MARY, MARY, QUITE CONTRARY.........

My garden of flowers are slowly starting to take shape. All of my fall/winter flowers are starting to bloom. Can you believe it? There are actually fall and winter perrineals up here in the northwest. I thought that all the plants just die in the winter time up here. You know with all the cold weather we get. However yesterday and today is AMAZINGLY GORGEOUS outside so of course everyone is taking full advantage of it cause as you know the weather this coming week will start to get colder and more rain is to come like last week Saturday. By the end of this month it will be time to pack up our patio furniture and winterize everything doggone it!

This morning dad went over to grandpa and grandma's house. They are in the process of packing and getting ready to put their house on the market next month. Grandma's health has been failing for quite some time now and they are planning to move into a assisted lived building across from the hospital. Although they can still get around, grandma still has trouble with her back and has to now walk with a cane. Oh well, so much for my woes. Almost forgot to mention that Ollie and Stanley really like my plant (top left picture) because it is what is known to us as Catnip.

HAPPY 4th BIRTHDAY XANDER!

Here Ada is showing us all the proper technique for eating a birthday cupcake. You may notice that in the picture where the kids are trying to get the candy out of the Pinata, Mimi and Erin are missing. We did call out to them but I guess that anyone who is 4 or younger is beneath these two 6 year olds. They hung out in the living room till it was time to pick up the fallen candy and put in into their baggies. Xander's dad Sean says that they're no dummies. "Why not have the young ones to the work for them?" he says.

BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS

As soon as it was time to pick her up from the gym this morning, I stayed to help clean up. Then met up with Mimi and dad at Testy Chef for breakfast. Not pictured here is the pancake and bacon plus the apple juice. Although they had orange juice and doughnuts for the girls this morning, Mimi is not satisfied unless she has a real breakfast. I also knew that we would have a birthday party to go to as soon as we got home. Mimi loves, loves, LOVES, her bacon. She could probably eat a whole slab of it if I let her. That is why she only gets around 2-4 slices of it per week. While we were there another "regular" customer by the name of Butch (believe it or not) came in. He is quite a salty kind of a guy but the gals can hold their own. It was decided between us regulars that a "testy meter" was needed for the entrance and only the testy folks are allowed in.

SLEEPOVER

After practice last night and before going back to the gym for the sleepover, I had Mimi take a bath, then a short nap. This full day school business is starting to get to her. When she's tired, she gets really nutso. So after practice, she was a real looney tune. Therefore I had her lie down and she was out like a light. She slept for about a half hour before I woke her up to eat some dinner before going back to the gym. They had healthy snacks and pizza waiting for everyone when we got there however I know that as much as Mimi likes to eat, food takes a backseat if she has a chance to play with her friends.

At first she was a little apprehensive as this is her first sleepover if I don't count the couple of times she stayed at Blake's house overnight. We talked about it. I explained to her that Emma and Elsie would be there, also their mom Rhonda would be there and Jaelyn too. I also told her that there were movies planned and also a lot of games were in the making. By the time we got there and she saw Jaelyn, all of her fears were gone. Summit this year started having the older girls be sisters to the younger girls. Jaelyn has said that she wants to be Mimi's older sister. Mimi liked that idea however when we picked her up this morning she announced that she now has another older sister by the name of Makayla. I guess Summit has a way of doing the choosing of who is to be the younger girls sisters.

COLLECTIONS

I am so happy now that they have a new Uwajimaya closer to home. You know they say that you will really never miss something until it is gone. That is not far from the truth.

So before picking Mimi up from school, I stopped to pick up some items that she likes to eat at home. Naturally I had to buy some liquor too. I mainly use the Sake for cooking Sukiyaki which is a favorite dish for Mimi and dad.

When I got home I did not have enough time to put the groceries away. Therefore I just left it in the car until I came home with Mimi 10 minutes later.

Since my arms were full, I ask Mimi if she could help by bringing in the Sake bottle. Without skipping a beat, the girl asks me "mom, are you making a collection of these???" How much Sake does she think I drink? Hm???

A DATE WITH DAD.........A-L-O-N-E

One of the perks of full day school is that I was able to take the light rail into Seattle and have lunch with dad at McCormick's ALL BY MYSELF. There is also another restaurant in Los Angeles that is the same company but the name is McCormick and Schmick's. Only one day I made the mistake and called it McCormick and Schmuck's. OOPS. They do have really good food. However at our McCormick's they did not have the spicey Asian dish that I love soooo much. Oh well, none the less the food is still good and the Pinot Grigio was excellent.

As soon as lunch was over, it was a short walk back to the train station and had just enough time to head over to Uwajimaya before picking Mimi up from school. I no sooner picked her up from school and it was time to head home, have her change into her leos, grab a snack and head to the gym. While she practiced, I helped the other moms prepare for the sleepover. The theme was "Glow In The Dark".