The weekend's work

Finished copper pipes behind the sink - yes, Stace is a plumber.

All drywalled, taped, mudded (is that a word?), and ready for texture spray.

Cora helping Dad protect the floor. The compressor for the texture spray gun is in the foreground - thanks, Keith, for letting us borrow it!

Spraying the ceiling with new texture to mask where the old florescent light box was.

Drawing

When I came upon Cora finishing up this drawing, my first thought was that Stace must have helped her with it.

Nope!

All her own work. We are definitely in the coloring/drawing phase of preschoolerhood!

From left to right in top photo, we have a friendly sun, Stace, Cora, Violet, Nemo, and me.

Party fun

It was party day Friday for our friends Mackenzie and Luke!

Jaimie and Bryan had a bouncer and a snow-cone machine, along with a nice lunch and delicious homemade cupcakes.

Kenz turned 4 recently, and Luke will be 2 very soon.

The party was scheduled for a week ago, but was postponed because of the rain/cold/soggy yard.

One week later, it was around 90s and almost too hot to be outside! Almost. Thank goodness for snow cones.

And to think that Sunday, the forecast calls for fog and a high of 63. Crazy.

Jaimie is very detail-oriented, and the party's theme was princesses and knights.

Cora wore her Sleeping Beauty dress for a little while, but it was a bit too warm to keep it on. Violet liked playing with the tiara - she took it off, and when I encouraged her to put it on her head, she tried her best! It went behind her head.

Jaimie did a fantastic job tying all sorts of things in to her theme, including Luke's shirt - it said, "I'm bringing chivalry back." Love that sentiment!

Thanks, Michelle, for the last photo of Violet! Can't you just see those top two teeth, trying to break through?

Fun week

The girls and I have had some fun this week.

On Wednesday, we went out to the nice town of Montrose to visit with Juliana, Maya and Natalia.

We met at the park where Cora was given the ladybug box and net, and the two girls went bug-hunting.

Then we went into the cute downtown area for lunch and ice cream! Not just any ice cream - yummy made-fresh-each-day ice cream.

Tuesday and Thursday were normal days - Violet and I ran errands while Cora was at school. Thursday morning, Ave came over to play, and then Genia came to visit with Owen, and she brought Starbucks.

Monday was also a special, fun day - our friends Michelle and Brooke came over for the morning.

We used to see them regularly at Stroller Strides, but life has changed, and now we don't see them as much. Plus our girls' school schedules are opposite for the time being. Anyway, we all had a great day together, with the girls playing very well. Michelle also brought Starbucks.

Yes, there is a theme here. My friendship can be bought with Starbucks.
Thanks for these photos, Michelle!

Kitchen Update 5

And now things get a little more complicated...

This is my final time washing dishes in this sink. It now rests outside, by the trash cans. The tiles are in the trash, the cabinet is dismantled, the drawers are stacked in the living room.

Our new dishwashing method!

Along with paper plates and plastic cutlery, here are my new kitchen friends! Disposable, microwave steam cooking bags, oven bags and crock pot liners. And I've finally, four years into mothering, become a disposable wipe gal.
During his work, Stace ran his finger across an exposed sharp metal piece. Nurse Cora helped bandage him up. (Later that night, Stace suggested to Cora that she could be a nurse when she was older. She said, "No, I'll pump my milk for Baby Violet.")
Stace built up the window opening, to account for the countertop's six-inch backsplash. He also finished tiling out the floor where the cabinets had been. Good thing the prior owners left a stack of tiles in the garage.

In this photo, he is contemplating his wife's crazy idea of installing a track light at the top of the window opening. Today, I bought a three-light fixture, so we can have one on the sink and two shining into the playroom. I hope it will look nicely decorative, and further integrate the playroom into the house.

On Tuesday night, Stace soldered new copper pipes for the sink.

Yes, that is a blowtorch. Since I was the helper this time, I became acutely aware of how dangerous this is. Yikes.

Yep. Live blue-hot flame, inches from us. Gulp. Glad this part of the job is over.

Fish and chips

Before Stace set off on Kitchen Work Weekend #42, we went out for Fish 'n Chips at St. Clare's on Friday night.

The food is delicious, the price is fair and it's fun being with so many people.

Stace knew several people from work, including Joe, who volunteers at the fish fry every year.

Violet practiced her baby bird impression, and loved her fish, chips and rice. She got all sorts of attention from the older folks in the crowd, as she always does when we go out.

On Saturday, when the girls and I met my friend Melanie at a park, some park-goers were celebrating at a ladybug-themed birthday party.

It appeared that little terrariums, nets and big plastic tweezers were a party favor, to go along with containers of hundreds of ladybugs you can get at nurseries.

A man gave Cora the party favor, and she was very pleased. We brought home at least a dozen friendly spotted friends for our rose bushes.

11 months

Our baby is 11 months old today!

Violet has progressed a lot in the past couple of weeks. She now has several words, and she's pushing her walker around, in addition to cruising along furniture.



This week I stood Violet up behind the walker toy, and off she went.

She walks until she runs into something, or until she stumbles; then she'll push it from her knees.

We'll see if she's walking by her first birthday!

She is so proud of herself, making great squealing noises with a huge grin.

That's our Violet - usually smiling a big, happy smile!
She says "uh oh" and "doggy," which were her first words. She also says "Daddy," "ghia" for Cora and we've heard "teh tu" for thank you.
It's not a real word, but she says "Mmmmmmm!!!" when she wants more food!

I visited with my friend Melanie on Saturday and you can hear Violet saying "uh oh" at the end of this clip. It always makes me laugh to hear her saying it at naptime, when she's alone in her bedroom, throwing her animals out of the crib.

We can tell Violet is getting older in another way - she has been getting mad and screaming more the past couple of weeks. Especially when Cora and she are playing and she isn't happy about something. For example, in this video clip:

(The backstory is, Violet had been dancing to the music this toy plays, and it was adorable, until I got the camera out. A half-dozen clips later, and only one clip had a tiny bit of dancing. Stace and I agreed, though, that this one was pretty classic. It's starting to appear that Violet isn't going to let Cora push her around.)

Lastly, I was tidying up Violet's bedroom today while she untidied it.

When we emptied the playroom to change the carpet, we put the small bookcase in Violet's room. It has the baby books in it, after all, and her room has some empty space. We'll see if it ends up being a good idea!

Playroom carpet

New carpet, check!

Like we planned on that this month!

Oh well.

The second photo shows how wet the concrete was under the old carpet and pad.

Wow. It was truly soaked.

It took the men some effort to dry the concrete before they could lay the new pad.

I'm really pleased with the new carpeting. It's a darker color than we had before, sort of a tan with flecks of brown.

It's shaggy, and I think it will hide the dirt very well. It's also a nice, soft surface for the girls to play on.

Stace will take a brief break from the kitchen to paint water-repelling roofing sealant onto the roof, so we hopefully can keep this carpet around longer than 17 months!

Seattle fun, and a wet welcome home

Bill and Patty live out in the woods of Seabeck, where properties are larger and more conducive to childhood adventures.

On Monday, Uncle Bill and Stace took Cora out around the outskirts of the yard, where the trees, ferns and creeks take over.

She found the kids' old swing and forts, and loved tromping through the water.

Then, it was time for more girly activities - cupcake baking! - a tradition for Cora and Aunt Patty. These ones were amazing, with homemade lemon curd and powdered sugar.

On Tuesday, we caught a morning ferry into Seattle so we could surprise Cora with a trip to the Seattle Aquarium.


She enjoyed the beautiful (and cold and windy) boat ride, and we think Violet did, too.

Then, it was on to the Aquarium!

Since Cora is in love with her little Nemo toy, and now also loves the movie, we knew she'd love it. She got to touch starfish and anemones, and come face-to-face with clown fish! Nemo!

We learned that they are also called "anemone fish," because they live near them, and that obviously is where Nemo must have got his name.

Aunt Patty spoiled both girls with soft, cuddly clownfish. Cora named hers "Marlin," for Nemo's dad. You can see the Seattle charm bracelet Patty brought Cora when she came down last year - Cora had fun finding salmon and crabs at the Aquarium, because both are charms on the bracelet, as is a ferry boat.

Violet also took everything in, pointing to the fish with eyes wide open.



After the Aquarium, we just enough time to walk through the Pike Place market to pick up lunch.

We had these amazing Russian meat pies from Piroshky's, and Cora also had a blueberry cream cheese concoction that was big enough for all of us.

Then, we were off to the airport.

After a false start - our plane had a problem and we all had to disembark and board a different one - the trip home was uneventful.

We arrived home to find our home worse off than when we left. Funny how disasters seem to strike when we're on vacation!

A tremendous rain storm Sunday dumped 6 inches of rain, and that was way, way too much for our playroom roof. We've had leaking before in big storms, but this storm was something else.

Genia was nice enough to bring in our trash cans while we were gone, and that should have been the extent of her help, since we have no pets for the time being. But, knowing the roof might leak, she and John checked in to find it pretty well flooded. They kindly moved out the major furniture - you can see the water marks on the bottom of the sofa. Boy, those sofas of my grandparents have been through the ringer in the past two years!

The smell is already bad in the house; new carpet will be installed Thursday...

Alison and Tyler's wedding

Congratulations to Alison and welcome to the family, Tyler. We're happy to have you as a cousin-in-law.

The wedding was simple, elegant and beautiful.

Alison was a stunning bride, and it was heartwarming to see such young love.

Alison and Tyler's first dance was to this fun folk song I wasn't familiar with called Home, by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. They're playing next month with Mumford and Sons, in San Pedro, but it's soldout. That would have been a fun show!

My parents and our family stayed at Bill and Patty's, and it was nice to spend time together for my dad's 55th birthday on Sunday.

It was also great to see my cousins Elizabeth and William - William is normally far away at college, and Elizabeth lives in California now, so having all the family together was special. Well, all but my sister - she had to stay home for her Ugly Duckling show.