ON THE ROAD AGAIN........

Last night was the Lugnuts first game of the season. They did a couple of innings before it was time to go due to the freezing cold weather. All of the kids did pretty good if I do say so myself. They were all pretty cute too. At first Mimi was put on the pitcher's mound before she was switched to second base. Zoe was third base, Blake played shortstop and Erin was put on first base till the coach realized that when the opposing team would hit the ball and her teammate threw the ball to her, she did not know what to do with it. She just would stare at it lying on the ground next to her feet. Needless to say she was switched to the right field. Us parents had a good chuckle about that one.

Now it is time for me to take Mimi to gymnastics, then school. After school she will go home with Zoe as I have a dentist appointment. That should be loads of fun. Then it will be definitly time for LAUNDRY, as I have not had the time lately to do it. Yesterday while Mimi was in school, I took Butch to our local park and just let him run and run. You have to remember that our park is not like the ones we have in Southern California. They are more like what you would see on the old Andy Griffith Show with a lake and everything. Ol' Butch did not quite know what to do with the ducks he saw down there. I found that if I take him out and let him get his sillies out things at home are a whole lot calmer with him.

Well it's back to the grind of sports, school, more birthday parties this weekend and a baby shower next week.

THE LITTLE THIEF

First she stole our hearts when she came into our lives. Now she is stealing MY iPhone! What is also sad about it, is that she had to teach me how to use the i-tunes on it. How about that?! A 6 year old teaching an adult who is a techno dummy (but still learning) how to use the phone. Oh, so sad.

MY NEW TOY

While at the mall we went to the ATT &T to upgrade my cellphone. I just purchased a Blackberry about one week ago, did not use it much but the damn ball kept getting stuck and would not go where I wanted it to. Which gave me a new reason to upgrade. So far so good. I really think that me 'n' the iPhone will get along quite nicely.

TODAI

When the game was cancelled, we all went home for a hot lunch of soup and sandwich. Then it was on to Sara's then the Pacific Mall in downtown Seattle. Unfortunately the Ginger Thai place was full and had a 30 minute wait so instead we went next door to Todai. Man was it great especially if you enjoy sushi as much as we do. They had everything from hand roll sushi to the Dragon roll sushi to Kalbi shorts all the way to the succulent sweet Snow Crab. Plus there is a great view of one on my favorite stores Nordstrom.

THE GANGS ALL HERE

Boy was it cold as a witche's brew this morning! According to the car thermometer, it was 36 degrees! We all made it to the opening ceremony on time today however due to the downpour of rain as you notice with the sea of umbrellas, the game was cancelled. Hallelujah!!!

TIC TAC TOE

Where Mimi gets all of her energy, I have no clue. This morning we left the house a little earlier than usual because Mimi was just bouncing away on her bouncy ball all over the house. We headed over to our local McDonald's just so that she could play in the playset and I could drink my sugarfree vanilla ice coffee. We then headed over to the gymanstics where she and Sophie enjoyed a game of tic tac toe before class. Next thing I knew it was time to head for home and school. She is now at Blake's house for an afternoon playdate. Zoe and Braden are there also. I on the other hand is getting some peace and quiet for a little while. It is possible that Blake may come over here this evening as Bailey usually takes a nap in the late afternoon. Who knows???

OUR HECTIC LIFE

I always knew that stay at home had it busy but I just did not realize how busy they have it till I became one. I love it. After the piano lesson and Fred Meyers and Baskin Robbins this morning. We finished off our day with school, baseball practice and a Buddhist study meeting at Ling Ling house. In between baseball and Ling Ling's house, Mimi as usual became hungry again even though she dinner before practice. So we stopped at our local McDonald's. Holy smokes! It seems as if the whole town was there tonight! The local church was having a fund raiser there and McDonald's is donating all of their proceeds for today to our local food bank. While there Mimi saw more of her friends. It seems that no matter where we go in our little town, we see somebody that we know.

CONGRATULATIONS SAMANTHA

We knew that Mimi's California BFF Samantha was going the doctor's office today to have her cast taken off but what we did not know was that while she was having ice cream (in celebration) at Baskin Robbins in California, Mimi and I at the same time were having ice cream at Baskin Robbin up here in Washington.

As I am writing, I too celebrated the day when my arm cast came off (many years ago) with my one and only banana split.

SETTING UP HOUSE

After a while the girls got tired of playing upstairs. They then came downstairs for a snack and Halle asked if she could take two of the chairs to make a tent. Her and Mimi were playing house. Halle was the mom and Mimi the dad. Between the two of them they had 4 babies. Halle says "Being a mom is hard work! Phew!" I then remembered that many years ago our good friend Maggi had given Mimi a small tent. So up it went. The girls had tons of fun setting up house.

SETTING UP HOUSE

TWO GLAMOUR GIRLS

Today was rather gloomy outside so therefore it became "pajama day" at our house. Mimi was getting a little bored so I suggested that she call Halle to which she did and Halle came over to the house with her pj's on as well. The girls had a blast staying in their pj's till it was time for Halle to go home and Mimi to go over to grandma's for a corned beef and cabbage dinner since we missed it last Sunday as we were in Portland, Oregon.

PLUM TUCKERED OUT

We no sooner arrived home when she practically fell into bed.

HOLLYWOOD CELEBRITIES

While at the dance Mimi met a couple of her other friends, Halliwell and Rachel. Dad says that he was only able to get a short video before the battery died out. :-(

Dad also says that they played every kind of music from Michael Jackson to Jimi Hendrix to Hannah Montana. He says that a dad must have requested Jimi Hendrix.

All in all the girls had a grand time dancing the night away. It all came to an end at 9:00 tonight.

The girls were treated like Hollywood royalty. Some girls and their dads chipped in and rented a limosine for this event. How about that? All the girls received a goody bag filled with a light up wand, boa, and of course the Hollywood celebrity sunglasses.

FATHER AND DAUGHTER

For several weeks now Mimi could not wait for tonight to happen. Usually dad is the one who is waiting. Tonight it was the women's turn. Mimi kept yelling to dad "Hurry up handsome!"

MIMI AND BAILEY

Blake's lil' sis Bailey who is now 2 1/2 years old just adores Mimi. She also speaks oh so clearly now and is making her own playdates with Mimi. Somehow it seems that the younger girls in our neighborhood really idolizes the older girls. Just as Bailey adores Mimi, Mimi adores Izzy (15 yo). So of course after the birthday party, Bailey and Mimi had made plans to have a tea party at Bailey's house.

MORE BIRTHDAY PICS

While the moms were out in the garage helping with the party making sure all of the kiddies got their snacks to eat and playing nicely, the dads were kicking back with a bottle of beer and a basketball game.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ADA

Ada turned two and the neighborhood kids were there to help her celebrate this auspicious occassion. Dad Derek was Mimi's soccer coach last year. She had loads of fun playing with his team.

FODDER/DODDER DAY

Every Saturday is fodder/dodder day around the Putney household. Today was special though because of this evening's dance. Mimi and dad went to have their special breakfast at Black Diamond Bakery while I stayed home. I gave Mimi the camera to use while she was out with dad. Dad says that she was supposed to take pictures of both he and Mimi but instead she liked taking pictures of herself only.

MIMI'S FRIENDS RACHEL AND HALLE

HAPPY ELEANOR AND BECCA

Eleanor and Becca decided that they wanted to have a pajama party. So PJ's was the theme of things. It was an all girl party. Since Mimi was still at the gymnastic practice when the party started, she missed the face painting and hairstyling but she still had oodles of fun anyways. Halle had so much fun that she did not want to go home. She was quite sad when I told her it was time to go. Halle then replied "But, I want to stay here forever!" Like that is going to happen anytime soon.

RIDING THE MONORAIL

That's raindrops on the windows. We are now back into the rainy season. Mimi keeps asking "When is summer coming?????" Not soon enough to suit me.

MOM'S NEW TOY aka BLACKBERRY

After lunch we went downstairs to the AT&T store to check out a new cell phone for myself since my other one went caput. I no sooner had the phone in my hot little hands when Mimi took over. The phone is pretty much self explanitory thank goodness. As you can see Mimi has already figured out how to take pictures without any help from anyone.

When that was all done, the next thing on the list was to get a petticoat for Mimi's dress for the "fodder/dodder" (still has a bit of trouble with the th's at times) ball tomorrow night. You will not believe how hard it is to find one. I went to several different stores to look for one. No luck. Of course all Mimi cared about was riding the Monorail. By the time I reach Macy's, I was hot, tired and sweaty all at the same time. The poor girl at the cosmetic counter was trying in every which way to get me to have a make-over done. I was able to muster up enough energy to smile sweetly and say "No thank you" and keep on truck'in with Mimi in tow. Time was of essence. We still had gymnastics and a birthday party scheduled for the late afternoon/evening. Plus there was still the monorail. Unfortunately Macy's did not have what I needed so back to Nordstrom's it was. They did not have a petticoat either but they did have a dress liner which works for me. Then we saw the handbags which is one of my weaknesses. So of course we had to buy a lavender (her favorite color) that Mimi picked out for herself. Then on to the monorail.

By the time we were done, it was 3:30 p.m. plenty of time (1 1/2 hrs) to get to the gym. As my luck would have it there was a huge accident on the I-90 just before the 405 entrance where we needed to go. Cars were backed up for miles. None the less we still made it to the gym and was only 10 minutes late. We needed to be there at 5:00 and arrived at 5:10. Phew!

LUNCH WITH DAD

Since there wasn't any school today, we picked up dad from the office and headed over to the Pacific Shopping Mall. Man! I could spend the whole day there if I had the chance. They have and AMC theater, Coach store, Nordstrom's plus a whole lot more! We went upstairs to the food court and found out that they have The Wild Ginger Thai Food and Todai but Mimi had her heart set on Clam Chowder soup so over to Pacific Clam Chowder we went. Will have to try out the Thai place at another time. There is also a Italian place that looks pretty good too.

FIRST DAY OF SPRING

It finally arrived! Today is officially the first day of Spring. It is also time for me to put my roller skates on now as we have another full rich day ahead of us. First on the list is to get ready for breakfast, wrap more birthday gifts. Then we are going up to Seattle to have lunch with dad. I try to squeeze as much time as I can since he always comes home late and in a couple of weeks he will be starting to go up to Everett everyday and we really won't get much chance to see him during the week. While in downtown we are going to check out a new cell phone for mom since hers went caput a couple of days ago. We then will stop at Nordstroms to see if they have any petticoats for Mimi to wear tomorrow night. Then it is on to gymanstics for a make-up lesson and another pajama birthday party this evening. Phew! I'm pooped already.

LIKE MOTHER LIKE DAUGHTER

On the way home from Reber Ranch I was saying to myself "I think I need to go and see Amy about my nails", Mimi then pipes up "Me too!" Although she is still 100% tomboy, she really is getting into primping. She is starting to use nice smelling lotion more often, getting her nails done, wearing dresses. She can't wait for the "fadder/dodder" ball tomorrow night.

YI - HAW COWBOY!!!

Besides the pet supplies, they have all kinds of western theme gear. While no one was looking, I had Mimi sit up on the saddle and put the western gear on her hoping that nobody would catch us goofing off.

ANIMAL SUPPLIES AT THE RANCH

This just cracked me up. Being a "city girl" all of my life it is taking a little getting used to living out here in the country.

CHICKS GONE WILD!

Of course that too is the understatement of the year. Our little chick has been "gone wild" from day one and still has a whole bunch of energy to burn still yet.

On the way home we stopped at Reber Ranch to pick up some dog and cat food and we found that they are selling chicks. As usual Mimi started her conversation with "I wish I had....."

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ERIN

Erin's actual birthday was a little over a week ago but Janet decided to have the party yesterday since there is no school (the am kindergartners were at the children's museum so the Pm's had no school), We celebrated at The Bouncy Place in Kent. All of the kids had a great deal of fun. So did Mimi once we finally got there.

Our morning started of as usual. Early. Then it was time for gymnastics. While at the gymnastics I realized that I had forgot to pre-order the boutonniere and corsage for tomorrow night huge and I mean huge shin dig. So off to Safeway we went, Then I found out about the tickets and since we have not received any I had to drive to another elementary school to inquire about it. Turns out we do not need any tickets. Mimi's name however is on the list. We still had plenty of time to make it to the party but then I got LOST! Doggone it! I don't usually make it down to Kent very often and they are doing quite a bit of road construction too. None the less we made it.