Ev's Birthday Party

Last night we hosted Evan's 5th birthday party at Great Play - so much fun! It was wonderful celebrating with all of our buddies! The kids played some neat games like using foam paddles to hit balloons:

as well as Ev's favorite thing at this place - an interactive throwing wall where you throw balls at images projected on their wall - so cool! At the end, the kids lined up and flexed their muscles and made silly faces for us!

The parents ate while the kids were playing - Tommy was smoking all day - pulled pork sandwiches and chicken wings. After play time, the kids ate homemade mac & cheese, snacks and dinosaur birthday cake! Thank you everyone for making this such a special day for Evan!

The Celebration Continues...

Evan asked to have gyoza for his birthday dinner, so we went to a dim sum restaurant where he could also get his roast duck. Grandma and Grandpa joined us for this tasty meal.

However, G&G were not able to join us for cake and ice cream, so using the magic of Apple technology, we were able to FaceTime in both sets of grandparents. How special!

Evan opened his second-favorite birthday present - a balloon animal kit. One of the coolest things I've found at Barnes & Noble!

It was a mighty fine birthday celebration and we are now preparing for this weekend's party!

Happy 5th Birthday, Evan!

We are halfway through with our day and I'm about to take a nap with the kids! Evan was up pretty early - he was so excited to be 5! We baked his special green lemon birthday cake and then it was off to school. We joined his class in a birthday circle and then went to lunch with our best buds, Colin, Adam and Katie at Red Robin. The kids insisted on sitting together! We then played at the park for a bit and I finally got them to settle down. Hopefully we'll get a good nap out of Ellena, cause we have more celebrating to do tonight!

Resourceful Dude

I just had to get a picture of my little resourceful dude. For some reason, Ellena kept cutting the string off her balloon, so that when she let it go, she could no longer reach it. Here's Big Brother using the stool, grabber claw, and stickers on the grabber claw (so that the sticky part would stick to the string, of course!) to get the balloon down for her. Ingenious!

Lunch at School

Today was an exciting day for us - Evan stayed at school for an extra hour so he got to eat lunch with his classmates and have a SECOND recess! Packed him a jelly sandwich, pears, carrot sticks, Funyons and fruit chews. Surprisingly, he ate everything except the fruit chews! Wow!

So what did Ellena and I do with our extra time alone? We got our Costco shopping done and ate our lunch in the sunshine. We were chatting and I asked her if she knew what tomorrow was. She replied, "Ummm, yeah... It's Evan's birthday." I then asked her if she knew how old he would be. She said, "Yeah... Older." ha ha ha! That girl cracks me up!

Grandma Madeline's Birthday Dinner

Last night we celebrated Grandma Madeline's birthday with a delicious meal at BlueAcre Seafood restaurant in Seattle. Here is a picture of the grandparents and grandchildren - an instant favorite! A busy week ahead as we prepare for Evan's birthday!!

Jack-O-Lanterns

Evan and Ellena created their pumpkin designs and enjoyed opening up their pumpkins. Evan was an excellent seed-harvester, but Ellena did not like getting her hands dirty. We have two more pumpkins to carve and lots more seeds to roast!

Farm Pickings

Here are the two pumpkins that we got today at the farm. Combined weight: around 50 lbs!

Here are the carrots that we harvested today. They were pretty big! What's amazing is just a few weeks ago, those same carrots were about the size of my fingers!

Fall City Farm

Today we went to Fall City Farm to harvest vegetables and pick pumpkins. What a fun time, although we got soaked in rain and mud! The kids loved pulling beets, carrots and potatoes out of the ground. They then hunted for the perfect pumpkin, while I hunted down a wheelbarrow!

Kids in front of the hay maze.

Kids posing at the pumpkin house.

Ellena with the calf. Evan did not want to take a picture. He insisted there was a sign that said "No pictures with the calf" - there was no such sign.

I think we ended up with 50 lbs of pumpkins. I'll have to take pics of the kids with their pumpkins later.

How Do We Rock Our "Maui Thing"?

Since I promised my cousin yesterday, here is a picture of the kids rockin' their Maui Thing gear. Which brought up the question, "how do we rock our Maui Thing?" Here's your answer:

Ellena rocks her Maui Thing in true Pacific Northwest fashion, by layering it over a long sleeve shirt and coordinating with socks and sandals (ugh, the dreaded socks and sandals look that I detest.)

Ev rocks his Maui Thing with a mohawk, of course. He made it a formal affair with khaki pants and docker shoes. :) (Which is a big step up from his usual jeans and sneaks.)

Maui - Part 2

More Maui pics:

Aubrey, Brooke, Chase, me and Ev

Kids beating up on Gary - welcome to the group!

Marla & Gary's wedding

Kids at the Maui County Fair

Maui - Part 1

Here are pics from Maui.

Here's my dad and Evan on the rocks at Kuau Point.

I've never been to Mama's Fish House so we all went. Kids posed with the tiki.

Kids with Grandma and Grandpa.

Oahu

Here are pics from our time on Oahu.

Green sea turtles were out again at Ali'i Beach on the North Shore. Ellena REFUSED to pose with them.

Evan & Ellena got to take turns shooting the fire hose at Uncle Adrian's fire station.

After the North Shore, we always stop at Matsumoto's for shave ice (and Dong Yang Inn for meat jun!)

When we went into town, we stopped at Leonard's for malasadas. Flavor of the month - pineapple! Ellena could not wake up for a taste.

We also got to spend lots of time with the kids' great-grandparents. Overall, a very nice time!

Maui Built REPRESENT!

Lots of pictures to post from our trip, but for now, here's one of the kids wearing their new Maui Built clothes.