FINGERPRINTS

More paperwork for chili pepper #2. Woo Hoo! Dad took the day off from work so that we could get this done today. Our day began with Mimi's piano lesson. Dad took her this time as he rarely gets to do so. Then we met up for a brunch at our local diner and as usual Mimi wanted to sit outside by the river. We seemed to have such good timing the whole day. When we got down to the office, there was just a few people ahead of us. We no sooner went through security than a whole sleuth of people came in. We were done in no time at all. I figured that since we were already close to downtown Seattle, we might as well make a day of it and so we did just that.

WHAT'S OLD IS NEW AGAIN

For this past week when Mimi was not swimming, doing gymnastics or going to the lake, she and Blake will just hang out at our house and play quietly with these toys that I bought a couple of years ago at Costco. You could hear them say "Pretend that you....." then they will make up some silly story and they can keep themselves entertained for hours. It's amazing! The other day ite was Lincoln Logs and today they are making their "inventions" with the Tinker Toys.

SLIGHT LIFE CHANGING EVENT

Yesterday evening was Mimi's first gymnastic class for the summer. A couple of weeks ago you may remember that I mentioned about her tryouts for the team. Part of me wants her to be on the team because of the challenges it will provide for her on the other hand it is a little scary because we will be charting unfamiliar territory for us.

We did receive a phone call from Debbie (the woman who runs the gymnastic school) and she left a message on our voicemail that she would like to talk with us in regards to her outcome. However last night at the gymnastic class her instructor did spill the beans a little. Mimi did make the team. As of now she does not know about it since I did not tell her as of yet. Although I know that she will be super excited to know that she will be on the team with her friends Emma and Elsie.

I have not written on my facebook about this yet so if you are on facebook too, I am asking that you please not mention anything about this as of yet. Some of my neighborhood friends are on it and even they do not know yet as we have still to discuss the details with Debbie and we live in a very small town where everyone knows everyone. But I was just dying to get this news out of my system so I thought that this would be a safe place to write about it as very few people know about our blog (no one from our town or even state know about Mimi's blog). As of now Debbie is out of town. The team will be having a national competition down in San Jose this weekend and that is where she is getting things set up for the girls. Rhonda says that they will be flying Friday afternoon then Saturday Emma will be in trainning. Then Sunday and Monday Emma will be competing. I found out that this will be a HUGE competition. According to Kelly (another team mom and former neighbor) there are 50+ girls in Jaelyn's event. She said that they are used to competing against 10-12 girls in an event not 50.

FIRST SWIMMING LESSON OF THE YEAR

This afternoon was Mimi's first lesson of the year. Although she is much more "experienced" than the other girls, Caitlyn, Halliwell and Erin, it was more about being in the same class with her friends. Caitlyn is however in a different class along with Erin's little brother Liam. I must say that Mimi did pretty darn good for not being in the water since last summer. We could hear the teacher say "Don't you ever stop moving???" Therefore he dubbed Mimi "The Everyready Rabbit" which I think is the understatement of the year.

REECES MONKEES

This afternoon after our cleanning spree and before swimming lessons, we went down to our local library for a kiddie concert. Both Mimi and Blake always have loads of fun whenever they are together. Mom was also able to buy a couple of books dirt cheap too. $2.00 for two books - Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling and Honeymoon by James Patterson. Easy reading is all I am able to do these days.

MIMI'S NEW BED

It arrived yesterday afternoon and it took Mimi and I all of the afternoon and this morning to purge out all of the "Princess" stuff. We purchased this particular bunkbed for several reasons. One is that this is Mimi's first real bed (not counting the crib) and second we will be ready for Mei Mei when she comes. The top bed is a twin, the bottom is a full and the drawers can serve as two purposes. One purpose is that it can be used for storage such as sheets and comforters or the second purpose it can be used for is a trundle bed in which we would have to purchase another matteress. I choose to use it as storage. Although Mimi is super excited about the bed, she is not happy with the idea that she is not allowed to sleep on the top bunk for a long, long, LONG, time.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SAMANTHA!

This is a special present for Mimi's "Disneyland Samantha" . She worked on it all morning long.

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!

Mom woke up late today. So when we asked Mimi where she would like to go out for Father's Day breakfast, she naturally said "Testy Chef!" Our new local hangout down by the river. The food is really good, price is not too bad, nice view, the only bad part is that it is way smaller that Black Diamond Bakery which we still like too.

Dad finally got a tie for Father's Day. This afternoon Mimi's new bunkbed/trundle bed arrived. She was and is super excited about it. Because it takes up quite a bit of space we had to purge her room of the "Princess" stuff. Yes folks, she actually had "Princess" stuff that was given to her on her 2nd birthday from friends who did not really know her well. There were things such as a Disney vanity set, Disney baby stroller and bed. Barbie vans (2), Doll houses and so forth. We kept them mainly because her friends Halliwell and Erin who loved playing with them when they came over to the house. Oh you should have seen their little faces when I told them that all of this stuff had to go. Especially Erin. She looked as though she was going to cry. I ended up giving them up tonight to two neighbor ladies Krista and Kelly. They both have little gitls who love this kind of stuff. Because Mimi is such a good friend, she made absolutely sure that we keep the Barbies and Ariel doll for Erin to play with when whe comes to the house.

As soon as we got the room cleanned out, we all went over to grandma and grandpa house for a delicious chicken dinner.

SURPRISE!!!

After the game park, then going over to Auburn High School to watch Halliwell perform. it was time to head over to South Center for dinner and purchase a new dryer since ours went caput last Friday. As usual we made a stop to Border's bookstore. Mimi absolutely loves that place. Finally we got home around 9:00 last night and were quite pooped!

MIMI, HALLIWELL AND NATALIE

The three former Southern California girls had to come all the way up to Washington to meet. Can you believe that? They all live in the same neighborhood and they all go to the same school. The only difference is, Natalie is one year older than our Mimi. Maddie who helps Mimi on Fridays with her piano is Natalie's best friend while Halli is Mimi's. On rhe other hand Mimi loves to play with Natalie and Maddie and then there is Marissa (Maddie's older sister). Then there is Natalie's dad Scott who likes to have "playdates" with Mimi's dad Greg. Sometimes on Saturday night Scott and Greg will get together and bring Mimi and Natalie to "open mike" down at another local restaurant. Are you completely confused by now??? This is what it is like living in a small town. Everybody knows everybody.

Turns out that Halliwell and Natalie belong to the same dance school and their school is having one weekend full of performances. Yesterday was Halliwell's turn and this afternoon was Natalie's. Unfortunately we could only go to see Halliwell's performance. Oh the girls were soooo darling and cute!

GAME FARM PARK

Yesterday morning as usual Mimi and dad went to breakfast. Mimi new favorite place is another local diner down by the river. She likes to sit out on the balcony and look at the river. Now and then you may be able to see a fisherman or two.

When breakfast was over, they can home and we all went down to Game Park Farm out in Auburn. I thought that since we were going to a park for our monthly get together with our other China friends, we would take Butch along with us. When we got there we found out that another family had also brought their Pug. Now the question is who's who? Did you guess??? Our Butchie is on the right and Mugsy on the left. Butch was quite thrilled to have someone there to play with.

Mimi was quite happy that Emma and Elsie were there also. Emma and Elsie are sisters and all three girls will be seeing quite a bit of each other this summer as they all belong to the same gymnastic school. Both Emma (the tall one) and Elsie (the one with glasses) are part of the gymnastic team and they practice almost everyday in the evening. Their mom Rhonda is the one sitting on the bench wearing glasses. Elsie is just a new member on the team and competes locally while Emma is a little more experienced and come this next Saturday she along with another of Mimi's friends Jaelyn will be going down to San Jose to compete on the National level. Emma just recently completed another competition and came home with four gold medals. Way to go Emma!!!

A couple of weeks ago Mimi tried out for the team per her coaches request. We don't know yet as to whether she made it or not. Part of me would like it if she was on the team. Mimi has mentioned plenty of times that she too would like to be on the team with Emma and Elsie. On the other hand I would not mind if she was not on the team mainly because of all of the things that it will involve and what I will be getting into. Decisions, decisions. Will keep all of you blog readers updated.

SECRET AGENT MIMI

Last week Halliwell's grandma from Orange County came up here for a visit and to help out with the new baby Therrian. As a present for Halliwell, she brought her a set or "Princess" walkie talkies. Since the two girls live just across the street from each other, Halliwell was dying to try them out. So that's just what they did. Here Mimi is talking with Halli while Halli is inside her house. Work pretty good too.

KINDERGARTEN CELEBRATION

WOO HOO!!! Today was the last day of school. Oh you should have heard all of the noise and commotion that went on when I went to pick Mimi up from school this afternoon. The kids whooped it up by screaming and blowing bubbles and the buses were honking their horns. Since Mimi had worked so hard this school year and got really good grades, I wanted to do something nice for her in appreciation. While dad was at work I took her to Chuck E Cheese and invited her friends to come along. Blake did join us even though he is not in the picture. Erin was not able to join us as she and her family are on the their way to Yakima for a family wedding this weekend.

HONEYSUCKLE, DAHLIAS AND APPLE TREES

So far so good. Last year dad planted my apple tree in the backyard and this year it is starting to bloom. Hopefully come this fall we will have some delicious apples to eat. Last summer I purchased these two pots of Dahlias and the sales clertk told me that when the winter starts to set in is when these plants will start to die. When that happens she said just cut off the dead stuff and put the pots in the garage or storage. Then when the summer just starts to begin bring them out again and start watering them and they will grow again as these are bulb (perrinials) and they lie dormant during the winter and spring. I did as she said. I cut off all of the dead stuff and left them in my garage until the beginning of this month. Now they are growing back more than before. Maybe next week I will re-pot them and soon we will have flowers. This past Spring I have been purchasing quite a bit of plants from Walmart since I am on a budget and can only afford to buy very young plants for fairly cheap at Walmart. The down side of that is you have to wait so long for the plants to grow. A while back I bought this Honeysuckly plant from Walmart when it was nothing but a couple of sticks. The other night after coming home from walking Butch, I sat on my porch and noticed how big the Honeysuckle is getting. It smells sooooo good too. My Jasmine in the backyard is doing quite well too along with my Japanese Maple Trees, Japonicas and Rhodedendrons. I am working hard to get this garden going. Someday I hope to have something of an English garden.

THE PHOTOGRAPHER

Any chance she gets, Mimi will either grab the camera or my cell phone to take pictures. I think she does a darn pretty job most of the time. I just now noticed that most likely she was the one who took the picture of Blake when they went to Remlinger Farms this past Sunday as I can see dad standing in the background. For that picture she somehow managed to swipe dad's camera. The self portrait picture was taken when she swiped my cell phone. The little thief! I really like the one she did of herself and use it as the wallpaper on my iphone.

SUMMIT GYMNASTICS PART II

This evening was part II of Mimi's gymanstic performance as she takes two gymnastic classes. Last night was the tumbling and trampoline. Tonight's performance was the artistic. At first dad was not going to be able to make it as he had made prior engagements, however he was able to reschedule and as he was getting ready to come down from Everett he had a flat tire of all things to happen. After getting a new tire he was able to make it for the last half of her performance. Mimi was extra happy because two of her friends Halliwell and Blake were also on hand to cheer her on.

AFTER THE SHOW

It seems like it's the law of life. When you need something either you don't have it with you or you forgot to bring it either way, it's not there when you need it. It happened to me twice today. The first time was when Keri and I were on our way to school to pick the kids up. On our journey we saw a baby bunny rabbit. Oh it was soooo cute. Of course I did not have my camera with me.

The second time was this evening after the gymnastic show. It was still gorgeous out when we passed the park on the way home. Of course Mimi saw all of her friends there plus Ziggy and Marley the two big pure white golden retrievers. Therefore we had to go home and change, then head over to the park with Butch in tow. Mimi and Butch were ecstatic that all of their friends were there especially Butch. He absolutely loves Ziggy and Marley. I'm not quite sure if they like him but they seem to tolerate a young dude.

There was just one point when I wished I had my camera with me. Ziggy and Marley were standing on all fours were playing with each other. Butch who is a gazillion time smaller than they, kept jumping up in between them with his fat little self as if to say "Hey fellas! What about me?! Play with me too!"

The picture is a late entry. Today is June 17th and I just now found out that I had this picture on my phone camera and just figured out how to post it. Pictured with Butch is Ziggy.

SUMMIT GYMNASTICS

This afternoon was the part I of Mimi's gymanstic show. Tommorrow afternoon is part II. Pictured with Mimi is her new friend Adam. As it turns out, Adam also lives in our neighborhood, just one block away from us. Unfortunately he will not be home the first half of the summer as he and his family will be traveling all over the country and having a good time doing it.

BELIEVE IT OR NOT

Believe it or not, this picture was taken at 9:30 yesterday night. Now you can see why it is very difficult at times to get our dear sweet little gitl to bed on a school night. Hence the blackout curtains which does help. Thank goodness this is our last week of school. Not sure what we will do to celebrate as her school will not have a kinderfarten graduation. Instead they will be celebrating with a pizza party.

ROCK OUT AND PEACE OUT AT REMLINGER FARMS

When I was talking with dad this morning, he realized that he had made commitments for this coming Monday and Tuesday that he cannot get out of. On Monday and Tuesday afternoon and evening Mimi will be part of what they call at her gymnastic school "The Summit Olympics". That where all of the students show the parents, grandparents and friends what they have been working on all year. They also get their certificates at that time. Since dad "goofed up" I suggested that he make it up to her by taking her to Remlinger Farms today since the weather is nice and cool. Of course she had to take her partner in crime along too. Those two are like two peas in a pod. The "rockout hand" was made by Blake and the "peace hand" is Mimi's. According to Mimi and Blake, they made the hands out of wax.

BATMAN OR SHOULD WE SAY BATWOMAN???

While I was out on my walk with Angie yesterday morning, dad said that Keri called to see if Mimi would like to go to the Carnival down by the lake. Our town is celebrating the good ole' pioneer days. I guess one could say that Mimi could not get out of here fast enough to suit her. Both she and Blake had a ton of fun playing on the giant slide and getting their faces painted. At first Mimi absolutely refused to wash the paint off of her face. That is until I promised to take a picture of her so that she could remember it forever.

ME 'N' ANGIE

For the past couple of months I have been trying to get myself into shape. Mainly I am doing it as a present to myself. Almost everynight Butch and I have been walking around the neighborhood. Yesterday morning my good friend Angie and I made plans to go walking together along Soos Creek. I thought that it would be a great idea to take Butch along with us. So I did. Not sure how far we walked, probably a couple of miles or so. All I know is that on the way home I could hear Butch snoring in the back of the car. I think that we wore him out. Poor little fella. Then last night I noticed that his whole upper right lip was quite swollen. I thought that maybe he had a pine cone in his mouth as there is always something in there such as a toy or rock. But no, there was nothing there. Somehow it did not seem to bother him much though. There did not seem to be any discomfort. Not sure if he got stung by a wasp or bee or something that he might have sniffed along the trail.

Anyways the swelling has gone down quite a bit since yesterday. The lip is almost back to normal thank goodness.

KINDERGARTEN CONCERT

Last Friday was quite a busy day at the Putney household. In the morning while mom was at the doctor's for her physical, Mimi hung out with Blake till it was time to go to school. Thank heaven for good neighbors and friends.

For the last half of Mimi school time, all of the afternoon kindergarteners gave the parents and grandparents a wonderful show in the gymnasium. Dad came home early just in time to see Mimi and her croonies perform. They were all sooooo cute! Dad however forgot to get the video camera set up so unfortunately these are the only videos we have.

When school let out for the day, good ole' Blake came over to play till it was time to go to dinner at Red Robin's. Then it was time to head out for another concert put on by Ms Celia's other piano students. We were only able to stay for just a short while as dad's head fell backwards and his eyes were closed and his mouth was open. Mimi and Blake were getting a bit ansy too. So then we were homeward bound. Mom then took Butch for an evening stroll around the neighborhood while Mimi and Blake played a new game of Wii.

ADOPTION UPDATE

We are still on the long, long, LONG, waiting list. In the meantime we are having to update everything. A couple of weeks ago our social worker came to the house and we updated MORE PAPER WORK. Last week dad went for his adoption physical and this morning I went for mine. Mimi went over to Blake's house while I was the doc's. I have good news and bad news. The good news is I lost 12 pounds since my last visit in January. Walking Butch around the neighborhood is starting to pay off. We have been walking almost a mile everynight after dinner. The bad news is I'm shrinking in height. I've lost a half inch in my height. I think that osteoporosis is starting to set in. A couple of weeks ago they were doing bone scans at Costco. I tested for moderate osteoporosis. Now my doctor has me scheduled to get a full bone scan done along with a mamogram.

IT WAS BOUND TO HAPPEN

Because of the solstice season, it does not get dark till aroun 10 p.m. Therefore a lot of moms will have blackout curtains put up in the kids bedrooms. Our house is no different. Last year dad spent a couple of weekends putting ours up. It took Mimi 2 seconds to pull hers down.

Last Monday evening after dinner Mimi and I took Butch for a walk around the neighborhood. I have been doing more of that lately. We saw Alex as he was walking home from his ball game with his mom and baby brother Nate. By the time we got home it was 8:30 and I had Mimi go upstairs to take a bath. After her bath she was all wound up. I had a really hard time getting her to bed because according to Mimi "It's not night outside mom, it's still light and I don't want to take a nap when it is light outside". It does not matter that by this time it was 9:00 in the evening. I finally got her into bed and went into the office in the next room. The next thing I heard was Mimi in a big loud booming voice yelling out her window to her classmates Ethan and Kate and their family down below "Hi Ethan! Hi Kate!" Plus I heard some jumping on the bed. Then I heard a loud crash and bang!

By this time I was irritable, tired and cranky. I went in to see what happened. When I did, I just let the girl have it. I told her that she was getting on my last nerves. "What's nerves?" asks the child. ARGHHHHH!!!!! I just had to leave the room which is suffice to say.

Later after I had calmed down I realized that this is no way to put a child to bed and so I went back into Mimi's room and we talked things out as we always do. We also hugged and kissed and made up. By this time dad had come home. Mimi asked if she could go downstairs and say hello to him and so she did. She sheepishly said "dad, you need to go upstairs and look at my window". Uh oh he thought and sure enough he was not jumping for joy like whoopty doo! Mimi broke the curtain rod! Nor did he get mad at her. Instead we all talked things out as a family. Only after did we talk things out, Mimi says "dad, you could fix the window on Saturday". That's our baby! Hence the gymnastic classes.

SHARING DAY

Usually the kids could bring an item or toy that starts with the same letter as the "Letter Of The Week". Since we are nearing the end of school, the teacher is letting the kids bring any item or animal they want.

Last week Zoe brought her Pugle "Rex" to school I just knew that soon Mimi would want to dot the same thing since she just adores Zoe and likes to do everything that Zoe does. So today was the day whent Butch went to school with Mimi and she could answer any questions that her classmates would ask.

NAOMI aka "MIMI" aka "MEEMERS" AND ZOE aka "ZOE BUGS"

Since the weather is getting much nicer outside, Mimi and I hate to stay home. I suggested to Mimi about going out for breakfast and she asked if she could bring one of her friends so I said that would be fine. Zoe is one of Mimi's few friends that actually gets up early. Blake will get up early if he gets to go somewhere fun. As Keri says "Blake would jump on a sinking ship if he knew his friends were on it".

This morning Mimi wanted to take her friend to a local diner different from Black Diamond Bakery. Little did we know that each girl would be wearing the same pants from Costco. The one thing I have noticed that is different from the schools in California is that Mimi's school is not real strict with the dress code. The kids can actually wear flip flops to school.

THE LUGNUTS

Yesterday was the Lugnuts last official game. After the awards and trophies were passed out. Everyone was able to sit around and reminice about the beginning of the season and make remarks on how every member of the team made such improvements on their game.

In the beginning Erin was made the pitcher, the opposing batter would hit the ball right to her and she would just stand there and watch it roll right past her not knowing what to do. Yesterday the coach made her the catcher for the first half of the game and she did great despite all of the equipment she had to wear.

There was one game where Mimi was made the pitcher and the next thing we knew she was filling her back pockets with dirt. Made it look like she had one big lump on her butt. Now she can hit the ball real good in fact at last week Thursday's game she hit 3 homeruns and ran "just like Ichiro" she says.

MIMI AND SARA

This picture was taken at the Seattle Culture Center with her good friend Sara. Mimi and Sara get along just great, almost like a big and little sister. The youth division this year is getting ready to participate in the annual Seafair parade that is coming up on July 25th. It is one huge week long event every year. Almost equivalant to the the Rose Parade down in Southern California. Just like last year the ESD (elementary school division) are not able to be in the parade so we will sit along the curb and cheer our youth division band members on.

In the late afternoon while mom did a bit of shopping on her own, Mimi and dad went to see Disney's new Pixar movie "UP". Dad says that they really had a good time watching it however Mimi secretly told me yesterday that dad fell asleep during part of the movie. Tee, Hee, Hee.

PUTNEY UPDATE

Ok folks, I am finally able to take a little breather and update you all on what's been happening lately. I am finding now that as a stay at home mom, I am more busier than when I was working out there in society. Especially we are really busy now with the school year coming to an end and scheduling activities for Mimi to do in order to keet her busy during the summer months.

Last Friday morning we recieved a phone from grandma early in the morning. The senior community where she and grandpa live were getting ready to have a Friday, Saturday and Sunday community garage sale. Don't know exactly what happened but somehow one of grandpa's artificial hips came out of the socket. By the time dad, Mimi and I got there, grandma had already called the paramedics and off to the hospital they went. The doctor was able to place it back in and grandpa was able to come back home. Thank goodness. I totally lost count on how many operations he has had on both of his hips.

Since it was still early morning and there was nothing more we could do, dad went to work and Mimi and I were starving so I suggested how about we go out to breakfast. Of course Mimi picks Black Diamond Bakery. Then we did some errands to pick up some pet supplies and make it over to Louella's for our weekly visit.

One year ago, Mimi would not even be standing next to a big or little dog let alone petting them. It's amazing how much our Butch has had a good affect on our lives. Pictured beside Mimi is Natalie. Louella's says that she has no trouble getting the kids out of bed and dressed if they know that Mimi is coming to see them. She has loads of fun with them too.

Next it was time to stop by Costco and get some lunch before school started.

Come this Friday there will be a kindergarten concert at Mimi's school that all the kids are getting ready for. Then it is one more week of school after that.

During this summer all of her activities will be held in the evening. She will be doing swimming M-W-F with Erin and Halliwell for a couple of weeks. T-Th, it will be gymnastics. This time dad will be able to go and watch her practice. When the swimming is done, I have got her sighned up for sports camp with her neighborhood friends and possibly Karate with Blake.

LUGNETS vs ROCKETS

There are 2 more games left to play. This afternoon it was sweltering hot, hot, hot!!! This afternoon when school let out for the day, mom set up Mimi's new slip 'n' slide in the backyard and filled up her wading pool. Mimi, Halli and Blake had a blast playing and getting cooled off before tonight's game. Even ole' Butch got into the act. When everyone got out to get dressed, mom found Butch standing in the middle of the pool by himself.

Since it was so hot, mom made Mimi's favorite summer food - somen (cold Japanese noodles). It is very tasty when the weather is hot. Also she had Mimi ultimate favorite fruit on hand, STRAWBERRIES!

Then it was time for Halliwell to go home and Blake and Mimi went to their game. Mimi belted out 3 home runs! I guess she is learning a lot from her hero Ichiro. We also learned that our dear Erin has an admirer by the name of Jackson (another teammate). In a big loud voice he stated that she was his girlfriend. This caused quite a stir with the girls (Mimi, Zoe and Erin). Erin started to blusch a bit too. It was way too cute.

HEAT WAVE

I don't think the weather will ever make up it's mind. This past winter it was freeze your nunnies off cold and now at 10:22 p.m. it is 75 degrees outside. It just started to get dark about one hour ago. It does not get real hot until about 3:00 in the afternoon. My friend Nikki says that it was 95 degrees in Seattle today. Tomorrow is supposed to be about the same. Mom had a talk with dad this evening. There is a possibility that we will purchase a air cooler soon before the real heat wave hits and mom gets real delirious and not know what's what which is what almost happened today.

GO FLY A KITE

From day one Mimi has always been a early riser. Why should today be any different I ask myself? About 4:00 this morning Mimi came into our room and slept with us for about 30 minutes before mom told her to go back to her room. The girl then left but came back within a matter of minutes asking dad if he would go out a fly a kite with her since the wind is blowing outside. "dad, do you hear the birds? do you hear the wind?" Mimi asks. "uh huh" says dad. "C'mon dad, let's go fly my kite!" cries Mimi. "I have to get ready for work Mimi" dad answers. "Well then, MOM COULD GO FLY A KITE WITH ME!" says the girl. "No I will not!!!" says mom who is still half asleep at this point. "But mom" says the child "It's morning outside!"
"Mimi, if you don't go back to bed this very minute, there will be no baseball tonight" I said. "BASEBALL!!!" cries Mimi as she scampers back into her room.

As of now, I am wide awake (I have been for the past 2 hours) updating our blog and the child is soundly asleep in her bed. ARGHHH!!!

SUNDAY DINNER AT THE PUTNEY'S

The weather has just been too gorgeouse to do any cooking. So mom thought that she would invite Erin's and Halli's families over to the house for hot dogs and burgers. All the kids had a blast especially Liam who rode Mimi's four wheeler and didn't even care that he was wearing a princess helmet. Mom had dad set the speed on it's lowest just for Liam. He did pretty darn good on it if I do say so myself. Mimi usually will have it set to the highest speed.

This was Grandma Janet's last weekend here with the new baby Therrian. Today she and her husband John will be going back home to Minnesota. They came out here to help Brandy and her family with the new baby. They are really, really nice people.

A BUGS'S LIFE

On the way home from grandma and grandpa's we saw Spencer so of course Mimi wanted to stop and play. For quite some time Spencer has been collecting bugs and is sharing with Mimi all of his findings. There are some pill bugs, centipedes, ants, a couple of slugs and so forth. Then together with Jim (Spencer's dad), they went looking for more bugs.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDPA

Last Saturday started off with mom going to the Seattle Culture Center in the morning and then over to Uwajimaya later in the afternoon. Meanwhile dad and Mimi went to get his car have some maintanance work done and then breakfast at Denny's.

In between time Mimi would call mom on the cell phone just to talk. Now mind you somewhere between 10:30 (after breakfast) and 3:00 dad bought Mimi a kite that she had been wanting for quite some time. Everytime Mimi asked mom about a kite, I would just tell her "let me think about it". So of course the girl asks dad and he buys it for her. Bless his little heart. They had so much fun with the kite that when mom arrived home (3:00)she found out that Mimi was over at Halli's house and still had not eaten any lunch. I brought the girl home and gave her some ochazuke (Japanese soup and rice) knowing that in about another hour we would be going over to grandma's house for dinner. The girl ate about 10 small servings of grandma's pot roast.