Happy birthday princess!

Today is Abby's 3rd birthday! Yesterday she had a small birthday celebration at preschool, and it was also dress-up day for Halloween. She dressed-up as a fairy-princess (see sidebar for a funny story about that!).

Sept recap #5 - my birthday

Chad and Abby made me plates for my birthday at Claywerks:

Now here is me opening up the surprise, let's see what is this?

Oh, wow, tickets to go to Houston!
How fun!
But wait! When, do I go to Houston? The day after tomorrow - Holy Smokes!!!
My husband only truly surprises about once in every 5 years, so these ARE tears of joy!

Cake time!

Blowing out my Sesame Street candle (it was all I could find):

Jamie thinks he was the one that did it!

Sept recap #4 - blake island

Chad took Jamie to Blake Island for a father-son weekend. They went on the little sailboat and had a blast. There are no cushions inside the boat so they brought their own camp cushions and sleeping bags, which worked well for them.




On the dock:
Exploring the beach:


Poor Jamie got stung by nettles cuz Chad decided to do some bush-whacking:
But a game of trouble seemed to dry all the tears:

Attempting to skip rocks, I think this one may be a bit too big!

Jumpin' logs:



The best part: FISHING!


Nice catch!

He was so proud of it too!

Ah, this would have been sweet had it been in focus. Nobody can ever seem to focus when they offer to take your picture - huge pet peeve of mine!!!

Sept recap #3 - Cama beach

On the last weekend of the summer, we went "camping" (and by camping I mean staying in a lightly furnished cabin) out at Cama Beach State Park on Camano Island. The cabins had kitchenettes, a table, bunk beds and a double bed (mattresses provided but you had to bring your own bedding). The only bummer was having to walk to the bathroom in the middle of the night, not because it was scary but because it was so friggin' cold in my pj's! The best part of park is that there are NO cars allowed down by the cabins so the kids could play outside and ride bikes worry-free. And when it down-poured on Friday night, nobody woke up to a leaking tent on Saturday morning! I think we may have found our new favorite spot for family reunions (although I do miss Kalaloch - if only it was more predictable!).

We got lots of great pictures from our trip:

the inside of our cabin:

Jamie and Stephen were inseparable on their bikes:



Lots of great hikes and walks to be had:


A field to play sports:

Model-boat building on saturday mornings (the kids loved this!):





The rows of cabins (we had a back-row one, which is cheaper than the waterfront ones):


The beach, which is made up of rocks and small shells:

Beautiful views:

Abby and Hannah have fun with art supplies out on the picnic table:

Sept recap #2 Back to school

Jamie is now in the Pre-K class, and since Abby adores the preschool so much, we put her into the Two's class (I didn't start Jamie until he was 3). Both of them love their class and teachers.

Abby

Jamie

This was the picture Jamie made on the first day - it is of our whole family (including the new baby!). Daddy is the one with the big head, Jamie is actually the second biggest person (because he says he's so tall). Funny that only him and dad are the ones with hair!