The Joy of Baking

As a child, one of my favorite parts about home baking, whether I was much of a helper of not, was getting to lick the batter off the spatulas and other mixing tools. Ethan has a bit more experience in licking the baking tools so he begins asking for them as soon as I start baking. On the other hand, Ava is a bit inexperienced as I usually do my baking during her naps for less distraction. This day we were making brownies for a Fourth of July BBQ and I had to chase Ava down to get her to take a lick of the batter. Once I finally forced a taste to her lips she was sold! In the end we had to find a new clean outfit for the BBQ.

I love seeing Ava going to town in the background!

Ethan if really working it with the whisk!

Ava all clean and changed for the 4th BBQ. Of course she has Ethan's old backpack ... there was a time this summer where it went everywhere with her. 

Camping with G & G

Grandma & Grandpa visits are always a highlight for the kids. Ethan had been planning out their visit for some time, full of all kinds of fun things he wanted to do when G&G were in town. We did get out and hit many of his requests such as camping, visits to the beach, movie nights and the Lego store (unfortunate for me, fortunate to Ethan, we have a new Lego store at out local mall & he can’t get there enough).

Our trip started with a camping trip to Lake Chelan. Last year was our first visit to Lake Chelan and we quickly chastised ourselves for not having visited before. It is such a beautiful and calming place to visit. This stay we camped at Lake Chelan State Park, which was perfect … great access to the lake, showers, playgrounds, a store on site for treats or must have items we forgot, and hiking.  The kids had a blast and we did as well. Ethan enjoyed meeting other kids from the campground at the play area and still talks about one of the boys to this day asking if he can invite him to his birthday party.

I got the wonderful opportunity to carry Ava around on many of our little hikes. She was not a fan of the hiking backpack and would find ways to weasel her way out of the straps and try to kamikaze out of the pack. Soooo, much carrying we did. :)

G&G keeping up on the hikes!

Ethan was thrilled to have conquered the tree near our campsite. Dad offered some assistance of course. 

Grandpa knows how to make friends with Ava by helping her out with her otter pop. 

When we arrived in Lake Chelan we stopped at a local farmer's market for lunch which had these cute little goats. It was hard to get the kids to focus on eating as all they wanted to do was play with and feed the goats. 

We also enjoyed movie night.

An evening at Picnic Point Beach Park is always a fun treat. We enjoyed a sunny warm evening while the kids played in the creek that leads to the Sound. They can spend hours building dams or throwing items in the stream and following them downstream.

We even had a chance to celebrate Father’s Day and grandpa Joe’s birthday with our extended family. Only in the Pacific Northwest would you experience such a blustery and wet mid-June afternoon at the park. The rain didn’t bother the kids but all of the adults stayed under the covered area for the most part. We had some soggy, tired and cold kiddos on the way home … but they were happy!

Bathing Beauties

Bath time is always more fun with crazy hair! Unfortunately Ava wiggles too much to get a decent photo that’s not blurry, but I do adore her big brown eyes.

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.