Anya likes counting by fives. On the ride to school this morning, Anya counted to 1,000 by fives.
Cozi’s first TV mention. WNBC in New York ran a brief segment on online family calendars. This included Cozi’s first mention on TV (although the reviewer gives the nod to Google Calendar over Cozi). In the portion on Cozi you can briefly see a photo of Liya in a life jacket taken on a trip to Orcas Island.
Angela finished knitting her baby blanket! It’s a nice size, amazingly soft, and looks great. Best of all, Angela finished it before Sabriya grew too big for it. :)
Anya read all of Dr. Seuss’ “Green Eggs and Ham” tonight. Instead of having Jan read her a bedtime story, these days she sometimes decides she wants to read a story to him. Tonight Bree got to sit in on the reading as well.
We had a spot of sunny fall weather today, making for especially vivid foliage. It was also perfect weather for a pre-dinner ride around the neighborhood. Anya and Liya rode their bikes, while Jan followed along on his K2 Kickboard. The girls wanted to show a house they’d discovered a few blocks away that’s painted purple and looks like kids have painted pictures on the outside. Their knowledge of the area isn’t great, but they did eventually find it.
Anya scored her first ever soccer goal today! Her team was down to just four girls (three from each team on the field at any given time), and she played for virtually the whole game. The weather was once again beautiful. We also had a nice surprise: Angela’s ex-neighbor Arvid fulfilled a promise to come by and watch one of Anya’s games. Arvid got to see Anya score her second goal ever. After the game, he shared some soccer tips with Anya.
Overheard today at the dinner table:
Angela: I can’t stop eating these pomegranate seeds! They’re so yummy!
Liya (age 4) (taking the bowl away): No more for you!
Angela finished her 1st knitting project for herself…a hat!
Anya turned 6 today! Angela brought Anya to school with cupcakes, and Angela was a “mystery guest” during classtime—she came in and read “The Pidgeon Finds a Hot Dog” to the class. Grandma Lyn joined us for dinner, and brought a cake shaped like a train. Our friends Angel and Leah stopped by to offer their birthday wishes too.
We’re having fun watching Anya make strides in soccer. At the beginning of last month, she would run straight at the ball—then stand there and wait excitedly for someone to do something with it. Today something clicked for her. She started running right to the ball, taking it away from her opponent, then driving it toward the goal. Even the dad refereeing the game noticed the improvement. She ended up making at least three goals today! :)
When we put Sabriya on her belly, she’s now able to lift her head and chest to the point where her head is almost vertical.
Liya likes to practice writing. Today she asked Jan to help her spell out the following, somewhat cryptic, message:
Liya says Hello Daddo
Daddya says Hello Liyo
Twenty kids running around a birthday party at 3-2-1 Bounce could satisfy the energy needs for a small portion of Seattle. For Anya’s 6th birthday party, we invited her entire kindergarten class (about 15 kids), as well as a bunch of her friends from her preschool class last year (another 4 or so). Liya was ecstatic that she could bring her best friend Maddy along. As soon as the kids were let into the area with all the inflated equipment, they were literally bouncing off the walls (and the slides, and the obstacle courses, and …). After an hour of frenzied running around, they were all ready for pizza and cake. This sort of facility limits you to some fairly generic birthday party options—This party brought to you by Pizza Hut!—but on the plus side, you don’t have to clean up before or afterwards. :) All the kids had a fantastic time, and their parents thanked us for tiring them all out.
Bree holds up her head! She bobs around for a few seconds, but there are moments of clarity…Bree is definitely holding up her head more these days!
Yuck, slug! Today Jan pointed out a slug by Nutmeg’s catfood bowl. However did it get there? No slug slime in sight, so mystified, Jan bravely set slug outside.
Last night, we were “ghosted” so tonight we repaid the favor. A little like Secret Santas, being Ghosted means someone (hopefully a neighbor) left us a treat at our doorstep. This morning, Liya & Anya gleefully set about drawing ghosts while I copied the ghosting instructions. Liya had time to cut out her ghost, decorate it, and put together a sandwich bag of candy & other goodies. She decided to ghost a friend of hers (nameless, for now) who lives far enough away that I wanted to drive. We all trooped out after dark, got in the car, parked around the corner from Liya’s friend, and set up the goods. Liya rang the doorbell, and we ran away! BOOOOOO!
Anya made up a joke last night. Anya made up a joke last night: Q: What kind of fire do you stick in your mouth? Look for an answer tomorrow…
The answer to Anya’s joke. The kind of fire you can put in your mouth is… a PACIFIER! hahahahahahahahahahaha
This whole week we’ve had beautiful fall weather–a bit of a rarity in Seattle. Yesterday afternoon we all went for a great walk over to Madison Valley to hit Oh Chocolate, Arosa Cafe, and Tricoter, and then had dinner at Nishino. (By now they know that we’ll be out of there in under an hour, so we can grab a table even if we don’t have a reservation!) We finished it up with a nice walk back home.
This afternoon we went to the South 47 Farm in Woodinville to walk through their huge corn maze. It’s a big giant maze in a corn field, and they do a good job setting it up and making it fun. One twist is that there are ten hidden spots in the maze, and if you collect a hole punch from each one, you get a free miniature pumpkin. Although it took us over an hour to get through the maze, the girls had so much fun that they didn’t complain (and we didn’t have to decline any requests to be carried). For the second year in a row, we found only seven of the ten hidden spots. We’ve decided that next year we need to go earlier in the day so we have enough time to back through and find any spots we missed.