Last day of school fun

The kids got out at noon so a few of us went to open play time at the local gymnastics place. Here comes summer!!














That afternoon the neighborhood got together for a belated birthday party for Sylvie. She wanted a National Treasure themed party and her dad did a smashing job of setting up a huge scavenger hunt for the kids. It was a H-O-T afternoon but all the kids had a great time on the hike over to a park across the Green River.


















The birthday girl with the treasure chest they found at the end of the hike.

Fun Run/Walk 2008

Every year on the 2nd to last day of school all the 1st-6th grade students and teachers walk around the surrounding neighborhood--just over a mile. No idea how the tradition started, but it's great seeing all the kids out there getting some exercise.














Afterwards all the kids get to mill around with their friends and have a giant all-school recess. Shortly after I took this picture of Asia and her girlfriends the entire school broke out into a round of the Cha Cha Slide.














Some of the 2nd graders with their much-loved teacher.

kindergarten field trip

We spent the last day of k/g on the field trip to the zoo. This group of monkeys enjoyed watching the monkeys on the other side of the glass :)


















Loved the tiger.

It seemed like most of the animals were napping or something b/c we didn't see all that many. But we got a great view of the tiger in the roaming animal exhibit--they change the animal regularly so that they smell each other and I guess that keeps them excited and active which makes them fun to watch.














Ez with some buddies on the bus ride back to school. Good times.

And now we are big first graders!

Meeting Nika

Asia's teacher regaled the children with stories about her dog, Nika, all year. The kids finally got to meet the Famous Nika during the last week of school, they were so excited!

Happy Father's Day

Andy is rather odd in the world of fathers--b/c his choice for a Father's Day Dinner was for him to cook it at home. That's our daddy :)

Gramma, Lois, Kelly and Wii Fit

A lovely impromptu dinner with some neighbors. Good food, good wine, good conversation.


















Even some good Wii-ing. Kelly trying to perfect the ski jump.














It is so rare for me to have 1st place ranking in anything around here--thanks to being surrounded by a family of gaming professionals. Therefore I wanted to show that it *is* possible for me to win at something! I've got the gold and the bronze in tightrope walking. Whoo Whoo!














Blondie lovin'

Cool new bike

Asia outgrew her (horribly girlie pink and purple--she's so over that ;) bike so we decided it was time to get her a for real bike. Her and Andy have been going on serious bike rides down trails near us so we wanted her to have a good bike for such excursions.

Travis from Bicycles West became Asia's new best friend...














...you can tell the guy loves his job! He was very sweet with Asia--asking her questions, teaching her things about changing gears, etc. etc.














We have a winner--a super cool 21 speed Trek! A very cool bike.

Oh, and whaddya know--it can be passed down to little brother (unlike the aforementioned horribly girlie pink and purple one). Very cool indeed.

Be Fri/St Ends

Aww, they put on "best friends" tattoos. If only they were always so sweet with each other!














Yeah, this is more accurate... ;)

Bowling night

A favorite tradition at our school is Bowling Night put on by our most-wonderful PE teacher. If the kids get a spare he does 5 push ups or gives them a treat (their choice--you can see what Ez chose ;), if they get a strike he does 5 crunches or gives a treat. The kids LOVE it! He's a good sport...














This year we bowled next to one of Ezra's classmates, Luciano, and his family. Love the long hair.

Happy 13th Anniversary to us!

June 10th was our 13th anniversary. Here's how we looked 13 years ago... Andy didn't want to wear a suit so instead he wore a Nigerian robe. I wore my mom's wedding dress which my grandma had sewn for her.














CHEERS! Here's to us 13 years later. A delicious dinner at Wild Ginger in Seattle.

Mmm, homemade bread

Andy and Asia spent the whole afternoon making bread dough from scratch.


















Mmm, warm homemade bread!

Kristin's bridal shower

Yeah, I know. I'm a dork :) But look at the pretty towel cake I made for my friend's bridal shower! I got the towels they registered for and it made for a lovely centerpiece if I may say so myself...



















The lovely bride-to-be in her toilet paper gown complete (key word) with veil and bouquet!


















Here's the dress the other team made for her. But, um...


















...it's not complete! Cheaters! ;)

p.s. no toilet paper was wasted in this activity. One of the girls was out of tp at home so she carefully rolled it all back up and took it all home














The ladies.

The Angels

Ezra really enjoyed his second t-ball season.













The Angels after their last game.













The best part of all--the pizza party and the trophy :)

Uncle Ron & Aunt Mary

Uncle Ron and Aunt Mary (that's Andy's mom's sister) were passing through Seattle on their way to an Alaska cruise. We hadn't seen them since our wedding thirteen years ago! It was a fun evening catching up. Here they are with the great nephew and nieces.













A nice evening of catching up!

Slimey Girl Scouts

Our troop did a fun science slime event. Cool goggles!

Cool bike thingies

Ez went to a birthday party at a fun play/arcade type place. I thought these little bike thingies were pretty cool.

Wii Fit

A fun Saturday evening spent doing yoga with the family... Only the Wii could make Tree Pose both fun AND a family activity :)

p.s. don't ask me what Ezra was trying to achieve with the t-ball/tie outfit!!

Retreat

Asia and I went to our one-day church retreat (while Andy took Ezra to a t-ball game). Part of the time was spent across the street at the P-Patch, a public garden in the heart of downtown. Very retreat-ful :)

Multicultural Night

Over 20 countries are represented at our school. This was our 2nd annual Multicultural Night and it was a huge success. Two of my friends and I spent three hours (no joke) helping hang those flags ALL AROUND THE SCHOOL. Every student had made a flag to represent their country, it really looked impressive.














I did a Nigeria table. I was the only one signed up to do an African country so I badgered my Somalian friend, Ali, to do a table about his country. I told him it would be a shame if a white girl was the only one representing the whole continent of Africa!

It turned out to be a good thing that he was there b/c his wife made some amazing Somalian food that he hooked me up with :) I made chin chin to hand out at my table, not nearly as impressive but the kids enjoyed it just fine.














Each grade performed a song and/or dance. The kindergarteners sang a catchy tune about liking to eat papaya. It made me smile b/c of an "I think it's been long enough ago now that I can tell my parents the truth" story about something me and my younger brother, Wiebe, did when we were kids...

We *didn't* like to eat pawpaw (that's what we called papaya in Nigeria) and we had some pawpaw trees in our backyard. So everytime we saw some of the fruit getting almost ready to eat we'd sneak over to the gate guard's shed, steal his spear (seriously, the guard had a spear he kept in his shed! I don't think he ever used it, so I suppose it's good that at least we got some use out of it :) and then go stab the pawpaw so that it'd get all rotton and un-edible.

Ahh, the memories...














Ezra and one of his classmate buddies. The kids so love it when there's an event like this at school where they can run around with their friends but it's not during the school day :)














A bunch of kids did neat "circus arts" performances too--here's Asia on the canned stilts. There were jugglers, double-dutch jump ropers, uni-cyclists, hand-standers, etc etc. Fun to watch!

I tried...

...but Ez just isn't ready to learn how to ride on two wheels! We'll keep working on it...

Women & Wine

Some of us ladies did a Girl's Night Out to a really fun event in our fine little town. This band, Raining Jane, was playing and we all fell in love with them... (right, Michele? :)














Afterwards we went to a local joint that had been one of the sponsors of the event. Good times with my girlfriends...

Volunteer Appreciation Tea

It's so fun being appreciated! The kids' school put on a Volunteer Appreciation Tea. Here is Asia's teacher and my friend Michelle whose daughter, Taylor, is in the same class. We are the SuperStar 2nd Grade Volunteer Mamas :)














An extra talented group of our 5th and 6th graders performs at such events. Who knew playing the xylophone could make such lovely music?!