Happy Holidays 2013!

We've had a jolly season around here so far.  Christmas parties, playdates, snow, hilarity.

So first, a funny story of "The Elf on the Shelf." Perhaps you've heard of it.  It's all the rage with the elementary school kids and their families nowadays.

Anyway, if you don't know about this phenomenon, here's how it works.  You, the grownup, buy an Elf on the Shelf, which is a small elf doll with particularly alert eyes and a cheerful smile, along with the explanatory book.  By naming the elf, you allow the doll to gain magical powers from Santa.  You put the Elf on the you-know-where.  Everyone goes to bed, and the Elf flies back to the North Pole, having observed all the activities of boys and girls in the home, and s/he reports to Santa what happened.  If any naughtiness is to be reported, well...that could lead to consequences regarding Christmas Day loot.

When the elf comes back to your house the next morning, s/he comes to sit in a different place in the house, even perhaps the freezer. What fun to search the house to find today's vantage point from which the Elf will spy on you today!  Where is s/he now?  Also, kids can't touch the elf because then s/he loses the Santa magic.

Rosalie came home from school one day talking about her lucky classmate, who now has an Elf on the Shelf. Rosalie wondered why an elf had not come to visit our house, because it sounded quite fun to her.   I did the research about what it's all about, then I sat down with her.  I explained all of this that I mention above, including specifically that the Elf is something people purchase (and then the Elf is somehow infused with magic upon being purchased and named). I wanted to make sure she understood that the Elf doesn't just show up at some lucky kid's house but it's the result of parents' purchasing.  At the end of the explanation I said, "And then the elf sits somewhere in the house and observes us.  Observes our behavior.  Anyway, doesn't that sound a bit..."

And Rosalie finished, "Creepy?"

"Yeah," I said.

"Yeah," she said (okay, my description of how it works was probably a bit skewed to sound creepy, but I can't help what I think).

I said, "I guess you have never been a baby doll kind of person.  Me neither."

And Rosalie said, "Some of the dolls at school are the kind that close their eyes when you put them down."  She kind of shivered.  Then she said, "Or they just lie there staring, with their mouth like this."  And she demonstrated:



I laughed so hard I almost peed my pants.

So we are not going to do Elf on the Shelf.  Oh, did I mention that I had actually bought one, with the intention of using it?  But then I opened it, took it out of the box, and had a good look at it.  And yes.  I thought it was creepy looking.  Anyway, I also felt slightly manipulated into starting a new Christmas tradition that had that stamp of great marketing and peer pressure, and that didn't feel right to me.

If she had been adamant about wanting to do this new tradition, I would have pulled the thing out of my closet and we would have gone for it.  But I'm glad we're not doing it. I really do think it sounds like a fun tradition for people, and I like the magical quality of the situation, but for me, it comes down to doll eyes.

Grandma and Grandpa Klatt recently brought over the electric train set that Michael and his siblings had played when they were kids. Michael and Rosalie have been having fun with it down in the basement.  He took this pic below with his phone.


I am not quite sure what is going on here.  First, the house is wearing sunglasses.  Also, what is up with those kids levitating their bodies halfway out the train car?  I asked about this, and Michael said that Rosalie had positioned the Mommy on the other side of the track with her arms out to catch them, right where the train usually goes off the track.  So at least there are safety measures in place.

This is just a cute picture from the zoo.  We went to "Zoo Lights" with Adam & Ammi and kids one evening--there are twinkle lights everywhere at the zoo at night and it's quite fun and magical.  I took a ton of pictures on my nice camera and cleverly erased all of them later.  Terrible!  Anyway, some experiences are meant to be remembered and not photographed.  Or remembered after the photographs are accidentally deleted.

This is Rosalie's "I'm the King of the World" shot from her ship.  As you can see, there really were a lot of nice, crisp sunny days this fall.  

And then...

Magic.

There was a 2 hour late start at school yesterday due to an inch or two of snow in Seattle.  This resulted in a friendly snowball fight with the neighbor kids that morning.  Rosalie is sporting some of her gear for her upcoming skiing lessons which start in January. She and Michael are really excited to get on that mountain and ski! And I'm really excited to go to the lodge!  Hooray for everybody!

Ro had a playdate today with one of her--literally--lifelong friends, Fiona. We do have a picture of the two of them on the couch together when Rosalie is 3 weeks old and Fiona is 2 days old or so.  I love this kid for so many reasons (besides my being longtime dear friends with her mom), but Fiona's especially adorable because she is so affectionate.  They were snuggled on the couch under a blanket watching How The Grinch Stole Christmas, and Fiona kept inching closer to Rosalie.  I was at the dining table behind them working on my laptop, and I just happened to look up right as Fiona had leaned over to give Rosalie a kiss on the cheek.  ADORABLE.  What a love bug.  Sadly, Rosalie needs a little space from that love sometimes, but Fiona takes no rejection of her affection personally, which makes it all the more lovely.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to some more holiday fun.  There's still a gingerbread train to decorate(!), prime rib to roast, cherries jubilee to set afire, and more friends and family to see.  I'm feeling remarkably not-stressed this year, which seems like a good idea, if it's ever possible.  The key, I guess, was to not hope for a perfect season, but just ride the wave and try not to do too much.  We'll talk after Jan 1 and see if this zen mode has continued on.  Hope so!  

And I hope you are having a happy time with all this magic of the season.  Perhaps you even have an Elf on your Shelf. If so, maybe Rosalie can come visit yours. Or also, if you need one, I do happen to have one in my closet for you; just say the word. :)

Pumpkin Patch

Last week I went with Rosalie's class on their field trip to the pumpkin patch.  It was quite exciting for all the kindergarteners; for most people it was their first time on a school bus!  It was a long and lively trip to the farm.  

I was assigned to watch over three lovely girls, Rosalie and two other nice girls.  One of them actually lives less than a block away from us!  I like how they took their "team" seriously.  They really stuck together all day long, just as the teacher asked them to.  

We went on a tour of the farm, including their store.  I loved these gourds.  They're called "Birdhouse Gourds" because people dry them and turn them into... yep. Anyway, if I were a bird, I would definitely set up a little nest in one of these lovely homes.

Later on the farm tour we saw these cool running ducks who lay blue eggs.  Wish you could see the ducks better in the picture.  They are different than regular ducks you'd see at the pond.  Much more...vertical.  And they cannot fly.



I imagine that for Rosalie seeing the eggs was cool, but maybe not as amazing as it would be for other kids who don't have a Grandmama who takes them out to gather eggs in a henhouse like Rosalie does.  But on the other hand, the love of eggs really only grows the more you get to see and handle the beautiful ones laid by hens you know. :)

 We were lucky to have beautiful weather for part of the time.  This is the view from the hayride.

Rosalie quite enjoyed the hayride.

Here is the whole class.  A really nice class, I'm happy to say!  Good kids.  The four kindergarten classes at R's school were rotating through the other activities throughout the day, so it was never overwhelming that there were almost 100 kindergarteners total at the farm.  We were sitting here waiting for our turn for something at this moment.

Everyone was invited to pick out a pumpkin to take home.  Ro got a good one.

All in all a lovely trip!  By the way, the bus ride home was a little quieter going back.

Soccer, Writing, and Math Tidbits

Here's Rosalie's soccer team!  Just two more games to go.  She has gotten a lot better at soccer during this season.  She really gets in there and goes after the ball now.   It's been a great experience.

Today during "Lindy Boot Camp" Rosalie asked for some paper.  Apparently she spontaneously wanted to write some things down.  I love her "best guess" spelling so much.  It creates a lot of freedom for her so she can put anything she wants down on paper.  Here's what was on her mind today:

"I like trains. I like cats. What do you like?"

"What do the letters say? They say nice things." (As you can see in the pic, she's talking about mail)

She said that this one is a poem: "Where do, where do the cars go? They go under tunnels."

I'm not sure why she suddenly wanted to write these, but it's cool that she did.  

As we were driving home today, she also got her first dose of multiplication.  We were saying problems like: If the three of us each have two hands, that's 3  times 2 hands.  So what is 3 times 2, how many hands are in the car?  She answered 6 very easily!  We started adding body parts and she did fairly well!  I think she was so excited to do this that when she got one wrong it was pretty frustrating (by the time we got to 7 times 3 it was a little un-count-able.  We were up to head, legs, hands, feet), but it was still fun along the way to see what her mind could do.  I hope we didn't scare her off by doing stuff too challenging.  It's a fine line.  

On Friday Ro had the day off from school so she and I had a day to hang out together.  Among other things we were able to get her a Halloween costume.  She picked out a turtle costume, which I think is extremely wonderful.  

First Friend Sleepover!

This weekend was certainly fun for the big R.  On Saturday she had a soccer game, a birthday party for two of her best buds, and then a sleepover with her other best friend.

They did alright—stayed up a little late, woke up a little early, but the next day she was great, actually.  We waited for the other shoe to drop, but it never did.  

Anyway, the morning after the sleepover her buddy’s parents took them to a pancake breakfast at the Swedish Cultural Center where they served, of course, Swedish pancakes.  There was also an accordion player.  The girls did some dancing.  This video is courtesy of Rosalie’s friend’s dad.

Later on Sunday we had a Lindy Hop Bootcamp, which we are calling Lindy Fever 2.0, for people who used to go dancing all the time but now have spouses, mortgages, kids.  We're trying to get un-rusty.  Important guests to this boot camp are the kids, who are also there to learn some dancing, at least part of the time.  The rest of the time is play time for them.

This is a terribly blurry picture taken with a friend's phone, but here I'm trying to show these three cuties how to do triple steps:

Here they are, not moving. Our lindy babies!

Great weekend! Hope you had a good one, too.

Ballet Dancing

Rosalie’s been requesting to take ballet (or as she has called it for awhile, “Ballalay”, which sounds way better, really).  So.  This fall, she’s going for it.  When she’s not kicking that ball around the field she’ll be kicking in different ways on Thursday afternoons.

I think she’ll enjoy this class, because besides the fact that she likes to dance around the house, 

this kid loves classical music.  When we listen to it together on the radio we like to imagine what kind of scene the music is trying to depict, such as flying birds or an ocean with fish in it.  It’s awesome to hear how she interprets music.  And she’ll have a new set of tools to interpret it with dance lessons! Yay!

Here she is with a couple of buddies from school who are taking ballet from the same teacher:

Alrighty, here are some breakfast-time observations from our resident 5-year-old-sage:

Rosalie: This house has more stuff for grownups than for kids.

Anne: Like what?

Rosalie: Like... (looking around, grasping for words)…A recipe! A fan! Some money!

Awesome.  That pretty much sums up grown-up world.  I did point out that she gets to use most of the grown up stuff in the house too.  Also, tall ones do make up the majority in the household.  Just sayin'.

That was a conversation from last week.  Here’s this morning's deep thought, illustrated with cereal:

Rosalie: “These are the Native Americans.” (puts some dry cereal in a spoon).

“Then some other people took over the world.” (dips the spoon into milk, filling the spoon and surrounding the cereal)

“Then they shared the world.  And they all lived in the same state together.” (Contemplates the milk & cereal in the spoon together for a few minutes before eating it)

This kind of blows my mind.  Just that she’s thinking about Native Americans.  And then she's illustrating her concept with this food metaphor.  Zowie.  

School's going fine.  Her third week has been good so far (a little slow moving academically compared to last year, but it's understandable given the circumstances of class size, getting everyone up to speed, etc.).  She doesn't seem to mind the slower pace, though.  She just goes with the flow. 

However she did get a time out at recess today.  She and a bunch of other girls & boys are playing a game called "Lions Against the Bad Guys."  In case you are curious, she is one of the lions, along with most of the other girls.  She has been trying to figure out the boundaries of how aggressive you are supposed to be.  Especially since just starting soccer, which requires a little physical assertiveness, and especially since this ongoing recess game includes boys who have tons of experience with physical aggression, she's got a learning curve to deal with, and all kinds of different boundaries.  Apparently she "tagged" a boy but it was more of a slap, and that kid told on her.  Whew.  

I don't know.  It's going to be an interesting ride, all the social stuff with kids.  It wasn't easy when we were kids, and I imagine it won't be any easier when we're the grownups helping the kids, either.  Here we go!  Fortunately, the time-out did not phase her much.  I'm really glad she seems to have definite self-esteem (she just thought it was funny when one of the Bad Guys called her a "dumb girl." I didn't) and resilience.  I'll feel like we're doing a good job if we can also help her take responsibility for her actions, too.  This paragraph is turning into "Adventures of Anne & Michael Parenting," but it's a real snapshot of what's going on with our vibrant and awesome kid.  I have faith that she will do great.

Soccer Kid!

When I was pregnant with Ro and we watched the ultrasounds, we joked that our little cutie was going to be a soccer player because of all of the kicking we saw her doing in there.   And now here she is, living out her prenatal destiny.

\

Soccer wasn't the thing she listed out as something she wanted to do (like she was with skiing), but we're going with the idea that she can do a bit of what she chooses and a bit of what we think she might like.  Well, we think she might like this after some experiences with it.  And the team-sport thing is great.

Anyway, several parents have commented (unprovoked by me) that Rosalie was doing particularly well.  That's pretty cool, considering that she hasn't naturally been attracted to kicking a ball around up to now.  I'll be interested to see if her interest will grow as the season progresses.  Michael is going to get together with Raya and her dad and the four of them are going to play some soccer games.

We love the coach.  This is a volunteer-run league, so the coach is just a dad of one of the players who happens to have played lots of soccer in his life.  He's just great, though.  Funny, real, great with the kids.  They love him.  Also, he knows his soccer.  The parents are all relieved that it is not them that had to do the coaching.  We almost didn't have a team because we didn't have a coach.  Michael and I had actually volunteered to co-coach the team, with the caveat that if someone who had more experience than us stepped forward, then that person should take the job instead.  Bless this dad's heart.  Behold the Purple Pirates having a team meeting, right before their first-ever game yesterday.

Coach Loren even thought to buy these purple pirate monkey dolls to hang on the goal nets, so the Pirates would know which goal to kick the ball into.

 Cool kids.

I thought Rosalie was taller than her teammates, but check out that girl on the left of this picture!  She's on the other team.  Some mom standing by me commented that this kid must be older than our kids, though that's not possible.  We had to submit copies of their BIRTH CERTIFICATES proving our kids ages so that nobody would get an unfair age advantage.  That kid did seem to look like a 6 or 7 year old, though.  

All 3 days of Kindergarten so far, Rosalie has come home looking for more fun, more playtime with friends. So, unsurprisingly, after soccer Rosalie was not finished with the fun.  She asked the older girls on the block to play.  I love that they include her in their games so generously, so often.   They even hand-delivered her back to the house when it was time for dinner.  I came outside after hearing their voices and this is what I saw. Love them!  Rosalie does, too, obviously.

Today we went to a birthday party for a kid in her homeroom (we know the family from a preschool coop years ago).  Anyway, another girl from R's homeroom was also there.  Rosalie and I met this girl and her mom at the Ballard Community Center Pool this summer.  The family is from Ethiopia and the mom likes to cook, too.  The mom and I have plans to get together and teach each other some cooking this year.  Here are the new buddies in the rocket ship sunglasses that were in their goodie bags for this party.  Rock stars!

Summer Happened! And Now it's First Day of Kindergarten!

Whoah.  This summer was a whirlwind of activity.  And I'll tell you all about it here, somehow.  It will take awhile, so I hope you have your coffee and some time to read it all.  Since Ro and I were together all summer, this has been the first time in months that I’ve even been able to sit down for an extended period of time and post to the blog.  Because...today is...Rosalie's...FIRST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN!

Wow, it's huge, at least for Mommy. Talk about a swirl of emotions for the grownups.  But Rosalie handled drop-off like a champ.  The teacher had something set out for the kids to do, which helps so much.  That teacher seems to really know what she's doing.  That helped me.

She even wrote the schedule for the day.  That must have been totally for all the grownups too (and the occasional kindergarten savant who can already read and tell time).

  

Before we headed out to walk to school, Rosalie's best friend & her mom came by on their bikes, also on their way to school.  Such a great surprise.

Our next door neighbor Jen had a great idea to make chalkboards for her boys and for Rosalie to write their grade on the board for pictures.  The idea is we’ll do it every year.  I love this!  Unfortunately I didn’t get a good pic of little bro (going into Pre-K) because he was miffed about his chalkboard getting smeared.   

Anyway, I'm very excited about Rosalie going to this neighborhood school.  As we were walking to school we also picked up Rosalie's other best buddy Owain and little bro Jimmy (such a bummer I didn't get a pic of them together! Maybe after school today).  Arriving at school I felt everywhere I looked I saw another family we knew.  It was such a warm, party feeling, even though so many of the parents were having their own swirly emotions too.  We all held it together pretty well, though.  Anyway, this neighborhood school thing is just cool, cool, cool.  I'm really excited for all of us, that we get to build this community together.

So.  Back to this summer.  Here’s how it all went down, starting from the beginning:

Rosalie had a great final week at Matheia.  Spirit Week there included “Wacky Hair Day,” which Rosalie still talks about. Having ponytails every which way must have been memorable for her.

She “graduated”from her Pre-K class -- everyone dressed fancy and there was a ceremony. The whole thing went smoothly.  I had similar bittersweet feelings at that ceremony that I’m having right now.  I wonder if I should just get used to this feeling for, oh, forever.  

The first couple of weeks of summer were quite low key for us in terms of scheduling.  We gardened a lot, and during mealtimes we reaped the benefits of this. 

Those blue flowers are borage blossoms.  They are beautiful and edible; I learned about them in culinary school, so we planted them this year.  Rosalie loved convincing her friends and neighbors to try one from the garden.  Eating flowers sure is pretty cool.

During these first weeks we also did a lot of “real school” stuff (writing, reading, science, art), complete with a star chart upon completing tasks, because Rosalie was interested in doing so.  I have to admit that the real school stuff started to peter out by week 3 of summer, just because other activities started taking precedence, such as daycamps, travel, and playdates.   But those first couple of weeks we had fun with it.  Rosalie also used her camera a fair amount, such as when she had a project she was proud of and wanted to take pictures of it.  I’m still trying to figure out where the wire is to connect her camera to my computer.  Oh yeah, and I’m also trying to find her camera, too. Details.

For Father's Day weekend, we went out to Hadlock to visit Michael's parents.  This park is a favorite visiting spot.  So many cool places, including this arbor tunnel kinda thing:

The following week we went out to Idaho to visit Grandmama and Papa, which was lovely, of course.  Papa enlisted the help of Rosalie to work on all kinds of cool projects in the workshop.  They refurbished an antique rocking horse, built a box for Rosalie, and other odds & ends that included nails and varnish and other cool stuff.
  

Papa recently bought this jeep and is going to rebuild it.  Can't wait to see how it turns out!  

We also did some fishing, on both the river and the lake.  Rosalie wound up almost catching a huge fish with this lure, here.
  

After a long time of no bites, it was startling--and also a bit alarming--for her when that whale jumped out of the water to eat--and abscond with--her lure.  Okay, I was startled, too.  Papa had another lure for her to take home, though.  That was good, because she was already emotionally attached to it by the time it had gotten carried away.

I love riding on the boat in the river.  A quiet river is the most magical road there is.

Then there was making cultured butter with a vintage churn just like Grandmama's Great Uncle Merle's churn from long ago.  That was deeply satisfying to do, for all three of us.

Since then Ro and I have made butter a couple of times back here at home with the KitchenAid, and it's delicious, but there's something about doing it on that churn, with Grandmama, that is so much more special.  We are connecting with our people from far into the past.  

Returning to Seattle we had the good fortune to have Tad & Shannon and their kids come visit.  We had a wonderful time reminiscing for a couple of days, and Rosalie adores the kids. She looked up to Roxy, in particular--an older and wiser lady.

 Here we were at Pike Place Market, at Beecher's Cheese.  You can barely see the vat of milk behind the window slowly forming into cheese curds, but it's a great view of some adorable kiddos!

Swimming was a huge time commitment for us this summer.  Rosalie took swim classes two times per week for most of the summer, and for two weeks she also did an every-day morning swim class.  She really improved by the end of summer.  She’s experienced at getting her face in the water, can blow bubbles, and can mostly put all the parts together to do the swimming thing, though she still likes to do so in shallow-enough water that she can stand on her own.  I am immensely proud of her for getting so far in the swim department these past three months.

So when we went to our neighbor's parents' boat again this year, it was exciting for Rosalie to get into Lake Union and really enjoy the swimming process! She had her swimming noodle, lifejacket, kicking legs, and moxie.  All the way. 

Swimming in the lake was a huge highlight for Ro, besides hanging with her awesome buddies and seeing the fireworks from right underneath them while lying on the dock that night.  We were so close to the fireworks barge that little fragments firework shrapnel would float softly down and fall on our upturned faces.  I thought it was raining, at first.  Nope.  We were just that close to the action. 

Delicious dinner:

Watching the sun set out the window of the houseboat.  Anticipation!

Both of Michael's brothers visited this summer.  When did Uncle Matt come? I think it was impromptu, and somehow he left without us taking a picture.  Bummer!  Matt travels so much for work now--it's incredible to hear all the places he goes.  Uncle Randall and Aunt Ethel came to stay for a few days, and we had a great time with them.  We went down to Pike Place Market to explore and find T-Shirts and puzzles.  We had a bite to eat at a secret-ish restaurant called Copacabana.  Not many people seem to know it exists, but it's right above the market, so you can peer down at the river of people drifting along below you while you ea

t.

Later in July we had another one of our block parties, and someone suggested we take a picture of all the kids on the block.  It was already starting to get a bit dark, but you can kind of see everyone.   Here's the crew.

The library was a frequent haunt for us this summer.  We went to a preschooler story time on many a weekday morning, and sometimes there were surprise guests, like the folks from the fire department.  Rosalie got to get on the fire truck (her third or fourth time now?  It's becoming old hat for her, ha ha).

Rosalie's 5th summer is also the first summer she had painted toenails:

For our bigger summer trip we went around the Olympic Peninsula, a drive-around trip sandwiched in between visits to Michael's parent's places.  Hadlock is always wonderful and includes beach walks along the sound.  We found and added to this shelter.



From Hadlock we stopped at Port Angeles for lunch and a stroll around town--



before heading east in the direction of  Lake Crescent.

 Elwha River on the way to Lake Crescent:

Alternative view of this moment, from me:

Rosalie got this hands-on-hips pose from a dance move she had learned in an arts camp the previous week.  Sassy miss.

...and here's the lovely Madison Falls on the way to Lake Crescent.

As soon as we arrived at Lake Crescent the sun came booming out to greet us. The lake is so clear all the way down, until you get closer to the center, where it's just a vivid blue, it's so clean.  Created by the carving movement of an ancient glacier, that sucker is 623 feet deep.  Contrary to the pic, Rosalie was actually happy to be there on this big, secluded dock that we discovered.  We ran into some sweet high school kids who were also thrilled with their good luck on finding this spot and were generous to share it with us.  They took our picture and shared Oreos with Ro.

Just up from the dock we found an obscure-ish hiking trail going up the side of the mountain.  There were very few people around. It was neat to be up there alone, yet a little humbling and awe-inspiring.  As in, here's some nature, people! You're surrounded by it.

After our hike we drove to Forks, where we stayed at a Bed & Breakfast, a first for us as a family.  This B&B's claim to fame is its likeness to a description of the Cullen's house in Twilight (the book series).  Somehow we didn't take a picture of the place, though here's a carved-out tree stump chair that charmed the girl: 

The B&B experience was lovely.  Okay, I've read all the Twilight books though I'm not a "TwiHard" like so many people are who now stay at this B&B.  One of the characters in the book is coincidentally named Rosalie, though, so when we were given a chance to hang a character's name on the doorknob ("guess whose room you're staying in!"), we were able to hang the sign "Rosalie's Room" on the door.  Fun!

Next day's big adventure was the Hoh Rainforest, the land of elegantly massive trees, beautiful soft mosses, and a green, hushed calm, even with lots of people exploring nearby.

 This place is simply heaven for a tree-hugger.

We could have stayed there longer, but off we went to Ocean Shores to the Klatt residence, where we were welcomed with open paws.

After that trip, Rosalie had a second week of Nature Kids day camp at Discovery Park.  I have no photos from that, but she absolutely loved it, both weeks.  In the picture at the very top of this post, she is writing about what she did this summer, and with all of the stuff that we packed into these weeks, the thing she wrote that she did was go to Nature Kids.  That was a winner.  So were the swim lessons, the Lego Camp, the Arts Camp (which included dancing and singing and art), and...did I forget anything?

So after all that stuff I just wrote about, (and after cooking and hosting a dinner at our house to promote Initiative 522 to label GMO products on food), we had a low key time.  Ha! Hahahahaha!  Anyway.  Rosalie and I went on The Emerald City Trolley, a new hop-on, hop-off open-air trolley style bus.  Here we are near the top of Queen Anne Hill for a little photo op.  Do we look tired? We were. :)  But thrilled to finally go on that trolley, which we'd been eyeing on the streets all summer long.

So many other sweet little tidbits from the summer!  Like the afternoon that Rosalie and I went to 25 different stores in Ballard, collecting stamps on her Where's Waldo passport. Each store had a picture of Waldo hiding in it somewhere, and as soon as she found it, she got a stamp or sticker on her bingo-card-style sheet of paper.  This activity was through Secret Garden Bookstore, an awesome children's store in Ballard.  It was so fun. Was there a prize for completing it? I don't even remember what it was, and it didn't matter.  Meeting all the great people in the stores and browsing around while Rosalie searched the place for her Waldo picture...it was a real taste of our neighborhood in a different way than we usual experience it.  By the end of that marathon afternoon journey (people usually complete it in several trips, I imagine), I felt like she and I were intrepid explorers. And she did not whine once.  She was so into it.  I was too.  It was so cool; I wish I had a picture from that.  

Or another great experience from this summer: the fact that Rosalie earned enough beads in her jar this summer to fill it all the way halfway.  She did this from making her bed, setting the table, putting her dishes away, dressing herself, helping with the garden,  and putting away toys.  I was trying to help build some good habits.  I think it kind of worked.  To celebrate the halfway mark, I took her and her friend to Pump it Up, a bouncy house kind of place, where people bounce, climb, and slide.   Joy, joy, joy.

Anyway, a wonderful, busy, busy, busy summer.  Thanks for your patience if you happen to be, say, a grandparent who has been waiting for WEEKS--months, really--for a blog post from me.  Hopefully you can see why it took so long to manifest.  It's midnight right now, and I started working on this in the morning.  It took much of the day and evening for me to write all of this, including rounding up all of these pics from my phone, Michael's phone, and the camera.  It probably took you almost as long to read it.  If you are still reading, I will put a bead in your jar. :)  Woo hoo!