Wordless Wednesday: Fallen Tree Branch

We had a big storm and in the morning I saw this outside my window.
My favorite tree!

Luckily it did not hit anything coming down.

Once we cut the little part still attached it looked as though there was a crack already there (half of the ripped off end seemed as though it had been exposed to the elements for a while) and the high winds just finished it off.

My husband and I, mostly my husband, were able to get almost all of it in the yard waste bin. Besides the exposed part of the tree it as if it never happen.

Sorry

I have so many posts I need to get done and I just can't get motivated. I have our trip to Disneyland, Princess A's birthday and her party and all the stuff in between. I even made an ice cream pie. My mind just can't focus. I am on the computer as it distracts me but actual post don't seem to happen. My Dad has cancer and is going in for surgery tomorrow (he found out a little over a week ago). They are not sure where the cancer is but the think it is in the mouth or neck area (cancer cells were found in his lymph nodes in the neck). While prepping for that surgery they found a spot in his lung so they will be biopsying that spot tomorrow and removing it. If that was not enough yesterday my brother-in-law was in a horrible motorcycle accident. He crushed his left hand and wrist, broke some ribs and some bones in his back and worst of all he has some bleeding in his brain(they drilled into his skull to put in a sensor). He has not woken up and my sister is so worried. I just keep praying. There is not much else I can do as they in California and I am here in Washington. Please keep my family in your prayers right now.
Sorry again if this post has not made any sense. I should go to bed but I just can't sleep.

Found a New Chinese Restaurant!!

Over a year ago our favorite (only one we went to) Chinese restaurant closed (now it is a pizza/Greek restaurant) and we were so sad. We still don't have a good one were we live but we found one a few towns over. To far to go just for dinner but if we happen to over that way I know we will be stopping.
I miss eating good Chinese food, the best in our town is at Safeway. They also gave us a pot of hot tea (when I was growing up all Chinese restaurants did that) and the girls had so much fun adding way to much sugar and drinking it, cup after cup after cup. We finally had to cut Princess A off, though above she is having the last sip of mine as we were leaving.
Do you have good Chinese restaurants in town?
Before our latest discovery we had to go into Seattle.

Princess A Lost a Tooth on her Birthday!

When I picked Princess A up from school on her birthday she was so excited to tell me that her loose tooth fell out in the library. She was so excited that the tooth fairy was going to come on her birthday. As usual the tooth fairy place a new jewel on her tooth fairy box, left some coins (a Sacajawea coin, 2 quarters, a Canadian quarter, 3 pennies and 2 Canadian pennies) and a letter.

Dear Princess A,

Happy Birthday! I can't believe that you are seven years
old and I am able to visit you on your birthday. you are becoming such a
big girl. Thank you for such a lovely and clean tooth, I will have to do
something special with it.

Love, Tooth Fairy.

Polar Science Weekend

We did end up going to the Polar Science weekend at the Pacific Science Center (in Seattle) and we had so much fun! Princess A loves this balance test. She kept doing it over and over trying to beat her record.
Right behind it is a pull up bar. If you press the button first it will time how long you can hold yourself up. After my darling husband had a turn I tried it too. I don't remember exactly how long I held myself up but I made sure it was longer than the average for my age. When I was in grade school I had the school record for this, it was over three whole minutes back then. If I remember correctly I beat the next closest time by over a minute.

Princess G loved playing with the back hoe. She got pretty good at scooping up the metal balls and them dumping them out again.

Princess A was able to play tic-tac-toe with a computer, it was a tie!

Then the girls went over to the back hoe together. They both had so much fun scooping those balls.

Eventually we made it over to the Polar Science area and Princess A was able to meet some Narwhal scientist. I meant to bring her Narwhal report and the Narwhal nonfiction book she wrote but I forgot the report. I brought the nonfiction book and her report on the polar regions. Princess A loved dressing up as a narwhal.

Then her sister and her pretended to be Narwhals and migrated along the green line in the Arctic. We did learn that the Narwhal do not eat during the summer months, instead the gorge themselves in the winter.

The girls then explored a hut used by scientist in the polar regions (it was extremely small) and got to climb on a snowmobile.

After the polar region it was nice to enter the warm butterfly house. Can you see the butterfly almost on my left shoulder (near the sign)?

The butterfly flew off and then landed again on my arm! We stopped taking pictures of the butterfly when it landed on me because it did so over ten times.

The butterfly also landed on my darling husbands head (and later his back).
Princess A was really hoping that a butterfly would land on her and finally one did. She was so excited and as Daddy turned to take a picture he scared it off. We stayed a little longer but none landed on her. Since the butterfly liked my shirt so much Princess A wants to borrow mine the next time we go.

After the butterfly house we had a snack and headed to the planetarium. Last time we came they were sold out so we were very excited to see the show this time. The planetarium is very small so I can see how they sell out so fast. It was very fun and I know we will try and see the planetarium show every time we go. While we were waiting in line for the show we saw a table with people making origami penguins. Princess A made one and I made one for Princess G.

After the show we also found a table where you could make a rubbing of a snowflake. The girls just kept making more and more of them. We still have then in their rooms. It was a great day and I can't until we go back, maybe we will go over spring break since we are staying home.

Preschool Pancake Dinner

On Shove Tuesday (also know as Fat Tuesday) Princess G's preschool had a pancake fundraiser. It was a madhouse! The line was huge and by the time you got to the front of the line they were out of pancakes again. Then you wait even longer for the pancake when they come you can only have one! Besides all the waiting the girls had a great time and the food was good. It was so crowded though that it was hard to move around at all. My husband does not like crowds so when we left he every nicely asked "Please can we never come back?" I had to laugh, not just because he said it but the super sad face he used too. It was our last preschool pancake dinner as next year they will both be in elementary school! That made my husband very happy. I am happy too because he just got back from a week in Juneau, Alaska tonight. No more business trips for a while!!!

Our St Patrick's Day and the Ticky Leprechuan

Last year a tricky leprechaun made some messes in our house and the girls tried to trap him. My mom told the girls that if they asked the leprechaun to stay he would so we have been try to catch him all year. We have heard his 'Hee Hee!" and his footsteps every once in a while. Today he made a big mess (he knocked over some blocks) and dropped some chocolate coins.
The girls found most on them on the landing but he also left a few in each of their rooms and the playroom.

The girls decided to put them all in one purse and of course they had to taste a few.

Princess G really just wants to eat them all at once but Princess A said they need to keep a few for the leprechaun trap. Princess G then really wanted her big sister to make a leprechaun trap as soon as possible, but with some nice weather we went to the park instead. Princess G was really worried that we did not catch the leprechaun on St Patrick's Day. Princess A reminded her (according to Nana) that if you ask your leprechaun (they visit those of Irish decent on this special day) they have to stay for a whole year. I think that Princess G and I will be making some traps tomorrow while her sister is at school. Just like last year I read the girls Clever Tom and the Leprechaun right before bed but this year they got to enjoy green ice cream (mint chip) too!

Did you catch any leprechauns today?

Wordless Wednesday: Disneyland

Guess where we went?

Now we are back and I have lots of blogging to catch up on!

Happy Birthday Princess A!!!

My baby is now 7 years old!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wordless Wednesday: Happy Birthday Daddy!!

Registering for Kindergarten Soon

I found this cute picture of Princess G from almost a year ago, we were at school helping in Princess A's kindergarten. I can't believe that by the end of this month Princess G will be registering for her own Kindergarten class. She is getting so big!!

Princess A's PTA Reflections Entry

This is the picture Princess A entered in the PTA Reflections contest. She won in photography at her school in her division (Preschool to 2nd grade) and her picture went on to be judged at the district level. As I mentioned before she did not win at district level, but she still did great!

I love this picture she took and I am so proud of her.

Q-tip Snowflakes Craft

Now don't hate me but we have not had snow this winter. We had light flurries for about 15 minutes back in November but that does not really count. The girls have been a little disappointed so we made our own snowflakes. I gave each of the princesses a sheet of tin foil, a bunch of baby Q-tips (cut in half) and some glue.

(Did you ever use those baby Q-tips?

I rarely did so I have two boxes to use up, one from when each of my girls was born!)

We made a glue puddle and laid the Q-tips in it, try to have the tips touching.

Princess G was so excited when she finally got the glue out.
(The bottle is almost empty so the glue took a while to come out.)
They both just kept making more and more until they ran out of space on the tinfoil.

Once they were all done I put the tinfoil in the laundry room so the glue could dry. When the glue was finally dry we peeled them off and had lots of pretty snowflakes.

Day in the Sun and Shoe Shopping

I have no idea why blogger made this picture so small. I took it at the same time as the others, very strange. If you can see it, the picture is of Princess G on her favorite stone animal, the turtle.


Princess A likes the stone gecko the most.

We were out and about and Daddy offered to take us all out for lunch. These cute stone animals are nearby and the girls always love climbing all over them.

While they were playing I noticed a shoe store and remembered that Princess A needed new shoes, so off we went on the hunt for new shoes.

Princess G wanted a picture with this rock. We walked to the store (Famous Footwear) and found the perfect shoe put they did not have Princess A's size. They did have it at another store so off we drove to the other store. We ended up buying her some Nike running shoes and she loves them. We wanted to get them for Princess G too but they said they did not come in her size. The next day we were out again at at a completely different store (Fred Meyer) and we found them in Princess G's size. The funny thing was that this store did not have it in Princess A's size and said they did not think they even made them in that bigger size, well they thought that until they saw Princess A wearing them. What are the odds of finding the same shoe (well almost the same, one is in girl sizes and the other toddler sizes) in different stores?

They both love their shoes (I need to get a picture) and have been showing them to everyone.

Our Caterpillar, Penelope

Over the weekend we found a caterpillar in the yard.

The girls we so excited and decided to name the caterpillar Penelope. After gently holding her for a while they decided to put her in the 'bug catcher home'.
Penelope needs lots of food so the girl went around the whole yard and picked at least one (usually a few) of each kind of leaf.

Penelope, a Woolly Bear Caterpillar, was curled up in a ball and I told the girls if they left her a lone she might start crawling. The girls set up an observation station the garage, complete with snacks and drinks. After a while the caterpillar did start yo move around.

We did let the girls keep her one night and the next morning we let her go.

If you are wondering what Princess A is doing she is playing sword with the bug nets.