Hanging Out with Goo-Goo Xuan

 Goo-Goo (Auntie) Xuan (pronounced chun) and her boyfriend Dan, moved to a new apt in Queen Anne. They were having trouble installing a lamp that Dan made from a tree stump, so big brother (AKA, my husband) planned for us to come over so that he could take a look. Xuan had to work late, so we headed over there at 8pm on Saturday. This was a special treat for our girls because a) they got to visit with their Auntie and see her new apt and b) they got to stay up super late.

Check out the book shelves at her new apt. I'm super jealous!
 

 He was so determined! He spent over 2 hours drilling and using wires to get that lamp up!

While he worked on that, us girls chatted and grubbed on the yummy spread of avocado dip and cucumber sandwiches.

 Emma passed out on their couch while Daddy was banging and drilling right next to her! We have decided that she takes after her Goo-Goo Linh in the sleeping dept. They can both pass out and nap anywhere!

Dao finally got the lamp hung by stringing some heavy duty wire through the metal plates in the ceiling. I wish I got a better picture of the lamp. Apparently Dan pulled the stump out of someones yard, and creatively made it into a lamp. It is really beautiful.

Xuan got this amazing bouquet at the World Market down the street, and I had to take a picture of it.

Does anyone know the name of this type of flower? Anyone??? I am super curious...

On Tuesday, Pay, her buddy Dev, and I met up with Xuan and Dan to go to the Pacific Science center together. Xuan called me from the entrance to say that it's closed on Tuesdays! What?! Why the heck would they close it on Tuesdays??
Luckily, Sheree (Mom of Dev) has a family membership at the Seattle Children's Museum nearby, so we headed there instead. The kids (All 4 of them!) spent hours in the art center!

Xuan and Dan got right in there with them, cutting, gluing, stapling (Once Xuan figured out that a stapler had been in front of her the entire time! ha!), and coloring. It was fun for me to sit back and watch and take pictures.

     Xuan and Pay made the cutest little "girl" out of tubes, feathers, cardboard and cloth.

Dan and Dev made a crazy mask out of all kinds of things. From tape and yarn, to egg cartons and clothing material. Dev also made a "bottle gun" that he was super proud of (I did not know that it was meant to be a gun until we got in the car, sorry Sheree!). Most of the materials used were from recycled products, and they had all kinds of things to choose from. Next time I am going to bring a big bag to take home all of the art stuff that they make!

Thanks so much Dan and Xuan for hanging with us! We had so much fun! We promise to take you to the Science Center next time. Apparently not on  Tuesday's though!

One Week In...

We did it! We survived the first week of Spring Soccer! Our schedule is busy. We have soccer every day except Saturday (until May 1st when Pay starts!).

 For the first time in two years, Kaylin is playing soccer again! She quit for awhile after an unhappy rainy and cold, Fall season and has since been our gymnast taking lessons at Cascade Elite.

 Well, she decided to give it another try. She is on a team with her BFF, Isa, and she is very comfortable with Coach David (Isa's dad), so we are hoping that this will be a better experience for her. We met the team at a practice and tailgate BBQ and the girls all welcomed Kaylin right from the start. She is actually playing up this year (She is #4. Notice a size difference?) and the other girls on the team have been playing soccer for quite some time, but she is not discouraged and looks forward to her practices and games.

 Haley team has been the Blue Angels since forever, but this year they were told they would be White because there are too many blue teams?? Anyway, the girls don't seem to mind the team color change, but as the person who does laundry in our house, I would prefer dark blue or black. She has games twice a week without any practices, so I have to be diligent about getting it washed in time for her to wear it. The fields are wet and muddy from the spring rain, so I may have to invest in some bleach soon.

 Emma's team has switched from pink to red. They are now the Ruby, Red, Tigers! This is the same color as her Daddy's indoor soccer team, so Emma was super excited for the switch.

She didn't score, but she came so close a bunch of times. She wants to score, so I hope it happens for her.

 She also loves to play keeper. She gets this from her Daddy. Hopefully she won't get a concussion like him, too!

 The field that they play on (most of the time) has a grass hill that is perfect for rolling down. Kaylin, Pay, Isa, Dev and a few of their friends did this over and over again.

  The grass was wet and a little muddy, but that didn't stop them. Haley and Madi chose to watch from the top. ☺

We ended our week with Daddies outdoor game. It was so beautiful out on Sunday. The perfect day for the family to spend outdoors at the game and the nearby park.

May 1st we add Pay's soccer schedule into the mix. Wish me luck with all this juggling!

Thank you to Sheree and David of the G6 and my Mom (Grandma), for helping me get the girls to and from soccer on time! Dao works late on most days, so I couldn't do it without you!

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!