FACEBOOK

Mom in now finally catching up with the rest of the world and just joined facebook. When she did, she was actually quite surprised at how many of her friends are on it. All I can say is WOW!

TWO SILLY GIRLS

Blake no sooner left the house and Mimi took a bath when mom was outside doing some yard work and she heard Mimi calling from her upstairs bedroom over to Halle in her backyard. So naturally Halle had to come over and have a delicious chicken ravioli dinner with us.

MORE BIKER BABES

After school Mimi and Blake aka "Dude" had a small disagreement. Mimi wanted to go over to Blake's house to play and he wanted to come over to our house. They were able to work it out among themselves. First they went to his house for a while, then came over to our house before he had to take off for swimming lessons.

DOWN BY THE LAZY RIVER

This morning is one of the few days when we don't have a pressing schedule to keep. I thought that it would be a great idea to have a girl's day out for breakfast. When I aked Mimi who she would like to invite, she answered "Stewart". Hmmm I thought "who the heck is Stewart???" "Is he a new boy at school that I don't know about yet?" So of course I had to ask the girl "who is Stewart?" Mimi replied "It's Erin. You know Erin Stewart?"So Mimi called and Janet said that it was fine for Erin to come along and so she did. Instead of Black Diamond Bakery, we went to another local diner so that we could eat outside and enjoy the atmosphere.

The girls had loads of fun just getting their giggles out. It was quite surprising to see that Erin has just as much an appetite as Mimi does. They both polished off some hot chocolate,one huge pancake with whip cream and strawberries, scramble egg and bacon.

Then we had just enough time to play at the park for about a half hour till it was time to go to school which is where they are at this very moment.

NEW KID IN TOWN

There is a new kid on our block and his name is Therrian Tolerance. He is the newest member to Halliwell's family. Therrian was born on 5/21/09 at 10:16 am, weighing in at 9 lbs and 4 oz. He is 21 inches long. Halli and Mimi just adore him. This is the very first time Mimi has ever seen or held such a tiny baby. She was ever so gentle with him.

BIKER BABE

When the festivities were done and finished at the park and everyone had packed up to go home, Mimi and I took Butch over to the school yard for a while since it was still light outside. As usual Ollie thought he would come with us too. Ollie is so protective of Butch. People at the school yard thought it was hilarious that Ollie should follow us all around the school grounds.

The four wheel bike is what Mimi received for her birthday way back in January but unfortunately the weather was never nice enough for her to enjoy it until now and boy does she really love it.

MEMORIAL DAY CELEBRATION AT THE PARK

AT THE PARK

Our weather has been amazingly gorgeous lately. As usual dad and Mimi went out to breakfast together just by themselves. Mom was able to get a couple hours of R&R by herself.

In the afternoon while dad stayed home to clean the carpet, Mimi and myself went out to get lunch. However, we past the park and Mimi saw her good friend Alex (left boy). I knew right then and there that it was all over. I was however able to convince her to go with me and get some lunch to bring back to the park. The boy in the middle is her new friend Anthony. Anthony is 4 years old and will be starting kindergarten this fall at Mimi's school.

MIMI AND RACHEL

Since this is a long weekend, there is not much going on at our house. Dad is doing some yard work that needs to get done such as mowing the grass. Mom and Mimi have been working hard at the piano. Mimi has several new songs that she needed to get ready before going to see Ms. Celia on Monday morning. Our Mimi bless her little heart, like many people when they start a new project, hates to do the work but when she does, she loves the end result.

Whenever Mimi gets a new piece of music she has to learn. She just hates it. "It's BORING MOM!!!" she cries. 'I like things that are FUN, FUN, FUN!!!" she will then tell me. We will work each piece through slowly together. However when Maddie comes over to help her, the lessons are "AMAZING" Mimi will tell me. Oh well such is life.

In the afternoon (Saturday) we headed over to our local McDonald's for Rachel's 6th birthday party. All of the kids had soooo much fun.

PIANO LESSONS

I love our neighborhood. It is so family friendly oriented. Friday afternoon Maddie (7) stopped by to help Mimi with her piano lessons. Mimi just adores Maddie. When Mimi goes to school, Maddie and her friends are on the playground at lunch. Mimi always will go over to talk with the girls. To Mimi, Maddie is like her big sister.

LEAVING LOUELLA'S

Like I posted before, Louella lives in the rural part of town. The people out here have horses and cows in their front and backyard. It kind of cool living up here in Washington. Mimi is able to see so many different kinds of animals that she would miss out on had we still been at our old place. We just stopped off the side of the road to take these pictures of mama and baby.

MIMI, NATALIE AND MARCUS

Every Friday morning I try to make it over to my friend Louella's house. It is very hard for her to get out on Friday's as she lives with her son Don and his family and she has to babysit the grandkids on that day. For me Friday mornings are the easiest to get out as we don't have anything scheduled before school. So Friday mornings we meet at Louella's. Natalie (4) and Marcus (2) are always sooooo happy to have Mimi come play with them. They just have loads and loads of fun together. Louella lives in the rural part of town so there is tons of room for the kids to run and jump. This particular day the kids were playing "secret agent" and they were looking for all sorts of clues.

LUGNUTS vs BATS

At last Wednesday's game, the coach had Mimi be the catcher. I must say that she did pretty darn good too. She really kicked butt that day. Mom's family is big time Dodger fans. Now that we live up here in Washington, mom has also become a Mariner's fan. I think that they are doing a great job with their new coach Don Wakamatsu. They are doing soooo much better than last year. Still a Dodger fan too. Mimi loves to watch the Mariners too. Her favorite player is Ichiro. She will stop whatever she is doing at the time to watch him play. I must say that Kenji Johjima is a fantastic catcher too.

LIKE MOTHER LIKE DAUGHTER

I guess it's true what they say "The apple doesn't fall far from the tree". The Barbie and Lincoln Logs, plus the Tonka toys are what I played with when I was Mimi's age. Nowadays it's High School Musical (Charpay and Ryan) and Bionicles. Yesterday afternoon while Mimi was at Blake's mom was cleanning house and left Mimi's bedroom door open which is a no no at our house and ole' Butch went in and chewed up Gabriella (another High School Musical doll). Now mom has to go and replace her.

While at Walmart yesterday, Mimi says to me "Mom, we don't have to buy it now but I want to show you what I want for Christmas." She then proceeded to show me more High School Musical stuff and more Bionicles. She then moved on to the more expensive stuff like Nintendo's DSi's, more DS games as she already has a DS, and Wii games.

T'IS THE SEASON

It has already started at our house yesterday morning at breakfast.

Mimi: Mom, is it Christmas already????

Mom: No.

Mimi: Is it next week???

Mom: No.

Mimi: Well then, when is it???

Mom: In about 6 months from now.

Mimi: No, I mean, how many days???

Mom: Oh about 100 days.

Mimi: A HUNDRED DAYS?!

Mom: Um Hum.

Mimi: Ok mom, this is what we have to do. We have to put the cookies and milk on the table just like this (then she proceeds to show me where the cookies and milk are to be placed) for when Santa comes. OK???

MOTORCROSS BABES

This past January mom and dad bought Mimi this new four wheeled motocross bike for her birthday. However our weather being what it is, the bike has been in storage until this afternoon when dad put it together for her. Of course Blake and Bailey are ecstatic about it too as Mimi likes to share it with them. Mimi and Blake have since outgrown the smaller motor bike that Mimi has. However they still like to ride it in the house even though their knees are touching their chins.

GIRL TALK

Had Mimi still be living in Southern California, she would be at Disneyland right this very moment with Samantha and her family . Since we are all up here in Washington, mom thought that it would be a great idea to call Samantha and her family to let them know that we are always thinking about them and let them know how much we love them and the fact that they are part of our lives forever. This video was actually taken yesterday but I did not get a chance to put it up until today.

THE TWO DAREDEVILS

In the evening Sara came by the house with her mom Daphne and big sis Tasha. These two girls always have a blast whenever they are together.

TEA TIME

After school our little Miss Erin had invited Mimi and Zoe and Caitlin over to the house for a special tea party. I thought to myself "Man, that's a switch!" Erin and Caitlin are 200% girly girl princesses and here's Mimi and Zoe both tomboys. Usually it's Mimi who can get Erin up a tree. I guess now it's Erin's turn to get Mimi and Zoe to dress like princesses. I guess opposites do attract.

IN THE CLASSROOM

While the kids weren't looking, I tried to snap as many pictures as I could. Tee Hee Hee.

CIRCLE OF LIFE

This afternoon was mom's turn to volunteer in Mimi's classroom.For a couple of weeks now they have been studying about the circle of life by using the baby chicks. The eggs hatched over the last weekend and as you can see they are already losing the fluffy feathers and the adult feathers are coming in. Today was their last day in the classroom. They will be on their way to a chicken farm next week.

Mimi's classroom has now moved on to studying all about butterflies and tadpoles.

EYE EXAM

Of course mom forgot the camera at home again so no pics. Last Monday mom had an appointment with the eye doctor to get her eyes checked for her prescription glasses. Mimi decided that she too needed to have her eyes checked. So we did just that last night at Costco optometry. At first the doc suggested that I take Mimi to a kiddie eye doctor because her office does not have all of the kiddie decorations and such. That was until I explained that Mimi will do just fine. Just like I said, Mimi came through like a little trooper. Our Mimi loves going to the doctor, dentist and eye doctor. Go figure!

Although I know that Mimi's eyes are in good shape, I have her go for an exam anyway just so that she will get used to it and not be afraid of any doctor or dentist.

The optometrist says that her eyes are straight, and that she is able to focus well but she is just a bit farsighted at this point in her life. The doctor says that it is quite normal for a child of 6 to be little farsighted and that it should straighten itself out as she gets older.

While at Costco we also had dinner, did some shopping, then went back for ice cream desert. While eating our ice cream we saw Caitlyn and Conner from our neighborhood. They were there with their mom Amber. Mimi loves to play with Caitlyn and Conner at the park. Their backyard leads right into the park so they are there about 90% of the time. Caitlyn who is 9 years old is 200% tomboy just like Mimi and Conner is 7 years old and is all boy. They all get along just swell at the park.

HOMESTUDY

It's that time again folks. Yep. More homestudy papers to sign for our next little chili pepper. Not only that, we get to see the doc again for the medical update and of course we can't forget about those fingerprints. Woo Hoo!

TRAPPER SUSHI

There's a new place in our nearby town and Mimi and I went to check it out the other night (Monday). Of course we had to have our favorite dinner or tuna sashimi and vegetable/shrimp tempura. For the most part it was pretty darn good except for the fact that the rice was slightly undercooked. I found out that the owner of this restaurant have another one called Sushitown out in Bonney Lake. Our good friend Angie raves about the one in Bonney Lake so now she along with Mimi and myself will have to come to this one. Since dad and Richard (Angie's husband) are not all that crazy about sushi (dad says that he can take it or leave it) they will have a guys night out.

MOTHER'S DAY DINNER AT GRANDMA'S

This past Sunday we all had dinner at grandma's. It was also the first time for Mimi to meet her Uncle John who was visiting from Reno, Nevada. Uncle John says that both he and his son (who was visiting with his mom in Everett) was able to get a good deal on airfares so they took advantage of it. Uncle John is grandma's oldest son from her first marriage.

MOM'S A INTERNET CELEBRITY

This past Mother's Day, mom's friend and co-worker JC sent this clip to her.

MAKING BROWNIES

This afternoon we will all be heading over to grandma's for Mother's Day dinner. Mom suggested that we have dinner at our house but grandma is the boss and she says that she wants to cook the dinner so that's the plan. As part of her present and the dessert Mimi made the brownies with just a smidgen of help from mom. Of course the best part of making brownies is licking the dough off the spatula while the brownies are in the oven. Can you smell the brownies????

DINNER DATE

The kids all had a blast together. When dinner was over we all walked down to the park to play some more. Mom was having so much fun with everyone that she lost all sense of time especially now that it is getting closer to the solstice season when it does not get dark here till 9:00 in the evening. The picture of the silly faces was taken at 8:30 this evening.

MIMI'S VERY FIRST DINNER DATE

For quite some time Mimi has been wanting to get together with her twim friends Ethan and Kate but we could never get our schedules to gel together. Finally mom just invited them over to the house for a spagetti dinner. Mimi was super excited about it. She is now just getting interested in preparing meals which is quite alright with me. Here she is making meatballs for the spagetti.

WE'RE HAVING A PICNIC

After breakfast Mimi thought it would be a great idea to have a picnic for lunch and everyone is invited. Yummy!

OUR TOWN

Today as every Saturday morning, Mimi and dad went out to their usual father/daughter breakfast. Mom gave them the camera to take pictures however dad forgot all about it. Mimi on the other hand thought it would be better to take a video of the highway on their way to breakfast.

MONKEY BARS

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After school today, Mimi and I went down to our neighborhood park to hang out for a while. Although she says that she has not practiced on the monkey bars at her school, I think that she has. None the less Mimi is now able to cross the monkey bars without any help and not only that, she can skip a bar in between the two bars. For quite some time she was crossing the bars one bar at a time. Now she is crossing it like the big kids do.

SECRET AGENT

Move over Lucy Liu (Charlie's Angels). Never fear, secret agent Mimi is here! She says that with the super agent eyeglasses and super agent spy glass stuck to her hip, she is here to rid the world of all evil and help solve mysteries. We can surely sleep well tonight.

OVERCOME

Just how much clothes can one kid have may I ask????? I am now in the process of doing what I dread, LAUNDRY! I am now just starting to get darn tired of our weather. One day it is freezing cold outside such as today with the wind and rain, other days it is hot as all get out. So therefore you can't put away the winter clothes but at the same time have to drag out the summer clothes. Meanwhile there is no place to put everything. EGADS!!!

OUT OF THE MOUTH OF BABES

One never ever knows what Mimi will say next. On the way home from our buddhist meeting this morning, I made mention that I was going with Brandy to another mom's home for a get together. I also made mention that Mimi was going to stay home with her dad as Halliwell is doing the same with her dad John.

Mimi: Dad, can you handle a playdate????
Dad: Playdate with who?
Mimi: With anyone!

As it turns out, Mimi and Halliwell had a playdate together while the moms were out on a playdate of their own.

LASER LIGHT SHOW

The other day I purchased this small laser light in which Ollie could care less about but the two arch enemies Butch and Stanley goes nuts over.

IF THE SHOE FITS.......

A couple of months ago while shopping for shoes for the father/daughter ball, I discovered that Mimi had outgrown the velcro tennins shoes. Now it was time for her to learn how to tie her own shoe laces. Doggone it!!! While at the South Center Mall way back in March I bought this shoe for her to practice on. It is the same kind of shoe that I used in kindergarten many moons ago. I showed her how to do it and within a couple of days she had it down pat. "What a smart cookie she is!" my dad would say.

While at school the other day when Ollie decided to follow us there, Mimi held him in her arms while all of the other girls petted him (he was truly in kitty heaven then). I noticed Mimi's shoe was untied and made mention for her to tie them. Without skipping a beat she stuck her foot out in front of her girlfriends and said "tie it!!!" like she was the Queen of Sheba. As you may have guessed it, her friends put her in her place by saying "tie it yourself!" then proceeded to give her the "evil eye". I guess you could consider this more of life's lessons for six year olds. Fortunately they don't hold any grudges against each other either and continue to be best buddies.

SWINE FLU

So far so good. No child at Mimi's school has come down with this deadly virus however it has been reported that 3 elementary schools have been closed here in our area as precautionary measure. Zoe's big sis Alleyah recieved a letter from her teacher about this situation. We have yet to get a letter however we did receive a phone call from the school superintendent last night advising us of all the precautionary measures.

AT THE PARK

When we were through with Black Diamond Mimi wanted to stop by the neighborhood park. So we did since we still had some time to spare before school. Last year while visiting relatives in Virginia, her cousin Mari took her rock climbing. She still is pretty good at it as you can see in the picture.

GIRLS DAY OUT

Usually it's Mimi and Blake at the Black Diamond Bakery but this time we thought that it would be nice if the two girls had time together. So we did just that. It is a girl's day out today. After breakfast we all went to the train museum next door. It is the only place where one could play on the tracks safely.