King Wiggly Tooth

I didn't get emotional when Evan went off to Kindergarten and I don't see myself doing that this fall when it's Ellena's turn. I know they are growing up, but I've been rolling with it. Well, yesterday, I was totally thrown for a loop. Ellena exclaimed, "I have a wiggly tooth!" Ellena has been asking since she was 3 years old, "When am I going to lose my teeth?" Seeing Evan lose his teeth and getting money for it made her very anxious. At 3 years old, I told her it would be a while. And before she's even 5 years old, her first tooth is about to fall out! For some reason, this of all things has got me wanting to put the brakes on my baby growing up! But we're very excited for Ellena and think her first tooth will fall out any day now. Her second will not be far behind!

Last night, Poppa joked if Ellena wanted to be a princess... since she cannot stand being called a princess. She exclaimed, "NO! I want to be a KING!" So we started calling her King Wiggly Tooth.

Fireworks Finale Video

Fourth of July

This year we went to Everett to Hoku and Link's home to celebrate the 4th. The kids loved the fireworks and we popped from 2 - 11 PM!!!! 9 hours - that's a lot of fireworks! If you ask Evan what his favorite holiday is, he will say, "1st is 4th of July, 2nd is Christmas and 3rd is Halloween!" I'm not sure if there are many kids out there who would rank the 4th as their top holiday!

These fireworks pics were taken with the iPhone camera - not bad!

Misc. Pics

My friend posted a pic of a pie and it got me thinking about pie. We picked strawberries and raspberries at the farm and I made up a recipe for pie - made the pie crust, mixed the berries with flour and sugar and then did a crumble topping. Came out pretty good!

Even with AC, the house gets hot on 90 degree days. The air just hangs with our vaulted ceilings, so we got Vornado fans, which help with air circulation. They make a big difference! Ellena likes to hang out by the fan, silly girl.

Here's our father's day gifts to Pops and Grandpa. We got stepping stone kits and the kids put their handprints into them.

For my birthday dinner, I chose a restaurant in Seattle that we saw on Food Network's Diners, Drive Inns and Dives. Bizzarro Cafe was pretty good, but the heat in the restaurant was horrible. It was uncomfortable and we wanted to get out of there as fast as we could. Unfortunately, we probably won't go back there, but the actual food was ok. We're sticking with our favorite Italian place, Tropea, for future Italian cravings :)

Since we couldn't stand to hang around for dessert, we headed back to the Eastside and got Coldstone ice cream in Bellevue. Very refreshing!

A brand new movie theater complex opened up nearby and we went to the $2 tix, popcorn and soda showing of the Croods. We really enjoyed the movie!

With the warm, dry weather hanging around for a bit, the bouncy house came out!

I started growing kale and chard in the spring from seeds and the plants are doing well - here's my first harvest. Trimmed some leaves and took it to the 4th of July potluck. Very tasty and tender greens!

Birthday Bonanza

Alex and Link had birthdays at the end of May. We could not coordinate schedules until a month later! So we had a birthday bonanza dinner at the end of June and ate the yummiest Hawaiian food and side dishes.

Ellena loved playing with Uncle Link.

Evan did an awesome job taking the group picture!