Growing up too fast!

Our youngest is 5. ::sigh::
She will start kindergarten in the fall. (big, big) ::sigh::

Her Daddy and I are trying to deal with the fact that we don't hear little pitter patter feet shuffling on the floor. 

It is bittersweet for us. We want her to grow up and be the independent girl that she wants to be, but we really miss having a little snugly baby to carry in our arms.

For her special day, we headed to the Pacific Science Center. It was a cold, wet, and yucky day, so that is where everyone with kids in Seattle headed. It was crowded, but we had a good time. More importantly, she had a really good time!

The G6 joined us along with their Auntie Darb and Uncle O (It was on a Friday, so David had to work :[  ).

We saw a bit of a magic show, played in the salt water (the kids touched sea anemone's and hermit crabs), checked out bug world and visited the butterfly exhibit (check out the huge butterfly that landed on Dao's back!), looked at the (very ugly) naked mole rats, and played with water (both indoors and outside in the cold).

I love the noise that we bring with us everywhere that we go! We were practically the only ones crazy enough to be outside in the freezing cold wind!

For her party, we had our family and close friends over for a Lego party. Pay's favorite thing in the world right now is Lego's, so she chose the theme! The weather wasn't the best, but the kids did play outside on the swing set and trampoline for a bit.

We had the kids build their own pizza's and of course they enjoyed that and ate them right up. Dao "built" pizza's for the adults. He made all different kinds, from BBQ chicken, to meat lovers, and even a cream based one with chicken and bacon. They were all super yummy!

Dao and the girls spent all morning of the party sorting Lego's at the Lego table. We didn't even play any planned games because the kids sat at the Lego table building almost the entire time!

You'll notice in the pics that some of the kids are tied up in streamers. Umm... I kinda left the party streamers out and Goo Goo (Auntie) B decided it would be fun to tie up the kids, and do pretty bows in their hair, and weave it in their toes. Ha! The kids loved it!

Thank you everyone for celebrating Payton with us! ♥♥♥♥

Painting, Painting, Painting.

We promised the three youngest that we would paint their rooms over spring break.

We let the girls choose their own colors. Emma chose a bright turquoise, Kaylin chose her favorite color of green, and Pay and I chose a green to match her new quilt.

 I realize that I didn't take pictures of their full rooms, yet. I still have to do window furnishings and accent painting. But, the girls are super happy with their "new" rooms.

We also painted the family room, and as soon as husband does the finishing touches...

Tea with Auntie (Pay's turn)

Last Friday, it was Pay's turn to go with Auntie Robin for high tea as her Christmas present!

She was so excited and had her clothes picked out days ahead of time. She got all dressed up for her special day.

 Auntie forgot her jewelry at home, so Payton graciously offered her to wear some of her gold (not silverware as she calls it)!

They went to Queen Mary and ordered the full high tea . Pay had three cups of hot cocoa with added sprinkles. What a treat!

   She enjoyed this so much and even wore the pretty tiara that they loan out!

Thank you, Auntie Robin for taking Pay out to such a special treat!

Blogger...Why??

I must apologize for my absence in the blogging world. It is not for my lack of trying, I have sat down many, many times to blog our happenings, but Blogger has decided that it hates me! Actually, I think I had my pop-up blocker settings to high and it wasn't allowing my photos to upload. I finally was able to upload my pics tonight!

I'm gonna try to catch up in the blogging world (if blogger will let me).

The first week of Spring was a little busy for us. We decided to paint our family room (including the fireplace, pictures will come in the near future), our oldest was participating in the stage crew for the school play "Oliver!", I helped my bestie, Sheree with the auction she ran for our schools Children's theatre, and we battled colds in the midst of it all.

As I mentioned, Sheree chaired the auction and raffle for our children's theatre which was quite a job to take on! I offered to help her in any way possible and she was calm, cool, and had it all under control. All she needed was me to help put some baskets together and for someone to take care of her kiddies while she was at the events. The kids came over after school, and played hard on our trampoline for well over an hour! Even little Madi was out there bouncing around!

The kids were trying to play some Star Wars game on the trampoline, and they were all screaming out what character they wanted to be. My neighbors must love our trampoline, huh?

Haley and Isa (the G6's oldest) were at the play working hard, but the little siblings ate dinner and cuddled up to watch "The Pacifier" together and that was pretty much it for the night.

Here is Sheree's silent auction set-up. People came and bid on everything from gift certificates for massages and local businesses, to handmade purses and movie lover baskets.

My Mom, watched my kids for me Friday night and husband held it down on Saturday and Sunday so that I could help out at the auction (Thanks for your help, Mom!). The stage crew kids came out before and during the show's intermission to sell raffle tickets for $1 or $5. After 6 shows/performances Sheree's efforts brought our school's children's theatre over $4000!!! Way to go Sheree!

After the final performance, all of the families are invited to a party to celebrate everyone's hard work. Somehow, Kaylin suckered me into bringing her so that she could hang with her bestie, Isa. Her older sister was not happy about it. Kaylin has a year to go before she is eligible to perform and be involved in the theatre (it is for fourth through eighth grade only), so big sis feels like she should have to wait for her time to come.

I'm bummed that this picture didn't turn out. Haley is the one with the crazy white eyes. She and her friends danced the night away, so I didn't see her much during the party. (Be sure to read Sheree's post about that over on her blog.)

St. Patty's Day Fun!

On St. Patrick's Day, we hit up the Seattle Children's Museum with our good friends Sheree, her son Dev, and daughter Madi. Last Monday was Dev's birthday, and he had invited Pay to go with him for his special day, but her big sis Haley was home sick throwing up, so we went with them on Wednesday.

Sheree suggested that we start with the art room first so that everything can dry while we play. This was such a good idea because the kids all painted and everything was really wet. Pay spent almost an hour painting this picture of a rainbow with a pot of gold at the end and roses on the bottom.

 Little Madi (youngest of the G6) was so busy. She painted, glued, taped, and colored!

 Dev did a little bit of everything too. Including this cool leprechaun hat.

 We went to the little grocery store next. The kids took turns checking each other out and shopping. They spent a good 20 minutes in here, taking their time.

Dev pretended to drive the girls around in the international area. The girls were both perfectly happy letting him do the "driving" while they sat back and relaxed.

 Because it was Dev's special day, his Mommy took us all on the Monorail!

 Of course it had to rain a little bit (We do live in Seattle!) but it didn't spoil our fun. We got off at Westlake and walked around a bit. The kids loved taking the escalator's up and down.

 Husband was working a route not to far from us, and he had been promising Dev that he could come check out "The Big Brown Truck", so we met him on his lunch break and he let each of the kids sit in the seat and honk the horn.

 She loves to visit Daddy!

Little Madi is still small enough that we can pick her up and toss her around. We miss having a little toddler, so we love it when she is around!

Thanks so much Sheree, Dev, and Madi for inviting us out for such a special day!

Kaylin's Big Weekend!

Another one of our babies is growing up way to fast!

Here's our little Kaylin at 5 months old. She had the roundest and cutest little cheeks in the world!

Here she is now at 9 years old. (Her Daddy drew a picture of her favorite star wars character, Yoda.)

For her 9th birthday, she wanted to have a slumber party. She invited 5 of her closest friends and they were all able to come. Her Daddy made these light sabers out of swimming noodles (we got the idea here) and the girls loved them! We played outside with the them while waiting for everyone to show up. As usual, hubs got way into it!

The girls basically ran around the house, chasing each other with the light sabers until it was dinner time. They were giggling non stop!

For dinner, we had them make their own pizza's on pita bread. They seemed to really enjoy this. We put out Trader Joe's pizza sauce, mozzarella cheese, pepperoni and pineapple. We did offer olives and mushrooms,

but there were no takers.

She requested a light saber cupcake, cake. This was one of the easiest "cake's" that I have ever done! The idea came from here, but Kaylin wanted to use mini cupcakes for a handle.

Yoda mustaches!

My good friend Sheree, from the G6, does a very special popcorn "surprise" for kids when they sleepover at her house. I thought it would be fun for the girls, so I copied her and passed them out during the late night movie.

I think she was getting a little tired of me sneaking up and taking pictures. Ha! Too bad!

Breakfast for the tired girls was pancakes (with strawberry and regular syrup), bacon, scrambled eggs, and fresh strawberries. We couldn't believe how many pancakes these girls ate!

The birthday girl and her besties! She had a blast!

A very special Thank You to the G6 for taking the little sisters for a sleepover so that Kaylin could have this night for just her and her friends!

Next was her family and family friends party. Her grandma's, aunties, cousins, and the H5 all came to celebrate (the G6 were celebrating their grandma Kim's birthday and couldn't make it).

Spotlight on Kaylin while she opened her presents.

Pay and cousin Livi were ready to start playing with Kaylin's new toys! (Goo Goo B is giving Livi bunny ears)

Grandma made jello jigglers and we used our "K" cookie cutter to cut them.

Haley spent the night at Auntie Robin's and they made this delicious berry trifle. We also had cherry pie, vanilla ice cream, and whip cream. Yummy!

Thanks everyone for celebrating Kaylin with us!

The next day was Monday and her actual birthday. Daddy surprised Kaylin and took the day off, so we thought, "why not let the girls take the day off too?". The girls spent the morning coloring and painting with Daddy.

For the afternoon, Kaylin wanted to head to the Lego store and use her gift card that she got from Grandma. She of course got more Lego Star Wars figurines. Thanks Grandma!

Her younger sisters had money from Chinese New Year, so they all spent about an hour building their own Lego people. This was so much fun!

We had a coupon for a free small cup of Lego's, so we all grabbed Lego's from the bins and handed them to Daddy.

He spent almost an hour packing down and filling every little space in the container. The workers were definitely impressed with what he fit into it!

For her birthday, day, she wanted Lemon Meringue pie. This cracks me up, because normally she does not like lemon stuff, but it's what she wanted, and she ate it up!

Happy Birthday Kaylin! We love you!

Need I Say More?

The kids thought it was pretty dang funny that Mommy knocked over the entire container of Goldfish crackers just after I had filled it up!I, however, had to do a Homer Simpson "D'OH!" (of course with my palm to my forehead) because I was in complete disbelief! I seriously opened up the large Costco size bag, emptied it into a Tupperware container and while reaching for the lid, knocked it right off the counter!