Monday, June 5, 2017

Life in May

Autumn has always been my favorite season but Spring might be edging it out now that I live somewhere with so much green growing things. The blossoms are just amazing. I've always read flower names in books and now I can actually connect blossoms to them. Like this amazing azalea bush.


 Husband wanted to pull all of the "grass" from the flower beds but I didn't think it was grass and convinced him to wait. They ended up being tons of wildflowers called harebells.



Husband was gone on another trip and J suggested sushi for dinner. So we grabbed some to go and headed to the park where this amazing wisteria was blooming. We were a hot mess yet again with fights over using public bathrooms alone and throwing sand at toddlers and so many other little things that the pictures don't do justice. So let's just look and pretend it's a charmed life I live.





Then the iris started blooming a few days later and all was well with the world. God bless the person who planted all of these amazing plants. I love you.


Apparently this is what rhododendrons look like. They are the state flower, grow 20 feet tall and come in all different colors. Here's our pink one.


And our red one


Some poppies? hanging out next to a dead rhododendron bush.


My wedding flower, the lovely calla lily.


This tree framing my window has these gorgeous clusters of yellow flowers.


I wish I knew what kind of tree it is because the trunk is cracked and I know it's going to die. But it gives me this view out my window.


Then different shades of irises started blooming!


I love them all!


As a gift for my auntie, I wrote out her favorite quote and painted the flower that's on her wedding china. it ended up being waaaaay more work than I thought it should be. 


M wanted to wear a tie that matched his dad and my heart melted.


J found salamander spawn in the pond and impressed me by knowing it was a salamander by the fuzzy cheek parts. We caught one and put it in the specimen jar from the bug collecting kit she had picked out at the dollar store a week ago. I was kind of bummed when she dumped it back into the pond.


M's preschool had a mother's day tea with a little program. Man, these things are so adorable.






I went to my first pro soccer game with my friend Natalie. We met at the airport once and really connected. It's been a blast hanging out with her and I love out meet cute story.



We watched Penny for a week while Lil Sis went on a cruise. Girlfriend wakes up at 5am. It was hard.


M3 had an amazing time a Elia's bday party. They are my alpaca owning friends up the street and had a pool blown up with four beach balls. This baby's heaven.


I was asked to judge their lego competition. The submissions were extensive.


For memorial day Husband planned a fantastic trip on a ferry and we explored Kingston. It was so fun and LOVED not having to plan or think about a single thing. He did all the work scouting out places to eat and ferry times and stuff to do. The day was perfect weather for it too.




There were the biggest clam shells I've ever seen on a beach. Many of them had little barnacle looking things that M called sea animals. He wanted to put every single one of them back in the ocean so the animals could pop out. We tried explaining that the tides would come in and cover them but he was skeptical.






Sunday, June 4, 2017

Arizona


Thank you Seattle airport for this amazing play structure inside the terminal. And thanks gymnastics for seriously elevating my kids' parkour skills.



We had a 2nd family bday party for M at Cheryl the great's house. Grammy made him a special cake with a Sky paw patrol on it. M had asked me the week before how old he'd be on his next birthday. I told he'd turn 5. Well at this party he was convinced he was turning 5 because it was he turned 4 at his last one. It took me another couple weeks to convince him he was still 4, we just had two parties.


It was fun to have my grandma there. I always get scared that each trip will be my last chance to see her.


My sweet brother drove up from Tucson just to see us and it meant so much to me. ALL the Maidenames were there and it is always special when that happens.


My childhood scrapbooks are full of shots like this and it's fun to see all the cousins grow up over the years so I am putting them in my children's too.



We originally planned the trip for Ellie's baptism, but due to complications with the divorce it ended up not happening. We just called it a big 8th bday celebration instead. Grammy made her a little Ariel cake with the same figuring that Big Sis had on her cake.


Here is all of us!


We spent Mother's day at my in laws and I had to get a picture with the cousin M looks like the most. In typical M fashion, he is moving and it didn't really work out.


M also got to help Grandpa work on the car and LOVED it.


My cousin has a couple new babies at her house and I just fell in love with them. Worst picture of me, best picture of the baby.


She even got me the most amazing Hug a Alpaca Kit. Because that's what true love is.


We ditched the kids with my in laws for a night and stayed in a Scottsdale resort for a night to celebrate our 11th anniversary. We ate lots of delicious food and went to a spa and just loved hanging out just the 2 of us.


Husband even went with me to the Madison to experience my favorite spin studio because that's true love.


Then Husband flew to California for Google I/O and I flew home solo. I feel like I earned major mom points for getting all the kids, luggage, and car seats to off site parking without any major meltdowns or problems. I thank the prayers of the many many family members on my behalf.

M's 4th birthday

M turned four! We celebrated his special day by heading to the aquarium. It was a bit of a hot mess figuring out parking and blow out diapers and ill-timed potty breaks. We didn't get to spend as much time with Lil sis and my cousin Josh and his family as I had hoped when I suggested we all meet up there. Oh well, such is life.


The otters made it worth it though. I always forget how big they are.


I have a love of sea lions and harbor seals. One of them was just pestering and being obnoxious to the other one and it was so easy to see the irritation in the body language.


Can you find the birds?


We did get one picture of the whole gang at the exit at least.


M passed out cold.


We went to Ivar's for lunch and Josh took M on a pigeon chasing adventure because the birds gross out all the ladies in the group. I also caved and let the kid get the smashed penny souvenir he always wants.


He loves balloons so we got him this bouquet to wait outside his door in the morning. This boy was SO excited for his birthday but I don't know if he appreciated how stupid expensive this number balloon was.


We had a birthday party for him at the trampoline place since I won a bunch of passes at the silent auction J's school put on. He had a great time with Kennedy, Phillip (and siblings), Liam and Ellie (not pictured), and Blake.


They wouldn't let us bring in any outside food so we had our cake outside and opened presents on the curb like the classy people we are.


 I also took McDonald's to him for lunch at preschool at his request. Boy LOOOVES McDonald's something fierce. He also chose a Skippy Von Jones from the birthday bag and passed out Blow Pops to his classmates.


He went on a special date with his dad and picked out MORE paw patrol. These ones have jet packs so clearly we needed them. That's the fun of your birthday date though, you get to pick something without Mom's judgement.


 

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