My little girl, by Cindy

My little girl
with big brown eyes

Loves to twirl
and make mud pies

She likes to doodle
and read all night

Eat her chicken noodle
and paint her nails bright

At times she can be a little stinker
with her little bro in tow

But she is always a Thinker
and I love her so!

My little boy, by Cindy

My little boy
with big brown eyes

Plays with toys
and things that fly

He loves his sister
and follows her around

He calls her "disder"
and knows where she can be found

Peanut butter and honey
is his lunch call

And I think he'll cost us money
with so many times he falls.

I love you Mason

Monkey underwear

Mason is still mastering the art of staying dry overnight. He drinks a lot and we typically have to change his sheets. Well, he was dry overnight last week, so I made him the promise that if he was dry two nights in a row I would buy him very special monkey underwear. (I saw some cute Paul Frank underwear online.) You would have thought that I promised him a new car. He got so excited about the monkey underwear, but still didn’t quite make it through the night.

Then yesterday morning he woke up dry! He remembered, “if I am dry two nights in a row I get monkey underwear.” I told him, “yup! That’s right, just one more night and you get a seven pack of all different colors of monkeys to wear on your butt.” Very exciting. So, this morning he woke up…dry! He called me at work saying in the cutest little voice, “Mom, I wuz dwy!”

So, to keep my promise, I went online to buy him the monkey underwear. Sold out! We checked inventory to see if any more was coming in, but no. So, I across the street to the store in a panic. They’re sold out! All the stores are sold out! Even the manufacturer is completely sold out! What, is there a run on potty training 3 year olds? I explained to them that my personal reputation is on the line, but no luck. (I did consider the girls briefs that, for some reason, are still in stock. Would he really know? But, no, I decided to wait.)

I bought him a monkey tee-shirt instead, and hope that I can convince him to do it again and he’ll really, really get the monkey underwear this time. He seems to be content with the shirt. We named it his trained-monkey-shirt.

Creek!

The Issaquah Creek runs through our neighbor's back yard, and they have extended an open invitation to us. Cindy took the kids and Jordan over there today. This picture makes it seem like Mason is unfairly being picked on. I have a hard time believing that. Although, when I asked Kenzie what was going on with that picture she said, "I was splashing Mason and he was saying, 'please don't sister.'"



Jordan, our 12 year-old dog, doesn't need an invitation. She meanders over there about twice a day, coming home half-way wet. No full-body submersion, she just lies near the shore to get cooled off. And her tummy is happy because she knocks on the neighbor's door until they open it and give her a treat! She likes living in the burbs!

Jump times three

Mason, Lane and Kenzie jump in Donald & Michelle's pool. AJ, Cheyenne and Roy observe.



"Could somebody fetch me some pineapple Kool Aid?"

Trekking

It has finally happened - we need a minivan.

With five kids in tow (AJ joined us for the weekend), we headed to Northwest Trek. We did it right - bought the household membership and everything. The kids were great, except for a few moments of kenz-i-tude. We think she has a hard time adjusting to the Real World after living the Good Life with Grammy and Grampy. She's just not used to holding anything less than Pure Princess status. So, imagine how tough it must have been for her today to be just one of five kids. She sat all the way in the back of the car...how unfortunate that it's sometimes just not possible to hear her all the way in front. (Especially with the music playing loudly and the windows open. It can be so peaceful.)

Despite pulling the car over a couple of times to remind MacKenzie of her commoner status, we had a great time. The tram was a big hit. Mason echoed the tour guide the entire time, repeating just the animals. "Folks, we have a herd of bison across the water" would be a loud "BISON!" Or, "just ahead are a couple of mountain goats" prompted a loud "GOATS!" At least the people closest to us seemed amused. He was so excited, there was no hope to turn down the volume.

And the ride home: naps all around!

Summer family portrait

This is Kenzie's dream family. We're lovingly standing with a butterfly fluttering above, Kenzie holding a rainbow of flowers, Cindy comfortable with blue shorts and a green tee, Mason "duded up" in his DJ outfit...and me in a long, flowing red flower dress. (Can I just comment on the dress? I rarely wear dresses and never, ever with flowers! Kenzie knows this, but this is her Dream Mommy. She feels that she is pacifying me because she would prefer I wear a purple flower dress, but indulges me with red, my favorite color. It's her way of compromising.)

I still love the detail. Mason has round sunglasses, the rest of us have eye lashes. Kenzie even has two clips in her hair.

It was fun to look back at the last family portrait that Kenzie drew in January.

Two butterflies and a fish

The kids spent the night with Grammy and Grampy so they could go to a carnival at their church. Somehow Mason came home with green fingernails. I haven't quite gotten to the bottom of that one yet, but they had a blast.

Dinner time

Years ago, Cindy and I used to serve a monthly breakfast to homeless people in Seattle. When Kenzie was little I would put her in a backpack and we would work the meal. As she got older we faded a bit, and when Mason came, we were done. We wanted to give the kids the experience of serving the under-served, but in practice we were unable to make it work.

So, tonight we had the chance to serve dinner at Tent City in Bellevue. Tent City accommodates about 100 people. Each resident goes through a background check to ensure no sex offenders. It's self-governing with a very low tolerance for any missteps. One guy I talked to had just gotten evicted and has to leave for 14 days because he missed church on Sunday. The place is clean, including well-maintained Honey Buckets, soap, and a maintenance crew.

Since Cheyenne and Lane are still here, we decided to leave Mason at home, but were hoping Kenzie would go. That was the plan, until tonight. She decided she didn't want to go because Lane wasn't going. I told her that it was her decision, but asked her to listen to why I was going. We talked for a few minutes about what it would be like to live in a tent, to not have a stove to make meals, and to be unsure as to whether or not you would have dinner. I told her that I was going to go because otherwise these people wouldn't have dinner. She processed it, perked up, and said, "I'm going, Mom, I want to go."

We packed up some spaghetti, barbequed brisket, and our powdered strawberry lemonade. Kenzie was good with it, just not the lemonade. She didn't quite understand why they NEEDED the lemonade...but still was a sport, even mixing it up when we got there.

Off we went. Kenzie was in charge of handing each person a fork and a plate, then just sitting and socializing. I was really proud of her. She was engaging and participative. She made a friend with one guy who traded jokes with her. She got a big laugh from him when she recited the one and only joke she knows (courtesy of Grammy): "How do you spell mousetrap in 3 letters?" Answer: C-A-T. She was able to hustle up a few other jokes and enjoyed being the highlight of the night for a couple of people. But she still couldn't be convinced to leave the rest of our powdered strawberry lemonade behind!

Roller coaster

We planned to go to the Storm game tonight. However, leaving our house at 6:15 only to find the 520 bridge closed diminished our chances of getting tickets to the sold-out game. One minor altercation with a (greedy, obnoxious) scalper pretty much eliminated all hope.

So, there we were in the Seattle Center. What to do?? Two words: Roller Coaster. Unfortunately, Kenzie is only 46 inches tall and needed to be 54 to ride it. She was up for it, though (as was I). But, there was no way she was going to grow 8 inches in one evening. As we pondered, Cindy was anxious to get us into the kid area, Land of the Lame, but Kenzie and I weren't quite ready. (Mason also wanted to ride the Big Kid rides, but even I knew it was a little premature for that.)

Most of the rest of the Big Kid rides required at least 48 inches. Which, Kenzie quickly learned was the same as 46" plus a little heel lift right in front of the sign. (What? Her uncles have been doing this trick for years right before the camera takes our family shots so they look 6'3".) It worked! Our first ride was the Pirate Ship. As we began our swing, she was giggling. Then, it got higher, higher, and really high. I looked at her and she was white as a ghost. I said, "Kenzie?" No response. "Kenzie, are you okay?" No response. "Kenzie!?!? Say something!" Her face was completely frozen. I seriously worried if she had gone into some shock-induced coma. Finally she said, "Mom, just tell me, are they going to drop us?" I told her "no, honey, we're fine. This is supposed to be fun." She relaxed, said, "oh, okay!" and then started to enjoy herself. We were screaming like mad, and then she really started having fun. By the time it was over she wanted to go again. She challenged the 54" rule on the roller coaster, but we didn't push our luck there.

We did go on the water roller coaster. She liked it, perhaps a bit too much. I think she would have stayed on that one all day. It was weird that they made me sit in front of her and we weren't strapped in. But there was a bar and strict instructions to "hold on."

When Cindy and Mason were done watching us, we all went to the kid area. There was a kid-sized roller coaster that we all went on, the Farris wheel, and...bumper cars! Mason cracked up every time one car hit another. His foot stayed on the pedal and he steered like a madman.

Kenzie then took her little brother on the kid-sized pirate swing, teaching him the ropes and showing off the "no hands" maneuver.

Finally, we walked to the base of the Space Needle and looked up at the elevator. Kenzie kept repeating, much to Cindy's chagrin, "this is so much better than basketball!" We talked about how much fun we can have when our best-laid plans fall through. Well, some of us talked.

Jump Splash

...of course Kenzie is pointing her toes...

Great care

Cheyenne and Lane are taking great care of Mason and Kenzie, especially during the days when Cindy and I are both working. They have quite the imagination and lead fictional games that are very captivating, even spanning multiple days. Their favorite is "Store" where each kid runs a little shop and trades fake money. Kenzie's is a pet shop and she sells all sorts of animals.

I hear that every day Cheyenne makes them "the best" fruit salad: apples, bananas, honey and peanut butter.

We've really seen Cheyenne and Lane grow with this experience too. They know they're setting an example and take the responsibility very seriously. At the concert tonight I looked at Cheyenne, who was sitting on the grass with her arms behind her holding her up, and Mason just crawled onto her lap and snuggled up to her.

Cindy and I might be getting spoiled. Sometimes Cheyenne takes the kids upstairs, gets them dressed for bed, sends them downstairs for hugs, reads them a book and then puts them to bed -- all without being asked. Sometimes a bath is even in the picture. Wow!

Cousin play

The kids have worked the last two days to put together a play for us, complete with invitations and posters plastered all over the house. The big production lasted about 2 minutes and had some dancing, comedy and, of course, DJ Spin Master Mason at the keyboard. (And notice the instructions to me on the chalk board.)

Jack Fonda

I was on the computer, Mason came down to give me a bedtime kiss, then decided he wanted to watch me instead. I was on YouTube, thought, "Jane Fonda" and said "dance." Here's a seven second snippet.

Chin up

Kenzie demonstrates her ability to do a chin-up.

Flame throwers

At the Auburn carnival on the Fourth we visited the police radar baseball toss. Kenzie was clocked at 18MPH and Mason 20MPH. His first toss didn't get measured because he threw it over the fence. They had fun and got certificates, plus a bunch of little tchotchkes that now fill up the bottom of my purse. Who doesn't need more suction cup clown fish and pink feathered flamingo pens?

Mason wanted to take a second run. I waited patiently with him and then couldn't resist taking my own turn, perhaps to the surprise of some of the elementary school boys in line behind me. I was happy with my tosses - two 49's and then a 50. Not able to resist the challenge, or let me bask in the glory of smoking all the little kids, Cindy stepped up and...what!?!...threw two 44's! Bwha, ha, ha, could it be...I clearly won a challenge?? But wait, she steps up for her finale, and...smokes her own 50 across the line. (And claimed that the first two were her warm-up tosses.) I can't say I was happy for her. But, reminding me where I get my competitive genes, my dad quietly whispered to me, "you beat her 2 out of 3." Oh yeah, we were doing it to set an example for the kids. I still beat her 2 out of 3...and I don't buy that those first two were warm-up throws. But I think I can hit 52 next year with a little practice...wonder if Mason can start catching those for me.

Carnival

We went to the Auburn Fourth of July fair. Ice cream and face painting - what could be better?

Summer concert

Misdirected

As Mason and I were walking out of the parking lot to my car, he asked with concern in his voice, "Mom, do you know where your car is parked?" I said "yes" and kept walking. We had a bit of a hike and he grew more nervous with each step, "are you really, really sure you know where it is?" I reassured him, we kept walking.

Finally I hear the source of his fears, "Mom, when Grammy took us to get your glasses fixed she lost the car. We couldn't find it. We looked and we looked, but we LOST it."

Concerning? Well, let's just say not surprising with Grammy. The thing that did surprise me, however, was her reaction when I asked her about it. With all sincerity she said, "I thought at least ONE of them would remember where we parked it." Then she went on to tell me that they later went to Sam's Club and she helped them pay better attention so they could guide her when they came out. Concerning that she's relying on a six and three year old to find her car? Perhaps.

Caboose Train

We went to a Storm game this weekend. During the final timeout they sound a train whistle and kids from everywhere run down onto the court, hold onto each other's hips or shoulders, and dance in a train while the song "C'mon Ride the Train" plays.

With no fear, Kenzie heard the whistle, bolted out of her seat, grabbed her brother's hand, and ran down the stairs to the court. She told him to grab onto the person in front of her. Problem was that it was a full-sized lady, and he couldn't reach her hips. He could reach her butt. His left hand grabbed the middle of her left shorts and his right hand covered the right side. We were sitting in the stands watching it all happen. We watched her look over her shoulder to see who was grabbing her caboose, then repeatedly crank up her shorts that were heading south. Then she squatted to her knees and walked like a chicken to let him hold her shoulders. Humor highlight of the game for me.