Sometimes School is a Zoo!

Today was a really exciting day at school! One of the little boys in kindergarten has a Grandpa who runs a wild animal park. He brought a 4 month old baby giraffe and 2 young kangaroos for a visit.

It's hard to see in this picture, but his little horns are all furry!

This little guy is named Barney. He even wears a little diaper. I guess when they are born, kangaroos are the size of a bumblebee!!! Amazing!

They have really strong tails and that is how you pick them up.

What a neat experience for the kids (and me!!)

Bittersweet

Today was the first day of Kindergarten for Cayden!

All dressed and ready to go. And, yes, that is a "Lost in Space" lunchbox. So cool!!

I am so excited for him because he is going to have so much fun and learn so many new things, but it is hard, much harder than I thought to let your baby grow up! Thankfully the school understands and they held a Boo Hoo Breakfast for the kindergarten parents. Lots of good food (even the coffee was excellent!) and a good distraction. That is until the principal decided to read a little story called "The Kissing Hand". It is about a mommy raccoon and her little baby raccoon on his first day of kindergarten. He's very nervous about going and wants to stay home with her. She explains to him that he has to go and kisses his hand so that when he feels sad, he can hold that kiss up to his cheek and he will feel it all the way to his heart and know that his mommy loves him. Then the little raccoon does the same thing for his mommy. You can imagine how all the parents reacted. I even saw some Dad's wiping their eyes!!

Let's see.....just 4 hours and 28 minutes left until I get to pick Cayden up.......

Rub a Dub Dub

Today was a very upsetting day for Hammy. It was bath day.

Hammish hates baths!!! He is very good while taking them, but he hates getting all wet - especially his head. We have to bribe him (and ease our guilt) through the whole ordeal with many, many treats. After all those treats and a little rubdown all over my carpet, we have a very damp, but much happier Hammy!

He is very wooly so he takes awhile to dry completely. I think only his eyebrows are dry as of this picture.

P.S. He's still pretty ticked at us....I had to offer him a treat just to get his picture!!!!

Museum of Flight

We finally got ourselves up to the Museum of Flight in Seattle today. We have been wanting to take Cayden up there as he is an airplane and space fanatic.

This looked like an interesting early flight experience. The "Albatross" actually made it across the English Channel on manpower. Can you see the mannaquin on the bicycle inside?

Cayden and Tom in front of the SR71 Blackbird (Cayden's current fav)

This is a Boeing 80A-1. I love the sconces and the pull down shades!

Cayden got to control this little plane by himself!

My personal favorite: The Taylor Aerocar! The guy who invented this was born in Portland, grew up in Longview and graduated from UW. I can't figure out why this never caught on.....

This is an actual SR71 Blackbird cockpit.

Cool sharky machine gun.

This one was nicknamed "Big Stud". It's Tom's favorite WWII plane.

A little memento. His very own SR71 Blackbird model!

What a good time!!!

Passport to the Future

The Hands On Children's Museum is sponsering an event by NASA this week. You can walk through their trailer and build a video space station and take a "trip to the moon" via video. You even get to touch a real moon rock!!

Here is the trailer with all the neat stuff inside. They only allow about 12 people in at time so everyone has a chance to participate. Thank heaven for a beautiful day!!
While we were standing in line, we saw my friend Kim and her three boys a few places ahead of us. We cut in line so we could all go together :)


When you are finished with the neat stuff in the trailer, you get to have your picture taken as an astronaut! They also had demonstrations of cool Lego robots that are models of the ones they use in space. Of course, my batteries in my camera died, so I don't have any pictures of those. Sorry!

The cuteset astronaut in the solar system!

No comment :)

As we left, they gave us this cool NASA pen that has a maze inside and a space capsule stress toy! What a fun time!!

Belated July 4th Post

So those who know me well know that I am a horrible procrastinator. I have FINALLY downloaded my pix from the 4th of July........unfortunately, there are very few pictures to share....enjoy anyway :)

We usually spend the 4th at my in-laws house on Harstine Island. It is one of two holidays (Christmas being the other) when my in-laws can get all of us together. They have a gate with a code on their road and Cayden LOVES to punch in the code. As an added bonus, he gets to drive the rest of the way to their house, which is about 1/2 mile on a curvy, gravel road. Fun Stuff!

Cayden and his big sis Conner sharing an eskimo kiss!
This is Rufus, the newest edition to the clan. He is a German Wirehaird Pointer and an absolute sweetheart! He belongs to Tom's sister Ann and her family. See his little white "soul patch"? Precious!!

This picture and the next are just to make you feel jealous. What better location is there for any occasion?!

The Chicken Whisperers

On Monday night we were on our way to my parents house for a visit and we saw a chicken on our road. None of our neighbors have chickens so we were a little perplexed.

This morning, as I was watering plants, I heard a sad little "booocckk". I looked up and there was the chicken in my neighbor's yard. I called my sister Cynthia (she has chickens) for some advice, but she wasn't home. So I called my step-daughter Conner as she used to show chickens for 4H. I felt bad for the poor thing and I wanted to make sure it had food and water. Conner advised me on what to feed it, so Cayden and I made a little snack for the chicken.

Carrots and Lettuce

She is one big girl!

All day we have been very worried about the chicken. We have coyotes and racoons, not to mention dogs and the occasional cougar that comes to visit (no kidding!) I didn't think she'd make it through another night. I had questioned some surrounding neighbors to see if anyone had lost a chicken, but no one seems to own any. So I called my sister again and she and her husband agreed to keep the chicken in their coop.

Mike trying to woo the chicken. It took awhile - she was very suspicious of us.

Captured!

In her new home

She was a little feisty with the other chickens, especially over the scratch (it's like chicken candy), but they seem to be getting along ok.

Happy Birthday Hammish!!

Today is our sweet, little Hammy's 7th Birthday!!

Birthday cake with the guest of honor's image

A special guest enjoying cake. I tried to get a picture of Hammish enjoying his cake, but he ate the whole piece in one big chomp! By the time my camera was ready to take the picture, the cake was GONE!


Happy Birthday Hammy! We love you!!

Look at ME, I'm Cavity FREE!!

Cayden had a dentist appointment the other day. We were very excited to learn that in the four visits he's had to the dentist, he has had no cavities! Even the dentist thinks it's a big deal because Cayden got this cool t-shirt (with a little bit of free advertising) for all of my efforts. His hygentist also sent him a really nice card in the mail congratulating him further. Wow, dentistry has come a long way since I was a kid!!

The Case of the Disappearing Bagel Sandwich

WANTED

Case #: 2009-521





Suspect: Hammish Gygi (see photo below)




Age: 6



Weight: 31 lbs



Height: 15 inches



Accused of: Snatching a bagel, cream cheese and turkey sandwich from the kitchen table and scarfing the whole thing down!



The Evidence: Missing turkey bagel; lots of slobber on the floor under the table where said bagel was sitting; suspect had slicked back ears, wiggled a lot and wagged his tail furiously (he looked terribly guilty!)



The Mystery: How could a dog with 3 inch legs grab a turkey bagel from a 3 foot high table and eat it without being noticed by his parents who were in the room at the time of the crime?

Recipe Requests

Thought I'd share the recipes for the Blackberry Cream Frosting and the Whipped Cream Frosting I used on Cayden's b-day cake. (Pix on previous post).



Blackberry Cream Frosting



2 8oz pkgs Cream Cheese, softened

1 C unsalted butter

2 C powdered sugar (the original recipe calls for 4 C - I didn't want it that sweet)

1/2 C seedless jam (strawberry, raspberry, blackberry, currant, etc.)

3/4 C chilled heavy whipping cream



Beat cream cheese and butter with an electric mixer till smooth. Beat in sugar, then jam. Beat heavy whipping cream in a separate bowl until peaks form. Fold into frosting. Cover and chill until firm enough to spread (about 2 hours)



NOTE: I made half of this recipe for the filling of a 9x13" cake. The whole recipe would be enough for the filling and for covering the cake.





Sturdy Whipped Cream Frosting



8 oz pkg cream cheese, softened

1/2 sugar

1 t vanilla

1/2 t almond extract (optional)

2 C heavy cream



Mix cream cheese, sugar, vanilla, and almond extract if using. Blend until smooth. While still whipping, slowly pour in the heavy cream. Stop and scrape the bottom of the bowl a couple of times. Beat until cream can hold stiff peaks.





ENJOY!!!

Happy 5th Birthday Cayden!!

My sweet little Boo turned five on Sunday! We had a joint Mother's Day/Birthday celebration which was lots of fun. The only snafu.....Cayden was sick!! He was a trooper though and is finally on the mend :)

This is his birthday cake. He planned and designed the whole thing! Vanilla cake, blackberry cream filling and whipped cream frosting. If you don't watch Max and Ruby, that is Max's Ear Spinner Space Cadet! He is the robot that hooked Cayden on robots. He is very comical, so if you haven't seen him, check out a few Max and Ruby episodes....you won't be disappointed :)

Cayden FINALLY gets his "Build Your Own Lightsaber"! Thanks Grammy!! (see those rosy, sick cheeks?)
Cayden and his big cousin Caleb trying to put together the lightsaber.
Since Cayden was so sick on Sunday, we postponed his cake until Monday night. Thankfully, most of the guests were able to come back for this little celebration. You can't tell from this picture, but the flame of the candles are the color of the candles. (i.e. blue candle, blue flame; red candle, red flame) They were pretty cool!

The happy boy with Spinner Space Cadet's face. See the nummy filling?!

The other big bummer with Cayden being sick was that he missed being the birthday special helper at school. Luckily, they will include him with the summer birthdays at the end of this week. We decided to drop our treats off there anyway so the kids could enjoy them.

They are robot cake pops! http://bakerella.blogspot.com/2008/08/hope-these-put-smile-on-your-face.html These are based on Robot 2000, the first robot Cayden got. They were quite the hit! Tasty too!

Robot Factory

Happy Birthday Cayden!! We love you so much!!!