Mat sat.

Cole is reading short books - along the lines of Dick and Jane. He is very proud and says to Audrey that "he is growing up and can read stuff." We've started the BOB Books from Scholastic. The first book goes like this:

Mat.
Mat sat.
Sam.
Sam sat.
Mat sat. Sam sat.
Mat sat on Sam.
Sam sat on Mat.
Mat sat. Sam sat.
The End

He read this book to Audrey tonight. He continues his mad craze for LEGO. I'm happy to see him building his own stuff out of the various bricks he's collected. Attack bomb ships and the like.

My mom and I took the kids to an Easter egg hunt at the Sudden Valley Community Center on Saturday. Thank goodness we did because it rained very hard on Sunday - way too hard for any sort of egg hunting. We did have a nice ham dinner at my mom's house though and Cole played with his fire station LEGO set the Easter Bunny brought.

Dyeing eggs.

Cole only likes the whites.

Audrey doesn't care much for eggs in general.

Pin the ears on the bunny at the SV Community Center.


Fun with Grammy. I always associate Easter with my Grandma. She made me a dress every year and we had an egg hunt at the ranch. My mom continues the tradition of giving See's Mayfair eggs ... or rather the Easter Bunny always brings Mayfair eggs.

Sweet Audrey.

At least Audrey still likes to get her picture taken.


What did you get?

Audrey gave her chocolate to the Easter Bunny.

No, Mine!

Sweet Audrey will be 2 years old in a short couple weeks and is showing signs of being quite a firecracker. Her two heroes are Brother and DaDa. Anything Cole does (good or bad, but most notably bad) is copied almost immediately. She clearly idolizes her brother. She is also starting to talk more clearly.

No, mine, shoes, juice, mama, dada, flower, up. I know that she's saying more but we're not listening well enough.

We've had a super bug run through Bellingham taking out the young and old. Both Cole and Audrey have been sick and many of Cole's classmates as well as his teacher. This week they've only had 6 out of 15 kids attending Cole's preschool. I'm crossing my fingers that I'll come out unscathed but it seems unlikely.

I worked in Cole's classroom this week and snapped some pictures.

Teacher Heidi demonstrating the watercolor egg project.

Cole and friend Maren working on watercolor egg. These two get along really well. Cole played over at Maren's house and we had Maren over to our house last week. She has an older brother so she knows how to play "army" and she can hold her own.

Making hand-print chicks.

Chicks with tissue paper cherry tree.

No cherry tree blossoms for us this year. Sigh. We miss our lovely cherry tree in our lovely backyard at the Seattle house. Seattle backyard April 2008.

Story time. I Am an Ankylosaurus.

Cole's classroom.

Cole's new thing. LEGO.





Carrot sword dueling.

Good times at Pacific Science Center. Always Cole's choice for a Seattle outing.

Crazy NW Weather

We got some snow last week. The perfect kind of snow - enough to make a snowman but doesn't keep you from getting out of the house and goes away the next day.

Cole and Audrey played outside at their "sibling class".

Another one of Audrey just because I like this picture too.



00Arrow

Lauren, Cole and Alyssa (our neighbor) building a snow castle.


Family Day at the beach. It was sunny when we left the house but when we got to Deception Pass it was frigid and blowing with intermittent icy rain. The kids braved the weather for about 3 minutes then we retreated to the warm car for snacks.




Windswept ears.

Tired Audrey

San Francisco and more boat shopping

Alex casually mentioned we should go to San Francisco this past weekend. I love SF and haven't been in a long time so I took the bait. Turns out it was a sail boat shopping trip. Everyone won in the end - we all had a grand time sight seeing, visited with Alex's family, and saw four boats around the Bay area.

Day 1: We by chance visited on the weekend Louis threw his mom a surprise birthday party. So we got to visit with Alex's uncle, aunt, and cousins and eat delightful chocolate birthday cake too! Happy Birthday Rachel! Louis by the way was cheerful and having fun directing the proceedings.

We went to see the Golden Gate Bridge at night and sang "When the lights go down on the city, and the sun shines on the baaayy."

Day 2: Sight seeing at Fisherman's Wharf.


Toured USS Pampanito.






We spent the rest of the day at the Exploratorium.

Fun with magnetism.




Dad and Audrey got some quality time together on this trip.




Everyone was thoroughly worn out after a couple hours so we got into the car and drove over the bridge to Marin Co to see a sailboat. Sadly, a wooden boat in need of a lot of maintenance. The drive back induced much needed naps in both Cole and Audrey so we drove around seeing more of the city.

We ate tasty Tandoori Chicken, Palak Paneer, and Naan with cousin Judy at a restaurant a couple blocks from her apartment. We then walked across the street to enjoy the tastiest latte I've had in recent memory.

Day 3: The kids and I went to the California Academy of Sciences while Alex went to see another boat. This interactive museum was recently renovated and is phenomenal.

We dined in the grooviest cafeteria I've ever seen. No canned green beans or mashed potatoes here. We chose brown rice and a broccoli/cauliflower stir fry (and chocolate milk).


We went upstairs to check out the living roof. The tallest mound is the top of the rain forest exhibit.



Cole got upset when he saw the elevator was leaving us behind. I was trying to convince them to stand still for a sibling picture.


The aquarium was a nice cool and calming place to visit after the steaming heat of the rain forest dome.


We then headed out of town to visit the Golden Gate Bridge and see another boat.






Day 4: Almost everything about the Bay Area was enchanting; the architecture, parks, water, beaches, bridges.

Of the four boats we went down to see only one looked promising.


Cole was in denial about going home and kept trying to convince us we weren't leaving California yet.

But here we are ... and it's snowing.

Arrow, paleontologist

One of Cole's enduring interests is paleontology. He loves the idea of being a scientist.

We recently picked up a Baby Dino Egg Excavation Kit. It's an egg made of plaster with a "baby dino" hidden inside. The kit includes a wooden digging tool and a brush for excavating.

I hid it for him in a dinosaur nest (a pile of leaves and brush) and he got to work on the painstaking process of unearthing the baby dino.




Audrey helped a little.




The result of approximately an hour of play/work.


One of the things I adore about Cole is that he TOTALLY got into the idea of being a paleontologist. It doesn't take much to get his imagination fully engaged. His mind didn't automatically go to the end result - the plastic dinosaur inside. He was more interested in the process.

The egg provided even more imaginative play when Cole had his friend over the next day. Our friends Lisa and her daughter Ava came up for an overnight stay last week. This was Cole's first sleep over. He's been talking about it ever since we read the Berenstain Bears and the Slumber Party. Ava and Cole played well together all day then slept in sleeping bags on Cole's bedroom floor.

Goofin' in pj's.