Bike Parade

Our neighbor's daughter has the same birthday as Benjamin and turned 5 on the 23rd.  The Sunday before she had a bike parade party down at Alki.  Josie did great with her two wheeler.  It has been hard to tell because of all the hills by our house but at Alki it is so flat that she was able to go back and forth with ease. 

All the bike parade participants lined up and were ready to go... The Riemers are over on the far left. 

And they are off

And a couple sweet photos of Marty and the kids look out over the water at Alki

Shake Your Booty

Benjamin has been sporting his new "big boy pants" and shaking his booty just about everywhere.  A little different from Josie sporting her "big girl pants"  (near the bottom of the post) about 4 years ago.

The Happiest Place on Earth

A lot of Josie's friends were flying off to fun places for their spring break... Hawaii, Mexico, Disneyland.  Never fear, Josie ended up going to her "happiest place on earth" too.  Aunt Liz and Uncle Ed's house is truly Josie's happy place.  The photo left is what she drew on the whiteboard in anticipation of her trip up.  She is on the left with Schnitzel the dog, holding hands with Liz and written above her head it says Josie, Josie, Josie, yay, yay, yay! She honestly requests to go there no less than once every couple of weeks throughout the year.  She always says that she wants to stay at LEAST 5 nights.  "Come on, Mom," she says.  "I LOVE it up there."  And fortunately for everyone involved, Liz and Ed love her and love when she visits, too.
This time was a bit special because Benjamin got to experience the magic of Liz and Ed's for the first time. He has asked to go the last few times Josie has gone and during the past year I have thought he could probably do the day part but once nighttime hit everyone would wish he were back here with me.  Since he had taken such great leaps with sleeping in his bottom bunk all night we all decided to take the chance.  Big kudos to Liz and Ed for having the heart and guts to be the first to attempt this :)
Below: Josie and Benjamin with Schnitzel

Walking Nudel

Walking Schnitzel

 Looking over the bridge

To Josie's credit, she was very welcoming and encouraging about Benjamin coming up with her this time.  Both Marty and I thought that since it is such a special place to her that she would not like to share it.  But she was very excited to show Benjamin the ropes and introduce him to her home away from home.
Benjamin playing trains

Pulling them all along

So Benjamin ended up doing great.  He loved playing all day and even went to sleep without any trouble... but woke up at 3 AM crying for me.  The crying was short lived but he never really did go back to sleep.  But I picked him up the next morning on schedule and he seemed in great spirits and said he had a great time. Josie stayed up there for another couple of nights.  Not quite 5 nights but she got a good 3 in this time.

 Josie practicing her jump roping

 Josie made Ed a special breakfast - scrambled eggs with cheese, toast with plum jam and a bunch of extra plums to go along with it.  She was very proud!

THANK YOU Liz and Ed!!!
Really, I was thinking about how cool it is that our kids have such a wonderful place to visit.  Most of the time when people love your kids or want to spend time with them they have only a few of the following characteristics but rarely all of them:

• Love for your kids
• Desire to spend time with them
• Enough energy and time to spend time with them
• An understanding of how a child's mind works
• Experience being a parent

I can say that when I was a new aunt to my sister's kids I really, really loved them... I still do but I had NO idea how to play with them or any experience really with small kids when they were young.  I was available and eager to hang out but really had no clue about kids.  Now I have no time or energy for anyone else's kids besides my own. 

That is what makes Liz and Ed unique.  They possess ALL of the characteristics above which makes them the perfect home away from home.   Marty and I could not be more thankful!!  

Back Home

It didn't take long for us to get back into the groove of seeing friends once we returned from Arizona.  Below are Josie, Ansley, Bryn and Benjamin hanging out at a new park in West Seattle

 And Josie was very excited to see her friend, Elliott again.  Ready, Set...

 GO!!

Bunks

Shortly after we returned from Arizona we bought the kids bunk beds from Craigslist.  I had been watching prices and trying to find a good quality bunk bed that was inexpensive and felt like we were getting a good deal.  We got this sturdy, well built Dania bunk bed for a super price from a very nice family.  Sometimes Craigslist is SO awesome!  This was one of those times. 

Here is the process: 

Make a big mess in Josie's room as we try to assemble the bed... kids running around in the background. 

 Move Josie's bed into Benjamin's room.  Kids are still running around like crazy.  Benjamin always blurry from movement.

In the middle of setting up the bunks we had to take a break and go to the Seattle Children's Theater production of The Adventures of Spot because we had previously made reservations for this day with our season's pass.  And since we were there we decided to walk over to the Pacific Science Center for a bit.  Below the kids inside an enormous guitar. 

 On the way home from Seattle Center we stopped by and bought mattresses for the bunks.  Because they would not fit in the car with the kids in the back seat nor long, tall Marty driving, Marty and the kids hopped on a bus while I drove home with the mattresses, unloaded them and went back and picked them up from the bus station in West Seattle.
Below are the happy kids with their new bunk beds.

Benjamin sleeps below and Josie above and I will not go into the full details of the sleep because over the past three years I have spent far too much time thinking about and analyzing sleep and mostly dreaming about sleep.  But I will say that Benjamin has slept every night in his own bed for over a month and I have gotten more sleep in the past month than the past three years combined.  It's not perfect, he still often wakes up once a night but it is an enormous step in the right direction.

Desert Beauty

 I don't think I could ever live there but the desert really is beautiful in a very different way than anywhere else.  Here are a few photos of the blooming cactus.  The white ones are in Grandma and Papa's backyard and in the photos below you can see the little reddish pink buds that were covering the plant and when they open they only last about a day!  So it was pretty amazing to see a whole bunch of them open at once.

 And after a fun and sun filled week in Arizona we headed for home. Thanks again Grandma and Papa!!!

 And after traveling by car, plane, train and bus we finally arrived back in West Seattle and went to dinner and hit Husky deli for an after dinner ice cream cone.

More Arizona Fun

After a few days we settled into a nearly normal daily schedule of park or museum in the morning and then pool time in the afternoon.  One of the days we headed out to frozen yogurt after dinner.  As always, a yummy treat and an early birthday celebration for Benjamin. 

Because of Marty's business trip in Palm Springs, we had to pull Josie out of school for a week.  We brought a lot of reading books, a journal and some other things to keep her educationally busy.  She also enjoyed "teaching" and coloring with Benjamin. 

Her math didn't suffer either.  She would daily line up a bunch of rocks and count them and recount them all in the light desert breeze.   You probably can't see the line of rocks all lined up here in the photo below but she did this nearly every day... until her brother messed up her line. 

Grandma treated us to a movie - The Croods.  It was very cute and a nice way to stay out of the 90 degree heat.  We were not used to the heat - especially the kids and me a little bit too.  I blame it on Marty!  I used to LOVE 90 degree days but now they are just too much.  Well, it is Marty or just old age.  I like to blame it on him.

After a  long day at the park or other activity and then the pool the kids would take a bath and then sit up like king and queen on Grandma and Papa's big bed to watch a video while Grandma and I got dinner ready

On one of our last days there was an incredible wind storm.  Papa, the kids and I ventured to the park anyway because there was no way I was going to stay inside all day.  When the gusts came it was really, REALLY windy.  Papa provided a good barrier and if they didn't get dust in their eyes there were perfectly happy running around the park - dust storm and all.

Marty came back on the final day and we were all excited to see him!!