4th of July Fun

Busy day!  A birthday party, 4th of July BBQ, and then fireworks.  And it was all started off by Jason letting me sleep in until 9 (!) and then making Swedish pancakes with a pear sauce he threw together.  Yum.  

The four-ish-and-under egg and spoon race at Abigail's party.  I was actually pretty impressed.  I do like the holding-the-egg-on-the-spoon action by several of the contestants.  

So one birthday party and another bbq later, we went to go see the fireworks in Pullman.  This is the first time we've ever gone, despite having lived here as a married couple for seven summers.  It was so much fun to take the kids, since they've never been before either (obviously).  We parked on the backside of the park, on the smart recommendation of some friends, and then trekked on a trail through the woods.  Hazel wasn't such a fan of that part and asked if there were any bears around.  Both of the big kids loved the show and neither one got upset at the noise (hooray!).  Casper slept through the whole thing.

March 15th

Today, I'm having a hard time managing my mental "to do" list.  But so far we have:

1. made apple pancakes
2. gotten dressed/showered
3. drank market spice tea while looking for a good online story about St. Patrick's Day (no luck)
4. printed out shamrock coloring pages
5. caught up on dishes/let Hazel watch an old Winnie the Pooh cartoon while I did said dishes and Klaas "napped"
   
6. catching up on laundry that was neglected during our move a week and a half ago
7. thought more about curtain-making 
8. played legos with Klaas
9. read part of Charlotte's Web and an Olivia book with Hazel
10. sword/spoon fought with the kids
11. surfed for knit dress patterns to make Hazel a St. Patrick's Day dress out of some orange polka dot jersey I found at the thrift store (yes, orange.  I am honoring my grandmother who was very stubborn and clear that one should wear orange on St. Patrick's Day since one is Protestant, not Catholic)
12. remembered that I also want to make Klaas an Irish flag shirt
13. thought about the menu for our feast on Saturday and maybe making a fun appetizer and the fact I need to find a recipe for Guinness frosting for our Guinness brownies
    
14. started thinking that we're having someone else over for dinner Friday and I need to clean more today and unpack more boxes
15. listened to the kids play hide and seek in their closet
16. thought that maybe we should all watch Darby O'Gill and the Little People this week
17. let the kids paint some pictures
18. disciplined for throwing things/saying no/having attitude
19. It's only 12:37pm.

(It should be noted that a lot of these activities were being worked on at the same time as other ones.)

 

 

Trip

So these are completely out of order, but I'm lazy and not going to re-order them for you.  And I actually have more pictures of our trip to California, from taking family pictures, but they're on a disc.  Maybe next time.  But as a summary, we got to see all of the Schuiling extended family, played "spy" with cousin Kenny, visited a friend in Sacramento, then it was on to Poulsbo, Washington and the Space Needle.  We opened our New Year's gifts.  The harmonica and cowboy hats were a big hit.

In California Jason had a great job interview at a large organic farm in Watsonville.  But more on that later....