Itty Bitty Camp

My favorite class this summer was a weekly class we took called Itty Bitty Camp. This class was held at Discovery park which is one of my favorite places in Seattle. Before I took this class I thought I knew Discovery pretty well, but teacher Lisa introduced to all sorts of new habitats and took us on trails I'd never seen before. Each week we visited different habitats that included the woodlands, the meadows, the wetlands and the ponds. We learned all about dome spider webs and stinging nettles, and took time to look at slugs and mushrooms as we walked the trails. The classes Max and Zoe liked best were pond dipping and playing hide and seek in the tall meadow grasses. In fact every time we visit Discovery park now they ask us can we go up to the "rabbit church" and play "hide the seek".

Twice as Nice turns 3

A couple of weeks ago we had our Twice as Nice third birthday party. This year we had it at "Pump it up" in Kirkland, which has large inflatables or 'bouncy castles' as M and Z like to call them. Nearly all of our original group was there. Heather made the trip up from Portland with E and M and baby G. Heather was the first of our group to have a third and baby G is now nearly 10 months old. This week our leader Courtney had a baby boy,(Congrats) and Katie is due to have a boy at the start of October. The mommas to be didn't make it, but hopefully next year they will be there with the new additions.

It was a great place to have a party and all the kids had a blast jumping, climbing and sliding. Max was obsessed with the air hockey table and I have to say he was in it to win it. I can see his competitive streak shining through these days.

After all the sweaty bouncing we had snacks and cupcakes (thanks Tracey)in the party room. The kids all sat down and were civilized, well except Max and Zoe who just kept standing up. Hopefully they'll be better trained by next year. Max was also the first to discover the throne chair, usually for the one birthday boy or girl. He just marched on up and took it for his own. One thing I can say about my kids is that they are not backwards in coming forwards! After snacks we did a gift exchange, we all gave books to each other. The books only thing was my idea-once a teacher, always a teacher:) but it actually worked really well and Max and Zoe loved the books they got. (Thanks Jamie)

It was a fun way to celebrate this milestone in our kids lives and I hope we can keep these annual get -togethers going over the years.

Too much fun.

I think I have discovered the most fun you can have with nearly 3 years olds is a trip to Remlinger farms. We went in early September last year just before Max and Zoe turned 2. We had a great time then, but this year we were able to stay all day and go on all the rides.

This year we went with Shannon and the BFF's Miles and Gia. We started the day with some blueberry picking or should I say eating. The fields were a bit of a drive from Remlinger and our harvest was meager to say the least, but the kids had fun eating the berries and running away from the rooster there.

On to the farm park. As it was a week day it wasn't too crowded and we also scored with the weather. We rode ponies (real and plastic), drove antique cars (Max and Miles nirvana) took a train ride, played on tractors and fire-engines and then we got really hungry and thirsty. Really, really thirsty- It was a two milk day for GiGi.

After a much needed re-fuel we returned to a 'flying' horses, flying pumpkins and the awesome roller coaster. Shannon took both her munchkins on and I took mine. Last year Zoe was scared and had to get off but this year she was in heaven. All of them were super brave and we went around 6 loops. I was sure we'd have tears, but no. We ended the day with 3 more turns on the antique cars and then said we had to go home. Truthfully those were the only sad faces we had seen all day. We had made it to 3 p.m. with four happy kids, so the massive quadruple melt down that we got at the end was a small price to pay. Such a great day, I'm looking forward to pumpkin fall festival as Remlinger already.

Sun and sandcastles

Sun, sandcastles, kites and friends all make for a great Seattle day:)

Zoo Class

This summer we signed up for 3 classes, one of which was a class at the zoo. We took this class in the Spring and had a great time, so I decided to do it again. The children loved the teacher- Teacher Nora, and we were lucky enough to have her again. The class is only 6 sessions, and starts each week in the zoonasium. This is the indoor play area at the zoo, that is usually very busy but we got to have it to ourselves for 30 minutes each week. After all that fun, dressing in costumes, meeting snakes and scaling the tree house we'd be off around the zoo to see the animals. Each week we explored just little sections and Teacher Nora would bring a bag of things for the 'students' to look at. There was also plenty of time for snack and hanging out with friends.

Leavenworth

Last week we decided to take an overnight trip to Leavenworth. I have been to Leavenworth many, many times but only to Gustav's to gorge on onion rings and Whistling Pig wheat ale after hiking one of the many trials in the near by mountains. Leavenworth is an 'authentic barvarian village' or so they say. Basically what that means is that the Starbucks and the Maccy'd's have wooden roofs and there are about a million shops selling loads of crap nobody needs. However if you ignore all that, it is in an amazing spot and as it is west of the crest the weather is great.

I drove the kids up after pre-school last week and they slept pretty much the whole way. We met Scott there and went to check into the condo. It was in the high 80's so we spent the afternoon in the hotel pool. The have great beer there so we ate dinner a beer garden then hung out in the river until late. The next day we hiked through the forest for a couple of hours. Max and Zoe were rock stars and walked a long way. Zoe also surprised us by reading her first word. She went up to the Road Closed sign and said "I know what that says" then she pointed to the word closed and said "Closed."I thought that was pretty cool.

On the way home we stopped at the Reptile zoo. This is a place my mum NEVER needs to visit. It is full of snakes, cockroaches and a bunch of massive spiders. They also have some strange 2 headed lizard that I'm sure was on the X-files. M and Z loved it and even stroked a snake, me I thought it was a bit creepy but I'm glad we stopped off all the same.

Anyway the trip was a great success and I plan on going back before the summer is out and maybe going for Octoberfest.

This is a real alligator turtle. It is scary looking that's for sure.
Mum and Shannon I took this just for you :)