updates!!

On Atira's birthday she went to the beauty salon and had her nails and hair done, here is Felicity looking on while Atira is getting all beautified. After that she was whisked off to Sears for her 8 year old girly pictures!
With some of her birthday money she bought "Littlest Pet Shop" toys...well the cat loved the box, so she is acting like this was her new toy, this child loves to act it up huh?!
Jordan in his last day of swim lessons. He is doing great too, they practiced diving, swam tons of laps and racing as well as expanding his knowledge of swim strokes. He did great and he loves to swim.
Atira moved up quickly this year through her lessons as well. She is becoming a very strong swimmer and she also loves the water. Now, let's all hope and pray we have some nice weather this summer so they can go out and use our pool lots this year!
This is an orchid from a field trip we went on to an orchid farm. So pretty...amazing flowers and so many varieties!
The kids in one of the greenhouses at the orchid farm.
This was a super field trip, we went to a place where they teach outdoor training. How to build a fire in the rain, the teacher told stories and we played games that taught outdoor awareness. Great program both kids loved it and it was a gorgeous day! Jordan & Atira both worked on setting up fires and both of theirs were successful, the caught! Mmmm...fire good.

Girly in the process of building her fire. This was such a beautiful place right near Monroe, the day was gorgeous as well. This was certainly a memorable outing!

Sad to say.....

goodbye for now to our friends. Our sweet friends Rabbi Yossi, his wife Chaya and their lovely children have moved away. We enjoyed spending time together and we will certainly keep in touch, thanks to email....but our days of playdates and hanging out are over for now. It was wonderful fun sharing time together and we are so thankful for all Yossi taught is in our Hebrew class, he's a great teacher!

Our last field trip of the school year

THIS WAS SO MUCH FUN!! (no, this is not an actual picture of us) Our last field trip with our homeschool group was riding "The Duck" in Seattle! If you ever have the chance to do this, we highly recommend it! You start out on this bus like contraption right near the Space Needle. You get a driving tour of Seattle and then they take you down to the water and drive right in! Then you get a tour from the water side! It was incredibly entertaining, funny and something that we have never done before. Wonderful way to end the program for the year. We had so much fun doing all the wonderful things they scheduled, we are very much looking forward to doing it again next year! And of course, we will keep you posted on all of our adventures!

Atira is 8!

Amazing to think that she is eight already! Here is the birthday girl, dressed up in her favorite colonial dress and out to dinner for her birthday. She wanted to go to a little place in Snohomish called the Cabbage Patch. It is a Victorian style home, with furnishings to match and it makes her feel like her colonial dress fits right in. We had a very nice time celebrating, just us and Grandma Sheila. We came home and had oreo cookie cake for dessert...yum!

Saltwater State Park

This was such a beautiful surprise to us! We had no idea about this little treasure situated in Des Moines Wash! It is a gorgeous park, you can camp at as well as walk along the beach enjoying beautiful views and sea creatures!
This particular day we had a field trip with our homeschool group there. The sheriffs department was out and diving into the water for us to bring up sea creatures for us to see! We saw sea cucumbers, different types of crabs, different types of star fish and we were able to pet them as well!
This is one of the sheriffs coming up out of the water with a bag of creatures.
Here is Atira up on the rock wall we climbed.
Jordan and a sneak peek of Atira looking into one of the pools set up for our specimens.
GIANT shells!
tiny crab!
It was a wonderfully fun adventurous day!! I think we all got a little pink on our cheeks and much needed sunshine to brighten our day! We wish you all could have been here for this one!

Moments in nature

What a wonderful moment out in nature! We had such a fun day hiking around Lord Hill in Snohomish. We spent a good couple of hours hiking through the forest there, we saw deer tracks as well as many horse tracks, which Atira kept hoping if we followed the tracks we would run right into the horses, but we never did. The yellow lab in the pictures above is a dog named Blazer who lives right there and he will sometimes get out and just follow people on their hike, which he did with us. It was wonderful to have a native tour guide with us! The day was perfect for a hike, not too warm, not too cold and not a drop of rain. I am looking forward to going back very soon.

Some not so fun moments....

This is a sarcastic smile as Jordan sports his newly allergy tested arm. What a day that was! We decided to have a scratch test done to narrow done what exactly he is allergic to. So, this is the result, after 3 hours of testing, yes THREE HOURS, we were told he is allergic to pretty much everything but dogs (oh thank you Lord) and mold. He was allergic to pretty much EVERYTHING that is airborn, poor kid. So, he is also having blood tested to tell us what food allergies he has as well and when we get that back Jordan will start on an oral treatment and hopefully he will have a good summer this year! They said that next year he will be great for summertime! How exciting!!

Tea party moments

We have been learning about Colonial times in our homeschool studies and this happened to coincide with Atira purchasing the American Girl Doll, Felicity, who grew up during the revolutionary war. One day during our studies she asked me if she could host a tea party and I told her of course! So, we set off right away and she made invitations on the computer. Mailed them out to three of her dear friends, Jillian, Teigan and Rae Elise. She planned a complete menu which included cucumber and cream cheese sandwiches (of course), peanut butter and honey sandwiches, cut into heart shapes. In addition to this first course was sparkling cider and strawberries dipped in chocolate. Second course consisted of mini heart shaped scones with blackberry jam and the final course was hot chocolate with marshmallows, peanut butter blossom cookies, triple chipper cookies and cupcakes with pink icing and little white daisy sugar flowers on top! The girls chatted and played a memory game and made corn husk dolls. It was a lovely afternoon and Atira is looking forward to doing it again someday! Please, enjoy our pictures of our special day.

Sharing a few moments with kangaroos

Well, away we go to a nice family outing with our homeschool group, a planned visit to the local kangaroo petting zoo, every city has one, right? So here we are as a family, on a very wet and rainy day enjoying the sites and smells of nature amidst the roos, llamas, horses and peacocks. One problem, Scott seems to have been left behind. What could have happened to him, what could delay my darling devoted husband from keeping up with our group? So, I go asking around...I am told he is hanging out with Kate Moss under a heat lamp...Uh HUH! I trudge the through the mud filled pathway from one kangaroo pen to another and what do my eyes behold? The very truth of what I heard!! He is most certainly there holding hands with KATE MOSS! Oh shudder...how could he? This little roo just loved Scott and yes, her name really is Kate Moss...and she just loved him! She would hold onto his entire arm and just lick his fingers. Of course she did not move away from the heat lamp and had there been room for me under it I would have been there too!











Here is Atira after she fed a piece of bread to the littler roos.

Each of the kids had a turn at holding the baby kangaroos. These little ones are about 7 months old. I never realized they were so tiny at that age!

And of course Jordan's turn, he just loved this little guy, I am pretty sure he would have brought him home with him if we would just say yes!

Enjoying a moment of spring?

Well...spring has finally sprung! I have daffodils blooming in the front yard and the grape hyacinth is preparing to show it's beautiful purple color very soon! All was looking so very pretty until today...and then we had a different sort of pretty...one I thought we were done with...thought wrong!

IT SNOWED!! ALL DAY!!! It started in late morning and then we had snow all day long! It was so amazing to see pretty white flakes fall on my beautiful cherry blossom tree! Atira got out paper and decided to make paper snowflakes to hang on the windows! I thought that was more a winter craft?! As I sit here looking out my front window I see that we have a break in the snow, the rooftops are all dusted with white and thankfully the roads are all clear. It is too bad it is not enough to really play in, just enough to keep us watching all day long.

Colonial moments

Ever since Atira bought her American Girl Doll, Felicity, who lived during colonial days, she has been wanting a colonial style dress of her own. We bought a pattern about a month ago, purchased fabric last week and cut out the pieces. I let it sit over the weekend and tackled the dress last night. I was not sure of my abilities...I have sewn before, but usually things I made up the patterns for, simple things. To my pleasant surprise this was not that difficult! After a few fixable errors (I put the wrong sleeve on a shoulder, had the cuffs backwards as well) I had a great start! So, the bodice was finished last night and Atira was very excited to see that much done this morning when she got up! We got through our homeschool day and I would take little moments while they were busy to add a few things here and there and when our day was done I added the zipper (which was not as hard as I thought it would be, thanks to my good friend Chloe who taught me how THANKS CHLOE!). Then it was time to take the kids outside for some playtime and I sat out there and finished up the final hem by hand. The only thing left is a very small detail, adding bows to the sleeves just above the ruffled cuffs. But this is pretty much the finished product! I am very happy with it and Atira is thrilled! (Which makes me all the happier.) Atira has planned a tea party for herself and a few of her friends and this will be what she hosts her guests in. It should make for a very fun afternoon!

PROUD MOMENTS!!

Ok, I don't have a picture for you right now...but the kids received awards in a science fair today! WOO HOO! They did a project called "Mammal Roll Call" in it they made a chart of different mammals, unique features, habitat, homes, what they eat and drew pictures of each mammal...and I am sure there is more I just cannot think of it right now. So anyway, out of the twenty or so entrants, they won "most informative" (and they only had awards given out to five projects). It was great! I was so proud too, when the judges came by they asked the kids questions about their project and even proceeded to quiz them on their knowledge of the animals. Atira held her own pretty well, but Jordan has incredible recall! (and they each knew well for their perspective grade levels, Jordan studies the mammals much more in depth than Atira does at this point) It was GREAT! So, we it was very fun for them to receive awards for their hard work. And they have really enjoyed learning so much about mammals.

Moments in the Japanese Gardens

This was a wonderfully fun adventure! We went off to the Japanese Gardens in Seattle for a tour. It was wonderful! We had a tour guide who was just filled with information and she showed us many of the beautiful features at the gardens. These are located within the Seattle Arboretum which features approximately 200 acres of gardens and trees. It is so pretty there, you would hardly believe you are in Seattle! We saw koi swimming in the pond as well as ducks..which is pictured above. They have a beautiful waterfall which almost did not make it there because the Japanese architect who worked on this project could not find a rock that "sounded" right when the water ran off of it. We learned of a woman who used to come into the park and steal the koi to cook at home as well!! We found a beautiful variety of the Rhody family that has the softest leaves on the back. They feel like suede! It was incredible! The day held off the rain for us, which was a true blessing! We are planning to head back there again this spring to enjoy the beautiful colors that will come into bloom.

Prepping for Sabbth moment

So, every Friday night we celebrate as a family the coming of the Sabbath. Most of the time it is Atira's job to set the table and decorate it to make it a beautiful place for us all. This particular Friday afternoon she outdid herself! She created placemats for each of us telling us how much she loves us! She also made the vase that holds her velvet flower in the center of the table. And to top it all off, she got beautifully dressed up in her red dress and red sparkly shoes! What a lovely curtsy girly!