Halloween

It is mid November already and I'm finally getting around to updating the blog with the Halloween photos. Better late than never I suppose.
The day before Halloween we went to the annual Admiral Junction trick-or-treating. Josie was all dressed up in her monkey costume and ready to go. This year she really understood that when she said trick-or-treat she would receive a piece of candy in return. Pretty cool! Check out her pumpkin bag. My mom made this in probably the early 80's?

Her favorite were the lollipops.

Riding on Daddy's shoulders with one of her prized lollipops.

By the end she was pretty tired. She normally runs most of the way home but on this day she was carried the whole way.

On Halloween we went trick or treating at some of the houses on our street. Josie wasn't sure she wanted to go but once we were out there she kept saying "just one more house"

A Weekend Away, Halloween and Big Sister Prep

Josie spent last weekend up at Aunt Liz and Uncle Ed's. She had such a great time. They went to a pumpkin patch and Josie went for a ride in the wheelbarrow and picked out a few pumpkins.

And she jumped in the hay house

She also had a great time with a little girl that lives next to Liz. How fun to have someone to scoot with and be able to look at all the animals as you go by.

She also did some painting

It was such a fun weekend for Josie and a wonderfully relaxing weekend for Marty and me. I spent the weekend in Port Ludlow with a group of college girlfriends.
There were no photos taken of Marty's weekend. Although if I had to paint a picture for you it would be of him blasting the music in our new stereo system upstairs. Maybe dancing in his boxers... not sure. Not sure I want to know.

I got back from Port Ludlow on Sunday afternoon and Josie stayed at Liz's an extra night. We were able to go out to dinner and a movie on Sunday. What a treat! Thanks Liz and Ed!!


Last week we carved pumpkins with Bryn. Here they are scooping out all the gunk.

And here are the girls with the final product. Not the most creative jack-o-lantern but it will do.

Josie has been talking a lot about her baby sister. She is convinced it will be a sister even though we keep telling her that it might be a brother. She decided to practice reading books to her babies in preparation for her role as a big sister.

Halloween on Bainbridge

A couple weekends ago we took the ferry over to Bainbridge Island for an annual Halloween celebration with friends.
Here is Marty and Josie leaving the Seattle terminal.

The party, as always, did not disappoint. It was complete with "smokey" drinks

A big band

and of course, spider cupcakes.

Josie's favorite was the cupcake, no question.

The ferry ride on the way home was fun too. It was an unseasonably warm October day and we all enjoyed the ride back on the top deck of the ferry

This is what a bunch of sugar and no nap looks like:

Josie's 3rd Birthday

Josie turned 3 last Tuesday. Just because her birthday is actually only on one day is no reason that she should not be able to celebrate for at least a week, right?! The weekend before she had a bunch of friends over for a friend's party. The day after her friend party Auntie Kim came down from Bellingham with gifts and kisses. Thanks, Kim!The day before her birthday we made cupcakes to take to preschool. She thoroughly enjoyed licking the beaters.

The morning of her birthday she got her gifts from us: the new ladybug bedding for her new "big girl bed" and her two favorite books. These are Spanish books that we had checked out at the library and she was always sad when we had to return them. You can see she is happy when she realizes that these are for her to keep.

On her birthday she was so excited to wear her new back pack from Grandma and Papa. Thanks, Grandma and Papa! She loves wearing a back pack and feels like a big kid.

We brought the cupcakes that we made to share with her preschool friends. It was one of those funny "wow, I really am a mom" moment for me. I remember having the same feeling when I gave my first test as a teacher. I know I've been a mom for 3+ years now but I have such fond memories of my mom bringing cupcakes to my classroom every year. Without fail she baked, packed and delivered cupcakes for each of us kids - and there were 4 of us and we are all born in November!!! Thanks, Mom! More and more I'm realizing all that you did for us :)

The celebration continued into last weekend when we had the whole Riemer clan over for breakfast. Again, Josie was spoiled with gifts. Thanks, Liz, Ed, Eric and Stephanie!

And, of course, the big hit was the scooter from Oma. Thanks, Oma!

A few days after the final celebration, Bryn and Josie had fun with her new "Let's go Fishing" game. Josie often asks Marty, "Daddy, can we go fishing?" and he replies, "I never thought I'd hear a child of mine ask that!"

Josie is thoroughly spoiled by not only gifts but by a loving family and friends!

Backyard Birthday Party

Josie and Bryn had a joint birthday party last Saturday. Thankfully, the sun was shining and we were able to have the party outside. The swingset was a HUGE hit.

Here are almost all of the kids at the party. Obviously the "Lined up" look doesn't last for long.

By chance, all the girls were wearing the same color pink and sat on the same side of the table. I know by the teenage years they will probably call and coordinate their outfits but this time it was merely coincidental.

Everyone brought a wrapped book for a book exchange. It was fun to see all the kids opening gifts and being able to take a new book home.

Balloons, balloons and more balloons. Can you have too many balloons at a kid's birthday party?

There were lots of hugs.
Here is Josie and her friend, Lowen.

Josie just adores Bryn's little sister, Ansley. She is always giving her snuggles and trying to play with her. It is very sweet. Thankfully, Ansley seems to like it, too.


Bryn, Josie and Lowen enjoying their gift bags and lollipops.

Bryn, Ansley, Josie, Derek and Lowen posing for one final picture.

More of Josie's actual birthday coming soon in the next post.

First Day of Preschool and Party Prep

Josie had her first day of co-op preschool last week. This year she will be very busy. She goes to co-op "English" preschool on Thursday and Friday mornings and will continue to go to Europa Kids "German" preschool on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons. She will definitely be ready for Kindergarten. Both schools are great and it has been fun for both of us to meet some new friends.

Josie and Bryn are having a joint birthday party on Saturday. Today Bryn came over to play and the three of us worked on stuffing the gift bags for their friends. Smiles and giggles are never lacking when the two girls get together.

My camera is pretty much shot. Several of the main buttons no longer work and the zoom no longer works. Apparently it is not uncommon for a camera to have a 3 year life span!! I guess I probably did use my more than most over the last 3 years. This is one of the reasons for not posting much to the blog.
Since the camera is on its last leg we've decided to give it to Josie so she can take pictures. She obviously needs a bit of help but here are a few of her recent shots. You pretty much have to move yourself to get within her frame. She also likes taking pictures of people on Skype or the computer.

Every morning Marty reads a magazine while eating his breakfast at the bar. Here is Josie doing the same.

Vacation- Seattle and California

We had a great time with Marty's relatives from Germany. Kay (pronounced Kai) Susi and Danny fly into Seattle for a week of sightseeing, seafood and shopping The weather was perfect all week and we often found ourselves down at Alki Beach.
After their week here, which included going on the water taxi, monorail, visiting the Space Needle, riding The Duck, attending a Seattle Sounders soccer match, going to a Zoo concert, hiking near Mt Rainier, the underground tour of Seattle, the Museum of Flight, visits with family and much more.... we all took of for Santa Monica, CA for a bit of relaxation at the beach.

Here is Josie at the beach. She wasn't so keen on going in the water but slowly warmed up to the idea.

She did LOVE playing in the sand, though.

She also LOVED eating ice cream almost every night.

We were eating dinner one night and kids kept walking by with balloons from a different restaurant. Josie desperately wanted one. A little while later a clown was walking by and we asked him if we could buy one of his balloons. He was a rather sad clown and just said "here you go, take them all. It is my first day here. I'm from Turkey and I left my job and country to come here and be a clown." I'm not sure how he thought he would be able to support himself being a clown here. We wished him well and gave him a few dollars for the balloons and off he went. So now Josie had 6 balloons tightly tied to her wrist. Their was so much pull on the balloons that she walked around the rest of the night with her hand raised to at least shoulder level.

Danny and Josie became best of friends.

Marty has a friend that works at 20th Century Fox Studios. We got a behind the scenes tour or the facilities including seeing all the props for The Simpson's Movie.

Josie enjoyed dancing to the music every night. Thankfully a little girl about her age came over and started dancing with her. Finally someone her own age. Josie and this little girl had a ball as did everyone else who was watching them. They must have danced/run around like this for about 30 minutes. She slept well that night :)