Slip-n-slide, Sidewalk chalk, and Summer's finally here!

Grandpa

My Grandpa passed away last week and we are sad to lose him, but happy that he will be together with my Grandma again. He was 90 years old and had lived a very great and exciting life.

My grandparents loved to travel. They went all over the world to very exciting places but they would also take smaller trips around the country and take their grandchildren on special trips one at a time. Imagine how fun, just you, without your siblings on a trip with Grandma and Grandpa. For my trip I got to drive with them in their RV from Washington all the way to Florida. I had an amazing time and will always have wonderful memories of my time with them.

My Grandpa moved to the US from Russia when he was young, he was German but living in Russia until the Bolsheviks forced them out, and he and his brothers played polka music. Grandpa played the accordion and on Christmas Eve all growing up I remember him getting out the accordion and playing that polka music and us dancing.

I was so fortunate to have been able to live here in Washington for his last couple of years and get a chance to visit with him once a week. My kids really loved him and he will be missed by our family a lot.

Just Eat It!

I'm sure I've blogged about this before, but of my three children Katie is my biggest eater. She will eat anything and a lot of it. I have yet to find a food that she doesn't like. While the boys are whining and moaning over whatever gross thing I've made for dinner she is busy shoveling it in. Jason and I laugh over her appetite almost every night, she is so cute. She is a tiny little peanut, still only 18 lbs. but there she is in her own little eating contest every night. I love it. In this picture she is eating chicken pot pie, a new recipe I found that we really like, and the boys were not excited over it. Well they were excited to see the pie on the table, "we get pie for dinner!!", but they were pretty sad when I cut it open and chicken and vegetables were inside. Addie said the dinner prayer, "help us to eat all the pie mom made and everything that's green so we can get big and strong."

The Secret Life of Little Dog

This is little dog. He has been a part of our family for probably close to three years now. He is Noah's best friend and used to go everywhere with him, although now he is limited to playing with Noah after school and on weekends. It's been a pretty big bummer for him since Noah started first grade, especially since no one else at our house is allowed to play with him in particular Katie because she "slobbers all over him." It really isn't much of a surprise then that Katie LOVES little dog. She wants to kiss and hug him and take him for rides in the laundry basket and rock him in her chair. Secretly she does all those things when Noah is at school. Maybe I am a bad mom to let her play with little dog against Noah's wishes, but I always return him to Noah's bed before he gets home from school and it has made little dog's afternoons so much more fun. I guess my secret is safe, at least until Noah gets curious enough about my blog to start reading it.

T-Shirt Weather

We had a great holiday weekend. We got to relax in the beautiful weather and spent most of our days lounging around outside, at the park, the lake, and BBQ'ing with friends and family. After a weekend like this we are ready for the fun of summer to start! We are thrilled that school is out soon and can't wait to enjoy a long and lazy summer.

Just Because

Spring

So since summer is almost here, hopefully, I wanted to post about my three favorite Washington flowers in the spring. I love the state flower, the beautiful rhodies! They are everywhere and in all different colors.

I also really love the look and smell of the lilacs. I have four lilac bushes planted in my yard and I adore them. I am not much of a gardener, but right when we bought our house I knew I would need to plant lots of them. I hope they will grow up and be huge.

And last but not least I love all the pink and white blossom trees everywhere. They are so beautiful. Popcorn trees and I especially love the pink ones. We have one in our very own front yard.