It's about time...

...or lack, thereof. I feel like my days do not have enough time. I wake up and get Jaden off on the bus in the morning. I come back, feed the baby, clean up breakfast, shower and get ready for the day. Some days if I really hurry I can make it to Costco but most days by the time I am showered and dressed for the day I have about a 1/2 hour before I have to head back to the bus stop to pick up Jaden. Kindergarten is not long enough...from a parent's point of view.

It is also about time I updated. A lot has happened....so beware, LONG update ahead.

First of all, Jaden got an award in school. It was a Citizenship award. She got it for leaving "Heartprints" and always including others in her class. Way to go Jaden!!! They had an assembly in the afternoon (which we had to drive BACK to the school to attend) and she didn't know that she was getting the award. After the assembly the kids who got an award got cake and juice.

February 2nd was Cody's birthday. We had a little family party and I am finally getting around to throw a friends party tomorrow. His best buddy Jordan was in Mexico for his birthday so we HAD to wait for him to get back and then shortly after we left on a little holiday. So that is why we waited so long to throw his first friend's party. Here he is on his actual birthday and the cake I made for him.

My little buddy is 4 already. Although, he does look much older because he is so dang tall. He is wearing size 6 clothes and his feet are only a couple sizes smaller than his big sister (whose feet are big for her age as well). He is almost a head taller than all the kids his age. A lot of people ask me if I'm going to put him in Kindergarten next year. I hadn't even really entertained the thought because he would be on the VERY young end for his grade but on the other hand, he will be 2 heads taller than everyone else if I hold him back. What's worse?!?!? Plus I would rather him wait a year and start Kindergarten in the new Cranston school when it first opens.

So, our holiday....

We went to Seattle. Jeff's sister Rachelle lives there so we went for a little visit while Jaden was off school for Teacher's Convention. It is a 12 hour drive and we got there at about 8:00 Thursday evening last week. Seattle is beautiful. Rachelle actually lives in Issaquah which is about 20 minutes away from Seattle and her house backs on to a little forest. There was a bobcat that came into her backyard as we were eating breakfast one day. That would make me a little nervous with small children playing in the backyard, but the location was beautiful.

Friday we shopped at the outlet stores. Can you tell we got a particular shirt for a good deal?!? I didn't even know that Rachelle bought the same shirts until we got home. (Poor Jaden...the only granddaughter on the Hudson side until after the youngest boy in this picture, but she still had fun playing with the boys).

Saturday we were going to go to the Seattle Acquarium but the line up to get in was 1/2 a block long so we decided to go to the zoo instead. We really didn't see anything we wouldn't see at the Calgary zoo but it was still fun to get out and walk around a different zoo. Mylee LOVED being in the backpack.

Another day we went to this place called Kidz Bounce. It is a big warehouse with all these bouncy houses and bouncy obstacle courses. The kids had a blast. It cost $6/kid to get in and it was well worth it. The kids were so worn out after that from bouncing and running around for an hour and a half.
I even took Mylee down the slide. She didn't cry but I'm not sure if she loved it.
Mylee was just happy sitting and crawling around the floor (BTW, she officially started crawling a couple weeks ago and it is hilarious to watch. When she crawls on the hardwood or slippery surface, her little legs go faster than her arms and she looks like a puppy trying to take off on a slippery floor. She gets so excited to crawl that she grins from ear to ear while she does it).

On Monday we went to a big mall and went to eat at The Rainforest Cafe. If any of you have not been there, you should go. It is great for the kids. It is decorated like a rainforest. They have freshwater aquariums with tropical fish. They also have a section sitting with the monkeys, and a section by the elephants. This was at the entrance while we were waiting to sit down.

We sat in the monkey section. Every 15 minutes the monkeys come to life and shake the trees and make a lot of noise. The kids thought that was fantastic. Also, a lightening storm hits and all the lights go out with bright flashes and thunder. It's like you are in a real rainforest!!!

The elephants come to life as well and they stomp around and make noise. The kids want to go back and eat there again.

The last day we went into Seattle and went back to the Seattle Aquarium. It was pretty neat. This is a picture of Cody walking through the circle of jelly-fish. You can't really see them because they are transparent but they have lights that they swim by and it makes them glow. (They are on the right side down lower...they look like I had a spot on the lens of my camera). I had never seen a real jelly-fish before that day.

They have pools of starfish and you can touch them. There are also anemone's and when you touch them your finger kind of sticks to them as it trys to suck your finger in. They are really quite fascinating things. (I don't know what you would really call them...plants/animals/organisms).

They have tons of freshwater aquariums with all sorts of tropical fish...like Dory and Nemo!

Here is Mylee entertaining herself on the way home. The kids travelled pretty good. Thank goodness for DVD players in vans. We switched Mylee to a big kid car seat the day we left for Seattle and she was so excited to look forward and loved watching movies!
We had a good trip and we are back into the routine of not having enough time in the day to catch up on all of our day-to-day things.