Simpsons in Seattle

The joke in Seattle is that summer doesn't start until July 5th. For whatever reason, it's typically cold and dreary all the way through the 4th (where it usually even rains on the fireworks) and then miraculously, it turns warm the next day. This year though has been completely unusual. We're in the middle of yet another heatwave where temps have been regularly in the 90s for pretty much the past week. Couple that with the long days where the sun doesn't set until past 9pm and we're having a pretty awesome start to summer!   Playing with chalk on the sidewalk The artiste in her element! The aftermath of playing with chalk A happy Nora trying out the trampoline.

Scott: You have to listen to Daddy. Evie: Why? Me: Because he's the boss. Evie: No he's not! Mommy is. Mommy is always right. She's learned already. =)

Evie and Nora found a new reason to love going to Home Depot with Daddy: the "car" shopping carts can fit TWO kids! I'm not kidding you that they LOVED going around in this. Nora could not stop giggling while Evie pretended to steer. It almost made going to Home Depot worth it... :) Whee!!

This is a long delayed post but I finally finished uploading my pictures and found enough time to write about our trip.... -- We left early pearly on Friday 5/22 to catch our flight to Kauai. We've done this trip before, but it's very different when you have TWO little ones instead of just one. The flight was l-o-n-g. Nora couldn't sit still and Evie wasn't feeling well and was whiny and cried several times. This was easily Evie's worst plane ride ever because she's usually a really easy going kid, especially if you bribe her with videos on the iPad. Don't be fooled by this picture. This was 5 seconds of happy f ollowed by 5 hours of not happy. We landed, rented our car for the weekend (a minivan!), grabbed a quick bite to eat at Bubba's Burgers and headed to our home for the next 4 days: Hale Liho Liho in Princeville. The house was nice - fairly new (built in the 90s) and right on the 2nd hole of the Makai golf course. We had neighbors but t

The unlucky part of turning 4 means have to get shots! Poor Evie didn't know it was coming when we went for her checkup on Friday. We have a Berenstein Bears book about going to the doctor's office though so she knew that these were good-for-you shots but she was still a bit nervous. The male nurse, Alex, was a champion shot giver though. He took out a basket of lollipops and while I took my time comparing the different flavors and letting Evie select one, he popped the two shots into her thigh lickety split. She gave a little "oh!" and that was it! No crying, no fuss. She was mainly very excited for her first tootsie pop. Next shots won't be until she's 11! She passed the rest of her check up with flying colors. At 29 pounds she's in the 5th percentile for her age, but 25% percentile for height. She answered all of Dr. O's questions perfectly - she could say her whole name, tell a story clearly and linearly, knows her colors, can (sort of) catch a b

On Saturday, we threw Evie her 4th birthday party at nearby Newcastle Beach Park. We lucked out because it was a beautiful, warm day, perfect for kids to play at the park and get their feet wet in the Lake. All of Evie's little buddies came out for the party and it was so sweet to watch Evie play with her friends. If you ask her what her favorite part of the day was, you would not be surprised that she says it was opening presents. She also really enjoyed giving out the goodie bags that we had made the night before. Hard at work assembling the goodie bags. Baby Nora with baby Cooper. Cooper is 12 weeks old and just as big as Nora! Goofing around On the train with Raina and Tejas, our next door neighbors With Sanaa, who is 6 years old. Happy birthday, beautiful girl! It was a double whammy of a day because it was also baby bear Nora's 10 month birthday! Here's the little sweetie pie. She kept trying to clap her hands so I couldn't

Birthday girl Happy birthday, big girl Evie! She turned 4 yesterday and boy, was she a happy camper! She woke up super excited (I'll post the video soon!) and couldn't wait to celebrate the day. It was very cute that her response to anyone saying "happy birthday!" was to say happy birthday back. I guess without context, it's like saying Merry Christmas to someone, right? At 4, Evie is pretty much the best kid ever. She has her whiny moments and is starting to talk back, but in general, she's an incredibly sweet, kind little girl. When we went shopping in Maui, she wanted to make sure we bought gifts for her cousins too so that everyone could have a toy. She's also constantly on the lookout for things that are dangerous for Nora and will scramble over to snatch choking hazards from Nora's hands. Evie likes to sing and dance still and loves to read. She can recognize all the letters but can't write all of them yet. She likes to play pre