We Love Clifford!

We went to the Seattle Children's Museum on Tuesday with Jess and Layna, and Clifford was there! We are (occasionally) obsessed with Clifford, so this was super cool, and I had to threaten the girls in order to get them out of the Clifford room to explore other parts of the museum.

Emma, Siri, and Clifford

Siri and Cleo.

Mini Sukkahs

One night when things were getting crazy (during the High Holidays in Sept.), as evenings often do around here, I rallied the girls in by having them make their very own sukkahs. We used imitation play doh to hold the four corner clothes pins, then hot glued large popsicle sticks for the roof and small ones for "lattice" on 2 of the walls. To cover all of the traditional ways of building a sukkah, we glued a paper napkin in the back as a sheet. Then the girls made "decorations" out of pop-together beads, and we put some fake fall foliage on the roofs.
They really turned out cute, and I hope to make that craft a tradition.

BFFs in Training

In September I flew to Pittsburgh for a Girls' Weekend and Ty and his best buddy, Julien got a chance to bond. It was only for a few moments on account of Ty having a little cold, but every little bit counts. They now have plans to play Monopoly on their iPhones next time they're together...just like their dads.

Buddies

Siri just adores her little brother! She always walks up to him and says, "He's so cute!" She sits beside him and "reads" to him, and always needs to kiss and hug him at night. Emma, on the other hand, is kind of warming up to him...very slowly. She has always thought he smells funny. (All her senses are fairly heightened right now, and I attribute that to being four.) The reactions that the girls have had to their new brother have been exactly opposite as I expected. I was so worried about Siri feeling that her "baby" position had been hijacked, and I thought Emma would be the little helper. I was way off!

Family Visit

My whole family recently came to visit us all the way out here for 10 days. For the first 3 days Matt, myself and Ty flew to North Carolina for a young leaders retreat. It was awesome and really refreshing. While we were gone Terry and Stacy took a couple of days to themselves at a lodge in the mountains, and the grandparents had 3 energy-suckers to take care of :) They all had a great time! So, when we got home from the east coast we got right into the the visit! The 2 younger generations spent the first day in Seattle at story time on a 100 yr. old tug boat, Pikes Market, and the REI flagship store (Terry's second home), while the grandparents rested! On Friday we took all the kids to Emma's class trip to the pumpkin patch where my very unadjusted city girls freaked out multiple times at the mud. On Sunday we took a nice day trip up to Whidbey Island where my dad was stationed while in the navy, and on Tuesday we all went back in to Pikes Market and REI again...so Terry could get his fix. It was so great to have my family here. I miss them so much and wish I could live near them.

First Day of Preschool!

Monday, September 13, was Emma's first day of preschool! We have joined a co-op at the community center of the next town over, so roughly 2-3 times per month Matt or I will be assisting in the classroom. Emma will be at preschool for 2 1/2 hours per day for only 3 days a week, and the whole family was able to spend her first day with her. We got to see her in circle time, then doing projects at various stations, having snack, going on a walk to the playground, and story-time. Her teacher is Ms. Cindy, and she is so good with the kids. I know that this is a very common trait with preschool teachers :), but I think that I'm so fascinated by teachers of small children because I could never do their jobs! So, in short, it was a fun time at preschool today, except that I would never ever recommend bringing 2 younger siblings, one of which is 2 and the other got 2 month immunizations that morning! It was fun, but exasperating, and exciting, and sad (that Emma's growing up), and a very proud moment for us!

Project: Another Tree One

Last fall we made this project. It's another tree, and this time I folded a brown piece of paper in half the long way and cut out a tree with branches, free-hand. Then we glued it to construction paper. We glued fall leaves that had been pressed on to the tree. These I already had...if you open any of the huge books, including the dictionary and all the theology books, that we have on our shelf fall leaves will fall out. (I love fall and love collecting perfect leaves, but don't usually do anything with them except for hiding them and forgetting about them!) And lastly, we had a whole bunch of bird stickers...from Grandma, I think...that completed the project!