Getting Caught up...

Okay, so in order to have the blog somewhat caught up before the twins start kindergarten this week (!!!!!), here are some pictures taken in the last few weeks.


So, we of course went to the Play Museum a few weeks ago before Dave started school. And I had to post this picture because of what Scott was doing. There were a bunch of kids trying to put on a play when they told Scott to go out and entertain the audience while they got ready. So what does Scott do? He comes out and starts telling Knock, Knock jokes. Keep in mind, that his jokes don't make too much sense yet (example: Knock, Knock; Who's there?; Peanut Butter; Peanut Butter who?; Get in my mouth!!... get the point) But the parents of the kids loved it. And he quite loved the attention.

We also went over to our friends, the Cobb's, house for some BBQ chicken. They live a little outside of town and have a nice big back yard and stuff for the kids to play in. The kids especially love their chickens they have. And they are not even afraid, at least the kids arn't. I think the chickens may have a fear of the kids, especially Dylan who kind of liked chasing them. I think they spent more time in their little house when he was around, which was good since we were trying to keep it a secret from the chickens what we were actually grilling up on the BBQ...!

And they let us pick some cherry tomatoes off their bushes to take home. Madeline was so excited to help me, especially since she LOVES eating tomatoes.

Who' s gonna give me a ride?!:)

We had so much fun there, and felt right at home since they also, have boy/ girls twins (who are not 1 yet) and two older boys with red hair too. Between our families, we are doing our best to keep the red hair gene alive!

Then, almost two weeks ago, our good friend's, the Johnson's, who moved away last may, came for a visit for like 24 hours. They came late one night, so I didn't even tell our kids they were coming. When they woke up and saw their friends there they were SO EXCITED! It was a slumber party and they didn't even know it.:)

Of course, getting all dressed up was one of the first things they did. (and yes, mom, my bed is not made yet, but it was EARLY!):)

Later that evening, before the Johnson's headed back home, a bunch of us got together for dinner at the park. The kids loved running around and playing.

Best Buddies. Dylan and Owen are each others very first friends. They have been doing stuff together since they were 7 and 9 months old. And they loved playing with each other again after not seeing each other the whole summer.

The next day we headed to playgroup. Don't you love how many kids they have managed to get on that merry go round?

They even have a bigger one at the park too. My kids have begged since last year to go on this, and since they close it in the winter and we are hardly here to ride it in the summer, I figured we may not get another chance.

Traffic jam.:)

A few days later, we went back to that park and ran through the sprinklers with some friends. Trying to live up the last few days of summer!

Miniature Golfing

A few weeks ago, we took the kids miniature golfing for the first time. They have a pirate miniature golf place in a town close to us that we went to. What an experience.:)



They were quite excited to see what golfing is all about. Now when Dave goes golfing with the Grandpas, I think this is what the kids will think he is doing...:) And they will probably want to join him more now.

Dylan got a special plastic club.

But he was a little more interested in using his hand to get the golf balls in the holes and such. I'm sure he wondered why we were making things more difficult by using a golf club. Maybe he is on to something...

This was Madeline's third try at this hole because she kept missing the water hole. Evidently, golfing with kids means you try to get your golf balls in the water.

Who knows what they were doing here. Needless to say, we let everyone who came behind pass us. Not the quickest golfers.:)

Madeline getting her golf ball out of yet another water hole. Luckily, no one actually fell into the water features.

Silly kids. Almost looks like Dylan is trying to feed Madeline his golf ball. Knowing him, he probably was.

Who knew golf was a lounging sport?!

Watch out when Scott is up! We need to work on his swing a little more.:) He was quite, what's a nice word for it,... enthusiastic. Luckily, he didn't whack too many people on the head. We all learned to give him his space. Maybe we need to get him in baseball.:)

It was great to go miniature golfing, and the kids are already begging to go again.

Back in Ithaca!

Well, we have left Seattle and arrived in Ithaca, at least for the next four months before moving once again.:) Here are some pictures of our last few weeks in Redmond.

The kids loved going to our church's playgroup every week, at least the weeks that we could make it. There was a big sand volleyball pit there that all the kids loved playing in.

My friend, Sarah, and I took our kids to a park in Redmond right on Lake Sammamish. Unfortunately, the morning we were planning on going, we woke up to overcast skies and not exactly hot temperatures. But we had already told the kids we were going, and they were sooo excited, that we went anyways. I tried to convince Scott and Madeline to play at the park's little playground for a while until it warmed up, but that lasted about 5 minutes.:) They were way too excited to get in the water. And we were one of the first ones brave enough to get in, as you can see. The park was actually full of alot of people, and soon after this shot more kids joined us in the water. Luckily, the water was actually pretty warm. Right after this picture my camera battery died so I didn't get any other pictures when the sun did come out and the water was full of people. It did happen though!:) And we ended up having a really good time.

How do you like Madeline's really short bangs?:) Like brother like sister. Remember this post? (Scroll down to the last pictures in the post) Well, after that, the scissor privileges were taken away, until recently. Then Madeline notices her bangs were getting a little long, and takes matters into her own hands... Needless to say, they were not cut evenly, so mommy had to fix them, and they ended up shorter then we like. But I do realize, it could have been much, much worse. Do I have two budding hair stylists in the family?

This just made me laugh, and is just typical of Madeline. This is what she just HAD to bring with us in the car to take daddy to work one morning. Mind you, we are gone for about a half hour, not an entire day. I can say this, she did bring Scott and Dylan's stuffed animals for them too.:)

This was too cute. My friend, Sarah, had a doctor's appointment the last week we were there so I watched her two cute little girls for her. Her youngest, Julia, was a little sad when mommy left, so Scott took it upon himself to cheer her up. He went and got a little book to show her. And he was always on hand to entertain and cheer her up the entire time. What a good little babysitter!

We also decided to head off to one of our favorite parks the last day Dave was working. They have a little stage there, and of course Scott and Madeline wanted to dance around. And of course Dylan followed, and does exactly what they do.:)

Scott with cute little Julia again. He just loves little babies. And she is particularly adorable.:)

Here is Madeline on the see-saw with Julia's cute big sister, Hannah. I am so glad Sarah's husband and Dave had the same internship at Microsoft. It was a lifesaver to have another mom there with a husband doing the same thing. We had so much fun.:)

And last, a picture of our plane ride. Arn't portable DVD players such great things on a long plane ride? I really have no words to describe how good the kids were on our flight from Seattle to Newark. I guess sometimes all the stars just align in your favor. This made up for the fact that we were sitting in the last row on the plane next to the only bathrooms for the entire plane, besides first class. Actually, being in the back row is both good and bad. Bad, because you are the last ones off the flight in the end, and next to only bathrooms, with a almost constant line of three or four people standing in the aisle next to you the entire flight. But good, because the kids were a little entertained watching all the people standing by us, and less likely to misbehave. Also, no one was staring at you the whole flight from behind, watching your child's every move and potential tantrum.:) (Although, in our case we had the people waiting in the line for the bathroom staring at us, but at least it wasn't the same people the entire time.:)

When all is said and done, we loved living in Seattle this summer. But it is great to be home in our own things, sleeping in our own beds, and cooking in my own kitchen. We'll enjoy our last few months here in Ithaca.:)

Remlinger Farms

A few weeks ago, we headed to a town a few miles away from us to check out a farm we had heard about. We thought there would be a few animals for the kids to see and maybe a pony ride to go on. When we got there, we found out it was much more then that.:) It was like a little amusement park for the kids. They were so excited.


First off, the kids all wanted a pony ride.

Then, off to the train ride.

No, this pig is not real.:)

They had a hay maze and a big pile of hay over a big trampoline for the kids (and even daddy) to jump into.

Here's a little Ferris Wheel. The kids were so excited to go around (much more enthusiastic then the other kids on the ride with them, lol). Okay, just noticed the picture I put up has no other kids in the little compartments around them, but it filled up shortly after this picture was taken.:)

It was a warm/ hottish day and the kids were glad to run around in the little sprinklers they had set up.

I took this picture while riding with Dylan in the pumpkin in front of Scott and Madeline. Dave opted out of this ride. Reminded him too much of the tea cups at Disneyland, a ride he will NOT go on.:)

Dylan's first roller coaster. I think he liked it...? I know Scott and Madeline did.:)

They loved 'driving' this car as well. Overall, the kids had lots of fun, even though we didn't see all that many real animals. They did get to ride the ponies twice, so that was a bonus.:)

A visit from Dave's parents and sister.:)

A few weeks ago Dave's Mom, Dad and Sister came to visit for a few days.



Dylan would sit for quite a while on Grandpa Jay's lap and read books.

On the Saturday they were here we, went down to the Seattle Center. There were policemen on horses, so the kids had to go say hello. If you look closely, you can see that the horse was trying to eat Scott's hair.:)

At the Seattle Center they have this big water squirter thing. The kids wanted to go down there so much, but unfortunately their mommy didn't want them wet walking around the rest of the day. Maybe another time...:)

This picture doesn't really do it justice, but it was PACKED there that day. They were having a big festival there called Taste of Seattle, or the Big Bite or something. We could barely walk around in most places!

They had a maze for the kids to run around in. One of the least crowded places. Hooray!

Next, we rode on one of the Seattle Duck tours. Our family did a Duck Tour in Boston last year, so the kids were excited to go again. The Duck Tours drive around Seattle pointing out interesting sights, like the very first Starbucks, and very first Nordstrom (whoo hoo!), before heading to Lake Union to enter the lake as a boat. The kids love the lake part.:)

Don't you love wind blown hair?! That is Gas Works Park behind us.

After the Duck Tour, we went up to the top of the Space Needle for the first time. I love that it was dusk when we got to go.

Here's Dave with his Mom and Sister. We had lot of fun while they visited. We even braved the Pike Place market again while they were here. Thanks for coming Jay, Vinnie, and Kim! We miss you guys!

Reverse Psychology really works!

First off, I will just say I am very fortunate to have three kids who are pretty good eaters. Especially Madeline and Dylan. They try most things and like them. In fact Madeline's all time favorite thing to eat is salmon. She thinks it is better then any dessert or treat I could give her.:) And all three have always been pretty good eaters. That said, sometimes when I make something new, Scott (mostly) is a little adverse to trying it. He wants to know what is in it, he smells it for a while, and so forth. Now, my basic rule with the kids and eating is you need to have one good bite of it to try it, and then after that if they don't like it, they can just eat the other things I made for dinner.

Well, last night I made a new recipe for Corn Chowder that we had never tried. And Scott was not too excited about eating it. After tasting a bite, he decided he didn't want to finish it. That is until Daddy chimed in. Lately when the kids don't want to eat something that is good for them, and has lots of veggies in it, Dave tells them not to eat it. He will loudly tell me (so they can overhear) not to feed them any vegetables or fruit so they don't get stronger then him. He will actually try to take the healthy things off their plates so they can't eat them. And it has the exact effect he is trying to get. The kids are so eager to eat more and more healthy things, even to the point of running to the fridge to get more carrots or other veggies to eat. And after every bite they run over to daddy to have him feel how big their muscles are getting.

So last night, Dave started in on Scott. He told Scott he wanted to wrestle with him after dinner because his muscles were getting big and strong eating all the good food, and Scott's would be weak and small because he wouldn't eat the healthy stuff. So what does Scott do? He proceeds to eat his entire bowl of soup, showing us and having us feel his muscles after every bite. We even served up the dessert of apple pie before he was finished but he wouldn't eat a bite of it until all his soup was gone.:) At the end, I asked Scott if he enjoyed his soup, and he still said no, but ate it so he could win Daddy in wrestling after dinner. So, yes, reverse psychology really works, at least on our kids!:)



Scott showing off those big muscles.

Dylan was not to be left out either.:)