Snow day attire

Zoe loves to chose her own outfits these days. I thought she looked pretty cute on this wintery Seattle morning.

Smiley boy

Here is my bottle of baby sunshine sporting his smart new do:)

Pint sized Picassos

I have always wanted to be able to paint and draw, but alas that talent went to both my sister and brother. My art teacher in high school(11-18 in UK) actually laughed out loud as I handed in my first year art exam. So that my children might be spared that humiliation I took them to an art class.

The class is run at Curious Kidstuff in West Seattle which is actually an awesome toy/art shop with an art studio upstairs. The age range for the session I attended was 18 months to 3 years. Basically, the teacher set up several different art projects and the children were free to move about the room as they pleased.

Max and Zoe had a great time painting, doing collage, finger painting and doing play doh. They also enjoyed painting each other, eating an entire large glue stick (Zoe) painting the glass door and his hair (Max) and getting in a punch out fight at the sink. However, what my children lack in decorum they make up for in zeal. They were the worst behaved, but they had the most fun!

Also if you look closely at Max's moon picture you can see he nearly put 666 across the top. Just sayin' :)

Meadowbrook

There is a park in North Seattle that I like to take Max and Zoe. The playground is great and it has been fun to see them progress from the toddler area, to the 'big kid' area. The other cool thing about the park, is that it is across the street is a small wetland that has a great walkway. The kids love looking at the birds and walking through the trees. There is a beaver lodge there and now it is going dark around 6, we have been a couple of times to try and see the beavers in action. So far they haven't blessed us with their presence, but we did get to see the resident bats on our last visit.

open gym

Another way we spend our time in Seattle is visiting the community center open gyms. There are a lot of great ones in the city. Today we headed to the one at Ravenna to burn off a little steam. The kids both love the bouncy house and the mini roller coaster. We had a great time before heading right outside to the park to enjoy an hour of glorious sunshine.

Fun at the zoo

So Jack and Theo were very interested in what life is like in America. They had a lot of questions about what Max and Zoe got up to in Seattle. Well I think their favorite thing to do is visit Woodland park zoo. We bought the membership a year ago and have been at least once a week since then. This morning was my favorite kind of day at the zoo, as it was a little rainy and cold so we had the whole place pretty much to ourselves.

The long way home

Sadly, our visit to England came to an end on Wednesday. We had been there for nearly six weeks and had adjusted to life in our little flat and spending time with my family. Max and Zoe went through so many changes on this trip and really developed into little (bossy!) people. The very best part was them getting to know their cousins and seeing all the kids together. They are going to miss "JackaBeo" (Jack and Theo) so much.

I was dreading the flight home after the horror we endured getting to the UK, but though challenging it was easier. It started off very badly indeed with Zoe throwing up in the car as we left at 6:15 a.m. followed by a jackknifed lorry that closed down all but one lane of the freeway. Zoe continued to be sick when we arrived at the airport, so I grabbed a couple more shirts from the bag before checking it. Good job too as it turned out to be a four shirt flight. Sadly for me I had just the one shirt so I was smelling lovely by the end.

So you are asking how can that be better than the way there? Well in between the throwing up Zoe just slept for most of the flight. Max slept too, maybe 5 out of the 10 hours. They watched their DVD's for about 2 hours each and nobody screamed. Yes we had to engage them and walk around with them but that is fine if nobody is screaming. I am not sure why Zoe couldn't sleep on the way over there, but it may have been the Benedryl. I didn't do it on the way back and they both slept a lot better.

It took 17 hours to get back with the flight connection through London. There is nothing fun about traveling for 17 hours for anyone, but in the end I am glad I went. It was great to spend time with my family, and it is nice to know that they all got to know Max and Zoe a little bit.

Daddy's return

Scott arrived back in the UK last week after 30 days in Antarctica. He had a fantastic time and I'll post a few of his amazing pictures a little later. There are 8,000 to chose from! He saw penguins, dolphins and humpback whales nearly every day of his adventure. He skied some awesome lines and generally had a blast. Coming back was a bit of an adjustment I'm sure, but Max and Zoe, along with Jack and Theo were very pleased to see him.

As we only had 3 days in the UK before leaving we spent the Sunday after his 30 hour journey back at Farmer Ted's. It was a fun morning and the kids enjoyed spending time with their dad for the first time in over a month.