Tigers!

We went to a Seattle Mariners vs. Detroit Tigers game at Safeco Field last Tuesday night.  It was not raining!  It was quite cold though.  I had worked that day and was a little rushed getting out the door and did not pack for the cold.  It was ok, though, as long as the wind held off.  We got to see the best Tigers pitcher, Justin Verlander.  It was the only game of the series that Detroit won.  It even was a little exciting as the Mariners almost came back and won it in the bottom of the 9th.  I was a little embarrassed at the snacks I brought.  There was a family with 3 boys in front of us (and their youngest was named Ezra, and they used to live in Michigan too!) but that mom was pulling out apple slices, carrot sticks, etc for her kids.  I, on the other hand, was pulling out doritos, candy corn and licorice.  I will blame it on being rushed to get out the door to the game.  One night of candy will not kill the children I hope.  I do have to say one of the best parts of the game for me was seeing all the Michgan people at the game.  There were almost as many Tigers fans as Mariners fans there.  It was almost like a little reunion of sorts!  Tim was very gracious to do this outing since I have turned our children into Tigers fans and he is still a Mariners fan.  This game was an early Mother's Day present to me!  It was a great time but it wiped us out for the rest of the week since we didn't get the kids home until midnight! 

That is so gross!

We had a slug in our house this morning!  Eeeewwwww...  I have no idea how it got in.  I have to say, living in Washington, we don't have some of the "outdoor" worries people do in other areas of the country.  We never get blizzards, rarely get super hot weather, no tornadoes, thunderstorms, no exotic wildlife either really.  But we do have slugs.  Lots of them.  I usually don't worry about encountering dogs when I am out running but I often wonder how many slugs I have stepped on unknowingly. 

April happenings

We are in the middle of baseball, when it doesn't rain.  I'd say at least half of the games have been rained out.  It has been a great team so far though.  Austin is playing for the "Red Bulls" this year.  We have been in the season for over a month, and just last week found out that Austin's coach lives in our neighborhood.  His grandson, who is on the team, lives one street over from us (just goes to a different bus stop).  One other boy on the team also lives on that same street.  What great connections!  We have had a bit of a hard time meeting kids in the neighborhood that we can develop friendships with (boys in particular).  I'm pretty excited about that.  This is the first season for kid-pitch baseball.  It is a bit more challenging to hit the ball! 

For the last 2 years I have been an ebay seller (brinkley1702).  I have been GRADUALLY selling a collection of die cast cars that my uncle had in his house.  He passed away 2 years ago and lived in Olympia, WA.  Since I was the only family member that lived anywhere close to him, I agreed to take on the project of selling cars.  I started out looking for a buyer who would take the whole collection of approx. 500 cars.  That didn't work out so I started listing them on ebay and selling them off little by little.  After countless pictures like the one below and trips to the post office, I now have a very nice pay pal balance!  I have to say, it was a little bit fun to see the cars, see who bid on them, which cars actually had people bidding each other up, and seeing where the people lived who bought them.  Not to mention making a little money!  So now, that little part time job is done!

We took the kids to Great Wolf Lodge in Grand Mound, WA, this weekend.  What a blast.  They swam their little hearts out.  Tim and I too...  Ezra surprised us by being brave enough to try some new slides, even 2 that he had to go down by himself.  They could have stayed in the wave pool all day.  It was nice not to be on a schedule, just relax together and have fun.  The whole experience of the hotel is amazing.  The rooms are so cool and it is very family friendly. 

These 2 special boys just finished their Awana books for the year!

March happenings

Although it continues to rain and rain and rain...we have been finding ways to enjoy our spring.  Austin participated in the 3rd grade music concert at school.  They are in the middle of a unit on Africa.  They tie-dyed shirts a week before and wore them for the concert.  Austin surprised us by having a special part for the song "The Lion Sleeps Tonight".  He was one of the lions prowling the stage, chasing other "animals" during the song.  The whole class tried out to be lions and only 2 students were chosen.  It was nice to see him enjoy having a "stand out" part.  He has usually shown himself to one of those kids who prefers to just blend in with the crowd.

This is our friend Jacob who is also in 3rd grade at the same school, and attends our church.  All of the 3rd grade classes got to be part of a drum chant to open the concert.

I got to volunteer in Austin's class and help them with this mask/art project.  During the 2 hours I was there they only completed the eyes, nose, and eyebrows.  This was a very involved project but it turned out really cool!

Austin and his teacher after the concert.

Ezra and I made coffee filter butterflies that are now hanging in the window to cheer us.

The boys have been entertaining themselves by loading the couch with all the pillows and blankets they can find.  The hang out up there and of course bring their guns and shoot any bad guys they see outside or indoors. :)

My dad bought the boys Tigers hats.  Austin was sure he needed a good hat like this for baseball practice.  Opening day for the Tigers is this week!

Of couse, we had to color Easter eggs.

We are looking forward to celebrating Easter in a week and the chance to celebrate the reason for our hope!

A day at the zoo

We went to the zoo at Point Defiance yesterday.  The boys had no school and I didn't have to work so I decided to go for it.  The weather these last 10 days or so has been dreadful.  CONSTANT rain.  COLD rain.  VERY depressing.  I decided we were going to the zoo even if it meant getting rained on all day.  God was very gracious though, because even though it was raining pretty hard when we got there, it tapered off pretty quickly and the sun even came out for the majority of our time there.  It was very therapeutic for me. Austin was my little photographer.  He took all of the animal pictures below.  It was a really great day to be there because it was not crowded at all and the animals were pretty active.

Leprechaun Day!

We made a leprechaun trap this morning.  I didn't want to miss this opportunity to enjoy young minds that still might not be sure if this leprechaun stuff is real or not...  I don't know if the leprechaun was supposed to appear last night or tonight, but it could be that our kids might wake up tomorrow to see that a little mischief happened in the house while they were sleeping...

100th day of school

Christian came off the bus yesterday with this hat on.  I love that he still likes to do stuff like that and is not embarrassed.

We haven't been doing much that I felt like blogging about lately!  I have been a little down this last week because my parents left.  They were here for 2 weeks and we had a great time.  We went to the Seattle Aquarium and the boys and grandparents spent one night in a hotel and did a lot of swimming.  I also bought several new light fixtures for our house and my dad installed them.  We can actually see after dark now in our downstairs room!  We also spent a lot of time just hanging around the house which was nice.  I was also able to get caught up on my yearly scrapbooking!  Somehow I didn't take many pictures of our activities though.