Our Soccer Star

Excuse the abundance of soccer photos from today's game.  Julia made us proud.  6 goals (out of 7).  She scored early in the game and then nothing was going to stop her. 

Goal #1

Chilling on the sidelines.

So proud of herself

She is going for it!

Look at those athletic looking legs!

#7 on the other team is thinking, "not again!".

The coach and Julia have a connection.

Go Julia Go!

Wanna giggle?

Julia learns to ride a bike

A quintessential daddy duty is to teach a kid to ride a bike.  Julia was ready.  We have a blue bike just her size but she has been riding this BIG pink one with training wheels this summer and she wasn't gonna go back to the blue bike.  Brett fondly calls her 'kermit' .

Happy Birthday Oli - the 48 hour party!

Oli turned 11 on Friday and we took a different approach to his birthday this year.  Since he has great friends from various aspects of his life: his old school, his neighborhood friends and his current school friends, we decided to do the following which was all back to back to back.  As soon as one friend left, another one arrived.
- Friday Afternoon: Boating with Cody and Jackson
- Friday Night: Jackson spends the night
- Saturday: Boating with Max
- Saturday Night: Power Play Arcade and movie night and sleep over with Steffen
- Sunday: Mariner's Game with Brady

Just like a birthday party but all stretched out across the weekend.  

It was 48 hours of celebrating Oli.  We're all exhausted.

Went out for coffee in the AM to give him his #1 gift, an ipod touch...expect to start receiving emails and texts from Oli now!

Jackson and Cody and Oli...walking down Kirkland doc where we stopped for dinner.

Oli's friends watching him wakeboard

Oli and Max on the inflatable on Saturday

Tyler loves to hang with the big kids.

Julia still treats him like her little brother though.

 

A slow ride with Tyler in the middle.  He is a brave boy!

Oli and Steffen at Power Play

 

Swinging with Steffen..these two are great friends. 

Mariner's Game with Brady.

First Wakeboarding

Oli tried wakeboarding for the first time the very last day of summer...nothing like finishing off the summer wish list just hours before  bedtime the night before school!

We weren't even sure he would get up but sure enough first time he was up and had the hang of it.

We were proud!  And so was he. 

Tyler lays on the floor of the boat underneath Brett driving and takes a nap.  It's his favorite napping spot. 

First Ski Lesson

Julia started indoor ski lessons yesterday...simply adorable.

First day of school

Oli started 5th grade, yes 5th grade on Tuesday!  And Julia started her 3rd year in preschool. 

I started taking pictures of the kids with these signs a few years ago and now have a great collection.  I can already picture the eye rolling when I have them do it throughout high school.

Oli (and this year Brady will join him) jump over our back fence to get to the bus stop.  Neighbor approved.

Tyler was so happy to join in the fun with his backpack on.

Literally hopping because she was so excited.

walking into preschool

Miss Nicole, we're happy to have you again!

Julia didn't even have to be asked to go and wash her hands...she continues to be a rule follower.

Park with friends

Our weekend was full of fun...our anniversary, wine party with neighbors and a park playdate with some great friends.  The latter is the only one with pictures, thanks to Natalie!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/11403089@N00/sets/72157646582675075/

Thursday Night Concerts

One of my favorite things about summer are the various ways we can spend time together as a family.  A weekly tradition is the Thursday Night Concerts at Marina Park in Kirkland.

Here is just one of the many reasons I love going. 

Backyard Camping

Backyard camping has been a tradition that we've done with our kids starting at age 4.  They love it, Scout doesn't.   He doesn't sleep a wink.  He doesn't understand how to protect the family when some of us are outside and some of us (ok, just me :)) are inside.

Tough Guy

Tyler is a 'dude' most of the time...rough and tumble.  Which makes his spiky helmet a perfect fit for him...until he insists on riding the purple and pink Dora hot wheels bike.

He's his own individual and we love him for it.

We tackling pottty training this week with a vengeance so think 'dry undies' for us.

A day at the Zoo

We took the opportunity to go to the zoo when Grandma was here.  Us adults all said we saw more animals on this visit to the zoo than on any other zoo visit.  The highlights were the giraffes, the lion, the hard-to-find elephants, we saw monkeys swinging branch to branch and howling at each other which was amazingly entertaining.

Not a lot of pictures taken...prioritized being 'present'. 

"hmm, who are you?"

"I cannot quite hear you."

"Fine, if you're not going to talk to me, I'm going to ignore you, too."

token (live) animal photo

Picking Blueberries

A fond summer memory I have from the last couple of years is picking blueberries at a local farm.  I assumed this year would be no different and was glad that JoMum was here at the time that blueberries would be ripe.  Well, it was about 10 minutes of fun and then Tyler was super whiny and asking to go home.  Our parenting style is not to give in too easily and we figured he would just start eating blueberries which would cheer him up. Not so...so we all put up with the whining long enough and headed home.  Maybe it will be fun again next year.

Wait up, Grandma!