The Election :)

(No offense to those of you who weren't raising champagne glasses, lucky us that we live in America and can have our own differing opinions ;)

We had a bunch of neighborhood friends over to watch the election results and once Obama got above 200 we decided it was safe to crack open the champagne!














How incredibly exciting! Now let's hope he can follow through with the promises he made during the campaign :)

Joint Birthday Party

We decided to try a joint birthday party for the kids this year, roughly in the middle of their Sept (Asia) and Dec (Ezra) birthdays. November 2nd we had a fun pool party...













Asia spent most of the time going down the cool slide.














Byung playing ball with the boys.














Since it was a joint party I wanted it to be something the kids both enjoy. They are both into Pokemon so I made a poke-ball cake plus cupcakes with a pokemon card as the decoration on each. The kids were thrilled :)














Snack time after being in the pool...














It definitely seemed odd singing Happy Birthday to them weeks after/before their actual birthdays, but the kids had a great time so it was a success.














Note to self: There is no pretty way to cut a ball-shaped cake.














Asia and some of her friends as Infernape (a Pokemon).














The cousins came over for a little "after-party" before heading back to the island.













We had the birthday party guests bring non-perishable food items instead of gifts (Asia and Ezra aren't saints, I assured them they'd both get plenty of presents on their actual birthdays ;).

A few days after the party we headed down to the local Food Bank to bring the 76lbs of food we'd collected. It was a good experience for the kids, they got a little tour and learned that there are a lot of families--most likely including some of their friends from school--who need to come to the Food Bank because they can't afford the grocery store...

Mad Hatter Tea Party

Asia came with me to the Mad Hatter Tea Party which is a luncheon fundraiser for Parent Trust. We went to this same luncheon last year too.














John Curley, a local TV personality, did the auction like last year. Asia thinks he is SO cool and drew a picture for him.

Halloween 2009

Annakin Skywalker and Obi Wan Kinobi (from Star Wars Clone Wars in case you aren't familiar...) ready to go!



















Andy was a bit of a devil, I was a bit of an angel... A little bit true to life ;) har.














What would Halloween be without some Star Wars action?!



















And what would Halloween be without men dressing like women?! Isn't our neighbor Jerry so pretty? :)














The neighborhood gang started out the evening doing crafts in Lily's garage (Happy Birthday, Lily!!)...














Each year the gang gets bigger and bigger!!














Us moms get in the spirit too (especially some of us... Aloha Byung!! ;)



















It's a bit overwhelming with a gang that big shows up at your door yelling trick-or-treat!!














Run! Run to the next house before they run out of candy!!


















Super Titus!



















Whazzup? (Annakin lost her mask!)



















Our little neighbor boy Michael. The cutest little devil you ever did see!














May the Force be with our neighborhood!!














Some of the kids piled into the back of a Suburban so we could head down to some of the other neighborhoods in our development. When Halloween is on a Friday night you might as well make the most of it, eh?!














Oh goodness. Checking out their loot...

Any day now...

...the kids will need glasses thanks to their genes! Asia had been complaining about her eyes so off we went. Thankfully the eye doctor said she's fine for now... Asia thought the eye exam was really cool with all those weird looking machines!

Gearing up for Halloween...

October is one of the busiest months for my job (as an events coordinator) b/c there are so many Halloween events going on all over the place. Asia, er, I mean Annakin Skywalker came to "help" me out at a Halloween event in Kent. Her friend Riley and family were there too (so she hung out with them more than she helped me ;).














Ezra came to "help" me at an event at KidsQuest Museum and spent most of the evening watching the magician.














All set up at the zoo in Seattle for their three night massive trick-or-treating event. I ordered 15,000 units of candy for this!

Go Eagles!

Taylor and Asia cheering for their team, The Eagles.














Go Asia!














Looking like she's in control :) Like I said about Ezra, she won't ever be a soccer star either but she really enjoys playing soccer and has played for something like 5 or 6 seasons now!














Knuckle knocks from Coach Rick (she so didn't want to pose for me)

Team Awesome

I realized I hadn't posted any pictures of Ezra playing soccer this fall. His team name was Team Awesome. Um, yeah.

I do love my boy and I think he has many strengths but I'll be the first to tell you that soccer ain't one of them. But you know what? He has fun and he's a good team player and that's what matters! Rah rah... :)














We play near the airport in the flight path so there are planes constantly flying not far overhead. Quite the distraction for some of the younger players :)














Trophy time!














Coach Tucker and Coach Jeremy, they were great with the kids and Team Awesome had a fun season.


















Go Team Awesome!!

Happy Birthday, Michele!

We took the birthday girl out for lunch. Cheers!

Rock on!

Asia's Girl Scout troop made tye-dye t-shirts at a meeting and then a few weeks later we all went to the 65' rock climbing wall at REI in Seattle.


















Asia and Sylvie all harnessed and ready to climb...


















Some of us moms climbed too--don't we look great? ;)


















Sylvie was Spider Woman! She shimmied herself all the way to the very top, it was impressive!!














There's Asia on the left reaching for the next thing to grab.


















I'm so brave! Oh, wait, I've just barely left the ground... Let's see how I do!


















Not too bad, but not all that impressive either I'll admit :) I got a little weirded out being that high up!


















One more climb for Asia... (she never did make it to the top, but we had fun!)