Issy Farmers Market

The last Saturday of the month is Kids' Day at the Issaquah Farmers Market and Evan had a blast yesterday. It seemed a little more organized than last year's Kids' Days. There were pony rides, which Evan has been looking forward to, a KidzBounce inflatable and Gymboree activities set up.

Funny story about the pony rides. Last year, there were pony rides and Evan was interested in it. The man said he could ride, "Reggie", because he was pretty mellow. We paid and then Evan decided he didn't want to ride - too scary. So we told him maybe next year. A year goes by and in the mean time, Evan had pony rides at school, which he had a blast on. So every week he has been asking if the farmers market will have pony rides. Finally, the first Kids' Day arrived and he got to ride the pony... And it turned out to be Reggie! Ha!

Here's Evan showing off the painting that he got on his arm - a bee buzzing around flowers.

Through it all, Ellena was not very amused. She was tired.

Happy Birthday, (Uncle) Alex!

Yesterday was our good friend Alex's big 3-oh birthday and we got to celebrate with him today with his friends and family.

Songfest

Last night we were treated to a rousing performance at Evan's Songfest at his preschool. It was the most adorable thing.

Click here to view it on YouTube.

Here's a picture of his class. Evan is in the front row in blue.

Here's Ellena and Grandma enjoying the singing.

5/28 Pics

10!

Ellena is 10 months old today! She is doing mostly table food and loving every bite! She is getting faster and faster with her low to the ground scooch. She is able to sit up from lying on her belly and likes to stand, but does not pull up yet nor cruise. One thing at a time! She has 8 teeth and is growing fast - I've been buying her 18 mo. clothes so that she doesn't outgrow them too quickly.

Backyard - New & Improved

Here are pictures of our new and improved backyard.

We ripped out the old, rotting deck and put in a new one. We also made it bigger. Check out the front of the deck - our new plants. From left to right - Evan's flower bed, Poppa's rosemary, Poppa's chili peppers, Evan & Grandma's flowers from last year, and my gardenias. Oh, it smells so good!

Here's the sidewalk that runs along the side of our house to the back sliding door. We put Evan's handprint and Ellena's footprint in the concrete. I ended up filling the sides with dirt and then laying river rock over it. Hardest work EVER.

Here's a shot of the front of the house. Rhody bushes are where the spruce used to be. Sidewalk starts here and goes all the way to the back. Nice and smooth for wheeling out trash cans!

Zoo

Yesterday we spent the Memorial Day holiday at the Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium in Tacoma. It was our first time there and it was quite an experience!

To Beethoven, the Beluga whale, we said Hello (since it was our first meeting) and Goodbye (since he will be moving in June).

Here's Evan watching the seal swim by.

Here's Pops and Evan greeting the raven - Go Ravens! Evan refused to turn around for the camera, hence Pops' smirk.

A classic line from yesterday's adventure... We had seen most of the animals and were talking about leaving. Evan yelled out, "We haven't seen the seahorses yet! DUH, Grandma!" It was so sassy.

Witch Thing

Evan made this up today while he was playing outside - here he is doing the "Witch Thing." He swings, as if he's flying on a broomstick. Too funny.

Here's Ellena enjoying the great outdoors.

A Run-In, Literally

Today we had a little run-in at Target. I had both kids in the shopping cart, parked in the aisle. A woman was trying to push her cart past us. I couldn't move our cart out of the way fast enough cause Evan was standing up. So she ended up nudging our cart a little. Like a soft crash. A loud nudge. Get the idea? Not super hard, not super soft. She walks by and says, "Excuse me."

Evan looked at her and yelled, "HEY!" I told him, "It's ok, Evan."

Little dude was on a roll and said in a really sharp voice, "Say sorry!"

At the same time that I said, "It was an accident, Evan, chill out," the lady turned a little snippy and actually talked back to Evan! How silly is that?! She said, "Actually I already did." Okaayyy. I guess at least it's cool that Evan understands the concept of saying sorry...

Tree Removal

Here is a spruce tree that was on the right side of our driveway. It was starting to lift our driveway and I wanted to clear its roots to lay a pathway on the side of the house. The professional opinion was that it needed to be removed.

I thought he was going to bring the crane to remove the tree, but I guess that's only for the REALLY big trees. :) So this dude went to town with just his chainsaw. Evan loved watching him in action!

The next day, he brought the stump grinder. More fun times for Evan.

Here's Evan with his chainsaw and Ellena, his assistant. Notice, Evan puts safety first - wearing a protective mask (really his snorkel and diving mask). But he let Ellena touch the saw blade with her fingers. Go figure.

I'll post pictures of the finished pathway later - they worked on it today! I can't wait to wheel out the trash this week! No bumpy roots to twist my ankle on!

Sibling Love

I love watching Evan and Ellena interact. Evan is really growing into his big brother role and Ellena is much more animated these days.

The other day Ellena was crying (real tears!) and Evan ran to get a hand towel and wiped her tears away. So cute.

When Ellena is going where she's not supposed to (in the glass cabinet, near kitty bowls, etc.) Evan dashes after her, shouting, "Evan to the rescue!" and drags her away by her legs.

Evan went to check on Ellena after she woke up from her nap. I found him inside her crib and she thought that was so funny. She was rolling around with the cheesiest grin. I've asked Evan not to go in her crib again because it's dangerous. So when he checks on her, he now stays outside and "sings her lullabies". Yesterday it was Twinkle, Twinkle. Today he was singing a classic children's song: "Low" by Flo Rida: "Boots with the fur..."

Saturday Luncheon

Here are pictures from our luncheon on Saturday. Thanks, Aunty Marissa & Uncle Alex!

All About Elle

Here's a catch-up post on everything Ellena. Lots going on with the girl that I haven't gotten around to writing about.

Stranger Anxiety - Getting better! She has been warming up to strangers a lot quicker than in the past. We were at a restaurant on Saturday for dinner and she gave a goofy grin to our server every time she came by. She also started hamming it up for the camera. We went to visit friends and once the camera came out, she smiled for Aunty Marissa! Yay!

Teeth - Wow! Teeth everywhere! Ellena officially has six teeth and two more just under the gums, ready to break through any day now.

Self-Feeding - I'm wondering if Ellena was paying attention when I was telling her pediatrician at the 9-mo. wellness appointment about how Ellena refuses to feed herself. Seriously, a day later she is picking up Cheerios and putting them in her mouth as if she's been doing it for months. Ha! And now, she refuses to take any baby food from a spoon from us. She bats away the spoon and if we get any food in her mouth, she immediately spits it out. Frustrating, but I guess she's trying to tell us something. So I'll try and cook up some fruits and veggies and chop them up into small pieces for her to feed herself.

Crawling/Creeping - Ellena is doing the arm over arm, low to the ground, army crawl. This is the same technique Evan used as a baby. Ellena is getting faster every day and is enjoying her independence. She loves to check things out when she hears a sound from another room and is now enjoying climbing over obstacles.

Standing - Ellena is enjoying standing. She hasn't quite gotten to pulling herself up yet, but I'm sure that will come very soon.

Words - Ellena's first word was "Mama." Her second word was "nana" for banana. (Exactly the same as Evan's first words.) Evan and Pops are hoping their names will be her next words...

Playing in the tupperware cabinet kept Ellena entertained for quite a while. Yay for tupperware!

Happy Mother's Day!

I thought it would be fun to post some shots from our family picture "photo shoot" that will NOT be making it on Ellena's invitations...

Inappropriate boob grab

Ellena's not looking



Now Ev isn't looking

We can barely see Ellena past her foot and hand

The Bus Wash

Evan had a very special treat today. He went with Grandpa Joe to the bus wash. Evan is fascinated with the car wash, so the bus wash was that much cooler. Thanks, Grandpa Joe!

Leave Him Alone for 10 Minutes...

This morning Ellena slept in, so Evan and I had breakfast together. We did a Google Image search for "vulture eating". As you can imagine, it came back with some pretty nasty pictures. I told Evan we'll look at just "vultures" cause this search was too gross.

I then went upstairs to get Ellena and left Evan to finish his breakfast. He came upstairs after and said that he found a funny picture of a vulture with a clown in it. But he warned me that it was from the gross site. Okaayyyy...

We all went downstairs to look and sure enough, he somehow clicked around back to our old search and found a vulture and clown picture.

Click here if you want to see it. It's actually quite funny and not gross at all.

Numbers

I always get a kick out of Evan and his view on numbers. Like someone who is REALLY old is... 9. Or, if he wants a ton of snacks and I ask him how many, he says, 5. Five used to be the "go-to" number for when he was feeling extra hungry. How many strawberries? 5. How many pretzels? 5.

Well, today he was feeling a little plucky and asked me to make him some hard boiled eggs while he was at school. He said he wanted A LOT. When I pinned him down on how many he replied, 6. Too funny. So 6 eggs are boiling as we speak.

Introducing... Spike

The other day Evan went over to see our neighbors cause they were working on their yard. Evan helped them do some weeding, which he thoroughly enjoyed. But to make it even cooler, he got a surprise from them. Our next door neighbor is the head of Toys for Amazon so he gets all kinds of free toy samples. They brought out this HUGE box and opened it up for Evan. It's a remote control dinosaur named Spike. Evan gets a little scared because Spike is so animated, but he enjoys controlling it. I took this picture today to print out and make a thank-you note for the neighbors. They were quite tickled.

Oh, and side note about Evan's outfit. For you loyal readers, you might recall that Evan was Diego for Halloween last year. Evan is rocking his monkey costume from TWO Halloweens ago! It rides high in the legs, but still fits, for the most part. Every chance he gets, he puts it on.

3 Monkeys