Isla 61 Months

Some tidbits about this girl this month:

-my first thought when I saw the above picture was "she's smiling!!"

-that about sums up our month (rough)

-do 5 year olds have hormones?

-despite her exhaustion, she's still loving Kindergarten

-learning to read short words

-writing letters to her friends like crazy

-plays "school" and teaches her "class" in the afternoons when she gets home from school

-loves homemade activities: making bubbles, face paints etc

-would be in heaven if I had time to do this all day

-current favorite outing: Lake Forest Park Library followed by a free breadstick at Great Harvest

-favorite foods: salami, grapes, applesauce, PASTA

-loving Charlotte's Web

-still my little rule follower

-wants to get together with her buds all the time

-taking ballet with her buddy Lannie

-gets her stuff all ready for the class a week ahead of time 

House Loves



Well folks, the house hunt isn't going so well and I've found myself slipping and sliding down this steep slope toward bitterness and an overall, all-around sour attitude. Graham and I are both on this hill and we don't like it so we began this little challenge on Instagram that we are calling #weareinstagrateful. For a three week time frame, we are identifying something each day that we are grateful for. I know, so creative, but the hope is that by refocusing on our blessings, we'll get our attitudes out of the toilet.

 

I seem to have caught a really bad case of nesting. I am so ready to begin building my own home and I've developed quite the long list of "House Loves" - things, colors, styles I adore and hope to incorporate when we finally get that dream house. It make me giddy to think that someday soon, we will have a space where I can implement some of these ideas and I want to have them in writing. So, in no particular order, a list of my current house and garden loves that I hope to one day have in our home:

 

-a deep blue hydrangea

-a yellow and gray room: gray walls, white trim, and yellow accent pillows and curtains

-French doors

-area rugs in 1-2 colors with geometric shapes/patterns

-a really cool light fixture

-a large open floor plan

-a giant table for 10+ adjacent to the kitchen

-white kitchen cabinets

-kitchen canisters painted "Kelsie green"

-white subway tile backsplash and some sort of natural wood/butcher block accent

-stainless appliances

-a giant farmhouse sink

-chalkboard paint inside the pantry for a running grocery list

-gray exterior, white trim, brightly colored front door

-wainscoting

-dark hardwoods

-raised vegetable beds

-a fig tree

-a stinking cute laundry room, with wall paper even

-a fire pit

-neutral walls, pops of color with lamp shades, rugs, curtains, pillows

-a sunny bench seat

-a dresser that I redo and paint myself

Grandkid Birthday Fest!!

 I know, right? You guys are all wondering how I could possible have more to say about our birthdays after the gazillions of posts about parties and celebrations so far. Well, I PROMISE this is the last one. For us girls at least. My sister and I thought we'd spare our poor parents from having to come down every weekend during the months of August and September to celebrate the birthday of 4 of their 5 grandkids. So we planned one special joint family party and killed 4 birds with one stone.

We took the crew to the zoo...again. But no one seemed to mind in the least. Graham treated the kids to a birthday ride on the carousel.

The bear gave us an awesome water show, sprawling out in the waterfall, as if he knew it was a special occasion.

Uncle Josh treated the kids to seed sticks to feed the birds and they thought it was a riot having the birds land so close to them.

Just when we thought we were going to lose all the kids to sleep, we gave them cupcakes and they revived quite nicely!

Once we were officially zoo-ed out, we convened at the park outside the gate for presents. Jack was pretty into the whole thing and Emma was not too sure if she liked the idea of having a mobile brother.

Grandpa Wilson MADE the girls the most adorable doll beds I have ever seen! They were all in HEAVEN when they opened them. Grandma Wilson made custom bedding and blankets out of unique fabrics for each granddaughter. What a great way to celebrate being 2, 3, 4 and 5!!

Welcome to elementary school, Isla

 Well folks, my little bird flew the nest and got herself all launched into Kindergarten. I think I'm supposed to be really sad (and I was on the first day), but I have a confession. In the interest of vulnerability, which I guess I'm all-in and committed to now that I bore my soul and told the whole internet that I'm depressed, I'm now sort of having a little party on the inside. I adore my children, really I do, but I have spent the last one thousand eight hundred and forty-seven of my days with this oldest one in particular and I think she and I could use a little space. I told someone the other day that "I think I might actually be a really good mom to elementary aged kids!" Reading through the lines, I think this is code for the fact that my introverted self has been storing up a vast deficit in alone time and time to do some of the hobbies I love. And so I'm planning to use some of my newly freed up time during naps to do things that energize me. And by doing so, I think I will be at MUCH better and more present person at 2:50 PM when that school bell rings. The difference between having TWO kids and THREE kids at home is indescribable, particular when one of those kids needs you to engage with her at all hours of the day and night.

 

ANYWAY....so, if you too have been having a little inward party over the start of the school year, come on over and we'll celebrate publicly! I give you permission to admit that we all need some space from our kids every once in a while.  

 

But I digress. This post was supposed to be about Isla and here I go making it all about me...I know I left my last post about school a little vague and never officially mentioned that we opted to put Isla in full day Kindergarten. Believe it or not, we didn't make the decision solely on the fact that she'd get to use her new lunch bag (although that was certainly reason enough in her mind!) We actually didn't make a final decision until the Thursday before school started when I got a call from the office saying "Since you've been requesting half day, we just wanted to make SURE you know that full day is free at this school?" Umm. Nope. Didn't know that and it just so happened that finances was one of the reasons we were going to do the half day option (that and the fact that we were hoping to buy a house and get back over to the eastside soon where she would likely do half day again)...

 

We ran the full day idea by Isla one last time and she was excited about it so decision made! Isla was THRILLED when the first day rolled around. She had her lunch all packed and ready to go a day in advance and she had her first outfit all picked out too. I was so proud of her as she bravely entered her classroom. She was placed in Mrs. Warren's class in room 5 and we like her teacher very much. Isla is making friends (though she can't tell me their names yet) and loves recess and "center time" the best. It did my heart good to spy her holding hands with another girl when I came to pick her up after the first day ended. She's certainly my little social butterfly!

 

I love that I can always count on Isla to remember to add an ice pack to her lunch bag before we walk to school in the morning (a perk to having a kid with a strong type A personality!) Her only complaint so far is how tired she gets (VERY tired) and that they only are given 10 minutes to eat their lunches. I haven't fully investigated the accuracy of that last tidbit yet but she comes home most days with a nearly full lunch box which makes the mommy dietitian side of me turn a bit grizzly. I'm trying not to go all activist on the school right away, but really? How are kids supposed to learn well if they aren't given adequate time to refuel?

 

I'm so proud of my sweet girl and how well she is doing in Kindergarten!

Jack 11 Months

It has been a really fun month with this kiddo. It's like he suddenly decided he's a big boy and is ready to be busy and mobile. I left him for the day with Grandma and Grandpa Wilson and came home to find him scooting. It turns out crayons were his biggest motivator. Now we find him in all sorts of crazy predicaments - under the couch, the piano, the car (ok so that last one only happened once!) It cracks me up to find him wedged in all these silly places but the upside is that I now have a built mop as he slides across the floor.

He started waving this month too! He thinks it's hilarious and although it takes him a while to get his fingers on board, he eventually will wave back at you. He's chattering a lot now and, in addition to "Dada," he finally says "Mama" and something that sounds like both "Isla" and "Emma."



He is obsessed with water. OBSESSED! He will lunge out of your arms for any sink, tub or body of water and try to get all up in it. I accidentally discovered the sink makes an amazing baby holder when I'm trying to get ready. He will sit in there as long as you let him, turning the water on and off and having a grand old time. We took him to Carkeek Park a couple weeks back and he wanted to be held upside down over it so he could dip his hands in and splash around.

Ok so I lied. He apparently doesn't like ALL types of water.

We've taken to calling him our "penguin whisperer." I swear those penguins at the zoo congregate to him whenever he is in front of their glass. He LOVES animals and so zoo trips these days are pretty fun.

He want to be standing up ALL THE TIME and sometimes will refuse to bend in half and sit when you are trying to put him down. He loves walking around while holding onto fingers and he's getting really good at it. Though he does get himself into a crawling position, he hasn't figured out what to do next so I'm starting to wonder if he's going to walk before he crawls! 

 Not surprisingly, his sisters adore him and do a great job keeping him entertained (and fed!) I have to keep an eye on Emma when we are driving places lest she opt to share her snack with him. Their car seats are right next to each other so often I'll look back to find them holding hands and giggling. Emma and Jack seem to be developing a particularly special bond and crack each other up to no end. It is THE BEST!

In case you needed proof of his army scoot, here it is!



"Dream" house

Another weekend come and gone and another 9 houses crossed off our list. It has been grueling. I must confess I haven't been in the greatest of head spaces and I've spewed a bitter word or two. We kicked off the weekend on Friday with 6 home tours. The first five places were awful, leaving me discouraged and heavy-hearted. The 6th one put a twinkle back in my eye, albeit brief. It had been sitting on the market for 50 some days and so were hoped to low ball them but a quick call to the selling agent revealed that someone else was making an offer and it was going to go pending in the morning. Of course it was. Just last week, another door closed when we finally decided to re-offer on the old house we loved near downtown Bothell. It had been sitting for a month and a half with no action but then went pending 20 minutes after we decided to make an offer, a very clear "no."

 

Doors keep closing (slamming really) and though I am grateful for clear answers, I feel like I don't have time to back out of the way before they barrel into me. To put it frankly, I'm tired of spending the majority of our free time packing 3 kids who are no longer so fond of the house searching process around home tours. Summer has come and gone and despite more than 50+ tours, we have nothing to show for it. Forgive us, friends, if you feel like we are absent. This home-buying-home-touring business is a part time job.

As we journey deeper into this process, I feel our criteria growing more shallow by the minute. Ok fine, we'll be content with a smaller yard. And maybe said "yard" could even be made up of cliff-like drop offs. I mean, at least we'd have a yard, right? I suppose I don't have to have a gas range in the kitchen. And the house doesn't need to have an open floor plan. And I guess we could possibly get by with only 3 bedrooms. I love mauve bathtubs! Maybe it's too much to ask for to hope for a space to garden. Sure, we'll live on a busy road. With regulations keeping us from putting up a fence to keep our kids safe. We'll commute 45 minutes to work, church and family. And a I guess we could even live in a split level. And we'll go out of our means to do so. Suddenly it's as if all the wonderful things we spent 7 long years in our condo dreaming about are totally out of reach. And I am struggling. Call me selfish, call me ungrateful or call me honest. This is where I was this weekend.

I went for a nice hard run on Saturday morning. As I ran, I spewed out my frustrations to God, uncensored and unabashed. I would highly recommend this process (it felt amazing). I so often filter my prayers, trying to make them positive in a desperate attempt to count my blessings. But I just wasn't there yet on Saturday. I'm still not. I needed some time to just hash it out with God. As I considered our "house wish list" and began to come to terms with the fact that God very well might have something entirely different in mind, my prayer shifted. Instead of pleading for a specific floor plan, I began to pray that, wherever we end up, can I please just be really, really excited about it? Ecstatic even?

If I get absolutely nothing I've been dreaming of, oh please I just want to burst with joy over whatever it is that it cannot be contained. Pretty please? May I be elated?

Emma's Pool, I mean, Zoo Party

 

The weather forecast for this past Saturday was shaping up to be a lovely summer day complete with clouds, cool temperatures and lots of rain. 'Twas just the weather we were wanting for Emma's 3rd birthday party picnic at the Greenlake Wading Pool! The night before, we made a quick switch and changed the party location to the Zoomazium and the food court at the Woodland Park Zoo. Emma donned her birthday finest and didn't seem to mind the rain or the altered party plans in the least.

 All she wanted for her birthday was a Winnie the Pooh cake after all and a little rain wasn't going to stop her from getting a slice.

The kids played their hearts out at the Zoomazium and then I snagged a couple tables in the food court and set up the buffet of premade Costco foods Graham had purchased en route to the party (nothing like waiting until the last minute!) Grandma Crozier made the awesome cake which was the perfect centerpiece at the kids table. How we made it through lunch without a giant handful missing is beyond me.

 We already had a lot of pavarazzi with neighboring tables drooling over and taking pictures of the cute cake so when it came time to sing, all it took was one rousing "Everybody now!" from Graham and the entire food court burst into song. And bonus! It just so happened a good majority of the table occupants were a part of a middle school choir...

 The birthday girl got to eat a piece of cake AND the honey pot

 And I think it's safe to say Oliver was quite a fan of the cake

 Isla gave Emma a baby doll and she was elated. She loving carried her around the rest of the afternoon. I just adore this capture!

Lani and the kids stuck around briefly for the "after party" where we actually ventured out into the rain to see a couple animals since we were at the zoo after all. The kids were yelling something hysterical here...I wish I could remember what it was! 

 That evening, Grandpa Crozier, who couldn't join us for the birthday party took us all (and a couple of Grandma Crozier's friends) out to Snappy Dragon for a Chinese food dinner. The staff sang "Snappy Birthday" to Emma and presented her with a chocolate-covered fortune cookie which was a hit. We returned home for one more present - a "lap top" computer from us.

 As you can see, no one was interested in it whatsoever.

 No, not interested at all.

Happy Birthday Emma!