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!