watch out pizza hut -- here comes the fox brothers!

tonight, i decided the boys and i would just have a party evening. shawn is still in kansas for work and we are all missing him, i thought having a party evening would busy all of our minds! the boys and i made cookies and pizza! we even made our own dough! gabe and i decided to have sausage, canadian bacon, and red peppers! grady on the other hand, loves to blaze his own trail! he opted for no sauce on his pizza -- but wanted lots of canadian bacon, sausage, and cheese. his pizza looked a little naked, but he was the one eating it. they all turned out super yummy and we had a great time! after pizza and cookies, we popped some popcorn and watched an old classic, toy story. grady had never seen this movie, and gabe and i have watched this movie so many times, we have it memorized!! grady loved it! we finished off the evening reading a ton of books and then off to bed!! tomorrow shawn comes home, we can't wait!!

grady --- the next Raffaello Santi ?!!!

i am happy to report to all of you art buffs that grady had art class this morning! today the focus was on watercoloring in warm and cool tones. miss christine "guided" the making of the flamingo, but then it was the children's art duty to fill in with the warm and cool colors. wow, we have been practicing colors, but now grady knows warm and cool colors!! i didn't know that until i started wearing makeup!! ha! miss christine told grady she loved how he had made his water turquoise and the red shadowing in the water was fabulous!! she told me today that grady does a very good job listening and creating his artwork. not bad for a 2 1/2 year old. now if i could get him to listen that well at home!!

and the award goes to....... Gabe Fox!!!!!!!!!

we have some very exciting news. last week a letter arrived from picnic point elementary, gabe's school. now for those of you with students, you know a letter from school can be either delightful news or just the opposite. well, gabe has always been an awesome kid so, i tore right into that letter. the letter stated that our student would be receiving a very special award at the march 24th awards assembly and that we should make plans to be there. dad and i were beaming!! but the letter stated that the student shouldn't know about the award so that it could stay a surprise. so shawn and i wondered amongst ourselves what possibly could the award be? was it a math award, gabe loves math or maybe a spelling award, he has gotten 100% on each test since the tests started, oh we hate suspense! so shawn rearranged his monday schedule, and fortunately grady and i were free so in a few short days we would know! the funniest thing happened on friday evening, we were sitting at the dinner table discussing the easter weekend plans, shawn travel plans for the upcoming week, and just the following weeks schedule. well somehow it slipped out that on monday afternoon we would be busy at an awards assembly. gabe promptly said, "mom, you don't have to come to the assembly, i won't be getting any awards!" well little did he know! well yesterday was the big day. shawn, grady, and i all arrived early to get the primo seats. they went through all the academic awards, and nothing! we were stumped, most of the awards were only going to 3rd-5th graders. then they went through class awards, at least 1st grade was mentioned here. we were starting to get nervous, what kind of award was he getting??? or was there a mistake, maybe they sent out the wrong letter, i was kind of getting bummed! but then the principal said, "and the last awards, i feel are even more important than academic awards, they are the citizenship awards!!" oh this had to be it!! so i got the camera primed, and sure enough, the 1st grade citizenship award went to ---- Gabe Fox!!!! shawn and i were so proud!! our little guy was being explained as a friend to all, a helper whenever needed, always followed rules, on and on!! i can't even explain how happy i was that he was getting that award, and yes i did get teary eyed. you work so hard as a parent to instill good morals, life skills, and direction in your children and it seems like the world around you does everything to corrupt that, so yesterday we were given a little hope that not all was lost to our little boy!!!

the great "eggs"perience!!!

and before you all think i am the clever one that came up with "eggs"perience, i have to tell you that our co-pastor at church was the inventor of that one! so today we went to "eggs"perience at our church. last night we went and helped set up, so we were prepared for the goings on of today! and thank goodness for that! let me give you a mental picture of our church for those of you who don't know. our church is not one of those churches with 3000 members, oh no, our church has probably about 150-200 regular attenders. so our facility is not huge, but into our church was crammed 3 inflatable bounce houses w/slides, and 1 bounce house maze in the parking lot, a magic show, face painting, a cafe, preschool area for hunts and preschool sized activities, and a big kid area for an egg hunt. okay now add to that at any given time 400+ kids, parents, volunteers and you have one crowded area!!! but even with that we had a blast!! gabe brought one of his friends, charlie, with him and one of grady's friends, josiah, came with his parents, carla and dustin lee. grady and josiah hung pretty close to the preschool size bounce house and slide and egg hunt area. they had egg hunts every 15 minutes, and i'm pretty sure those two made it to each one. they could now even be considered "professional egg hunters" at the age of 2! the "big kids", gabe and charlie, had a blast on the slides, and i think we could have left them there all day and they would not have minded, but we had come for an egg hunt and egg hunting we were going. so dad stood in line for the magic show and egg hunt and gave me a call when he was at the front of the line. so the 2 big boys and i rushed for our turn in the magic show and hunt. yes, there was a line and you waited your turn, that gives you an idea of the amount of people this drew in! the big kids also had egg hunts every 15 minutes, but the line was so long, one hunt was all they did! the magic show was pretty basic, but the egg hunt was something else. a little insight before the hunt story, last night shawn and my job was to put down plastic on the floor of this huge room. now you are wondering, "why would you need plastic down on the floor for an egg hunt?" well here in seattle as you are all aware you cannot count on it not raining on an easter egg hunt, so the creators of "eggs"perience thought of the idea of putting down packing peanuts, yes, i said packing peanuts, to hide the eggs in. the idea of the plastic was to keep the peanuts from being totally crushed into the floor and for hopefully an easier clean up!! so now it is time for me to set my big boys loose on the packing peanuts along with about 30-40 other kids!! can you say MESS!! the kids and parents were completely covered with peanuts. i disliked packing peanuts before, i can now safely say that the dislike feeling has escalated! but the kids had fun, and that was the goal! after the egg hunt we headed to red robin with the lee family. we had a scrumptious and filling supper! we then brought home our two zombie children, who were asleep about 10 minutes after walking in the door. but ask them and "no, we're not tired!"

coloring easter eggs with "no-no's"

last night was a big night at the fox house. we colored easter eggs with, as grady put it "no-no's"!! we colored 15 eggs, thanks to mom (a.k.a. fumble fingers) we lost 3!! grady really got into writing on the eggs first this year, and was also very vocal on the color he wanted! gabe as always was very precise and so thoughtful and sweet. gabe wrote, "i love you" on one and put gabe in washington and kansas on another. it was fun watching the 2 of them going about coloring eggs in 2 different directions!! gabe is always so cautious and neat, and our little grady always helter skelter, with egg dye going everywhere!! they both had a blast, and dad and i love watching them (and coloring a few ourselves). after all we are all kids at heart and it keeps us young! on a different note, i grilled for the first time last night!! shawn has been working so much this week, that i hated to ask him after he had worked for 12 hours, "could you please grill these pork chops for me?" so i took out our favorite grill book, and started learning how to grill. after reading the recipe i was going to attempt, i realized i had no idea what all went into grilling. i needed to sear the meat on direct heat, then cook the meat on indirect heat, all while making sure the flame doesn't get out of control, the wind is in the correct direction, it's not raining, on and on. okay so are we performing brain surgery or are we merely cooking a pork chop. now i have watched the grill master, shawn for 10 years cooking various meats on the grill and i have never seen him check the barometric pressure or wind speed! so i preceded on to marinating the chops for 30 minutes, then allowing them to rest at room temperature for 30 minutes. ok all is well, now onto preheating the grill. and then guess what, it started raining, oh no, that was one thing i was to be cautious of. thankfully, grand pumba grill master, called to tell me he was heading home. i told him that i was about to venture out to the grill. he then told me, "you know hon, you can't leave the meat on the amount of time the book tells you, you will burn the meat and it will be tough." oh great, so all my studying has gone right out the window, so he precedes to coach me over the phone. to make this already long story a little shorter, they turned out fine. i was soaking wet, but at least the chops weren't as tough as a leather purse. so to ease all of your minds, you can after all grill in the rain and i will not be the one grilling at the next get together, i don't think my nerves can handle it! we'll just leave it to the professionals!

busy, busy, busy

well the fox family touring company was busy again this weekend! my mom and joe came for a visit on thursday. we adventured to some areas we had not been to before and had a lot of fun! we started out thursday evening at the keg restaurant in lynnwood for dinner. everything was so yummy!! that evening we came home after dinner and relaxed! on friday morning we trekked up the 88 steps to drop gabe off at school. then mom, joe, grady, and i headed to bothell to check out the country village. the country village is a little jewell just chocked full of fun little boutiques, glass blowers (which felt it unnecessary to show for work on friday!), eateries, antiques shops, and grady's favorite, the toy store. they also have a little train ride and inflatables for kids, but they weren't running that day because it was a little drizzly. the boys and i went down there in october and we were able to check that out then. so we checked out all the little stores and got some huge, scrumptious cookies for dessert! our tummies had started talking to us, so we headed off for a new place to eat some lunch. after being led astray a couple of times by jill (that is what we call our gps), including a visit to the hungry buzzard (nope not a restaurant, it's a trash recovery company), we decided on canyons restaurant. we then headed towards home and picked up gabe from school. after shawn got home from work, we headed to a fish market in everett to pick up some seafood. we had a seafood extravaganza!! we prepared parmesan scallops, n'orleans shrimp, crab cakes, and clams. everything was soooo good! we finished off supper with our huge cookies from the country village and some ben and jerry's chunky monkey icecream! yum-o!! on saturday we adventured to some unexplored territory for the foxes'. we ventured north to the camano island. it is a beautiful area, full of windy roads and mossy trees. we went to a beach and park there and did some hiking and enjoyed a picnic lunch. in the afternoon it started cooling off a little, so we called it day early and did some venturing from the comfort of the armada! and of course, no outing is complete without stopping off for coffee at one of the many little huts scattered all over! we took the long road home through a bunch of little country roads and old dairy farms. the scenery is so beautiful here now, i can't even imagine what it will be like in a couple of months! that evening we got cleaned up and headed down to lynnwood and did some shopping at alderwood mall and had dinner at buca di beppo! unfortunately, we were lucky enough to have the grumpiest and worst waitress i've ever encountered. now, we have been to buca several times to eat and the service and food have always been top notch, but this time the service left a little to be desired. but at least the food tasted good, when it all finally arrived! with that experience behind us, we went home with full tummies, irritated nerves, and tired eyes. on sunday we woke up and went to church and then for a ferry ride from edmonds to kingston. when we got to kingston we headed over to poulsbo, which is about 15 minutes from where we landed. poulsbo was another new adventure for us, so we were pleasantly surprised when we got there and found out it was a little town with a norwegian feel. the main street was lined with all kinds of restaurants and shops. we had lunch, browsed the shops, and of course had to sample the bakery and candy shoppe! needless to say, i'll be hitting the gym hard this week!! after touring the northern part of the island, we boarded the ferry again and headed home. that evening mom, joe and the boys ordered chinese food and played the evening away. while they were busy spoiling the boys, shawn and i took advantage of the free and willing babysitters and headed downtown to a "grown-up" restaurant. we had the most delicious meal at palisade restaurant. it is right on the sound, so the view was gorgeous! we had a wonderful evening, just the 2 of us! we don't do it often enough, but sometimes it is nice to remember what it was like only 6 short years ago, when it was just the 2 of us!! it always feels good to be reassured that without the kids around there is still an "us"! so after spending too much and eating too much, we headed back to reality!! the boys were already in bed, so we just peeked in on those precious little gifts, thankful for them and the opportunity to just be "us" if only for a couple of hours! this morning we woke up, took gabe to school and then off to the airport!! anytime i have to head downtown on i-5 towards the airport, i am reminded how lucky i am to live where we do. the traffic was not as bad as sometimes, but still bad enough for a small town girl. a year ago, i would have never imagined me driving anywhere that had 5 lanes all going in same direction and not being totally white knuckled!! well we all arrived safely. i think mom and joe had fun, but i'm sure the quiet ride home without being serenaded by grady, will be appreciated!!!

Discovering Discovery Beach

this weekend we went to discovery beach and park. we learned about discovery beach from a recommendation of a friend. (thanks carla!) discovery beach is nestled just outside the heart of the city of seattle, but once you are in the park you forget where you are. the park is full of easy to moderate hiking trails, 2 beaches (rocky and sandy), picnic areas, open play areas, and a visitor center with all sorts of neat displays. we had a perfect day to be outside so we made the most of it. we started out hiking over to the south beach. the hike over to the beach was not as easy as it had appeared on the map. the trails are beautifully kept up so that was not the problem, the problem was it was a pretty long hike with 2 boys and a wife!! yes, i am telling on myself. we are a group that enjoys instant gratification and 30 minutes in we were still not seeing any sign of a beach. patience paid off, we made it to the beach after about 1.5 hours and played there for a while and even found some sea glass, which was the main reason i wanted to go to discovery beach. then it was lunchtime, and you guessed it, our picnic was back in the armada. so away we went. of course getting back always seems to go faster, so in no time we were back feasting!! after a nice picnic lunch and some playing catch in the park, we were feeling refreshed and decided we needed to conquer the north beach trail. well, we started out and about a 1/4 of a mile in, we were starting to question our quest. but each of us is as stubborn as the other, so ahead we forged. after about another mile or so, we made it to our destination. boy, it sure was worth it. by now it is about 4:15 in the afternoon and we pretty much have the beach to ourselves. the boys played in the sand and shawn and i explored the rocky edges of the oldest light house in the puget sound. after about an hour, we were starting to run out daylight and decided it was time to trek back. the car never looked so good. we definitely got our workout in and shawn decided if we are serious about climbing rainier in a year, he better start getting in shape. for once, i was not the sore one at the end of the day!! put that one in the record books! yeah, i'll leave out the fact he carried grady on his shoulders most of the day!!!

picasso strikes again!

okay everyone, put on your imagination caps - you will need them!! the art project this week was an angel fish. grady was feeling like his fish needed some water. when i walked in to pick him up from art class, he came running over to me yelling, "mom, here is my fishy all covered up!" he was so proud of his creation. i can't actually make out a fish, but he had fun and he is very proud of his masterpiece. we came right home and took a picture and then the "fishy in water" made his way to the art gallery (we call it a fridge!) picasso has a couple of weeks off, his next class is march 26th!!