B.S.C.

I Got Him Good!

I couldn't help but plan a little surprise party for Eric's 40th a couple weeks ago.  He picked a trip to New York to see one of his favorite bands to celebrate, but there was no way I was going to let it go by without doing something!

Thank you to Kristie for taking pics as he walked in the room. And to Kristie and Jon for sending me some i phone photos they took.

He had NO idea!

The famous Bobby Moore of The Barking Frog catered.  He was working out of his super cool new food truck, The Road Toad. 

I cannot get that picture unflipped.  

I look jaundiced.  

Loved celebrating him. He deserved it.

The Last Day of 5th and 2nd Grade

First let's revisit the first day...

And fast forward to today.

Ham bone

cute kiddos at the bus stop

these girls are heading to middle school in the fall

This next picture makes me cry every time I look at it. I cannot even begin to explain how much we're going to miss her. Both my girls were so incredibly blessed to have her as their teacher.  

and the look on Gracie's face while Mrs. Sparks gives a group hug.  Priceless. We love her too. 

This girl came home a 6th grader, ready to head to middle school.

 

Happy Birthday Dylan!

Last Saturday we celebrated Dylan's 1st birthday with a bang!  It was fantastic.  My sister in law put a lot of work into her cute Pink Lemonade Party!  Kelli created a Pinterest board for us to share pins and give her ideas.  I have to tell you,  it was so much fun to do this with my "sister"!!

It's amazing how much difference a year can make.  The night she was born and the months following were surely a mixture of emotions-the milestones and the setbacks. But here she is, thriving thanks to amazing medical intervention and even more amazing parenting.  

I love the look on her face!

Sweet family

cousins

decorations

Uncle Eric assisting Grandpa Bernie with the assembly of the swing

One of my brother in law's best friend's son. He's a cutie!

My brother in law opening a bunch of pink all by his lonesome.

These girls LOVE their Auntie.  

They should make 1st birthday present opening an Olympic event.

And the Emans Family motto...If you don't like your cake, just wash it down with a little coors.

I'm so happy we're family!

I chose wisely...

I was originally slated to go to 5th grade camp with Gracie. Turns out that Sasquatch started on the friday of Memorial weekend at 4 and we'd just be getting back from camp that day.  Not enough time to get over to the festival and see the friday bands. 

Turns out I chose wisely.  A- with the I-5 bridge collapse it took them something like 5 hours to get home from camp Orkila.  B- Gracie immediately reported that the cabins were musty and I WOULD NOT have been happy.  She knows me so well. Let it be noted that I WILL NOT be attending camp when Annie is in 5th grade.  

We started our day at Moms and Muffins for Mother's day. 

Our fine assortment of gluten free, dairy free, egg free not that tasty breakfast goodies.

later that day, Gracie and I set off on an adventure. We headed to Mukilteo, checked into our hotel and had dinner at Ivar's.  

ice cream at Diamond Knot

 and a walk on the beach

The next morning we got up bright and early to catch the ferry.  We drove to Langley,  walked around the shops and found a cupcake shop that offered vegan cupcakes AND gluten free cupcakes.  We were in heaven.  Hands down best vegan cupcake I've had to date.  

We caught the ferry back to Muk, had lunch at Diamond Knot and headed home to Daddy and Annie.  It was such a lovely time, you can be sure that we'll do it again. 

Mother's Day

I had such a nice mother's day.  I woke up to this on my bedroom door.

made by Gracie

The girls showered me with all of their pictures and poems and presents before we went to church. Eric gave me a new pair of running shoes. They also surprised me with a scarf that I had admired at Joyworks when we went to pick out a present for teacher appreciation.  Annie took him down there while Gracie and I were on our mommy and me date.

Color me impressed. 

My card from Eric

And a note from Annie

After church, we headed to Central Market to grab some flowers for our dinner table.  Eric dropped the bomb that he was going to buy sausage and eggs to make a big breakfast.  I was like...no you're not.  A. I can't eat it and B. I didn't want my clean kitchen getting all messed up before the grandparents arrived. So, we went to Azul for breakfast.  It's our favorite breakfast spot and we seem to get there at least twice a month.  It's becoming a BAD habit.  And then we went to Run 26 so I could get my new shoes. I needed them after eating like a pig at breakfast.  

We came home and tidied up the house.  

The grandmas arrived and we had a lovely dinner cooked by Eric.  He even got me one of my favorite vegan desserts from Whole Foods.  He's a good man.

My sweet girls and husband made it a very special day.

Sasquatch!

I wanted to write this post earlier, but I just spent the last hour trying to recover some photos that I couldn't find.  I ended up purchasing some memory card recovery software.  Never mind this has happened before. Never mind I have purchased recovery software before.  Don't ask.  Ok, I couldn't find it.  

Kind a like when I put on an old jacket for our rainy monday Sasquatch and found $80 in the pocket. EIGHTY DOLLARS.

Eric was like "HOW DO YOU NOT KNOW YOU LOST EIGHTY DOLLARS?!?!?!

 I don't know. It was like 3-4 years ago that I lost it. I'm just special like that. 

WE HAD SUCH A GREAT TIME AT SASQUATCH!!!!!

Friday:

We kicked off "Festivale" with 

JAPANDROIDS-meh. The sound wasn't that great. 

BUILT TO SPILL

ARCTIC MONKEYS

VAMPIRE WEEKEND-  I LOVE THEM!!!! We saw them at coachella too.  I know their new album better so I liked 'em even more. 

And the highlight dance party good time fun was

MACKLEMORE and RYAN LEWIS, of course What a great show!  

After the VIP experience at Coachella, we decided to get VIP for Sasquatch.  The regular VIP was sold out so we did this in between one and it turned out to be fantastic.  We had seats for the mainstage, which happened to be the stage that had the most bands we wanted to see. Having seats for most of the day was very helpful to my old lady feet.

AND, if we hadn't had those seats we wouldn't have met these goof balls:

Yes, they're wearing thrift shop fur coats for Macklemore and these shirts

Hilarious. They are from Canada and they were on a "Stag" party. I'll translate for you.  That means Bachelor party here in the states. Each day they had a different theme of dress and some very unusual customs.  For example, if one of them spilled a drink,  someone had to offer up their shoe and pound a beer that had been poured into said shoe.  If there was any left over, it was be poured over the head of the person drinking. There may, in fact, be a photo of me holding a shoe while one of them is drinking from it.  

We also met these gals who were in the same booth as us. Super fun!

Friday, we also ran into Jerry and Jennifer, owners  of Guardian Cellars.

 she just had a baby not long ago.  Doesn't she look fabulous?!

SATURDAY

The costume du jour for the stag party was inappropriate t-shirt sayings that were really quite funny.  Justin Long asked for a picture with one of the guys, Chit, because of his t shirt.  We had to explain to Chit who Justin Long was.

ROBERT DELONG

ATLAS GENIUS- love!

BLACK REBEL MOTORCYCLE CLUB- That was a yes for Eric and a no thank you for me. 

ANDREW BIRD-nice

BLOC PARTY- good!

The XX- good but they're so mellow, it's not really mainstage late night dance fun.  

We left before Sigur Ros.  Which everyone around us told us to be glad we did.  The joke the rest of the weekend was that our friends should have brought their pillow so they could have taken a nap during the show. 

That night there were some ladies on a get away a couple of boxes down from us.  They were quite enamored with the stag party, so they spent a lot of time dancing in front of us.  One gal was extremely proud of her fake chest. Not only could she not stop touching them and talking about them, she tried convincing Eric that he should "let" me get some.  Without skipping a beat, he told her he didn't believe in unnecessary surgery and he thought I was perfect the way I was. 

She didn't speak to us the rest of the night.

SUNDAY

The costume today was...well you can see for yourself.

I don't know what I was doing in that pic.  I look like I'm constipated.  But that's Andrew. he's the one getting married. 

And that's Lurch.  I'm assuming that's his nick name because he's really tall. 6'7" tall.  Yes, they were wearing onesies. Bruce was wearing a kilt. He must have forgotten his onesie. I guess I don't have a picture of Bruce in his kilt. sad.

Sunday was our longest day.  We got the the venue at about 12:30pm and didn't leave until almost one am

We kicked off with CAPITAL  CITIES-FAN FREAKING TASTIC!!!!!  I've heard two of their songs on Alt Nation and like them a lot, but I didn't know anything about the band.  They were an absolute hoot!  they rolled on stage in white satin bowling type jackets. They danced, taught us some moves and covered sinead, madonna and staying alive.  

YOUNGBLOOD HAWKE

DROPKICK MURPHYS

EDWARD SHARPE and the MAGNETIC ZEROS-

ELVIS COSTELLO

MUMFORD AND SONS!!!!!!!!! Oh my gosh. So, so good.  

MONDAY

was rainy, but I was a trooper and because of the rain I found $80 in my pocket.

Monday the guys wore gorton's fisherman outfits. They were lifting Chit over their heads. He's very tiny.

We saw

IMAGINE DRAGONS-pretty good

CAKE

THE LUMINEERS-fantastic!!!! The box next to us only had one couple in it and it happened to be right by the entrance to our section of seats. A gentleman that looked important asked the couple if they would mind moving to our area so they could use the spot.  They agreed and some men came in and set up some boxes and mics.  Then all of the sudden the Lumineers headed our way and sang a song from right there!!  It was pretty cool!

POSTAL SERVICE and they were fantastic as usual.  They sang a new song Tattered Line of String, which I love and was disappointed that they didn't sing it at Coachella. 

We really had a great time. I can't believe we've got one more music trip in the works for Eric's 40th! Feeling very lucky to get to do these special things together.  

 

Deception Pass

After the girls from Gracie's birthday party had departed saturday morning, we needed a little adventure that sunny saturday. We decided to head to Deception Pass.

We went to the beach first, where the girls quickly climbed up this rock...in their flip flops.

They're not really known for their coordination.

I love how annie's holding Gracie's arm here...if I go down, we're both going down. 

And this was right before they decided to walk over to a part of the rock where I could no longer see them.  Then I had a minor panic attack and visions of them slipping off the rock and into the water never to be heard from again.  

I took off my running shoes and climbed up with my camera flopping around my neck.

Having talked them down from the rock, they quickly made up a game. Love that about them. 

Annie tends to be more dramatic one of the 2.

Then we went on a little mile walk to the bridge.

We made it to the bridge and saw a bald eagle.  So cool. Walked across the bridge. Used the disgusting bathroom and then heard Annie complain the mile back about how tired she was. We may have pushed our limits ridiculing her about how she hadn't learned to ride her bike without training wheels. 

FAMILY. OF. THE. YEAR.

It was nothing a big bowl of ice cream couldn't cure.  

So, we stopped in LaConner and got the girls some ice cream.  We walked around the town to look at the shops (which I remember as a kid that we used to think they were good). Mmm, not so much. Except for one~ Pepperjack Home. Lovely store.  We had to buy some things from them cause how can you not support a local, eco friendly shop owned by a cool young couple?

We headed home, BBQ'd and crashed that evening.  

What a lovely day. 

 

 

 

Annie's Swim Meet

Why wouldn't her swim meet be the same night at Gracie's birthday party?  The only sport we have all year long is swimming two evenings a week.  No friday nights, no weekend games...nothing. It's alternately a blessing and a bummer. 

She was very nervous for her swim meet. So afraid she wasn't going to do the right thing, mind you it's totally non competitive and it doesn't matter how she does as long as she tries her best. 

warming up-

50 yard breaststroke

She's cute huh?  She refuses to wear a swim cap, which I tell you, does nothing to help her already crazy hair.  I bought her nicer goggles and she won't wear those either. She certainly wasn't the fastest actually she was one of the slowest but she did it and in my book that's what counts.  

So in that last picture where you see her doing her breaststroke, she was breathing like a 98 year old asthmatic trying to get out of a chair.

Guess what. Turns out she DOES, in fact, have asthma. Diagnosed yesterday.  Superb.

Between her constipation and subsequent sick tummy, acid reflux, sinus infections and asthma, she's been an out and out train wreck.  I think we've finally gotten the constipation, reflux  (she's totally refluxing after having ice cream and fro yo), and sinus infection figured out. Hopefully, the inhaler will work it's magic and she'll be as good as new.

And from now on she's going to get her second dose of the inhaler right before swimming.  

 

eleven.

Gracie. you turned 11 on May 2nd.  That was a trip. I think it was harder to take than 10.  Just knowing that turning 11 meant heading to middle school next year...well, it freaked me out a little  

And of course you wanted a picture with your sis.

You had your final day of MSP testing on your birthday.  Isn't that special?  We brought ice cream treats to your classmates at lunch time. You still had to have her piano lesson though. For birthday dinner, you chose The Spaghetti Factory. Where you were was surprised by the present from us...a room redo!  Oh my gosh, you were pee-your-pants-excited.  We're still in mid redo.  The walls are painted but we're waiting on the furniture that I wasn't going to order initially, but decided the room need it.  I think it will turn out pretty cute.  Annie shopped for you the night before and decided on a zillion earrings, an AG book about going to middle school and an AG pet party set.  One present would have been sufficient, but to say how much Annie LOVES buying presents for people~especially you~ would be an understatement. 

You said on the way home that "it was the best birthday ever."

To be fair, you says that almost every year.  

Your friend party was the next evening. Clay crafts, duct tape, Just Dance, pizza, presents, cupcakes and ice cream and a sleep over.  It was perfect.  You girls were so self sufficient, I just let you have at the crafting, set out the pizza and said help yourselves! You were all so great.  Such a nice bunch of girls. 

I love this photo, even in all its blurriness!  You were all so cute and funny!

At 11, you are definitely rolling your eyes at me on a frequent basis.  Given the fact that I still roll my eyes at Gram, I know you'll be rolling your eyes at me for the rest of my life and I'm ok with that.  You tend to get a little more bent out of shape when things don't go your way when you've always been pretty even keel.  You are beginning to talk to me on more of a grown up level and throwing humor and sarcasm right back at me (in an appropriate way) which I love.  Annie is definitely annoying you more, which I kind of expected.  BUT, you still treat her with so much love and kindness.  On Mother's Day, you suggested that you and her go out and ride bikes so she could practice with out training wheels some more.  This evening, I had to run out for a bit and I trusted you to stay home with Annie.  I called on my way home and asked that you get your jams on and brush your teeth.  I walked in to find the two of you snuggling on your bed while you read her several books.  I stopped for a moment just to reflect on how lucky I am to have the two of you and just how good both of you really are. You LOVE our "new" kitty and you're great about feeding her in the morning and letting her out when she needs to roam. You keep lots of thoughts to yourself, but now and then you open up and talk about your feelings/friendships/fears.  I'm very thankful that you feel that you can do that. Right now, you're a little nervous for middle school but you're very focused on the excitement of 5th grade camp next week. We spent last friday night together, just the two of us.  Dinner at Ivar's, ice cream and coffee from Diamond Knot, a walk to the beach and then watching the Incredibles at the hotel. Saturday we had an early breakfast, a ferry ride, a walk around Langley, a cupcake stop where they had gluten free cupcakes AND vegan cupcakes, a ferry ride back to Muk, lunch as Diamond Knot and then home.  It was fun and relaxing and perfect. 

Happy eleven!

whack a doodle part deux: I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried

When Eric is gone, I cook what the kids want (of course it usually involves something cheesy and eggy-tonight it was chocolate chip pancakes and I definitely cannot have those) and scrounge something for me.  I was so excited that I actually planned a meal for myself.  I wanted a salad with bibb lettuce, tomatoes, turkey breast and some creamy avocado...which is really exciting for me since I can't have the dairy.  I went to the store today and picked up all of those things, but as luck would have it I went to make my salad and NO AVOCADO.  I could not find the avocado anywhere.  I had a minor pout.  I REALLY wanted that avocado. I think the world is against me.  I ate some air popped popcorn with coconut butter instead.  It wasn't the same. 

Eric's flight out of NY got delayed. Instead of getting in at 9:30, he gets in at 11:30 which is 2:30 NY time and then he gets to get up and go back to work. Although I think his plane will arrive even later since he texted me while he was waiting on the tarmac when they should have been departing. 

I did manage to finish watching or at least listening to Les Mis while I paid bills/did some paperworky stuff.  I still can't get over why Javert freaks out over that loaf of bread?  I love how Colm Wilkinson, who played the Bishop, was in the 25th Anniversary Edition of Les Mis in Concert playing Jean Valjean. 

Oh and the lady picked up the furniture this afternoon.  Well, sort of... 

I have to preface this by saying she was extremely nice and friendly, well dressed and put together and a complete hoot.

First of all, she apparently NEVER LEAVES ARLINGTON cause she had no idea what lay after the Stocker Farms intersection on HWY 9.  I was like "you take highway 9 like you're going to Woodinville." 

"I've never been there."

Huh, she obviously doesn't drink wine.  I think I could drive there in my sleep. 

I agreed to meet her at the local Bartell's so she could follow me to my house. As luck would have it she found a Chase bank on the way to meet me AND there is apparently one right by the Bartell's. I don't notice these things because it's not where I bank.  

After she crosses the intersection of Hwy 9 and Stocker farms, she calls to make sure I"ll meet her.  I hop in my car and pull into Bartell's.  In pulls a red Durango that isn't very big. I think it might be her, but she had told me she'd have her 17 year old son with her and I didn't see another person in the car.  I sit there for about 5 minutes and my phone rings.  It's her.  She's in the red durango.  I'm thinking, "it's never going to fit."

We get to my house and she definitely wants the changing table and then she decides she wants the dresser and the headboard.  Unfortunately, she had her baby granddaughter with her and her car seat was set up on the wrong side so she needed to move it in order to put the seat down.  She told me it was a real bugger to put in and then asked me if I would mind doing it.  

Uh sorry, but I don't really feel comfortable doing that.  

So she has to move the seat.  As she's doing that, her special needs son-very sweet young man- was holding the baby but moving her around so much I was terrified that he was going to drop her.  She had also givne him the baby's bottle, which was full of juice.  Which literally about made me come unglued. UNGLUED I tell you.  NO NINE MONTH OLD NEEDS JUICE!!!!!!!  AND IT DIDN'T EVEN LOOK WATERED DOWN.  The gal was flailing with the car seat, telling me all the places she had to go to try to get it installed, her phone drops out of her pocket and breaks into 3 pieces. She also tells me her neighbor bought the same seat from costco and they ended up taking it back it was so hard to install.  WHY DIDN'T YOU DO THE SAME????  15 minutes later the car seat is installed.  I am hyperventilating at how loose it is.  

Let me tell you, all the calming effects the nitrous had on me earlier in the day disappeared in an instant.  

So with the car seat poorly installed, they figure out how to load the changing table.  (PS: It's not going to fit, but you can sure try.) It didn't fit.  That when she says, you know I have a trailer.  I should have brought it. 

Huh, ya think? (again, she was super sweet and chatty. the whole ordeal was just a comedy of errors)

So she calls her husband. Not sure what he was going to do from work but the son tries to maneuver it around and then ends up trying to take it out by himself.  Oh yeah, at this point I'M HOLDING THE BABY.

Now I'm hyper ventilating that he's going to drop the damn piece (it is really heavy) of furniture and I'm going to be stuck with a bunch of splintered fire wood.  

Sooo, I tell her that I would love for her to be able to have the furniture but I have quite a few people interested and I want it sold.  I will hold it for her if she pays me and picks it up on friday.  Deal. But she had no more cash so we agreed that I would follow her to...the CHASE BANK and get the rest of the cash. I had to have her follow me out anyway as she told me she'd never be able to get back to HWY 9. 

They take out all of the drawers and load them into the back of the car. 

STILL HOLDING THE BABY as well as hearing all about her family, the baby daddy etc. 

The car is loaded and I back out to have her follow me.  We turn right out of the cul de sac and I make another right turn and she's disappeared out of sight.  I stop the car thinking "WHAT IN THE SAM HELL??? Did she take off with 10 drawers and leave me with $40?"  Why??? Yes, she did get a steal on the furniture. Soon the phone rings and it's her freaking out that there's a tiny little dog in the road.  She's an animal lover and she just can't leave it there.  Fortunately, I saw the dog on my way out and I assured her that I knew who she belonged to.  (Nicole and Tony- here's your notice that someone might take your tiny little doggie if she wandering out alone.) I promised her that I'd tell the owners that she was out. Finally we were on our way.  

We made it to the bank unscathed and she took out the rest of the money. It's a real good thing I drove her out because once we got to the bank she thought that 132nd WAS HWY 9.  

I really hope she made it home ok. 

The exciting thing is that my new friend is coming back on friday to pick up the furniture.  I really hope she remembers to bring the trailer.