Simpsons in Seattle

Some more pictures of Nora's weird sleeping habits.  What you don't see here is the sleeping mat that was also under the bed, hiding her. She was stuffed way back there! I swear that this is not how we tucked her in at night! This can't be comfortable! Sleeping sideways

Whenever it just finishes raining, all the slugs come out to play. It's so gross! They are all over when we hike. Here's one we saw today that's almost as long as Nora's foot. Yuck!

The one fun part about sheltering in place is having more time to try out recipes. Well, it's either the time or the fact that we cook so much at home that we're getting bored of the same things over and over!  I finally found yeast and tried my hand at baking bread. It was a lot easier than I thought and the girls LOVED the small artisan rolls I baked last weekend. I'm planning on trying this again to get a crunchier crust!  I was also impressed with myself for making my own Hainan Chicken using half of a chicken. I usually cheat and make the chicken with a few chicken breast pieces and don't make the accompanying chicken rice, but I did the whole thing this time and it was yummy! Evie and Nora have been trying out new "recipes" too like this strawberry, cool whip and chocolate sauce dessert that Nora asked me to take a picture of and post. :) And here's Evie's interesting lunch combination of Trader Joe's cup-o-noodle with...

Happy birthday to our dear, little Evie! This beautiful soul turned 9 on Tuesday and we celebrated with some friends with a staycation on Orcas Island. It was a good getaway with decent weather and we were able to get some hiking, bike riding, tennis and LOTS of lego and Pokemon in between. I know we aren't following social distancing guidelines but we've all been very careful (only the dads doing errands outside of the house) and the kids have been dying to hang out. It ended up being a good call because Evie had a bit of a meltdown the night before her birthday. She was crying and going on and on about not wanting to turn 9 during Coronavirus. She was pretty upset and understandably so - this lockdown has been really hard on everyone! By the next morning, Evie was back to being her sunny self. At 9, Evie still likes dancing and reading (current faves are Rick Riordan books and listening to Little House on the Prarie) and is only fighting playing her flute half the ti...

The weather was beautiful on Orcas Island last weekend so for Mother's day, I lazied around in the morning and then we all went for a hike around Mountain Lake. It's the first time we've done the whole thing (3.9 mile loop) and it took us a lot longer than we anticipated! We had lots of fun but we did not bring nearly enough snacks and treats to keep the girls energies up so it was a pretty successful trip considering there was minimal crying, whining or piggy back rides.  Prepared in case we meet other hikers on the trail. We probably saw about ~10 people total. The scarf has a lot of uses. This is her happy face before we set out on our hike. This is about halfway through. She brought 3 marshmallows that she took her time savoring. Pit stop to rest. Nora dipper her feet in the cold cold water. A hiking we will go! My reward for our long hike!

Scott has been on a tear baking up lots of delicious treats! He's made cookies, banana bread, upside carmelized banana bread cake, lemon tarts, special k bars and more cookies.  I got into it a little last week by making biscuits. We still haven't been able to find yeast at the store so biscuits was an option since it doesn't need yeast. These turned out delicious and really easy to make. They didn't rise that much I think because I used a cup to cut the biscuits which pinched the sides. I'd definitely make these again!

I've been hiking a lot lately Dad has been bringing me and Nora on a lot of hikes recently. When we go on hikes we go on trails some times they are by my house or we have to drive but we still have a blast! We go on hikes for points, points are thingy's that we can earn by doing chores and with points we can by things like Mac and cheese for nine points or a piece of candy for three points. Sincerely, Evie