The Performance

Every week, the summer camp had a different theme. The week the kids chose was "Down the Rabbit Hole" - the week's activities would revolve around putting on a performance of Alice in Wonderland. They were given roles in the play and lines to act out. They created invitations for parents and friends to attend the play. They created masks for their costumes and painted the backdrop. They got to watch the Disney movie after a fun day at the farm. And on Thursday, they performed the play! It was a Readers' Theater style with scripts available and a seating area for the children who were not currently in the scene.

Ellena was the Eagle. She got to say, "Look! Look! It's Pat!"

Evan was Angry Card #5. He did awesome and spoke clearly so that everyone could hear him!

The cast on stage after the performance with the headmaster, Mrs. Ballard.

Field Trip to Fox Hollow Farm

This week the kids are doing a camp at a local school. A few months ago, we went to the Farmers Market. They were having a home and garden show with vendors and booths. One of the vendors was this school. They asked if we would like to enter their raffle to win a free week of camp. Lo and behold, we won! The kids toured the school and fell in love with it. We ended up signing them up for a week of camp and they are really enjoying themselves!

Today was field trip day. We loaded up on the yellow school bus (I was a parent chaperone) and headed to Fox Hollow Farm. Ellena was so excited - this was her first time riding a bus to a field trip!

We stood in line for half an hour to ride the pony.

We went up to the barn and saw the kittens. Most were spoken for, but there were still one or two available for adoption... At $400, we passed ;)

Kids thought the baby goat was really cute.

We saw these piglets a month or two ago - they have grown quite a bit!

Nature Walk in Bellevue

On Saturday we went to a ranger station in Bellevue and met a Ranger to lead us on a walk. It was interesting to learn about Bellevue (used to be under water, until someone drained the water, leaving behind fertile soil!) and see some crazy trees!

We walked over to Phantom Lake and learned about how it got its name (the mist looked like a phantom hand hovering over the lake).

History Museum

Last Wednesday we went to the White River Valley Museum in Auburn for a free admission/kids' craft event. So cool! Kids loved looking at the displays (there was an old cottage they could walk through - they couldn't believe that was someone's entire house!) And they climbed aboard a red caboose!

Since we were in Auburn, we drove over to the Super Mall and got some school clothes shopping done at Old Navy, as well as lunch at Auntie Anne's pretzels.

West Seattle

Today is our last day of summer vacation with Poppa. Tomorrow he will start a new job. We tried to go to a nature story/game time at Lincoln Park, but we could not find the group. Turns out, Lincoln Park is enormous and they did not give much direction as to where exactly in Lincoln Park they would be. So we hiked a bit and then got in the car to drive to Alki. On our way, we found this cool little beach park and stopped here instead. Lowman Beach Park had a fort made out of drift wood, rocky beach and tons of jelly fish!

Afterwards we went to lunch at Marination Ma Kai. We wanted to try this place out the last time we were in West Seattle, but it turned out to be a day that everyone was in West Seattle for the Seafair pirates. Today we got Korean tacos, loco moco, musubis, weird mac salad (chunks of spam mixed in) and a side of egg for Evan, of course. And shave ice for everyone. Food was pretty good, but really pricey! All this food in the pic was $45.

Playdate with Eddie & Emz

Yesterday afternoon we went out to Fall City and had a playdate with Eddie and Emz. The kids love visiting this very cool house. They hiked to the creek and got their boots filled with creek water. They also worked together to move rocks and build a dam. We can't wait to go back again!

Busy Saturday

We spent the day in Seattle - all day long. What a fun and busy day! We met Roy, Sachi, Momo and Riku and spent most of the day at the Pacific Science Center. Evan made a foil and green tissue paper shield in the new Imaginate exhibit. He got cotton candy after lunch and was pretty excited.

Here are the kids at the butterfly house.

After, we spent an hour at the University Bookstore before heading to dinner at a yummy Japanese restaurant that Sachi introduced us to: Issian. Next door is an ice cream shop (Molly Moon's) that always has a long line out the door. We tried going there after my birthday dinner at Bizzarro, but did not want to wait. This time, we did stand in line and we were not disappointed! Everyone really enjoyed their ice cream (strawberry, chocolate, vegan coconut chunk, salted caramel, cherry chunk, and Earl Gray - yum!)

Evan and Ellena are total clowns when the camera is out. I took the picture, but you can see my sundae next to Evan - "Molly's Favorite." Salted caramel and melted chocolate ice cream scoops, topped with hot fudge, candied hazelnuts, whipped cream and Chukar cherries.

Nature Hike

After Ellena finished her camp, we had almost 2 hours to kill before Evan finished his camp. We decided to let Ellena lead us on a hike. She set a brisk pace and took us around the park. The first trail led to a dead end. The second led to a recently fallen tree, so we had to carefully maneuver around the branches. We then came upon a trail that led us to the shores of Lake Washington! What a thrill! It was a difficult and at times, treacherous hike, but we did it! There were steep hills and sheer drops, but so cool! At the lake, we came across a mama duck and her four ducklings. We hope to do this hike again soon!

Last Day of Nature Camp

Today was the last day of nature camp. The kids really enjoyed spending their week in nature! Both Evan and Ellena have discovered a love of hiking! Above is a picture of Ellena with her fern haku (she called it a necklace.) Later we found out that Evan gave it to her while they were working on building a fort.

Evan and his instructor, Marcus.

Here is Ellena and her instructor, Frog, at the last closing circle.

Ellena with her leaders, Jaime & Frog.

Nature Camp

This week the kids are at Nature Camp and are having a wonderful time! They are learning about animal tracks, building a fire, plants that are safe or dangerous, and other useful skills. Today Evan said his group will be hiking to Lake Washington and will get to put their feet in the lake water. Yesterday Ellena's group learned how to walk like different animals. Every day is a new adventure with lots of hiking!

First Lost Tooth

Just a day after discovering a wiggly tooth, it came out! Ellena was so excited!

She played with her tooth all day the first day and loosened it and by the time she woke up the next morning, it was hanging on by a thread. While Poppa was cooking breakfast outside, Ellena was sitting quietly on the deck. She was able to pop her tooth out on her own and said it didn't hurt.

Aunty Bobbie made the kids a tooth monster. Evan has used it once since it arrived. I didn't think Ellena would get a turn until much later. But she got to put her tooth in the tooth monster and await the arrival of  the Tooth Fairy. Evan is already throwing out musings about, "I think Momma is the Tooth Fairy... I think Poppa is the Tooth Fairy." Ellena chimed in, "I think the Tooth Fairy is Grandma Sue!" Evan (Mr. Reality) said, "She can't just fly over whenever we lose a tooth!"

Low Tide Beach Walk

Sunburst sea star - it was still in the water, so he was actually kind of soft and slimy rather than dry and rough like our previous sea star encounters. We could watch his tentacles help move him in the water.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw something flop on the seaweed. It turned out to be a little eel - about 4 inches long. Momoka picked it up and helped return it to the water.

We love finding sea starts! Today we found a few eating crabs!

Ellena was excited to find our first orange sea star!

Jellyfish!

Riku found the jellyfish! He's so proud of his discovery!

Sand dollar sand bank. Digging for sand dollars!

Such a fun day! My college dorm clustermate, Dana, got to join us (haven't seen her in years!). Hoku and Link, who love photography came along, too. And the Schmidts had a grand time! When we got there, the water was still pretty high. Thank goodness it kept receding and we had an awesome adventure!!!