Take a guess...

Very interesting, isn't it?

A Little Composer

Sophia composed her first masterpiece and it sounds beautiful! (She doesn't really read music, but she took this up all on her own and surprised me with her skills in drawing some sheet music.) She's composing another piece as I sit here doing this post. Can't wait to hear her play it!

Sophia's New Runway Looks

These two are just having more and more fun playing together. It's so great! Griffin actually allowed his sister to dress him up a little bit for a fashion show she was putting on for me. He actually cooperated and enjoyed doing the show for me, too. Sophia loved it!

Lots of Pictures

I just uploaded the last month's worth of pictures to my Kodak gallery. Check the links over to the right in my Photo Album column. The new albums are Baby Don's Arrival, Preschool Pictures, May 2011, Sophia's 5th Birthday, and Sophia's Ballet Recital. Hope you have time to enjoy them.

As always, I appreciate comments so I know people actually read my blog. :o) Thanks!

His Sister's Hero

Just a sweet story from today. I was mowing the last bit of the lawn down in our backyard while the kids played out in front of the garage riding their bikes and drawing with chalk. I only had a couple more passes when Griffin came bopping down the hill on the side of the house to find me. I waved and he kind of waved, then he held his hand out to stop. So I stopped and turned the mower off. He was (in his own nasally weird way) saying "Sissy-sissy." I said "where's sissy," he replied "rah-rah, rah-rah, bie-bie, crash" which is rock-rock, rock-rock, bike-bike, crash. (In his language you say everything twice.)

So I ran up to the front of the house and sure enough Sophia was there crashed in the rocks. It didn't look serious, she had the bike on top of one leg, sitting on her buns. I figured there would be a scrape involved. (Forgive me if I seem callous... but Sophia Rose is very, very dramatic when it comes to owies.) I headed over to where she was absolutely hysterical and wailing and checked her out. She had a little bitty scrape on her palm (no blood even) and the bike was on her one leg. So I carried her to the house and snuggled her and got her a cold wet rag for her scrape and turned on Dora. She was fine in about 2 minutes. But it was sure a good thing that her baby brother Griffin was looking out for her and came and got Mommy. He basically saved her life. :o)

Sophia's First Ballet Recital

My little ballerina had her first performance today! Here is a picture from the dress rehearsal. She is second in from the left (in blue). This is her whole class. They did really well today. I can't wait to get the video of the show so she can watch it. She said she had sooo much fun!

Here we are after her big performance.
She LOVED receiving all the flowers!

After the show we walked a 1/2 block up the road to the Urban Onion for a little reception. I had decorated the little banquet room beforehand and made a cake and some cupcakes.

Her friend Isabella joined us to celebrate.

Here's a closeup of the flowers I arranged for all the tables and some that we gave her and Isabella. I forgot to take pictures of all the little arrangements on the tables... oh well.

And of course, a close up of the cake and cuppies.

Thank you to everyone who came and made her day so special. I teared up quite a few times seeing my little girl up there dancing. It was wonderful to share the day with all of our family. I'm already excited for next year's performance!

Preschool Picnic

Sophia's class celebrated their last day of preschool with a picnic last week. It was a pretty nice day (between the rain showers that would come and go). The kids all ran around and played and blew bubbles. All the siblings were there too, so it was pretty fun!

Tag - Your IT!

I was glad Griffin took some time to play with the big boys. As you can see in the next few pictures, he was REALLY busy trying to figure out how everything worked!

So far, I have really enjoyed the break from school. It's nice to stay home and get things done, as opposed to driving up to Olympia and hanging out 3 days a week. I'm sure in a few weeks we will really start to miss all our friends that we said goodbye to. We will be setting up a few play dates, I'm sure. :o)

Sophia Turns 5!

Happy Birthday to my sweet little girl, Sophia. She is 5 years old!! We had a great party today. We had a Sweetheart theme for the decorations.
She had some friends from preschool at her party this year and the little neighbor boy, along with her cousins.

Sophia received a lot of fun gifts and had a wonderful time playing with her friends and cousins all day. Thank you to everyone who came and helped make her day sooooo special!

Griffin wasn't left out thanks to Uncle Richie. Here he's posing with his new baseball set. He also received a gift from the Eerkes family. He played and played all day, couldn't even stop to eat!

Parents' Tea at Preschool

Sophia's preschool hosted the annual Parents' Tea. They sing all their songs and then each child gets to say what they would like to be when they grown up. Sophia said she wanted to be a ballerina teacher. So cute!
There was a nice slideshow. Here is Sophia with her friend, Isabella (who also does ballet with Sophia).

After the activities were over we headed to the playground. Sophia likes to be a lion or T-rex or something and run around chasing her friends roaring at them like a crazy lady. Lots of her friends loved this game, even though it seems Sophia is the only one who is ever the lion...

Our Newest Family Member

We have a new baby nephew!! Marisa and Richard welcomed their first baby on May 12th. Baby Don (named after his Grandpa Don) is healthy and such a beautiful baby. He looks a lot like his daddy to me at this point. Richie and Marisa are just over the moon, so in love with him. Richie was able to take 3 weeks paternity leave, which is so awesome for him because he LOVES babies! I am actually surprised that he is even sharing Baby Don with anyone. :o) Sophia and Griffin are so excited about their new cousin.

Happy Birthday Daddy

My cute husband had his birthday last week. The kids helped decorate his cake and helped pick out some treats for him. The Hussey's came down to celebrate and have dinner with us. Another fun evening. Happy Birthday, Hun!

Some of you have asked me before what the kids do while I decorate my cakes... Well, Griffin has figured out that if I'm decorating, I'm done with the mixer. That's when he likes to sneak in with his stool.

And speaking of Griffin - he had his surgery last Thursday. They found a hernia while they were in looking for the missing testicle. He's all stitched up and a little black and blue and greenish in the affected areas. Poor little guy. But he hasn't skipped a beat. He's just as happy, silly, and active as ever. Nothing slows this little guy down. He seems to be recovering just fine and we will go have a little check on things with the doctor next Wednesday. Tacoma Mary Bridge was great and Dr. Ghandi, our pediatric urologist, is said and has proven to be the best. We are all very grateful.

Mother's Day 2011

We had a nice Mother's Day this year. Kyle snuck out early and brought home McDonald's for breakfast and some doughnuts. I was also surprised with a beautiful flower pot for the front porch. After that we went to the Olympia Golf & Country Club for brunch with all the Hussey family. Here are a few of my favorite pics. I'll try to get them all uploaded to Kodak later today to share.

Sophia and Abigail (18 mos.)

Griffin helping out his little cousin on their walk to the window.

These two are so cute together now that they are both big toddlers.

Just the "blood". Zach and I weren't allowed in this next pic... Totally kidding! We just like to say that.

Kyle took the kids for a walk on the dock. It turned out to be such a beautiful day!

After that we headed to Don & Deniece's with everyone to celebrate Kimberly's birthday. Another beautiful day with the ever-growing family!