tulip time !!!

on sunday afternoon, the fox family ventured north to the 25th annual skagit valley tulip festival. it was an amazing display of the most beautiful tulips and daffodils i have ever seen! we started out at the 3 acre roozengaarde garden. at the garden, they plant tens of thousands of tulips and daffodils on the property. during the festival, which runs the entire month of april, you can tour the garden, purchase bulbs, souvenirs, and potted or fresh cut flowers, and eat all the fair food you can handle. so we roamed and photographed all through the huge garden!! all we could say was WOW!! there were colors of tulips i had never even imagined before and the heads of the tulips were bigger than gabe's hand! after taking in the garden, they give you a map so you can drive on the "tulip route" to view the numerous fields in and around mt. vernon. well we had to take that in!! we stopped at the first field after roozengaarde -- the amazing part was, you could see the field from quite a ways away!! it was so amazing!! you would just see a sea of colors -- absolutely awesome! we got out and walked along the tulip fields, and through the fields. there was actually a sign posted telling you not to walk in the field, but somehow we missed it until we had already done it!! oops!! we got some good pictures though! after seeing the sign, we completely followed the rules and just stayed on the paths! after the first field, we started to lose the youngest fox, so we opted to just drive by a few others!! we took a ton of pictures - most of which are included in a slideshow!! as wonderful as the pictures are, they simply just do not do the flowers justice! i guess you all will just have to come visit during the festival next year!!

our little slugger!!

this morning was the red sox first game!! it was a wonderful morning for a game. the weather was fairly warm and the sun was shining!! the team was all decked out in fancy jerseys and hats, so even if the game didn't happen to go in our favor, we looked snazzy! well, i got suckered into keeping score, a duty i had never performed before, but figured i could surely figure out as long as there weren't any irate parents screaming at me!! keep your cool shawn -- just kidding!! i caught on quickly, hopefully i didn't do too good of a job, or it may go from a temporary position to full time!! the red sox and blue jays ended up in a tie 20 - 20!! yep, it was a high scoring game!! they have a five run rule per inning and there are 4 innings, so you guessed it they maxed out in each inning! the only way to keep from the five runs is by getting three outs. both teams got to 2 outs twice -close but no cigar! gabe played at first base, short stop, right field, and third base during the game this morning. the coaches switch the kids around the field, so everyone gets a chance playing everything. i am figuring out though, not many of the kids are excited to be the catcher. i can't say i blame them with all of the gear that goes into that position!! gabe also went to bat 4 times with outfield hits each time! at least two of his hits would have been at least doubles but they also have a one base per hit rule! the focus of playing up here is so much different than the focus of the teams gabe had played with in augusta the last two years. up here the coaches main focus is on the kids learning the basics correctly. it is so stress-free. the kids don't feel any pressure and i have yet to hear a coach raise their voice to any of the kids (even when they probably needed to!) what a far cry from the very competitive teams we are accustomed to!! gabe had a great game and especially enjoyed the yummy after game treats!! i included some of the pictures from the game today on a slide show. shawn was the photographer today and got some really great action shots!! enjoy!!

tending the moss and enjoying the sun!!

yep, our sunshine has returned!! yesterday evening, friday, was a gorgeous evening. originally, our plan was for a seafood night at the house, but after going to the store and not finding exactly everything we wanted, we opted for eating out!! we headed to mukilteo to the tin fish, where we enjoyed dining on the patio. we were entertained during dinner by the ferry line that went on forever!! the ferry holding traffic lines up right in front of the restaurant and while driving down to the restaurant the cars were lined up past the "1 hour from this point sign". wow, now that is quite a wait just to get on a boat to wait some more, and then get off the boat to drive some more!! to each their own, they gave us entertainment last night!! this morning bright and early we headed to gabe's baseball game. (see next post for full details!!) after the game, it was time to get to work!! we headed to mine and shawn's vice, the nursery!! after about an hour of wondering around, grabbing this and grabbing that, we headed towards home pleased with our finds!! we spent the afternoon planting, weeding, mowing, trimming, sweeping 400 tons of pine needles (okay slight exaggeration, it was only 300 tons!), and working on our tans!! after all of our hard work, our yard looks awesome and we are a darker shade of pasty white!!

grady and the peek-a-boo hippo!

this week in grady's little picasso art class they mastered a peek-a-boo hippo! the children first drew a bubble bath with a hippo, and then came the peek-a-boo part. they attached a shower curtain to the front! you could tell this was definitely the kids' favorite project so far!! when i walked into the art room the kids were all excitedly running about yelling peek-a-boo! poor miss christine!!

let it snow, let it snow, let it snow !! in april?!

yep, you read it right. we are enjoying snow in april!! skiing anyone?? this is a rundown of how the weather digressed yesterday, friday! first thing yesterday morning, the weather was mild with peaks of sun by noon it had started to rain, mainly just a light mist. by the time we went to pick up gabe from school, around 2:30, the misty rain had changed to ice pellets (sleet), and then around 5:00 came a little snowy thunderstorm (a first for me!), and finally just plain 'ol hard snow until around midnight when it started to taper off. wow, i could have been a weather man yesterday. i would have just said you name it, we'll get it! this morning, when i peaked out the back door, we had around 3 inches on the ground. it has been snowing off and on all morning. needless to say, we won't be going to the tulip festival today!! just a lazy, snowy day at home!! yea!!

da Vinci in the making!

today in art class, master artist grady made a sailboat using oil pastels! his sailboat looks wonderful, and he is very proud of his black sunshine! they also concentrated on using an eraser today, so they could "fix" any mistakes they may make when they do their outline. miss christine said grady was very interested in erasing everything, so it took him a little extra time to complete his masterpiece, he kept having to "fix" everything! they also did a pencil sketch of scooby doo. grady lost interest pretty quick during this exercise!! grady and madeline are the youngest in the class and miss christine is so patient with them! she just keeps telling them look at miss christine, follow the dots miss christine makes. and she is always so full of praise -- she is wonderful with the children!! i'm sure she is ready for a nap by 10:35 on wednesday mornings!!
p.s. you may notice grady looking a little pouty in his art pictures -- i assure you he was not sad
-- this just started being his favorite pose the last few days for pictures!! this to shall pass!!

our crazy grady!!

well, i just had to post this! i was just going to post the picture of grady looking like elvis, but i felt it needed explaining! as all of you know, grady has always been a trailblazer, doing just the opposite of the norm. well this morning was no different! over the last few months, grady has been EXTREMELY independent!! he has been getting dressed all by himself, going potty all by himself, drinking out of a big boy cup (with only 2 spills!!), picking out his own clothes all by himself(sometimes very colorful), and now this morning combing his hair all by himself!!! he was insistant it was to be straight down in the front, but the little darling just doesn't understand he has been blessed by mom and dad's crazy, wavy, do it's own thing hair and it will not go straight down in the front and stay that way. so.....he ended up looking like elvis!! what a cutie!

finally ---- another one bites the dust!!!

and i say finally because this has been in the making for at least a month and half. gabe finally lost another tooth. this time we didn't have to go to the dentist, gabe took care of it himself!! the little tooth has been wiggling forever and in the last week, each time gabe would talk it would wiggle around. finally on saturday night, we were getting ready to head to some friends' house, and gabe looked up at me while i was combing his hair and the little tooth was crooked. i said, "gabe, you are going to have to pull that tooth out, it is just hanging there!" now i am one to talk, i don't think i ever pulled a tooth out on my own!! either the dentist, my grandma, my mom, or my grandpa (who never actually pulled a tooth, but threatened to tie me to a door knob, that was his little way of getting me to let grandma do it!) always took care of the dirty job of pulling out my teeth. i was and still am squeemish about teeth and the fact that they fall out! so i had told gabe that he was going to have to be a man and pull it himself!! a couple of wiggles later and out it came. thank goodness, now i don't have to worry about him swallowing it and wanting to find it?! you know what i mean! yuck!!!! by the way, the picture makes him look a little scared, but it was the only way i could get him to hold his mouth open so we could get a glimpse of the empty space!!

are the majors calling yet?!

shawn has decided to join our church's softball team! their first game was this afternoon, and despite yesterday's wonderful spring weather, our usual was back. so we cheered on the silver creek team in the rain. our team was a little short handed, a third of our team had a birthday today and a couple others had a high school game! they ended up having a practice game, so they didn't keep score, thank goodness. shawn did very well, he had 2 hits and got on base with them. unfortunately, both times he got out with a force play on second! bummer! in silver creek's defense, the other team had high school pinch hitters who went to bat for the older teammates, so they had a lot of near home runs! they should have some sort of age limit!! i think shawn was the youngest one on our team today, but next week hopefully our high schoolers won't have a game and they can come pinch hit for us!! they keep trying to draft me, so you know they are getting deperate!! i'm just trying to lay low for now!

hiking the day away!!

well, the northwest was blessed with yet another beautiful day!! saturday was wonderful, glorious, spectacular, i could go on and on. the sun was shining and the temperature was around 80 degrees!! we headed up to snoqualmie falls for some sightseeing and hiking. the falls were wonderful, what a sight! they have 2 observation decks to view the falls from. one of the decks is right off the road and the second is about a half a mile down a steep trail. when you get to the lower deck you can feel the mist and there is a very inviting rock bed just below the deck!! so despite the signs that encourage you to stay on the marked trails and deck, most people venture closer to the river and falls. well not to be outdone, the foxes left the confines of the deck and ventured for a closer look. it was a rocky climb, but well worth it!! we spent about an hour at the falls and then decided to venture on to do some more hiking. on the way to the falls, we had spotted another hiking spot, so i checked in my kid friendly hiking book and it said the trails at high point were a moderate level for kids, so off we went. we had a picnic lunch and set off for hiking. there were a ton of trails to choose from, we started off hiking around the lake, then ventured off around the "wetlands", then finished off on the bus trail (named for a rusty, abandoned bus, left on the trail). the smaller fox hikers were getting pretty sweaty and tired, so we called it a day around 3:00. we headed home for a nap and then went to some friends' house for a game night. we had a lot of fun, but all of us were so happy to see our beds!!