Random outside fun

One day back in October it was really warm and sunny out.  While Tim worked on the shed, the rest of us played in the driveway.  Here are some pictures.

 We drew lots of things with chalk.  For most of them, the kids would ask Mam to draw something and then Cam would draw his version.  Here are Mama and Cameron's cat pictures.

And Mama and Cameron's frog pictures.  Mama is certainly not an artist, but Cameron and Leah were impressed with my skills!

Cameron drawing a snowman.  In the middle of the bottom circle you can see a friend that we made while were playing outside that day.

Cameron checking out our friend

He is a praying mantis!

He was one very cool bug.  I wish I had a macro lens (or better photography skills) so that I could take close-up pictures of him.

There are about a million pictures of him.  He was a very cooperative subject.

Once we were done playing with our new friend the praying mantis, we decided to put him back in the grass so that he wouldn't get run over in the driveway.  Cameron wanted to carry him back into the grass but did not want to touch him.  Nana came up with the idea of getting the praying mantis to crawl onto the board, then using that to bring him back to the grass.  That worked out very well;  Cameron was happy to help his little bug friend.

Kristin's trip to Seattle

Back in September, I was in Seattle for work.  It was my very first trip to Washington state, which was one of the few states that I still have not visited.  I was very excited to check it off my list of states.  On the last day, we got out of work early enough to do some sightseeing.  Here are some pictures.

We took the ferry from Bainbridge Island over to Seattle.  It was an awesome ride with beautiful scenery.  Here is Mt Rainer in the distance

Looking back towards Bainbridge Island

More Mt Rainer - awesome!

 Seattle in the distance

View from the ferry

Seattle skyline

More of Seattle - I think that might be a shipping yard in front with all of the cranes

Two stadiums - one for football, one for baseball?  I can't remember but thought it was funny that they are right next to each other.

Space Needle and part of Pike Place Market

Our first stop as tourists was the Space Needle (what else??)

There were great views from the top

The most downtowny looking part of Seattle

More of the lovely mountain

Looking towards the Puget Sound

Proof that I was actually there!

I think the closer one is the ferry that we took

After the Space Needle we went and grabbed some dinner.  We at at Ivar's, which is apparently a famous seafood place.  It was all lost on me because I don't eat seafood, although my chicken dish was AWESOME.  My travel companions all very much enjoyed their seafood, including coho salmon and dungeness crab, both of which were in season. After dinner we went on a tour of the Seattle underground, which was very cool.  I didn't take any pictures, but it was a fantastic tour. 

Both Washington state and Seattle were amazing and I cannot wait to go back!  Next time I will have to add a day in for more sightseeing so I don't have to compress it all into one night.

Cam and Leah Stats

At the beginning of November, Cameron and Leah both had big birthday milestones - 4 years old and 18 months!  Both of those milestones came with a doctor appointment to see how they were doing.

Here are Cameron's stats:
Weight: 36 pounds - 53rd percentile
Height: 38.5 inches - 15th percentile
Vision: 20/30 - the nurse said that was very good vision for someone his age, apparently you don't to 20/20 until you are older and your eyes are more mature

Cameron did very well in his appointment, impressing the doctor with his precociousness.  He was deemed very healthy.  Poor boy also had to get four shots - one was the flu shot and the other three were for kindergarten.  He did NOT like that part.

 

Here are Leah's stats:

Weight: 22 pounds, 2 ounces - 18th percentile

Length: 31inches - 30th percentile

Head: 47 cm - 61st percentile

Leah also did very well in her appointment.  She was very inquisitive and wanted to know what the doctor was going to do before he did it.  Once he explained to her what he was doing, she was fine with it.  She liked helping the doctor by holding stuff for him.  Leah also had to get two shots and she also did not like them!

Cameron's Fourth Birthday Party

The weekend before Halloween, we celebrated Cameron's fourth birthday.  He had a very fun party with lots of family and friends.  He had a great time playing with all of the kids and it was nice for us to talk to everyone.

I asked Cameron what he wanted his birthday cake to be.  He was very sure, right from the start: a big number 4 cake and a small number 4 cake.  Sound like a weird request for Cameron, or maybe is it familiar?  It is exactly what I made for Leah - a big number 1 and a small number 1.  I thought that was pretty cute, that he wanted his own version of her cake!  Here is my big number 4. Cameron really liked it!

No pictures exist of my small number 4 - it was a complete disaster.  It didn't frost well, fell apart and was just generally a mess.  Tim told me that we should say that Cameron made it.  Not my best effort!

Some party decorations and appetizers.  Nothing fancy, although Cameron loved the balloons!

Cameron with the cheese plate.  If you look really close (make the picture big by clicking on it), you can see Cameron's hand-written signs for each of the cheese types.  He was very proud of himself for writing them.

 Buffet lunch

Leah chowing down - she definitely approved of the PB&Js that were on the buffet

Lunch table #1

Lunch table #2

Time to open presents!

Very excited to get a new jersey (two new jerseys in fact, one home and one away)

VERY excited to get Pez for a gift

Leah was also very excited to check out the Pez with Amanda

Cameron opening a present, aided by his lovely assistant Braden.  Braden picked out the order that the gifts would be opened and kept them coming for Cam to open.  It was very cute.

Uncle Randy had lots of fun playing with Leah's toys

 Cam excited to get a Crunch sweatshirt

Leah playing with Jason

Cute, slightly disheveled baby

One of Cam's presents from Mama and Daddy was new hockey skates

After opening all of his gifts, Cameron gave very sweet hugs to everyone.  It was so cute!  Cameron and Uncle Matt

Cameron and Aunt Linda

Nana and Cameron

Omi and Cameron

Next up was time for cake!  Happy boy, listening to everyone sing to him

 Blowing out the candles

Time to dig into his piece of cake - yummy!

Happy Birthday to our sweet four year old!!  We love you Cameron!!!