Mommy and Daddy's Birthday Party!

We have been so busy this summer, that I thought we would not have time for a birthday party for us. Then I realized Mark is turning 50. FIFTY. This is HUGE. Wonderfully HUGE. I made time on Sunday afternoon, at almost the last minute. It is so nice we have such good friends to celebrate with us.

Grace and her parents arrived first. Grace came well prepared. She brought her barbies to play with, and brought a boy barbie so Lon could play with her. That was so sweet!

Some of the spread. Prachi brought Rajma and Chen brought Dumplings. Both were oh so good.  Both are oh so gone.

The girls. Grace, Sarah and Kayla

The guys enjoying the sunshine. Not so warm as yesterday, but warm enough!

Kayla was so proud of herself, catching this fish that she really wanted her picture taken. So I did.

Grace and Sarah. Grace made sure Sarah was having a good time and always had someone to play with. It was very nice.

The boys, Reyansh, Sam and Lon

oh yes, there was lots of running!

Pool time

Reyansh! He is getting so big!

The kids were really having a great time in the pool

Brian blasting bubbles with the squirt gun! He loved that game

Love the look of the towel wrapped around Reyansh!

Mark showing his cake to the Grace and Sarah, he had them count the candles! For future reference, those toothpick candles are just for decoration, they do not light, or when they do, they do not stay lit. 

Look! It is a PURPLE velvet cake. I made the red velvet cake, but instead of red, I used violet dye. I experimented alot before I got it to be purple, not blue, black or lavender.  Now I am pretty confidant I can make any shade of velvet cake!  (I so need a haircut, perhaps a style...)

Such a cute boy. Someone else was still using my camera, but the pictures are good!

Mark trying on his eye mask. To help his puffy old eyes feel better.  We got some wonderful gifts and we had a great time. Thanks to all who came to help us celebrate. Mark and I had lots of fun

Happy Birthday, Grace!

Saturday,the hottest day of the year,  was Grace's birthday party! Hooray, Grace is now officially 6!  Grace's theme was a Disco Dancing Animals Party.  It was very fun!

Lon at first tried an elephant, but that did not work out as well as the puppy. The puppy with the BIG teeth. He liked the big teeth ALOT

Brian played with the toucan nose, but then nah, it was not so comfortable

Princess Kayla and lemonade

Hula Hoops

Hula Hoop contest. The little one in black rocked that hula hoop! She kept it going and going and going. She was really good at it. Everyone else, not so much!

Daddy teaching Lon how to hula hoop.

Practicing.

Uncle Chong and Daddy trying to hula hoop. I am pleased I got a photo, I was laughing so hard I thought I missed it.

Princess Kayla hiding! She thought that as very funny

Opening presents. What do you have in there?

Cake time. I made Grace a disco cake. She picked out the colors. It was a Princess flavor cake. I need to bake it a little less, but it was pretty good.

Daddy and his puppy!

We had lots of fun at Grace's birthday party!

Tuesday with Lon

Tuesday, August 16.

We went to swim class. Lon is back in Youth 1 and doing much better. He feels much more comfortable if he can touch the bottom.  He is back to really swimming and swimming under water. He is even trying to dive to the bottom. This is all good.

Since it was such a nice day, and a Tuesday, we walked down to the kid's concert in the park.  Lots and lots of strollers!

Playing in the fountain, they turned the water off. Now it just seems like a cool thing to play on.

Lon was not too thrilled with the man playing. So we walked around downtown. We left as he started playing the Unicorn Song. I sang along with him, Lon said I sang it in a funny accent. I thought about it for a minute or two and told him he was right. I learned it from the Irish Rovers!  We walked over to  Sur La Table. They were having a kid's cooking class. Lon thought that would be very cool and asked how old he has to be. 8. The magic year is 8. Lon is already planning to attend.  We spent some time at Eastside Trains.  Lon's very favorite store in Kirkland. (the do not have a Lego store downtown, that is in Bell Square) Then Lon climbed the chunks of rock on the way back to the car.

King of the Rock. Lon declared Tuesday was a wonderful day and he had the best time walking around with Mommy holding her had all through town.   This is the best. Thanks, Lon. I had a great time with him too. We will do this again. Promise!

TY! TY IS HERE!!

On Friday, August 12, Ty came over to spend the night! Lon was SO excited to see him!  The boys had so much fun together.

Squirt gun fights! I told Lon we had to save the new squirt guns till Ty got here.  Lon loves these things.  Lon took off his wet shorts and was playing in his underpants.  Boys!  At least he still had on his underpants.

Having so much fun!

Ty wanted Pizza for dinner, so I made homemade pizza for the boys. They loved it. We got to eat poolside!

After dinner, the playing moved inside. They did NOT want to go to bed. And when they did, they talked for a very long time.  Ty fell asleep first.

I could not find the bag with the jammies and extra clothes that Theresa packed for Ty! He slept in a pair of Lon's jammies.  Ty liked them. When they got up, early, I made them ebelskivers for breakfast.  Ebelskivers are Norwegian pancakes that are made in a special pan so they look like balls. Lon loves them. I used Grandma's old pan to make them. I think that helped. I need more practice in turning them so they get all round, not squishy looking. Lon is willing to help me, by eating more of them. 

Playing with Legos after breakfast! LEGOs rule, no matter where you live it seems.

Eating watermelon!  The boys were back outside having fun till it was time to go, then it was no longer fun. Meltdowns all around. We hope to be able to see Ty again before he goes back to China. We love the little guy!

Anna's Birthday Party

On Sunday we went to our classmate Anna's birthday party! At Rhododendron Park. It is a beautiful place. We really should go there more often

Anna, Jonah and Lon playing.

Anna's mom made some wonderful food! It was all so yummy, and there was Costco Cheese Pizza too.

I think this is an adorable picture

Playing with the planes!

The dog had to get in the mix too! The dog loved to retrieve the frisbee. I threw it alot of her. She loved to run, but toward the end of the party she was getting tired. She would want to have the frisbee thrown, then she would walk out to it, sniff it and lay down.  Poor tired puppy

Anna had first crack at the pinata!

Baby Cupcakes!

Anna was very sweet in letting people help her unwrap her presents. Lon was more than happy to help with that!

We had a great time at the party. It was fun, it was nice to see some of our classmates too.

Thanks for a great party!

Grammalyn's Last Day of Vacation.

I was going to call this post the Last Day with Grammalyn, but somehow that did not sound right.  We did not have a grand adventure planned for today, just some errand type things.
Our first stop of the day was Yakima Fruit Market.  We love the produce up there.

Lon can still ride the rooster! 

Daddy and Grammalyn at the register. We got some cantaloupe, peaches, apricots, cucumbers, tomatoes and a half flat of raspberries! And maybe a couple more things

Next stop- after going home to drop off all the fruit, was to Sears.  Mark and I needed a new dishwasher.  Lon is not really old enough yet, and the one we got about a month after moving in here is about to give up the ghost. Parts are falling off. Seemingly important parts.  Took me less than 10 minutes to find the one I wanted, and get all the paper work done. It is our birthday present from our mothers.   After walking out with just a slip of paper- the dishwasher will be delivered next Friday- we went to Goodwill. Mark got a few more shirts, Grammalyn, a few more books. Lon found a toy he really liked. I found two shirts, a bathing suit that still had all its tags (new) and a yard of polar fleece. Made up for last time when I found nothing!  But it all was still less than a new bathing suit at a regular store!

After all that shopping and spending, we needed some food!  We had yet to take Grammalyn to Burgermaster, so today was the day! Burgermaster has car hop service just like it did when it opened in 1952.  We did eat in our car, with the little tray on the window.

The prices still seem reasonable.

After lunch we stopped by the bakery and got some onion buns for dinner. While Lon was playing in the blow up pool with Daddy and Grammalyn watching, I turned that half flat of raspberries into 7 half pints of jam. Seedless.  And it is yummy!

Lon and volunteer Christine at the Friday Market. We love going there. Hopefully it will be back over at the beach park soon.  Lon likes the kid booth they have set up on one end of the Market.  He will happily play there, talking and coloring or just talking while we look at all the good stuff in the market.  We got some more soap and toffee. Pretty much what we get every Friday!

Daddy and Grammalyn checking out one of the booths.

Someone brought their billy goats. Nice boys. They were there to rent for brush removal.  Lon thought they were kinda cute.

Grammalyn had not seen us ride our new bikes, and had never seen Lon ride his bike or his scooter.  When we got home, that is what we did. We all rode our bikes for a few minutes, then Lon got out his scooter. We went back inside and I got dinner on the table. It was already after 5! I made pulled chicken sandwiches, the last of the beans and potato salad and fresh corn. I made strawberry shortcakes for dessert! 

Just as dinner was being cleared off the table, the doorbell rang! It was TY! All the way from CHINA!. At first he was not so sure he wanted to stay, then Lon started showing him toys and he was all set. He did not go home till almost 10 ! Lon had a great and wonderful time with Ty. Ty had a great time too.  They played and ran and played and made lots of noise. It was great to have that in the house again!

Just after Theresa left to go run some errands (Ty stayed), Rahul and Prachi called!  They came by for a visit.  Reyansh kept saying bubba bub. He wanted me to turn on the bubble machine.  So I did. I have to spoil all the boys. At least every once in a while.  Doesn't he have the greatest smile?

Grammalyn and Daddy are off to the airport by 6am tomorrow. I made her some peach muffins so she can have something portable for breakfast.  Her visit was short, we wish it could have been longer.  Next year we will be out there!  We will miss Grammalyn!