PARTIES, PARTIES, PARTIES

As usual our weekends are quite full. There was a pre-comp meet at our gym but since Mimi is now on the team she did not have to compete which in turn made her super, super happy because she was then able to attend Kate and Ethan's birthday party at their house. This is a family who has not one but two sets of twins. First is Kate and Ethan who just turned seven. Then there is Owen (boy) and Avery (girl) who are 3 years of age......I think.....not sure. When I heard that the party would be at their house I most definitely that they (parents) had totally lost control of all their senses. I must say though that when I dropped Mimi off at their house, I was totally and completely surprised at how well all of 30-35 kids were behaving. They had everything so very well organized and planned out well. There were 3 parents that had about 10 kids each doing a different game at the same time. I guess it does pay to be a teacher at times. Michelle owns her own pre-school and Jason works as a schoolteacher himself. So while Mimi was at the party, I had time to go out and buy more plants for our backyard as I as still in the process of sprucing it up a bit. When the party was over it was playtime for Mimi and Blake. And play they did. Then they both asked if Mimi could sleep over at his house that night and so they had a sleepover. Apparently our sweet Mimi is not a good sleepover guest in that I mean when she sleeps she sometimes thrashes around which in turn wakes up Blake. At 2 in the morning Keri says that Blake came crying into her room saying that Mimi kept waking him up. Unless Mimi changes, heaven help the person she ends up with (much) later in life.

Yesterday afternoon while dad took both Mimi and Blake out to see the movie "How To Train A Dragon", Keri hosted a Miche Bag and Cookie Lee party. I not much into the jewelry but I do love nice handbags. Since I already had the bag, all I really needed was another shell.

When I arrived at Keri's, what I thought I saw wasn't really what I thought at all. I thought I saw a real baby on the sofa but what it was, was a baby doll for Izzy. Izzy lives next door to Keri and she is now 15 years old. Her mom Lisa was there for the party. Izzy has a project to do and that is to care for this doll as if it was her own baby. This doll is specialized in that it acts like a real baby and you have to care for it like a real baby. You have to figure out what each cry means. Lisa says that it even crys at 2 or 3 in the morning for its feedings. Then when the party was over and we were all sitting around with our wine, Izzy was caring for her baby and the ladies proceeded to talk about their birthing horror stories and I looked over to Izzy just in time to see the scared look on her face as they were relaying these horror stories. I think that they scared her straight. Next thing I knew, our Tazmanian devil came home. She still leaves her stuff all around the house. Here, there and everywhere. She cried like a banshee when we told her it was time to leave. "I wanna stay at Blake's house!!!" she cried and cried. That was when I knew she was tired, because when there is a sleepover, NOBODY SLEEPS. We will be going to bed early again tonight.

MIMI'S NEW NICK NAME

This afternoon Brandy came over to the house with the boys while Mimi and Halli were in school. Since Christmas she has been semi laid up with a bad foot. I offered to go over to her house for our lunch date thinking that it would be easier since she has the two babies but now I realize the the reason she wanted to use our house is the fact that she must be getting cabin fever by now. When the time came, I went to pick up the girls and come back to our house. McCallister was overjoyed to see the girls. He just loves tagging along after them. They in turn love to tease him in order to get him to chase the both of them around the house while shouting out Hawa (Halli) and Pee Pee (Mimi). The boy is only two at this point.

DEEP DISCUSSIONS

Mimi is just a happy-go-lucky kinda gal and I really love that part of her personality. Every now and then she will surprise me with some deep questions and it catches me off guard sometimes. This morning she saw our local paper that has a picture of Jesus looking up to the sky with the sun rays shinning down on his face and off in the distant is the 3 crosses. Mimi started asking questions during breakfast. I still did not have my morning tea and was not quite awake yet but I thought that if she is asking, now is the time to answer. She wanted to know who that was in the picture so I told her. Then there was silence. Finally she says "but how did he get in the picture?" "You mean, how did the picture get into the paper?" I asked. "Uh huh" Mimi answered. So I told her that it was actually a painting and the papers printed in the paper. "You mean he's not REAL???" the girl asked wide eyed. "Yes, Jesus is real but back in those days people did not have cameras so they drew pictures" I answered. She just looked at me like I had two heads as if to say "Are you serious? People didn't have cameras then???" More questions. "Is he talking to GOD?" "Yes" I answered. "Well then, how come we can't see GOD?" she asked. "WHERE IS GOD?" again she asked with a puzzled look on her face. "God is everywhere" I answered. Finally she pipes up with "Blake knows everything. He is so smart." End of discussion.

BUSY, BUSY, BUSY....

It seems that the older Mimi gets the busier I am. The other night when us moms got together while the girls and their dads were out a comment was made. Janet said that it seemed that last year when our kids were in kindergarten, it was like one big party for us moms. We had more time to get together. Why is that? I wonder??? You would think that since the kids are in school, we would have time to get together more often. As for myself, I joined the gym to get myself into shape or least try to. Also since the weather is cool, it's time to get my backyard together. I've got bulbs to plant tomorrow. Dad planted my rose bushes for me last Sunday. There are four bushes in all. Today Bryce came over to help me go out and pick up rocks to line my flower bed. Since going from two paychecks to one I am having to pinch pennies and buying the stones for the flower beds are costly. So now since there is a new developement going up, I went to pick up my rocks for free. In the next few weeks, the nurseries will be getting more plants and shrubs that I want to go and check out. Unbeknownst to Mimi, next month we will be making a trip down to Portland and on the way we will be stopping at The Great Wolf Lodge (indoor water park). I know she will be shocked. Last February Keri invited us to go along with them as it was Blake's birthday, but we graciously declined as we were getting ready for the Olympics. When Mimi got wind of Blake going there she was highly upset with me "I'VE BEEN DYING TO GO THERE AND YOU WON'T LET ME!!!" She would be even more upset if she knew Keri invited us and we said "No thank you".

FATHER/DAUGHTER BALL

Tonight was the big night of the year for all of the girls in Maple Valley. This is the one and only time I can get Mimi to wear a dress without a hitch. However the girl does have expensive taste. She only likes Nordstrom dresses. It did not happen though. Tonight's theme was Masquerade Ball. As usual the girls danced together while the dad huddled together. Mimi did say that she danced with dad a couple of times. She was quite pleased that they played her favorite song "The Hokey Pokey". Meanwhile us moms gathered at our house and had a party of our own. It was a last minute plan and it worked out well. All of the girls except Mimi have younger brothers and the boys were not happy that the girls have a special night with their dads and they have nothing. So they came to the house also and joined in with us moms. We stayed up till the girls got home. Then all of the dads regaled in their stories. For a minute dad thought he would not know anyone at the dance. "Who's going to be there?" he asked me. Then when I said "John (Halliwell's dad) will be there " dad was quite relieved. Turns out a couple more dads from the neighborhood was there also. I must mention that before the dance, the dads took the girls out to dinner at the Panda Express. Everyone had a good time tonight.

REPORT CARD TIME

It's that time again. However the folks around here refer to it as a "Progress Report". For the most part Mimi did pretty good. Mostly 3's with a couple of 4's. Math is where she fell short this time. It's not that she does not know how to solve the problem, it's just that she just freezes up when the tests are timed. The students get just one minute to solve 20 problems. Out of the problems she does complete, she gets them all correct. The problem lies in completion. So we are glad that she made it into the zero hour this time again. This zero hour class has to deal with math. We are practicing her math at home too. There is a website called Mathmagician that we are using and it seems to be helping. Other than that she has no problem at all. So all in all we are super proud of her to say the least. The teacher writes: Naomi is doing very well in 1st grade. Naomi's reading is progressing nicely. She is now able to read books on which she is tested for fluency (rate of reading) and asked comprehension questions and she did just fine in both areas. Naomi is dear. She enjoys life and class and we enjoy her.

AT THE PARK

Yesterday we were so blessed to have such gorgeous weather. It was way
too nice to play indoors so off to the neighborhood park we went after
school.

THERE IS NO PRINCESS LIVING HERE

Tonight Mimi and I went out to buy her shoes for the Father/Daughter
Ball this coming Saturday. All the way to the store Mimi whinned "I
HATE SHOPPING!" Then when we arrived to our destination the girl cried
out "I LOVE THIS PLACE!!!" While there we bought a new umbrella for
her ad the Hello Kitty one gave out. I bought that one way before I
knew that she would turn out to be such a rambunctious tomboy. Take
mote that the handle is in the shape of tires.

SCOOTER

I love daylight savings time. This evening we took Butch over to the
school and Mimi wanted to ride her scooter. Last year she did not have
much interest in it. Then came the rainy weather so there is not much
playing outside plus with all of her extracurricular activities, we're
hardly ever home. Today she wasnted to practice and so we did. I told
her that tommorrow she could ride it to school as we will be starting
up with zero hour again and we will be at school before anyone else.
She lit up like a Christmas tree.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TIM

This month is Alex's dad's (Tim) birthday. As a surprise Katrina came
up with the idea of making a book for him. She asked each and everyone
of their friends to take a picture of themselves and e-mail it to her.
Without thinking ahead yours truly came up with this bright idea of
the kids with the sign and usually when one comes up with the idea,
one usually ends doing the whole project. Therefore I spent my whole
afternoon yesterday making the sign. True to form, Mimi took charge of
getting her friends to pose. It all worked out in the end and the only
thing left to do is send it off to Katrina tonight.

MIMI AND HER BOYZ

A while back Katrina (Alex's mom) shared a story with me. She said that when Halliwell came over to the house, Alex (who is all boy) suggested some boy games to play. Halliwell (who is all girly girl) just turned her nose up and said "no". No matter what Alex suggested, the answer was always "no". To which Alex told his mom "That's why like playing with Mimi. She likes playing the same stuff as boys do."

This afternoon I witnessed it for myself. I picked up all three kids from school today. Mimi's class is ALWAYS the LAST class to come out. While we were waiting for Mimi, Alex tried playing with Halliwell but the girl would not give him the time of day. Finally Mimi came out and his face just lit up like a Christmas tree, that is until I told him that she had to go to gymnastic class and that it was not a playdate but that I would take him home on our way to the gym. He looked quite crest fallen. Poor little fella. After dropping Mimi off, I stopped by Alex's house to talk with Katrina for a bit and we made plans for a playdate for this coming Friday as they do not have school due to staff developement day. All is A-ok is his little world now.

SCHOOL IS ALMOST OVER

While going over my hectic calendar the other day, I realized that school is almost over. Holy Cow! Mimi only has a couple of months till I get to have her home full time. What to do? What to do??? I guess now is the time to sign her up for her annual swimming lessons and then she wants to play soccer. Of course there will be library time too. Oh well I guess I "Better git to gitt'in" as my dad would say.

SEE NO EVIL.......

On this particular day we were out having lunch and for some forgotten reason Mimi was quite mad at me. That is how these pictures came about. It was not planned, just a fluke. I had them developed in black and white and they came out grrrrreat! So what started out as a bad thing, turned great.

WACKY HAIR DAY

Last week at Mimi's school it was Bookfair week and on Thursday night the kids celebrated the end of Bookfair week by having a silent auction and raffle baskets. Mimi and I had system going for ourselves. This year as opposed to last year I brought $40.00. Six dollars went to our spagetti dinner (3 dollars each) and the rest of the money went for the raffle tickets. As I wrote the names on the tickets, Mimi went to put the tickets in the collection box by each raffle basket. The raffle baskets were provided by each class and each class had a theme. Mimi's class theme was Legos. I must say that they had some pretty good stuff on the silent auction tables. There were stuff donated by the Seahawks, Mariners and other local businesses such as massage parlors and spas, jewelry, purses and vacation spots just to name a few. Dad was not able to make it for the dinner as it started at 5:30 but he did make it for the end of the raffle basket. Our neighborhood lucked out Jess received a day at the spa amongst other spa items, Erin won a glam girl basket filled with all sorts of girly items and Blake won an all boy basket. Things that would make a boy jump for joy. I did pretty good myself. I won all of the fix'ins to make a Margarita including the blender. How about that?! However Mimi was not happy as there were not any toys in our basket but who cares?

Just before going over to the school that evening, Mimi mentioned to me that the next day would be Wacky Hair Day and that she wanted to temporarily dye her. She says "Mom, Bryton and Kolton are going to dye their hair red, white and blue!" Sure enough they did. However it was colored hair gel.Since Mimi gave me such late notice, I was not able to dye her hair. Tried using a little food coloring in it but it didn't work. Oh you should have seen all of the kids in their wacky hair. A lot of did what Mimi did. Some had used the colored hair gel while others wore curlers and wigs. It was a fun day for all.

CROSSING THE BORDER INTO CANADA

SEATTLE IN A DAY CONTINUED

Since Mimi and Samantha was getting quite tired of me taking pictures of them, I switched to videos. Worked much better in the long run. The video with the wave is Ballard Locks and the balls are at the Space Needle.

SEATTLE IN A DAY

Our day started off with a good breakfast from Black Diamond Bakery before heading out to Ballard Locks. Something that Allyn did not get to do the last time they were here. It was a gorgeous sunny day that day. After spending a couple of hours at the locks we were all getting kinda hungry again so dad suggested we try out Dick's burgers. I must say that I was not all that impressed with them but it took care of the hunger pangs I was feeling at the time. Then it was time to head over to the gasworks park where it was quite windy. Great day for flying a kite however dad forgot to bring our kite, darn it. After the park, I thought it would be a great idea to drive into downtown Seattle for dinner at Todai's. However that did not work out as Todai's moved! Darn it! We did get a chance to ride the monorail and go to the food court for dinner as Mimi and Samantha love Udon and soup always taste great on a cold day. Of course I had to take a picture of the girls on their dads shoulders. Mimi has dad doing this quite often and as usual he complies for a couple of reasons. One is, she has him wrapped around her finger even though he will never admit to this and second, he may not be able to do this next year as she is getting heavier and taller.

INTERTUBING AT SNOQUALMIE

Teri had suggested that we take the girls skiing. After my experience with Mimi and skiing, I knew that it would not be a good thing to do. First of all skiing is way harder than it looks. Second of all it takes more than just one day to learn. Mimi already has had 4 years of experience which is why she is pretty good at it. Therefore I suggested that we all go intertubing we had already done it earlier with Blake and his family. The kids just loved it. So that is what we did and we all had a blast.

MIMI AND SAMANTHA AS "ROCK STARZ"

After coming home from the Chinese dinner Mimi and Samantha decided that they were "Rock Starz". They decided that they wanted to put on a show for us and so they did.

UPDATE OF THE PUTNEY'S

Ok folks, I know that it has been quite a while since my last post. It seems that as Mimi gets older, I am busier than ever before. So please bear with me. Here goes. Two weeks ago Saturday was when our dear friends the Fratkins arrived. That very same night we took them to our usual Chinese restaurant The Golden Peacock for the Chinese New Year celebration. All was going well until they lit the firecrackers. That's when it all went kind of downhill for us. It was so darn loud and smokey. I am so sorry about that. I totally forgot all about it. Sorry Teri, Allyn and Samantha. Hope you had fun anyways.