Anyone wanna play?

Anyone wanna play "skunk & bumble bee," "skunk & snake" (Daddy's favorite!), "bumble bee & bat", "grasshopper & bat", "grasshopper & bee", "lion & grasshopper", or any other game that involves skunks and/or insects/arachnids? Come over and play! My mommy and daddy and sister don't seem to want to play these games with me all day long, every day and Jack doesn't play right. I don't understand it. These games are sooooo fun! Oh, and if you happen to have or know where to buy a mosquito toy, would you let my mommy or daddy know where to get it?

Love, Jonah

Summer Fun!

Here are a few pictures from the last week or so (kind of Virnig-style). We are enjoying the summer sun and our yard. Last Sunday we had around 20 kids and their parents (LOTS of people) over for the end of the year Girl Scout BBQ. I have no pictures of that, but it was so fun! Mike wasn't here, so I just focused on being hostess and making sure I knew where my kids were. I loved seeing all of those kids (and some parents too!) playing on the swings and the slide, kicking and throwing balls in the grass, playing in the playhouse, and smiling and laughing the whole time.

Filling the pool! Although if anyone walked near him, Jack would laugh as he filled them!

Paige would get about 25 yards away from the pool, start sprinting and then would jump into the pool. Sprinklers are fun too!Here is Jack jumping in his little pool. He got this pool from Aunt Barb for his birthday. It's perfect for him. He definitely likes to have control of the water he's in. He prefers to be the only one splashing on him.
Any suitors?

Sorry it's sideways, but isn't it cute anyways?! Paige drew this while I was cleaning up the yard after the GS BBQ.

Cheese!

Jonah loved this "spider web" at Kelsey Creek Park. I don't think he played anywhere else for the 20 minutes or so we played there. He just stayed on the web, waiting for his prey. And when "prey" would get onto the web, he would pretend to bite them and suck their blood out. That's our boy!

"When's it my turn?" says Jonah. We got Jack a battery and charger for this little brroom brroom for his birthday. EVERYONE loves it!

And look here at Jack kissing Baby Matthew at his birthday party. Sweet boys.

Recently Paige and Jonah started gymnastics at Metropolitan Gymnastics. They LOVE it! Right now, they are the only ones in our Wednesday morning class, so if you (or your kids) are between 4 and 7 years old and want to start gymnastics with us, let me know. They will give you two free classes! It is less expensive then "the little gym" and I like that this is, in my opinion, real gymnastics. We would love any of our friends to join us!

Here is Jonah doing his favorite activity on the beam- the bear crawl. Oh, and next to him is Coach Frannie.

Jack loves going to gymastics too. Although he doesn't take a class, he gets to play on lots of equipment. The other day he was loving this little balance beam, although the big yellow trampoline is his favorite!

Here is our (somewhat) graceful Paige. She really is doing great! She can bunny hop and walk backwards across the beam. She loves trampoline work and is at the beginning stages of learning to vault and tumble.
Jumping Jonah! Jonah loves gymnastics as well and Wednesday Coach Frannie started him on the male apparatus'. He held his body weight up while holding onto the pommel horse for 3 seconds. Yeah scrappy Jonah!


Here is a cute pic of Paige while they get playtime after their class.

We all enjoyed a trip to the Point Defiance Zoo on Jack's birthday weekend. We learned that that Beluga whale there, named Beethoven, was soon going to be moved to Texas (Maybe y'all can visit him, Fiona and Zac!). We were able to see the last performance before his move.

Is it a surprise to you that Jonah LOVES the zoo?

Here's the whale!

And if you've never seen it, here is a zookeeper brushing a walrus's teeth! We watched this for a while. I'd be a bit scared to get up close to that animal. Did you know that walrus's, at least the ones there, are between 3,000 and 3, 500 pounds? Yikes!

And this is Jack. I just thought it was funny. He was helping me spin the lettuce. He would push the button a few times and then lie down to watch it spin.

I hope you all are having a happy almost summer! It sure is beautiful out there!

Happy Birthday Jack!

My sweet baby Jack (Can I still call him that? A baby, I mean?) is 2 today! I am so blessed by this wonderfully laid back, happy-go-lucky, funny and sweet little guy. I really don't think he should be 2 years old yet though. It really does seem like he was just born. I always cry when my kiddos have a birthday, but this one is the worst. He's my baby! I have loved having tiny ones around here soooo much! I even cried today as I was reading Ramona Forever to Paige when the girls found out for sure that their mother was going to have another baby. Sob, sob. I didn't want Paige to know I was crying, so I had to turn away and wipe my tears as fast as they came. My baby isn't a baby anymore...

I have been looking at Jack's baby pictures and I remember, just like it was yesterday, holding him right after birth. Oh, he was beautiful. He definitely wasn't the cutest looking though! Poor kid had so many splotches and got scratched right away when his siblings met him the first time, although neither kiddo would admit to it. And then he got baby acne at 8 days old and it continued for 3 or 4 months... But, from the beginning, he was the sweetest child I have ever known. He just radiated sweetness, if that's possible.
Jack on May 30th, 2007

Jack has enjoyed being a baby for as long as he could. He walked at 16 1/2 months and is still not a huge talker. I mean, he talks, but in just one to two word phrases and usually about the same stuff. You know, brroom brrooms, lawn mowers, poop... And Jack has been so adored around here. Not by just me, but by Paige and Mike as well. I remember when Paige would say that we had "the cutest baby" because he was so chubby. And now, she loves helping Jack accomplish new things, like climbing a ladder (which he does with no problems, thanks to Paige), riding a scooter, or saying new things. Paige loves how Jack talks. He does sound pretty cute! And Mike always has a huge smile for Jack when he sees him in our bed in the morning. I know it is not easy to have a kid who doesn't sleep through the night and because of it pushes his feet into your back or stomach (Jack has slept through the night maybe 4 times.), but Jack just looks so happy to wake up to his mommy and daddy in the morning. Mike also loves how Jack is such a good listener. He just obeys. I mean, we have had to flick his little knuckles a few times when we've asked him not to touch something and he doesn't comply, but a little flick gets him right on track. It has been so nice that Jack is so obedient and easy going. We have always been able to take him anywhere.

Jack at one year-

Boy, I may be rambling a bit in this post. So sorry. I guess I just had to get all that out! Here is a video of Jack at his first birthday, just a year ago. He was so little, such a cute little impish lump.

It is so amazing to see the growth of children in their first two years. They go from being almost completely helpless, to being able to get around and socialize and then they turn into little people with distinct interests and personalities. As much as I hate seeing Jack grow up this quickly, I am looking forward to seeing what kind of person he will grow up to be. Unless I mess up big time, Jack is sure to become an amazing man. God gave him such a gentle spirit and wonderful temperament, along with a good sense of humor and smarts. We'll just have to wait and see what he'll do with all that!

Here's a picture of Jack taken at Kelsey Creek Farm this week. He was pretending that he had keys in his pocket, just like Daddy. He's still little, but he's growing up quickly all of the sudden. I'm not crying...sniff sniff.

Kelsey Creek Farm!

Wow! There are so many fun places to go around here! They are soooo much more fun though when the weather is nice. Today the kids and I took a trip to Kelsey Creek Park & Farm and the weather was perfect. Sunny, low seventies. So nice! I loved seeing the animals and watching my children with them. Jack was so cute saying "huwo" to all of them and Jonah quite enjoyed the poop, but he also was a fan of all of the animals, especially the ginormous sleeping pig and a parrot that talked/squawked (I know, it is not really a "farm animal," but I think they had it more like a pet...). And Paige really liked the animals and wanted to keep going to find more (like always). She's always moving! And you know what else I LOVE about this place? It's free!

Here are the kiddos at the entrance to the farm.

Nope, I could not manage a better picture. YOU try getting three excited little children to look at you at the same time when they would rather find some animals (or open up the little gate on the sign)!

Here are some animals we saw.

Here is a short video discussing a critical problem at the farm. Poop was stuck to the sheep's tushie. I'll spare you the picture of the poor sheep.

Bummer! I have been trying to put up some videos of the kids talking about their favorite parts of the farm and it just won't upload. I guess the videos are a little to big. Next on our To Do list: Get a Vimeo account... And just in case you were wondering about what was said on the videos, Jack liked the riding lawn mower at the park and the car ride with Mommy, Paige, Jonah and not Nana best (He was just expressing that Nana did not come along.). He also liked the horses. Jonah liked the big pig, the poop and the parrot. Paige liked the horses and the seesaw at the playground best. So much cuter when they talked about it themselves...

Just to ease your mind...

Jack-Jack is still shorter than Jonah (although Mike does NOT believe that he weighs less than Jonah...)! I just wanted to post a picture of the kids lined up since my sister Shannon was concerned that Jack and Jonah looked the same height when they were on the rock at Kubota Gardens. So, here they are in this not-so-great picture after our little hike on the Pretzel-tree trail last Friday morning (The hike was really great though!). The ground is even this time.

Brroombrroom!

Jack has a one-tracked mind lately. He is completely 100% obsessed with brroombrrooms (cars) from the time he wakes up until he goes to bed. If he talks to anyone on the phone, he will say "Huwo" first, but then quickly follows up with "_____ (could be Dada, Mama, Nana, Auntie, Grandma...whoevers brrroom brrrom he has gone in recently or wants to go in) brrroom brrroom" and "deet" (seat) and "bye bye" or "chao chao", "hee" (key), and then will usually state that the car is "bwoo"- even if it isn't. When Jack sees a car drive by outside, he gets all giddy and squeals, "brrroombrrroom"! Whenever he sees a truck, he yells, "Dada!" and whenever he sees a red car (any red car, from a shiny red Ferrari to an old rusty red Oldsmobile) its "Nana"! And he LOVES to go places in real cars and his play cars (pictured here). You get the picture...Jack LOVES brroombrrooms!

Here's Jack driving his brroombrroom (He will not even try to say "car.") on the deck. My grandparents bought this at a garage sale for $5 when Paigey was a toddler. She liked it. Jonah loved it. But Jack, he super-duper LOVES it! What a value! He usually asks to go out on the deck to "brroombrroom" before we eat breakfast most days, although we cannot really allow that since we eat around 6:45am and we want our neighbors to at least tolerate us.

And here's a little video of Jack in his car. For some reason, he stops doing his normal driving whenever I try to record him. He will stop and say "cheeeeeeese" or he'll get out, or sometimes he'll do something silly, like spin the car around and around. Oh, he really isn't growing a mustache yet. He just has some dirt on his face. And apparently the kids didn't like their dinners...


Oh ya. The finger. Notice in the picture below that Jack's finger is all bandaged up. Poor kiddo got his finger shut in the hinge of the (inside) garage door. Ouch! That is a really heavy metal door. Thank God he did not end up with a broken finger! The x-ray showed a small fracture though, so we've had to bandage it with popsicle sticks for the last week.
The last few days have been beautiful! Super sunny, but not hot. The kids and I decided to wash our deck furniture. Jack decided it was time to wash his car. I think he spent 30 minutes cleaning it!And here is our sweetie, giving Jonah a ride.

And Paige too! I thought she would be too heavy for him. But, nope. He had no problem. He even gave both kids a ride at the same time for a few seconds.

Paige loved this!
The secondary brroombrroom. Paige got this one from Grandma when she turned one. And again, Jack has used it more than the two other kids combined. He drives this one super fast, so watch out! He tries to keep up with the other two kids (who either ride bikes or scooters) with this one.

Again I tried to take some video of Jack on this brroombrroom. And again he tries something new... Oh, and Paige is trying to talk to me about her obsession- her birthday plans. We are already planning her birthday cake and invitations. I'll share it with you all later. It's kind of top secret for now.

Kubota Gardens

Okay, I'm back! I think, actually I know, I had a bit of a blog overload after all of those Antarctica posts... I needed a break from writing and time to just not think. Well, I've been thinking a lot, but about different things, like Jack's upcoming birthday (the fun stuff, like his cake and the bad stuff, like the fact that he's growing up...sniff sniff) and how to keep the kiddos learning and happy and busy and not hungry! We also had a computer space issue and for a week or two I wasn't allowed to put any more pictures onto our computer so that was my real excuse for not blogging. That is fixed now, so I can start snapping away again and share our fun times with you all! I missed you!

A couple of weeks ago, I took the kids to a place called Kubota Gardens. It is in the Rainier Beach neighborhood of Seattle, but it was only a 20 minute drive from here. I had never been there before, so I wasn't sure what to expect. I expected a path to walk around the garden and I read that there were some bridges to cross. I thought my children would enjoy a walk around the garden, but I didn't expect that they would absolutely LOVE IT! They LOVED hiking on the trails, climbing the rocks and over bridges (some of which were just like balance beams-very fun!) and they just loved their surroundings. "Mommy, this is beauuuutiful!" and "Mommy, can you take a picture of that?" and "Mommy! Isn't this gorgeous?" were things I heard all morning long. I love how my children enjoy nature! Paige finds a lot of beauty while Jonah always finds some kind of "sword" or "magic wand" when we're out in the woods. Jack enjoys hiking as well and loves seeing birds and ducks big-time. There were times where Jack was the leader of the pack, running the trails and giggling just like the other kids.
Below is a picture of the 3 kiddos right as we entered the gardens. As you can see, Jonah has already collected a sword! And Jacko is really proud of himself, as he climbed the rock all by myself. By the way, Jack is becoming more and more like a two year old and likes doing things himself. We often hear "Do"! which means "Don't you help me. I am going to DO this ALL BY MYSELF!" After hiking we came back to this rock to eat our lunch.

Just some pictures of the garden...

Jack, the leader of the pack...

The kids loved this tree and tried jumping up to reach it.
"Huwo duck duck!"-Jack
We hiked around the trails for a good hour and a half before stopping for lunch. There were main trails, like you saw in some of the pictures, but there were also a lot of small paths shooting off of them. We got a little turned around (lost) at the end. It took us quite a while to find our way out!The kids really enjoyed the water features, like ponds, waterfalls, bridges and ducks! We had so much fun! We'll have to go again soon. Paige keeps asking to go there (like every day), plus, there is a geocache or two hidden there! So we'll go for sure, huh Mike?