Do you shop on Amazon?

With their free 2 day shipping, I purchase from them a lot more than I like to admit. I know there are stores that sell the same items, but Amazons selection is amazing and I don't have to bundle 2 kids into the car to look at a couple stores to find exactly what I like. So whether you shop Amazon a little or a lot, consider this: 1-5% of the purchase price can be donated to participating schools! If you visit our co-ops web page and click on the Amazon link, you could help our school have more money towards things like art supplies. It is a little hard to get into the new habit of always visiting the co-op website first, but that is the only way they will credit us. So give it a try!

http://www.ballardpreschoolcoop.com/

The move

Ok, here are some more details:


I have been saying for a while that there are things about this house I am getting sick of (lack of closet space) and we both agreed that it was not logistically wise to kick renters out and take over the whole downstairs, but we knew we wanted a better layout. Matt started to do some looking at prices & what was available and in the beginning of July Matt contacted our realtor (also our cousin-by-marriage and my ex-boss) saying we were interested in looking at some houses. Things moved really fast from there!


We knew we wanted to stay in the Greenwood neighborhood. We really love how much we can walk to, we like how convenient it is to bus lines, it is simple to get on the freeway, etc. We wanted sidewalks but we did not want to go too far from our current house because it would negatively affect the walk-ability. So we had a fairly narrow quadrant we were looking in. We knew that if a house came up that met our criteria we might need to be ready to act fast, but then again since our location was so specific we knew it could be 6 months or more before anything just right came up. We viewed some houses to get a feel for what we were ready to compromise on. Would we be ok in Ballard  in a cute neighborhood but a house that needs serious updates? Would we be ok North of where we currently are (still no sidewalks)? How important  is it to have all the bedrooms on one level? 


Pretty early in our looking, we found a house that Matt was ready right away to make an offer on, but I needed time to think it over. The bed/bath layout is exactly what we wanted: 3 beds, 2 baths upstairs (one of which is a master bath) plus a half bath on the main (truly rare in Seattle!). We gave it time and I decided I was ok making an offer on it.


The house is not perfect. The kitchen is small with no dishwasher so the plan is to remodel it in a year or two. There is no dining room and there is no great spot for the table. The yard is significantly smaller than our current one and is basically just dirt so will need some serious TLC. The plan is that we will be in this house for 5-7 years. So there are downsides to it, but they are easier to reconcile when I know it will not be our "forever" house.

We are past inspection. We are set to close on the 15th, but will do our big move on the 24th. 

A big part of the reason we were willing to be picky on a lot of things when looking for a new house, even if it took a while, is that we will not be selling our current house. The market is not great for selling and our renters were willing to sign a new 1 year lease even knowing that we will not be upstairs. So we have started advertising for renting the upstairs and already have two groups who have filled out applications and look like good options. 

Things are moving faster than I expected. I am collecting boxes and getting a gentle start on packing. I am also, of course, starting to get sentimental about this house. The yard was always so much work with the huge lawn that is truly up-and-down bumpy. But the weather is nice and the girls are loving running and chasing each other in the yard, and they will not be able to do that nearly so freely at the new house. Ironically Matt never wanted to hire someone to help with the yard so it always consumed his summer weekends But now we have decided it makes the most sense to hire someone to maintain the yard after we move out and I think "why couldn't we have done that years ago?"

boo-boo

Addie has tiny little bumps and bruises all the time, but it is rare that bandaids are needed and there is a truly big lump or scrape. So I had to take pictures when she scraped her cheek the other week. This is the night it happened right after I had slimed triple-antibiotic on it (thus the lovely glow).

Hike to Twin Falls

On Saturday we were blessed with amazingly sunny, warm weather. Which was really nice because we had a hike planned! We met up with Matt's cousin Susy, her husband Steve & their girls TJ and Sammy to hike Twin Falls. It was the perfect length of hike, Addie walked it all by herself and really did not complain (except for she really was not all that interested in the falls, she just said she wanted to play in the water. But once we hiked back down and let her play in the water she just dipped her feet in some then decided to eat and watch TJ & Sammy in the water). Anyways, having friends her age along was a great way to motivate her to keep moving and to have fun while doing it. Etta was in the backpack some, walked some, and "flew" some. She, as always, wanted to do what the big girls did.

 TJ is not, in fact, this much taller than the others - she is standing on a rock

 Addie's colorful cheek is not due to the scrape, bruise I previously mentioned. 

It is a berry she got face-painted on at the Farmers Market the day before.

Day Camp

Addie went to summer camp this week. It was only for 2 hours each morning. There were a lot more day camp opportunities but I chose to sign her up only for this one week. Each day had its own theme:

Medieval Monday:
-color a picture: use Addie's favorite color since purple is a roayl color
-make a shiny vest/piece of armor from a brown bag and aluminum foil
-wrap a pea start in wet paper towel (there were no grocery stores back then, they had to grow their own food)

Transportation Tuesday:
-make homemade bar soap with a truck in the middle
-coloring picture

Wild & Wacky Wednesday
-flubber
-oobleck

Thrilling Thursday (sports theme)
-"egg" hunt (eggs are color & shape of sports balls)
-coloring picture

Fearless Friday (superhero)
-wear a costume if you like
-make homemade soap again with random toy in the middle (Addie's is a little rubber ducky)
-superhero stickers
-decorate an eye mask so you can go incognito (holy cow, I spelled that correct on the first try!)

I was not sure how Addie would do, if she would cling to me or what. She was a little shy at first but at the end of the week she knew some of the kids names and was much more interactive with them. On more than one day the teacher commented on how she was such a pleasure to have in class and how sweet of a girl she is. Music to a mothers ears of course! After class today Addie told me that she had lots of fun and that she wanted to do it again next summer. (and Etta said "me too?!)

Each time I dropped off and picked up Addie, Etta went through predictable phases. She would want to be carried out of the car and down the stairs into the building. She would cry and fuss if I did not carry her. Once inside the room she would say "me, Etta?" and would try to blend in with the big kids in hopes that she could stay. This often resulted in the teacher saying how cute she was and giving her a sticker of some sort. Again she would want to be carried to the car. When we returned 2 hours later she would want to be carried inside. She would wander the room a bit, checking things out to see what fun she missed out on and mingling with the big kids. Again she might get a coloring page or eye mask. Then she would have no problem going up all the stairs on her own because all the big kids were doing it.

Having Addie in day camp did make me think of all the little and big ways she will be apart from me as she grows older: kindergarten, sleepovers, summer camp (week long!), etc. But thankfully she still likes to say that she wants to live with us all her life even when she is a grown-up. So clearly she is not in a big hurry to distance herself from me. And although it was nice to have 2 hours where I did not have to worry about the girls bickering with each other, it was also very clear that Etta missed Addie. For example, we were lucky enough to score a big car-shaped shopping card at the grocery store and Etta would point to the other seat in it and say "Addie".

Addie's overnight hike

Last year Addie went on an overnight hike with Matt, Matt's dad Loren and Matt's sister May. It was promptly decided that it would be a yearly event. This year Myron, Lori, Coen and Maya doggy decided at the last minute to come along too. Etta was very sad when all those fun people left our house and she was stuck at home with mom. She was trying to climb into the car and confused as to where her car seat was. It was very weird for her to have both Matt & Addie gone. She is getting extra doses of mommy-only time this weekend too since Addie has a day-camp each morning.

Anyways, the hike was a success and they even had great weather!

 Addie is eating chocolate. But it is not chocolate on her face. It is a big huge scrape that was pretty swollen at first. And the ironic thing is she did not even get it on the hike, she got it the day before in our back yard (she tripped while walking basically).

(I stole these next 6 pictures from May's online album.. thanks May!)

 Addie practiced her hand at taking pictures, and some of them turned out pretty good! I chose not to attach the ones where it only shows a body but no head :)

Babysitting Coen is always fun

Snack time was shared by all!

A few more pics of our P.C. weekend

3 cameras taking pictures means it can take a little while to discover some cute ones

Also, I don't think I mentioned in the first post about Pacific City that we went to the Fair!

Addie has been very interested in roller coasters due to an ABC construction book she has where at the end you realize they were building an amusement park. So I have been telling her that there are roller coasters and rides at fairs, and that we could go to the Puyallup Fair in Sept. On the Monday morning that we were going to drive back from Vancouver to Seattle, my dad mentioned something about the food at the Clark County Fair that was happening that week. I thought for a second then asked Matt how he felt about us packing up real quick and taking them. 20 minutes later we were in the car. Those of you who know me know that spontaneous is definitely not a word people use to describe me. But it just made so much more sense to go to Clark County Fair that day vs waiting a few weeks for Puyallup Fair. In Sept we will be packing up to move (oops, I haven't posted about that yet) so we would not want to take a day out for going to the fair. Plus Clark County Fair was right off the freeway in the direction we already needed to be heading, where Puyallup Fair is a long drive from home. And to top it off, it was a Monday which meant less crowds. So we went and we enjoyed it (but maybe not as much as I had built it up to). Addie went on her first rides: an airplane that went in circles up in the air a bit and a child roller coaster. She liked the roller coaster better (possibly because going around and around in circles tends to make people dizzy and that is not a fun feeling). Etta kept seeing ones like a choo-choo train ride and saying "me", but when we would go to get in line for it she would say "no". So she did not go on any this time. I had a hard time taking good pictures of the action, we should have used Matt's camera so we could have set it on "sports mode" and taken pictures one right after the other.

Pacific City

We went to Pacific City on the OR coast for a few days of sandy fun with my family. There are tons of pictures so I will not be writing a lot. We broke up the drive in 2 pieces, Seattle to Vancouver one day then Vancouver to Pacific City the next. The girls napped well most of the time in the car, but still we had one episode of car sickness and one pull-over to avoid car sickness. 

The last time I went  Pacific City with my family was 3 years ago, when Addie was just a little over 6 months old. It is so much more fun at the beach when the kids can walk on their own & enjoy the sand! During that trip we got a cute pictures of me and my three sisters plus kids; sadly we did not get a corresponding picture this time.

 One of Addie's favorite things was to run down the sand-dune to the beach. 

Etta loved trying to bury herself in the sand. 

Both, thankfully, slept really well at night in their separate places.

You can't tell at all from the pictures (or in-person in my opinion) but my sister Allison is pregnant and due at the end of January.