Golden Gardens park

No more wiggling

Remember Miss Wiggles from this weekend? Kenzie and Emilie built a house for her and coddled her all weekend. On Monday Mason came inside saying, "SOMEBODY stepped on the caterpillar."

I said, "is it dead?"

He replied, "yes, it's squished."

Kenzie was slightly horrified, but more annoyed, saying, "WHAT? MASON!? You squished the caterpillar?!?!?!"

He said, "no, it wasn't me."

I tried to clarify, "did you step on it?"

He denied it.

So I asked, "well who do you think did it?"

He looked around the room. Cindy and Kenzie were settled in, so they couldn't be suspects, so he pointed at me!

"Me? Mason, you think I stepped on it?"

He cautiously nodded his head.

"Mason, is it possible that YOU stepped on it? Was it an accident?"

He confessed, "yes, it was an accident. I didn't see my foot accidentally squish it."

Duo

Goof

Mothers Tea

Cindy and I were invited to mother's tea party at Mason's school today. It was very sweet. First they got ready with a poem.


Then each kid got up to the microphone for either a duet or a solo. Here Mason is with his friend Hayden.


Then they sang the Little Teapot song...so cute.


Finally they had closing circle. In order to not share germs they put their hand on their neighbor's knee instead of holding hands. Mason struggled finding Arden's knee, but she corrected him.

Hiking Tiger with Jackie and other wildlife

Jackie, Kenzie and I hiked Tiger Mountain this weekend. Weather was incredible. We heard a bear that stopped Jackie and me in our tracks so we tried to keep Kenzie between us, but in the end the only scary thing we saw was a garter snake sunbathing on the path. Kenzie wanted to pick it up, but Jackie scared it away before she could reach it. Yeekes.

Miss Wiggles

Yet another critter. Kenzie corrected me...it's an insect. A caterpillar is an insect? "Because it's the life cycle of a butterfly and butterfly is an insect." I did consult Wikipedia which states, "A butterfly is an insect of the order Lepidoptera." But we call her Miss Wiggles...because she wiggles.

Mas-communication

Mason is at the stage where he can talk about stuff, but he doesn't quite yet have the context to fully understand everything. He's trying to piece it all together, but gets confused with more adult topics or humor. Last weekend our friend Terri gave him an ice cream maker from the "free" pile leftover from her garage sale. She told him that she had found it useful by filling with all her credit cards, covering with water and ice cubes, then freezing. Then she knew she was in trouble when she got the chisel out!! Fast forward a week. Grandma June asks us, "why does Mason keep asking me for all his credit cards to make ice cream?" He is fully convinced that the recipe for ice cream is credit cards, water and ice cubes.

Yesterday he came home from school and told me that school was cancelled because the bad guys were coming. June overheard him and said he had been saying that all day. The bad guys were coming so they had to cancel school. He said, "yeah, they have guns and they're coming to school." I had no idea what he was talking about. I called his school, leaving a rather confused message asking for any perspective they might be able to give. Finally Cindy came home and put the pieces together for us: Memorial Day is this Monday, we're recognizing people who have fought in wars. We tried to explain it to him and he said, "yeah, there's a war coming on Monday." I think he gets it...we'll see...

Spring athletics

Kids are busy (as is Cabbie Cindy).

With gymnastics every Monday, Kenz can now *almost* do a cartwheel.


She's winding up basketball on Thursdays, which she is now starting to like after learning it's competitive, and hitting the rim under tough defense! And, notice that she thinks about clothes lining the other guy, but restrains herself...now that's progress.


And, Tuesdays allow Dude to swing the bat at T-Ball. Are you tired of seeing video of him batting? I go with the material I'm given...

Punk

Lauren has been teaching Mason how to style his hair. And a group of firefighters gave him a tattoo. He's so proud.

Snail

Mason found a snail stuck to a wall, yanked it off, then we learned that if you hum to a slug it'll come out of its shell. No kidding, it worked. Kenzie and her friend Aaliyah hummed it out.

Kenzie loves all critters, no matter the slime or how much it makes me cringe (that might even enhance it for her). The snake made me jump, but didn't give me the heebie jeebies. This is a nice picture though because she has the snail on a leaf. In reality it climbed all over her hand for most of the time.



She and Aaliyah have been emailing progress reports. Here's Kenzie's computer drawing of their new friend. (P.S., she informed me that snails have four eyes as depicted here. I have no idea if this is true or not, but until typing this realized that I don't even doubt her anymore.)

Yes, she washed her hands before we left.

Duet

Kenz and her best bud Olivia at the concert.

1st Grade Concert

Kenzie's first grade concert was tonight. She's in the gold dress in the third row, behind the kid with the really big head. The theme was The Three Little Pigs.



And the finished the night on a softer note.

Double Mother's Day

Yes, Kenzie had to make double the Mother's Day cards than her friends. She even showed the full effort, customized to each of us. What I don't understand is the belated card that was on the counter on Monday, after we had received our other cards on-time.

My card is the most formal. Notice that Kenzie has a crown and I do not. She is also much more physically developed in her self-portrait. (Wow.) Thank goodness, though, that I have pants on. She always draws me in a flowing dress (that I never wear) so I always feel like I'm not quite living up to her dream for me. Also, she signs mine very formally, "Sincerely, MacKenzie."



Cindy's on the other hands, gets the casual "love, Kenzaroonie." Plus, Cindy gets a crown! What gives? (Even though Kenzie's crown is bigger!) I was happy to see that Cindy is now wearing the red dress. Hahaha!!! Let her wear the stinkin' crown. I get to be comfortable at least. Oh, and still the accentuated chest on the 6 year old. Darn those princess movies!!! Maybe she's toying with us...she did give Mason red lips.



The interesting thing about the "late card" is that it's addressed to "mama"--a term that neither of us identify with. Was she combining "Mom" and "Ama"? If so, I think that's cheating. She'll get a break on Father's Day, so she needs to show full effort now.



Whoever it is, they're enjoying their day in royal style!

Hike

Kenzie and I went for a hike today on Tiger Mountain. In the background is a beautiful little waterfall.

Season Opener

Beautiful day today! Here's the first pitch...

Poker face

Door signs

Every few days a new sign goes up on the kids door. Kenzie's is usually friendly, but clear:



Mason's was a little more abrupt, but clearly influenced (and by that I mean written) by his sister:



Then a new sign was overlaid on top of the one written by Kenzie. This one is not Kenzie's handwriting, and she says she didn't do it. Mason claims it as her own, but we're a little suspicious....Grandpa??

Gymnastics

Kenzie can "almost" do a cartwheel now. She loves gymnastics. Told me that she wishes he had it every day. I asked about basketball. She said, "nah, it's just about right" (at once a week).

Sunday sundaes

Best neighbor Ed brought us all (fat free) ice cream sundaes.

Fuzzy bear

This is the best shot that I got...I was also scrambling for the video camera. :)

Bear cub!

Kenzie and Mason spent most of the afternoon playing in the back yard. They came in, I was washing dishes, looked out the window and saw a baby bear right under their swinging bars. I grabbed the camera, shot this video, and then grabbed Kenzie to go back inside!!

Fishing and snaking

We went fishing this morning at a little pond in Snoqualmie with Kelli, Jeff and Emilie. Mason caught a fish. Kenzie didn't, but, not to be defeated, she found another 'better' critter.

Caterpillar schooling

More than you ever wanted to know...

Team sportster

Kenzie and one of her best buds, Olivia, are in basketball together...along with a bunch of boys. We're going to continue to encourage her to play team sports...but she doesn't really love it yet.

Nose update

Mason is fine. Don't think he broke his nose. It's just bruised and his lip is scraped. Swelling has gone down a lot and he only complains when he hits it.

Public art and embarrassment

After the ER last night we looked at the clock and decided we had time to hit the Art Show of Mason's school (which was hosted at Kenzie's school). Each kid had "a wall" with their artwork displayed. Here is Mason's:

I like the barking tiger in particular.

Cute, right? But, wait, what is that typed white piece of paper? I hesitated to post it here... Read it, you'll get it. Don't these teachers show good judgment and censor things that might be a smidge embarrassing to the parents? Heck no, I think they like it. And since it was displayed for all of Issaquah to read, might as well show off to our friends who actually know us. (And, for the record I am not older than Cindy.)

What, you can't read it? Oh well. (Click on it and it enlarges.)

So, what did we do? Of course...we went and read all the other uncensored material. We liked the last part of Ardens' in particular. (Except what's the deal with Toby?)

The cutest part was their partner dance.

...not so cute the next day as I still have that blasted song stuck in my head.

Basketball, t-ball and...

Mason and his buddy Cameron are in a combo basketball and t-ball class. They had four weeks of basketball and are moving into the second half with t-ball.

And, there's always the opportunity for a little wrestling.