Storyhill Live

2 weeks ago Tom and I went on a date night. That alone is reason to be excited, as this is not really a regular event for us. BUT we even went on a real adult date, not just out to dinner and walking Home Depot dreaming of home improvement projects. Instead we went to a concert presented by the Firefly Concert Series. Now this isn't your ordinary concert in a local bar or anything, it is an unplugged, acoustic house concert. AMAZING. It was in a home in West Seattle right on the water with unbelievable views. The audience is 30-40 guests at the most so it is about as intimate as you can get. It started out with a fabulous urban potluck (you know hummus, salmon, brie cheese..... no baked beans or potatoe salads in sight YUMMY:-). And the best part of all, it was our all time favorite singer/songwriter duo STORYHILL. Tom went to highschool with them and introduced me to their music in college and we have been HUGE fans ever since. There music is amazing, harmoies are fabulous and the lyrics hold special meaning for us since many revolve around the Bozeman area where our hearts will always be. The concert was fabulous, the photos awful! Although I never leave home without it, I choose not to bring my camera so I just have this lame photo from the camera phone. In theory you should see the Puget Sound and Olympic Mountains out the windows but that didn't really work out as I had planned.....

I'm looking forward to keeping an eye on the Firefly Concert Schedule to go to more in the future. It was really an enjoyable evening and a great date night! I have added a very short playlist to my blog to introduce you to Storyhill music. Unfortunately there were only 2 of their songs to choose from, but I hope you enjoy them! (or just hit mute on your computer if you don't)

Ice Treasure

REPOSTING THIS FROM POST FROM LAST SUMMER! We are getting ready for some ice fun to day to try and beat this crazy heat we are having. Hoping maybe it helps someone else too!! I think today we may just pop them right into the swimming pool.
I have looked at this idea on a few different blogs and it was SOOOOO much fun and so easy. Just fill a plastic container with water and add all sorts of little treasures (we did marbles, bead necklaces, plastic dinosaurs, balls....) Then freeze the container. Once frozen pop it out and let the kids try and get the treasure. We started off with toothbrushes and syringes for our tools but the girls' attention spans are not too great so they quickly progressed to hammer, screwdrivers and hot water. TONS OF FUN for a sunny day!

Froggy Fun

The girls found two frogs (or are they toads???) in the backyard today and spent over an hour playing with them. Either the frogs were incredibly patient with the girls or not the brightest frogs in the pond. I would think they could have hopped away if they really wanted to but they hung out with them fairly easily.

The girls were quite insistent that Nora's frog was a leopard frog and Madison's was a spring peeper. Not sure where those identifications came from but there was no arguing with them.

The girls especially enjoyed playing with them in the pool. They taught them "tricks" like swimming through a hoop. Then the frogs would climb up their legs to get out of the water. They even took them down the little water slide into the pool.No frogs were hurt in the making of this blog post. Well, they may be emotionally scarred for life but they were able to easily hop away on their own free will. I would recommend they hop far far away!!

Dear Tooth Fairy,

Here is what the Tooth Fairy will discover in Madison's bed tonight. She wrote this after going to her room for the night, quite to the suprise of mom and dad.

The letter goes as follows:

Dear tooth fairy,

Hi! Please don't respond. It's just 1 thing can I keep my tooth and still get my mony? If not do not take my tooth. If so leve the mony and the tooth.

senserly,

Madison

Just for the record, Madison has ongoing correspondence with the tooth fairy where she leaves letters under her pillow and the tooth fairy leaves letters back during the night even when there are no teeth to be collected. So that explains the fact that the tooth fairy doesn't need to respond to this note. I am off to bed so the tooth fairy can come and make a determination on if she can leave the tooth or must she take it with her?

Summer Bucket List Addition

Missoula Children's Theater

Looking for something fun for the family this weekend? Kent Park and Rec is hosting King Arthur's Quest presented by MCT. The productions are always lots of fun and very kid friendly with songs and dance.

Shows are at 3:00 and 7:00 on Saturday at Kent-Meridian High School. You can buy tickets in advance, but I also know that last year we had no problem getting them at the door.

AND as a special bonus if you go, look for Madison as the MINI Red Squire!! She has been having a great time practicing all week and is looking forward to the big show! Photos to come after the show.......

YUMMY

Find recipe HERE

Parade Fun (and work)

The girls were thrilled when they heard they could walk in the Covington Days Parade with Nora's preschool. The night before they spent a great deal of time decorating their bikes and helmets. I don't think any of us realized the effort the next day would entail as it was a first for any of us to be in a parade. Tom is a seasoned veteran from his marching band days, and I now see why he gracefully bowed out of attending.

The timeline was a bit as follows:

9:00 - meet at the preschool to gather up the crew.

9:20 - start walking the 4 blocks to the start of the parade, the term "herding cats" comes to mind when thinking of how to make this happen.

9:40 - arrive at start of the parade and stand on hot black asphalt for 30 minutes hearing a crowd of children constantly asking when the parade begins!!

10:10 - FINALLY it is our turn to start walking/riding. By now Nora is a bit worn out so I end up pushing her back pretty much the entire parade. Plus her attention wasn't always focused so I would need to keep a hand on the handle bars to ensure we didn't crash into our friends or go careening into the crowds. Oh, and I should mention I was lugging a bag full of possible supplies we may need (first aid kit, water bottles, energy snacks, spray bottle for heat), had the camera around my neck and was carrying a #@$*&^@* bubble machine that was working fine until the MINUTE the parade began and then didn't work for the rest of the parade. I am sure I was quite the sight to see:-0 To bad I have no pictures of that!! Needless to say, we began the parade at the start of our group and by the end of it were bringing up the rear.

Madison, on the other hand, was making her best attempts to ride her bike in the crowd. I really didn't think through how complicated that would be. Between the very slow speed of the parade, the constant stopping and starting (Madison blames the cheerleaders ahead of us for this) and the large amounts of people in our group it is very difficult to ride a 2 wheeled bike, keeping balance and steering accurately. I was very proud of her for keeping it up for the parade route and not hitting anyone or having a crash.

10:40 WHEW we reach the end of the parade route. GREAT. Oh wait a minute, now we have to walk/ride back to the preschool where our chariot (i.e. mini-van) awaits. And now that the parade is over, any remaining energy and enthusiasm the girls may have had has completely disappeared. So now I am continuing to lug all the above mentioned items, pushing Nora on her bike and pushing Madison's bike that she has decided to abandon.

11:00 We arrive back at the start of this whole ordeal with Madison asking "Mom, next year can we just watch the parade so we can get the candy and see everyone?" With my answer being a resounding "YES"!!!!!!

So, if you would like to learn a lesson from my poor parade planning - do NOT have your children ride bikes. If I were to do it over again we would have decorated the big jogging stroller/bike trailer and the girls could have walked and rode in that. Lesson learned!!!! Really we did have some fun and it wasn't all bad, but it was ALOT of time and work for a 20 minute parade.