Simpsons in Seattle

A few weeks back we watched Evie's spring band concert. She switched from flute to oboe back in January and it's been awesome to see how quickly she's picked up this new instrument! She chose to play oboe because the band didn't have enough oboe players and now that she's been playing a few months, she seems to want to stick with this instead of flute. She's even signed up for band again next year. Great job, Evie! Close up of Evie getting ready for the show. You can really see her because she is one chair in. Yay, Evie!  

Flashback to this photo from March 2015! Daddy and his two girls! This is the hike to Franklin Falls.   

There's a very popular hike in the nearby Issaquah mountains called Poo Poo Point (apparently named for the sound of the trains that pass by) that everyone says is a must-do activity if you live in the area. We pass the trailhead often but the parking lot is always jam packed because this is the literal jumping off point for paragliders. With a break in the weather and the girls sick of skiing, we finally decided to try it out last week! It did not disappoint! The girls opted for the shorter (4.5m r/t vs 7.5m r/t), more difficult trail and yes, we can confirm that it was not an easy one! It's uphill the entire way. It was beautiful though, especially the lower part where the trail is lined with rocks and stepping stones. You are rewarded for burning those thighs with really nice views at the top. The first lookout point that faces south-east and we were lucky enough that it was a clear beautiful day and could see the Rainier in the distance. A couple hundred yards further is th...

We've had a heck of a time trying to wean Nora off of her "blanket". The problem is that she just likes having something soft covering her face so when we take away one blanket, she'll just find something else. She will use her shirt even to cover the lower half of her face if she's really desperate. Lately, I've even caught her using the Penny's TAIL as "blanket"! Good thing is that Penny doesn't mind. In fact, Penny loves hanging out with her Nora mommy. She will literally walk across Evie and me to get to Nora, and then will proceed to snuggle and wiggle her little booty until she finds just the right spot on Nora. It's very cute.  

We always have a great time when the Hanley family comes for a visit and this past weekend was no exception! My kids were literally bouncing up and down in their seats with excitement as we drove to the airport to pick up Ian and Owen (and their parents). We made the day out of being on the Seattle side and stayed out of the rain by first doing lunch at Din Tai Fung and then visiting the Museum of Flight. We've actually taken them there before, but since it's been a while, we still opted to go and I think the kids enjoyed themselves.  Evie and Ian selfie at Din Tai Fung. Can they withstand hurricane winds? Tracking real time flights over SEA. These two could have played with this for days. The new WWI and WWI exhibits were really cool.   The main reason for the visit though was to play in the snow!! We were crossing our fingers for new snow but alas, it was not meant to be. We made our way to Hyak for some sledding and snow play and was met with a snow/rain mix. That didn't...

I love Harry Potter and loved being able to share it with Evie. I've written a few posts about it too - like when she was  listening to the book , going to a  HP themed bday party , eating  Bertie Botts Beans , visiting the  Harry Potter store in NY , or going go  Harry Potter World . One of my favorite memories is of Evie audibly gasping when she heard Harry Potter's name being pulled out of the hat to compete in the Tri-wizard tournament. She really got into the stories. Finally, finally, Nora has taken to Harry Potter too! She half listened to the audio books previously but it never held her attention. She liked going to the Harry Potter store and Universal Studios, but it was probably more because she got to pick out a souvenir! But finally, she's been excited to listen to the (excellent) audio books and we've been slowly going through them in the evenings. After we finish a book, we've taken to watching the movie too. While Nora hasn't been as expressive as...

Hope you had a great Valentine's Day!  Here in the Simpson household, we were rushing the night before to finish making our valentines! Now that Evie is in middle school, she doesn't have to give out valentines but we did want to take advantage of her new cake decorating kit and decided to make cookies to give out to her friends. For Nora, I was THAT mom that didn't want to give out more sweets or plastic so instead we decided to make all of her classmates oragami rings - bunnies and cats. I thought they were pretty durn cute myself!  Cookies with icing Showing off her wares We made a lot of rings. Side note, the sun has been out much more lately and it's finally setting later in the evening so it's feeling very springlike even though we are still in February!  Driving home the other night Holler flowers!