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Yesterday found us driving an hour and a half north of Seattle into Skagit County for the Skagit Tulip Festival. Even though the weather didn’t cooperate completely, it was cloudy and on and off rainy all day, we just had to head up north to check out what all the fuss was about. We were not disappointed.
Every year, during the month of April, the small town of Mount Vernon puts on this festival. The town is surrounded by fields filled with daffodils and tulips. Little activities and art shows are set up throughout the town. The big draw, of course, is the acres upon acres of tulips. It really was quite a sight. Anna kept saying “Wow, wowwers!” (her adorable word for flowers).
It was so breathtakingly beautiful. I can’t wait for next year’s festival! Maya and I are inspired to plant a ton more tulip bulbs this fall so that my front and back yards look like our own little tulip festival 
We had a wonderful Easter this year. Thanks to a weeks worth of gorgeous spring weather we had daffodils and flowering trees blooming and tulips just about to bloom. Flowers at Easter always makes it feel more like Easter to me. The weather was gorgeous for both our neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt on Saturday and for Easter yesterday.
The girls had a great time at our neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt. The volunteers hid over 3000 eggs around one of our local parks. There were lots of kids there, but since there were so many eggs hidden around the park everyone walked away with a ton of eggs. Anna missed out on the itty bitty kids egg hunt as they started it early and we didn’t get there in time, but she did manage to pick up a couple of eggs during the big kids hunt (thanks to help from mom) and she held onto those eggs for dear life . Maya had a blast and managed to completely fill her basket!
Easter morning Maya woke up bright and early since she was so excited to see what the Easter Bunny had left her and to hunt for more eggs. She actually woke up before Anna and I had to make her stay in her room playing until Anna finally woke up. The girls were very happy with their Easter baskets and had a great time looking all over the house for the eggs the Easter Bunny had hidden for them. Anna was especially excited when she managed to get one of the eggs open and realized there were jelly beans inside!
We planted magic jelly beans in our garden again this year and Maya and Anna were super excited to discover they had blossomed into chocolate carrots
We spent the rest of our Easter outside enjoying the absolutely perfect weather. The girls were exhausted when bedtime rolled around last night. We had a wonderful spring/Easter weekend enjoying our little family and the glorious spring weather mother nature decided to bless us with.
I hope everyone had a great weekend/Easter.
One of the big issues that has come up as a result of the upcoming arrival of The Surprise is where everyone will sleep. We are lucky that we do have a four bedroom house so we have a few options open to us including the possibility that everyone gets their own room. It is nice to have options and I’m thankful for that.
The question is, which option is best? The way our house the laid out three bedrooms are upstairs, the master and what are currently Maya and Anna’s bedrooms. The fourth bedroom is on the main floor and currently serves as our office. And, when guests come to visit we throw an air mattress on the floor and call it a guest room 
Since the fourth bedroom is on the main floor it doesn’t really lend itself well to being a bedroom for any of our young children. So, really it is unlikely we will go with a bedroom plan that will involve everyone having their own room and using the fourth bedroom. It makes Lorne happy too because he isn’t too keen on giving up his office.
Which leaves us with the most likely room set up, having two of the kids share a room. Maya’s room is huge and would serve well as a bedroom for two. We are pretty sure what we will end up doing is having Maya and Anna share a room, in Maya’s current room and give Anna’s bedroom to the baby. Maya is excited about sharing a room because she really wants bunk beds. I think it will work out well.
The question remains as to when to make the transition. Anna is still in a crib with no indication she isn’t enjoying it or is even considering trying to climb out. I hate the idea of prematurely switching her to a big girl bed and opening up a potential can of worms when it comes to nap time and bed time. However, I don’t want to have to buy another crib for what would likely be a fairly short period of time. So, in all likelihood, I’ll move her to a big girl bed before the baby comes so we can use the crib for the baby. The summer seems the best time to make the transition as we don’t have to worry about strict bed times and early wake up calls for school. And, hopefully, by making the transition in the summer everyone will be sleeping well in their new digs before Maya starts school and before I am again thrust into the sleepless newborn phase.
I know it will all work out, and I’m probably worrying too much about it, but hey I’m a mom and that’s what I do
Another Christmas vacation is coming to a close. Lorne went back to work yesterday and Maya heads back to school on Monday. I’m always amazed how quickly the holiday season comes and goes. It feels like we spend so much time preparing for it and it is gone in a blink of an eye. But, at least we made the most of it. This year, since we weren’t busy with traveling for the holidays, we made it our goal was to do something fun every day of our vacation, make it a funcation. And boy did we have fun. We did so much. The days flew by in a blur of smiles, laughter, and fun.
We kicked off our funcation with a trip to the Seattle’s Children’s Museum. The girls had a ton of fun exploring all the different activity centers. Maya’s favorite seemed to be the dress up and stage area (no surprise there!) and Anna loved the under 3 area since everything was just her size (well almost). They both had fun “shopping” in the pretend grocery store.
After spending most of the day in the Children’s Museum we headed outside to check out the fountain in Seattle Center. Maya and Lorne tempted fate by standing awfully close to the water, luckily no one got wet (that time anyway). Anna and I had fun watching and laughing at them every time they almost got wet.
Day 2 was spent in the mountains sledding. The nice thing about living where we do is that we get the best of both worlds in the winter. Our temperatures of fairly mild and we don’t have to deal with the white stuff on a day to day basis, but if we get a hankering for a little fun in the snow we just have to take a short drive into the mountains and there is tons of it. Anna wasn’t too sure about the whole sledding thing at first, but after a few trips down the hill she was having a blast and asking for more. Spent a couple of hours sledding and playing in the snow. It was great fun.
Christmas Eve and Christmas Day offered their own fun. The girls had a great Christmas and got spoiled as always.
After spending a couple days indoors busy with Christmas stuff we decided to head out for a hike on Boxing Day. We checked out the cute little hike close to us that is perfect for kids. They have story boards set up along the trail and you read a bit of the story at each board. The story is about a little field mouse who takes a trip into the forest and what he encounters along the way. It was adorable and Maya had a lot of fun.
Thanks to an awesome joint gift from the girls’ Aunt Kathleen we spent the next day at the Seattle Aquarium (family membership!!). It was packed but we still had a great time. We can’t wait to go back.
Our fun the next day took us back outdoors. We did another nice little hike around a lake at a state park not to far from us. Maya wasn’t as into the hike this time and spent a good deal of it whining, but, we stopped periodically for her to create little performances that we filmed and that seemed to make it a bit more fun for her. Anna slept through most of the hike.
Germs found their way into our home the next day, it was bound to happen given all the time we spent around small children, so the rest of our funcation was pretty low key. We had a quiet little New Year’s Eve celebration complete with appetizers for dinner and sparkling cider all around. New Year’s Day we took a nice drive around the city to check out the mountain views since it was a clear, sunny day.
I’d say our mission of making this a fun filled Christmas vacation was accomplished. Everyone had a great time and we got to check out several new spots in this still new to us city of Seattle. Maya has lots of fun stories to share with her friends when she heads back to school on Monday.
Our ringing in of the New Year has been very low key (and chilly) this year as 2 out of 4 of us (Lorne and Anna) are sick and our furnace is not working, hence the chilly part. Thanks for coming in with a bang 2013 :/
Last night we spent the evening celebrating with the girls. We had a dinner of appetizers and sparkling cider. The girls had fun and after they went to bed Lorne and I managed to stay up until 10pm!! before calling it a night. We really know how to party!
We woke today to a chilly house filled with beautiful sunshine. A crystal clear blue sky is a rare sight in these parts this time of year so we felt the need to do something. Since Lorne and Anna still aren’t feeling well we decided to take a quiet drive around to see the city and the mountains bathed in sunshine. We really are incredibly lucky to live in such a beauty rich part of the country. Everywhere you look there are incredible vistas. Mountains all around. Trees reaching high into the sky. When you light that with often hidden winter sun it really is something. Our drive was the perfect way to kick off the year. We chatted and took in the breathtaking sights from the warmth of our car while sipping hot chocolate. Can’t think of a better way to welcome 2013.
Tomorrow promises more sunshine and hopefully a warmer house once our furnace gets fixed (thank goodness for our kickass gas fireplace). Looking forward to another great year with my little family watching my girls grow and enjoy life, spending time with my love and taking in all this great city has to offer.
Happy 2013 everyone! I hope this year brings you lots of smiles and laughs, lots of time with those you love and a chance to do the things that make you happiest.