash out so I thought maybe we should just go cold turkey on the binky. Cause let’s be honest … the binky is just as much for the parents survival as it is for the kids comfort!?!? So I told Ava the binky was broken and that it had to be thrown away and then we would have no more binkies. She looked at me for a moment, grabbed the mangled binky, jumped off my lap and headed down stairs to the front door. I took her out to the trash and opened the lid and said that we had to say goodbye to the binky. She then pulled her binky into her chest and I thought for a moment that we were in for a battle. Then, she just threw her binky in the trash and waved to it.  She really hasn’t looked back since - a much easier transition than our weeklong crying fests with Ethan. Then again, we let him keep his binky until he was 2 ½. J

Late Christmas

I know we’re nearing summer, but I’m taking a look back at Christmas. Probably because I’ve been lazing around with a heinous cold - which should not be allowed when the weather is warm and sunny … especially when those days are so few and far between here in the PNW! And since I don’t have the physical energy to get out and do yard work, my itch to get something accomplished has brought me to my blog backlog!

I’ve realized I rarely get much posted around Christmas time because it is such a hectic time to begin with that there is no time to sit and record the events. So … here we are at Ethan’s preschool Christmas program. 

While the kids all looked so cute in their oversized Santa and elf costumes, it did take some coercing on my part to get Ethan to put his on for the event. The first showing of the program was in the evening and everyone (except us) brought the whole family … grandmas, grandpas, aunts, cousins, you name it. The room was so packed with people standing in the back, along the sidewalls and at the doorways. I’m sure we were breaking fire code. I know the presence of so many intimidated Ethan and he did little more than just stand up there with the group. On the whole I think most of the kids were ‘done’ on this Friday evening so there were lots of skipped parts, a few criers, a few yellers, and many just standing by.

An encore of the program was scheduled since some of the kids’ parts were missed. This one was during regular preschool hours with a much smaller audience. I have to say the kids responded much better! For the most part they all sang along, did their parts and seemed to enjoy themselves. Of course there were still many comical moments, but what preschool program doesn’t have a few funny moments?