happy 34th birthday, shawn!!!!

and the celebrating continues!!! i have and will continue to make every effort to make sure my guys do not share a birthday--but it may kill gabe and i in the process!!! thankfully, i have my right hand man, gabe, to assist me with the parties. yesterday was grady's day, and today is shawn's!! from thomas the tank engine and a bbq to camo and crab!!! never a dull moment at the fox house!! so this afternoon i dropped greta off at the airport and came home to start shawn's celebration. we had crab, garlic lemon shrimp, baked potatoes, salad, watermelon, cantelope, and garlic bread. everything was yummy, yummy!! as many of you know, shawn does not care for sweet desserts in general, but he loves cobbler, so instead of the traditional cake we had raspberry cobbler!!! it was scrumptious as well if i do say so myself! we opened gifts and sang an off tune version of happy birthday!!! shawn received smart wool socks, cookbooks, money, rei gift cards, camo apron and oven mitt, smokehouse almonds, clothes, and a pacific northwest outdoor guide - so now he can safely eat the mushrooms from the forest. no more hit or miss!!! aw shucks all the fun is gone!! happy birthday shawn!!

happy third birthday grady!!!!!!

wow how 3 years has flown by!!! it seems like only yesterday i saw it fit to wait around at the house in labor, chit chatting with julie, then drive myself to the hospital with only minutes to spare!!! ah the memories! we thank god everyday for bringing our spunky, crazy, big hearted little grady into our lives---he is truly a blessing!!! how boring our lives would be without him -- even gabe agrees!!! grady loved all the attention he received on his day-- thank you everyone for the phone calls, cards and gifts--they always mean so much, but they mean even more when we are so far away--thanks again! we had a bbq on tuesday night, with the lee family and greta attending in honor of grady's bday! we enjoyed the famous trophy's cupcakes with homemade (by gabe and mom) thomas the tank engine and friends cupcake toppers. grady did not scream this year when we lit the candles, only when gabe felt it necessary to blow out the candles for him -- brothers will be brothers! we relit the candles 4 times with grady blowing them out each time and with us trying to capture the perfect "kodak moment!" grady received so many wonderful gifts. he got a royals t-shirt, which he immediately changed into, animal binoculars, tons of cars, a plane like daddy works on, clothes, books, leap frog fridge phonics, thomas dvd, thomas game, thomas flashcards, gift card, money, bubbles, monster trucks, and the big finale --- mickey mouse toilet paper! now you may ask- why would you buy a 3 year old mickey mouse toilet paper, and where would you find it. the first part of the question is quite simple to answer -- that is actually the only thing grady asked for for his birthday. anytime we would ask, "grady, what do you want for your birthday?" he would simply reply, "mickey mouse toilet paper." the finding it was the difficult part. we kept asking him if he had seen it somewhere, "no i no see it, i want it." simple enough mom and dad, time to get creative!!! so gabe and i sat down with sharpie markers, toilet paper, and a template and by golly we had mickey mouse toilet paper!!! it is never a dull moment with grady around!!! he was so happy when he opened the t.p. up, he ran right to the bathroom and put in on the roll!!! who knew a roll of toilet paper could make a child so happy!!! happy birthday grady!!!

little picasso

our little picasso was back at art class today! today's assignment was a shy tiger kitty. grady has masterfully conquered the rectangles which is the shape they used to make this art project!! watch out preschool here he comes!!!

the finale of the whirlwind tour!

so as i had posted earlier, we just lounged around on memorial day - totally exhausted from the trip to canada. on tuesday morning it was back to the grindstone for poor shawn and gabe, but i felt bad that greta had not done anything the day before so grady, greta and i ventured down to snoqualmie falls after dropping gabe off at school. it is only about a 50 minute drive, and completely worth it. the falls were running at full force on tuesday. the spot we had climbed to a couple of months ago (the one we completely ignored the sign telling us not to) was completely under water. i could then understand the need for such signs being posted. the water would have been perfect for white water rafting!! so we hiked down and back--now it was off my conscience that i could be considered a boring host - she had gotten to do everything we told her we would do! thanks for coming for a visit--enjoy your quiet ride home!!!!!! loud at our house--surely not! ha!

another whirlwind visit----and it's not over yet!!!

we are lucky to have another visitor up this week!! my sister, greta came up for the long weekend. she arrived on friday evening and the fun began!! we woke up on saturday morning to shawn's "oh so yummy" omelets --a great start to any day!! we then took her downtown to the pike place public market. we walked the whole market, including the surrounding little street side shops. we bought some fruit, honey, and some other goodies, and then headed off to get some lunch. we had such a wonderful day, we decided to have a lunch on the courtyard by the market. we attempted to find a spot without dog poo on the ground, but instead opted to dine on a cement ledge. we grabbed some hot dogs and sandwiches and enjoyed a boys choir that was giving a concert downtown. after a relaxing lunch, we started heading towards home, but then decided to detour to the ballard locks. the locks are a water ladder for boats between lake washington (fresh water) and the puget sound (salt water). during the salmon run, the place is supposed to be packed with people!! we decided to check it out before the crowds. we got to see a sightseeing boat pass through the ladder-the boys thought that was great!! we went to ivar's that evening for dinner and attempted to feed the birds after dinner with the leftover animal crackers, but the birds were a no show. instead onlookers received a free showing of the battle of the fox brothers. gabe took grady's last cracker and it was on!!! who knows who won that one, grady forgives and forgets pretty fast. the next morning started off bright and early. we left our house about 5:45 a.m.--made a necessary stop for mickey d's--amanda without food is never good and headed to catch our boat. after a 3 hour boat ride, we docked in victoria, b.c., canada. we passed through customs with ease, despite shawn cracking jokes about various things. we took a victoria city tour on the way to the buchart gardens. we spent 2 hours in the gardens. they were as beautiful as i had always been told! we finished our trip with walking the main street through victoria -- stopping for some shopping and ice cream! we then passed through canadian customs and boarded the boat home for another 3 long, long hours. our bottoms were never so happy to be off that boat!!! today we just lounged around, we had the best of intentions of doing something, but we were all completely pooped after yesterday! luckily it rained off and on today, so we can always use that for an excuse!

sorry, no new masterpiece today... we had other excitement!!

i don't know if you can actually call this excitement, but gabe lost another tooth this morning. about 2 weeks ago, we noticed gabe had a new tooth growing in behind his lower left baby tooth. we tried to wiggle it but it was barely loose, so i gave the dentist a call. i made the appt. for 8:00 this morning, assuming they would take a look at it, and say, "yep, it needs to come out, let us schedule you an appt. for that." well, instead of that, they said, "yep, it needs to come out, do you want us to do that today, it will only take about 20-30 minutes." so out came the little tooth--and a day off for gabe! i could not possibly take gabe to school with the glassy eyes and the constant stream of drooly, blood, let alone the fact he couldn't even feel the bottom half of his face! he would of been good entertainment for the rest of the class, but i thought it would be better to come home and rest...thus the reason we missed art class. grady didn't seem too upset-he got to come home and watch ratatouille and hang with his big brother all day (plus he loved being the little gopher for gabe's constant need of a new kleenex!) that is better than any art class!!

dinner for momma!

on sunday evening my guys made dinner for me for a belated mother's day dinner! we had toasted garlic bread, grilled potatoes, whole grilled chicken, green beans, lima beans (i didn't ask for those!!), and salad! yummy, yummy, yummy! i just got to sit back and relax, while everything was being taken care of! i have to admit, i had a real problem just sitting back. when i was working, shawn took care of dinner at least twice a week - but i was never there to see what was going on!! i really wanted to get in there and help!! they didn't need it though, everything turned out great!! they are all great chefs, now if i could get them to clean up!! i'll sit back and relax, maybe that will happen too!!! ha! ha!

good day for a ball game!

gabe and the red sox had another game on saturday. it was a wonderful day for a ball game! it was around 80 degrees, with peeks of sunshine and a little breeze. it was a close game - i'm still a little unsure if we won, but i think we had one more run than them in the end! there was some confusion-a couple of people got injured - nothing serious, just scraped knees - but they would come out of the game, so it confused all of the runs! even with all of that we had a great time. gabe played pitcher, short stop, right field and left field. he was very close to getting two people out at third base, but the third baseman was having a hard time paying attention to the game - it is so much more interesting to watch the planes fly over!! you just gotta love this age! gabe went to bat 3 times, with hits all three times! he has improved so much this year - it is amazing how far he has come in 3 years!

soak up the sun!

on friday we had the most gorgeous weather we have had the entire time we have lived here! the day started with around 55 degree temperatures and sun --yes i did say sun! after walking gabe to school without jackets, which i don't think we have ever done-grady and i hit a farmers market and got a yummy watermelon and then came home and picked weeds! gabe got out early yesterday, so after naps we thought it to be a perfect day for the beach! well us and about 50 million others had the same idea. usually when we get down to the beach, we never have a hard time finding a parking spot, well yesterday you had to vulture for a spot. we got lucky pretty quick, unloaded the army, and ventured down to the beach! we got our towel laid out, snacks arranged, buckets and shovels ready and the fun began! gabe found one of his "girl" friends from school there, so they hung out the whole time! grady just hung close to mom and the snacks, venturing off every once in a while to see what gabe was up to! we had planned on staying about an hour or so - but 3 hours and one red mom later (no didn't worry about sunscreen on me!!) we headed home! we can't wait for more days like this - the beach is a handy item to have right down the road in this kind of weather!!
p.s. i am posting a slideshow as well - i can't get the captions to show up on them! bummer! but most of the pics are of the boys just playing on the beach - but do notice the ones of gabe and his ladies!! what a hoot!

little picasso

grady's art project for today was a kuddly koala! they used a series of rectangles to make the koala, and miss christine drew the faces for the 2 and 3 year olds. the 5 year olds were supposed to be putting leaves around the edge of their picture and grady decided he should have leaves on his too! his leaves are not the typical green - oh no of course they are peach!

while the cat is away.....

i'm not sure who the mice are in this scenario, but all of us had fun this weekend. my mom came to visit on thursday, and with the willing sitter, shawn and i took advantage and headed out of town for the weekend! mom, gabe, and grady played, made cookies, went to mickey d's, went to gabe's baseball game, and ordered in chinese and pizza!! i think they had a great time! shawn and i headed to friday harbor. to get to friday harbor you drive north 1.5 hours and then board the ferry at anacortes, wa. for 1.5 more hours. as if the drive and ride alone weren't relaxing enough, we stayed at a beautiful bed and breakfast on 9 secluded acres! the island of friday harbor is very charming and you can cover the entire island in around 20 minutes. after we left the ferry, we headed to the northeast side of the island to the lime kiln state park. the lime kiln state park is known for their wonderful spring and summer views of the orcas and other marine life. while we didn't see any orcas, although they were in area the day before, we were lucky enough to see some dall's porpoises. that was pretty cool, they just jumped in and out of the water, and they loved playing in the wake of the huge barges that were passing by! after watching the porpoises for a while, we hiked around the park for a while. we then headed back into town and feasted on some yummy cod, oysters, clams, and scallops, along with a mexican burger. we had hiked a lot - we were famished!! we then decided to stay in town and go shopping! we had dinner at mcmillin's, a romantic restaurant nestled in the middle of a little resort area surrounded by the bay. we dined around 8:00, so we had a perfect view of the sunset! at sunset the resort retires the colors (flags) in a very dramatic display! they played taps, the canadian anthem, the british anthem, and a theme i was unfamiliar with, but sounded very patriotic! the island was the center for a dispute between the americans and the english over 150 years ago. the dispute was over an american settler who shot a british pig. thus the dispute of whose land the island should belong to - the united states or england. the dispute lasted 150 years - ending peacefully with the americans being awarded the land, but that is the reason for all of the flags being displayed-to honor the history of "the pig war". after dinner, we headed back to our b&b. the next morning we were awakened to the wonderful smell of coffee - aah! it is so nice to smell coffee in the morning from bed and not even have to leave the warmth of the covers. we combed our hair, brushed our teeth and headed downstairs for a scrumptious breakfast. we enjoyed a table by the window that had an incredible view of the wildlife that just trapsed freely on the acreage. we were hoping to see some more deer during breakfast
(we had seen 6 the night before just roaming around, eating corn), but they must of slept in! we got dressed and headed to the british camp at the north end of the island. this is the area where the brits set up camp during the 150 year dispute. we hiked around the old barracks and gardens and then headed straight up hill for a beautiful bird's eye view of the island. when i say straight up hill, i am not kidding! they said a slight incline when i was reading about the hike, but going up 650 feet in under a half a mile, i would safely consider a little more than a slight incline!! but after i belly ached up the "hill" i was glad i did it -- what a view! going down was much easier and then we headed for the american camp at the south end of the island! on the way, we passed an alpaca farm, which are plentiful up here, and a lavendar farm. we saw a couple of deer from the road way and even a fox! we hiked around the american camp for awhile, and i hate to say it, but the americans got the raw end of the deal when it came to setting up their camp. while their camp was situated right on the beach, it made for an extremely windy area -as you will notice in our pictures! the wildlife was abundant here as well, a fox crossed right in our path and even stood still for a photo opp! after being wind blown around the american camp, we headed to south beach. it was a beautiful area, but again windy, windy, windy - i felt like i was back in kansas!! we then ventured back to town to save our place in line for the ferry home. we stopped off for some lunch and got the boys some fudge and kettle korn!! we finished our trip off with homemade icecream from friday harbor and boarded the boat for home!
p.s. you will notice in one of the pics from the slideshow, shawn and i standing in front of a sign that says, "fredonia grange". we have passed by this a couple of times now and have wanted to take our picture there, but couldn't ever get back to it. well saturday we finally figured it out - like a little piece of kansas right here in washington!!!

happy mother's day!!!!

we celebrated mother's day early at the fox house this year!! for one shawn and i are taking advantage of nana being here a whole weekend to get some us time, and secondly my guys went mother's day shopping on wednesday afternoon and can never wait to give me my gifts!! we went out for dinner to "the rock" (a wood-fired pizza place) and opened gifts on wednesday night. on friday, gabe's class had a mother's tea. while at the tea, the kids shared poems they had written for their moms and we received leaf imprints they had painted! they also made a slideshow of reasons they loved their moms and read a poem in unison that they had been practicing for 2 whole days!! (that is according to gabe!) gabe and i had a great time at the tea! gabe and grady will be busy being spoiled by nana this weekend and shawn and i are heading to friday harbor for hiking, relaxing, and whatever else strikes our fancy!! we have heard a lot of great things about friday harbor -- so we will post some pics when we get back!

our little picasso

grady had his last "little picasso" art class for this session on wednesday. they had their "final" to see how far they had come since their first class of this session. miss christine usually assists the students, but for the final she lets them do it completely on their own! this session they had focused on the curvy shapes and triangles. his project was a spotted dino - you will have to once again use your creativity caps! miss christine said she was not as worried that the dino turned out perfect, but that the kids had correctly used their shape skills. she said grady did a fantastic job and she was excited to have him in the next class - she has seen so much improvement and art potential in him!! his next session starts next week -- so no break for the master artist!!

the sox vs. the sox

monday evening gabe's red sox team played the white sox!! we had a pretty good evening for a game - only sprinkled a couple of times! gabe had an exciting evening, he got to play one inning as the catcher. i think this is the first time he has ever played catcher, and i must say he looked super sporty cute in that catcher gear!! someday he will just kill me for saying these kind of things!! gabe also played first base and helped the team out by getting 3 people out!! gabe's team won the game 20-14 --- i'm not sure if our team is just getting better or the other teams have more room for improvement! whatever the case may be, we are having a blast watching!! for inquiring minds, shawn and i got roped into helping again! we have looked into having the sucker tattoos permanently placed on our foreheads!! ha! i have become the full time scorekeeper (which to be honest, i don't really mind!), and shawn was the third base coach this time. last game we were the dugout parents, that is definitely the last time we will volunteer for that! those kids get crazy during the game, and that dugout just isn't big enough for 10 crazy 6&7 year olds!!

game's rained out -- let's go see some creepy crawlies!

on saturday afternoon, gabe's baseball game got cancelled about 45 minutes before the start of the game, but none of us were crying big buckets because it was pouring rain! the rain didn't actually cancel the game, rain cancels nothing up here, but the fact the field was one huge mud puddle does in fact cancel a game! so with lunch in our bellies, naps under our belts, we were ready to go with nowhere to go, so we had heard that there was a pretty cool reptile zoo in monroe, about 40 minutes north of here - so away we went! the reptile zoo looked like a big barn and smelled a little funky inside, but was totally awesome! we saw a giant anaconda, tarantulas, an alligator snapping turtle, an albino alligator, water dragons, iguanas, boa constrictors, a puff adder, a horned viper, and a black mamba! there were many other snakes and other creepy crawlies, too many to list! the boys got to see a snake eating -- a little gruesome, but the boys loved it! they also got to touch the shell of a spur thigh tortoise. grady was a little hesitant at first, but warmed up to the idea after big brother did it and came back with all of his fingers!

yee haw! it's the bike rodeo!!

on thursday at gabe's elementary school, the pta hosted a bike rodeo!! gabe being a master bike rider wanted to attend, and with grady's newly acquired bike he wanted to go as well! so at 2:30 the fun began! they had 7 courses for the kids to ride through - bus stop, driveway dash, target toss, crazy road, rock dodge, slow race, and tight turns. gabe's favorite was the rock dodge. in the rock dodge you had to steer around "rocks" and "drain gutters". gabe was very good at this obstacle! grady had a blast at the slow race, where he beat his big brother!! in the slow race, the idea was to be the last one across the finish line - gabe was a little confused how grady won when he was way behind!! grady was pumped - how often do you get to win a race against your big brother?! after the boys finished the obstacle courses, they received orange and vanilla swirl ice cream - of course the rodeo was a hit with that added obstacle!!

our little picasso!

yesterday at art class, the project was a fuzzy llama! grady drew the entire llama all by himself, without any assistance from miss christine. miss christine usually "assists" the younger ones, but yesterday she said grady wanted to do, "everything all by himself". as i had said a couple of weeks ago, grady has become very independent! i guess now it is even branching into art class! when i picked grady up from art class the llama had a few more cotton ball hairs, but he lost a few on the 10 minute ride home! next wednesday is grady's last art class for this session, but no fear--he is signed up for session 3 which starts on the 14th of may. you grady art buffs won't even miss a week!