Pumpkin Carving

So one might think carving pumpkins would be every kids dream.  What child does not want to get in there and pull out all of the gunk? Not our son.  He wanted nothing to do with the dirty mess. Kennedy on the other hand, could not wait to get her hands dirty.  Is Roderick already turning into me? Oh boy...

Prita, Kennedy and Clare

Prita and Kennedy

Thats about as close as Roderick would get to the "uh-poo-da-min" (That was my best attempt to tell you Roderick's version of pumpkin. Every time he sees one, its "uh-poo-da-min")

Kennedy is so festive! Check out the Christmas bib on Halloween

Awwwwww

Awwwwww

Sean, Bethany and Clare's "uh-poo-da-mins"

Sean, can't wait for your pumpkin to say "SOLD"

Moraiya Turns 3!!!

Last weekend, we celebrated Moraiya's 3rd birthday.  I can't believe how fast time has gone and that she is already 3 years old! Wouldn't it be great if we could stop the clock and keep our kids young forever? It might be nice for us adults as well!  It was a great party! Happy Birthday Raiya!

Check out that cake

The birthday girl opening her gifts

Kennedy 

"Sing us a song, the piano man... sing us a song tonight"

The birthday girl putting on her new lip gloss

Liam (AKA "Mario")

Elsie (AKA Mini Jen)

It's the Great Pumpkin

On October 18th of last year, our dear Grandpa Aldo passed away.  This year, as a way to remember him, we all decided to do something fun, something he would have loved to have done with us... we went to the pumpkin patch.  We hauled all of the kids in the car (I had Kennedy for the day), met for lunch at the Dirty Bird (AKA Red Robin) and headed to find ourselves the great pumpkin.  Sorry Charlie Brown.  We found it!

Honestly, it was a PERFECT day! The hay rides, the train rides, the tractors, and bouncy houses topped off a special day.  We sure missed our Grandpa Aldo but know he was up there looking down on us.  We miss you Grandpa!!!

It's a GIRL!!!

Since I was a little girl I knew 2 things for sure.
1) I wanted to become a teacher.
2) I wanted to be a mom.

A few years ago I found a letter that I wrote back in the 2nd grade.  It was titled "what I want to do when I grow up." Ironically, both of the things listed above were in this note.  I became a teacher back in 2004 and became a mother in 2009. Both were great accomplishments and I feel truly blessed to have done what I set out to do.

We found out back in July that we were expecting another baby.  Although extremely surprised, we could not have been happier.  I take great pride in the mother that I am and always wanted to have a big family that consisted of both boys and girls. I know its not in my hands and I cannot pick the gender of my babies but can I just admit that I wanted EXACTLY what I got? An adorable and loving little boy and an adorable and loving little girl (we are pretty sure she will be adorable and loving).  My grandma Tiny used to say, "there isn't a dumb or ugly one in the bunch." I have to agree!

Anyway, I always wanted an older brother to watch after his younger sister.  I wanted a brother that would be protective and make sure people were always nice to his little sister.  Especially when she turns say 16 and wants to go out with boys (oh boy...)!  We need that filter that will get rid of the "bad seeds." :-)  I think Roderick will do his job wonderfully and that dad will also help with that! Poor McKenna.

There is, however, one thing in this letter that did not hold true for me.  It mentioned that I would have 2 kids (so far, so good), one boy then one girl (so far, so good) and that I would name the boy Jason and the girl Jaime (hmm).  Pretty original considering my best friend's name was Jaime and her brother... you guessed it... Jason.  I get a big fat ZERO for creativity on that one.  Oh well.  Just look at me now!

Mckenna Rose,
Your dad, brother and I are SO very excited to meet you.  We love you so much already! Hurry up March!!!
Love,
Mom
PS- your real letter from me is in your baby book... dad... it's your turn!!!

Isn't technology AMAZING???

The Woodland Park Zoo

Last week I took Roderick to the Woodland Park Zoo for the very first time.  We met up with Sarah (Dye) and her adorable daughter Brooklyn.  Dye and I have been friends since Jr. High and were even college roommates at Wazzu! We've had some great times.

The weather at the zoo was perfect and it was not crowded at all! I was so excited for Roderick to get the chance to see all of the animals without all of the chaotic distractions.

First things first... we went to see the elephants.
He cried.
Then off to see the hippos.
He cried.
Immediately following were the monkeys.
He cried.

I started to worry my son was turning into a sissy.
Then I realized something.
My son is more like me than I thought.
Just not quite sure how he feels about animals. :-)

I would like to mention that Roderick did enjoy seeing the lions (perhaps because they were soooo far away or because he recently learned to ROAR)
He also loved the bunnies and chickens (perhaps because they were smaller than him)
I sure do love my little scarty cat!

Brooklyn and Roderick

Adorable Brooklyn

Adorable Roderick (making his monkey face)

Roderick and Dye

What happened to my John Deer?

See that face? Look in the background. He just noticed the monkey behind him.

Next time we will look for Curious George Roderick.  He might be less intimidating. 

IT'S...

Yep! That's right! It's The Wiggles!!! I used to wonder what type of kids watched these guys and now I know... kids like mine! Roderick loves to sing and dance! I thought maybe he would be too young for this but it turns out, he enjoyed every second! He was clapping, dancing, and doing his best to sing along.  It was precious watching him, and the other kids for that matter.  Kennedy, Hailey, Tyler, Rachel, and Prita's Rachael were all into the Wiggley Circus! 

The highlight of the show though was watching Roderick meet his very first celebrity! Jeff (you know, the one that always falls asleep) came up to Roderick and gave him a high-five.  At that moment, I wondered if he felt the way I did when I went to Leonardo DiCaprio's house back in my LA days.  Was he star struck? Was it his dream to meet a Wiggle? Somehow I don't think so.  Meeting Leo was WAAAY cooler.  Where was my blog when I did that? Maybe its a good thing I did not document my life back then... 

It's the BIG RED CAR!

My pathetic attempt to capture the high-five of camera.  It was a little dark in there.  Sorry Roderick. I tried!!! 

Rachael and Roderick 

"Everybody clap (clap, clap, clap)"

David, Tyler, Prita and Kennedy

Roderick with Grandma

Our first trip to The Wiggles Show... What a day! 

Is it just me???

Or could they be twins? 

Salmon Days

This weekend we went to Salmon Days in Issaquah.  We met up with the Sperrys and the Ayalas! I had not been to Salmon Days since it was located in Old Redmond.  I must have been about 10 or 11 years old because all I remember about this event was that I bought a doll.  This was no ordinary doll that could be purchased at Toys R Us.  This was a special doll.  It was a homemade doll.  It was made out of panty hose and cotton.  Yep. Her skin was tanned, naturally, as panty hose are often a dark brown or black.  Now that I think of it, she may have been considered an African American doll :-) I named her Sarah and I carried her around with me everywhere I went.  Wait, is that normal for a 10 or 11 year old? Maybe I was younger... Hmmmm.

Anyway, we checked out all of the booths (no dolls that resembled Sarah unfortunately), took the kids to the play area (what a disaster) and searched and searched for something healthy to eat (sorry Vauxy).  Later that afternoon, we went back to the Sperry's for a BBQ.

Loving the wagon (all I could think about was the number of kids who have touched this thing. Love being a germ-a-phobe. Works really well for me at fairs and big events :-)

Look at that mad house behind us. Didn't really feel like losing our kids...

So the play area was short lived

Goof balls

"Dear Lord... Please let the Hawks win tomorrow"

Roderick and Sydney

London