Blueberry Picking

Yesterday the Mommies (and the kids) went to Mercer Slough to pick blueberries. We got a little over half a pound and Ellena just ate a bunch for breakfast - slow down, girl! It was fun for everyone, but I felt like it was a little "picked through". I'm wondering how different it will be at Remlinger - it's a little farther out in the "country" as compared to Bellevue Way. ;)

Here's Evan with a handful of berries.

Here's Ellena pointing to the blueberries.

Will was quite taken with Ellena... or maybe just the stroller.

Evan with Wendy and Isabel

Raspberry Picking

Today we went raspberry picking at Remlinger Farm. It has been a few years since we did this, but Evan remembered how to be gentle with the berries. He did a great job! And thank goodness for Grandma Madeline! Don't know if I would have been able to wrangle both monkeys in the field. :)

As you can see in the above picture, Evan is hard at work and Ellena is trying to mooch berries from my hand.

I am now attempting some raspberry tarts - we shall see...

Piggie

I felt Ellena was old enough to have a little snuggly friend in her crib, so I brought out a bag of stuffed animals and had her pick a friend. She chose a cute pink pig. I call it Piggie. Pops came up with a variety of pig-related names: Pork Chop, Pigenstein, Hammy, Bacon, etc.

Piggie stays in her crib and Ellena snuggles up to it at nap and bedtime. It's too cute. But she doesn't hold on to it while she sleeps (we go in and check at night). We'll see if she stays attached to Piggie or if I can rotate some other friends...

The Latest

Here's the latest on the kids:

Evan and Ellena have a little cold. Yuck. Evan's colds tend to be a little congestion, but a LOT of coughs. Ellena seems to just have a non-stop runny nose. Ironically, I was just thinking a few days ago, how healthy Ellena has been. Of course, she then gets a cold. But this is only her second cold in her 11+ months. Pretty good. Here she is lying on the ground - she never lies on the ground. She just rolled over on her back and was lying there. You know she must be sick. But she started getting silly for the camera.

Just yesterday Ellena started crawling up on her knees. Very cool to watch the progression. But if she wants to get somewhere FAST, she drops down to her belly crawl.

I am always amazed at what she can comprehend. The other day she took the door stopper off the wall. I asked her, "Ellena, are you supposed to be playing with that?" She gave me a cheesy smile and shook her head No. She's very clear about her No head shakes and Yes head nods. Makes life pretty easy.

Yesterday she heard a car start up across the street. She stopped playing and started waving bye bye. Wow, this girl is a smarty. Of course, I'm her mom, I have to say that. ;)

Evan is growing up so fast. In the above pictures, you can see his new haircut. For a while there he was getting a bit shaggy. He is loving going over to Grandma's house and yesterday when I dropped him off, he got all snippy at me, "Don't come with me!" He wanted to walk to the door by himself. That little dude is growing up! And the attitude! Geez! He was talking to Grandma about going shopping for rockets. I asked him if he meant the rockets that he played with at the pool. His response was so sassy: "No, you weren't there, Momma. I was with Grandma at Target."

Oh yeah, and as you can see from the pics, Ellena likes climbing the stairs. I've had to bring out the gate for times that I need her on the bottom floor. And I now need to keep the bathroom door closed so that she doesn't play in the toilet. Ick.

Boom Boom Boom

For the third year in a row, we spent 4th of July blowing fireworks at our friends, Ring's and Jane's house. Every year the show seems to get bigger and bigger, and this year was no exception. Our friend, Hoku, has been anxiously anticipating this and put together a really cool show. Here's the "before" picture of just the finale.

Pops took video of it and put it up on YouTube. It's pretty spectacular. Seriously, my neck got stiff from looking up for so long.