Jaden

Just wanted to do a little update on Jaden. Jaden started his 1st workbook at preschool in January. This is a big deal as it means that he is reading and writing well enough to start one! He was so proud of himself and I was too:) I continue to go in to read with the children in his class on Thursday mornings and he really enjoys getting to come out first and read with me. I am quite amazed at how well he now remembers his sounds and can put them together to sound out a word (he occasionally will still guess though instead of trying to sound them out;).

They celebrated Chinese New Year this month at preschool by doing a dragon dance and making their own masks and dragon puppets. He also worked on creating some Chinese characters.


Here is some work that he did on teens. They want the children to grasp the concept of place value at a very early age so this work emphasizes having a ten bar and adding a unit (or units) to it to make a teen. He worked with actual bead bars while creating this and all of the bars are different colors which is reflected in this work.


Jaden also brought home a sweet valentine for Todd and I. Here is the envelope (click on it to enlarge).


This is what was inside:)

I am so proud of myself b/c I finally learned how to upload my photos from my computer. It was super easy and I have no idea why it didn't work last summer when I started this blog and tried to upload photos! Woohoo, no more having to go through photobucket anymore!

Date night

With my favorite 5 year old! On Thursday, I took Jaden to go see The Lion King at the Paramount Theater. I took the boys downtown that day to buy tickets and they happened to have great seats for that evening's performance. So we bought the tickets and then I went and rented the movie so that Jaden could see it (he had never seen it) before we went.

I had heard that the performance was amazing before going but words cannot express how awesome it was! We were on the floor 14 rows up from the stage next to the aisle and during the opening sequence several actors dressed as animals came right by us including a HUGE elephant and baby elephant too! The music was incredible as well, it gave me goosebumps while watching it!

Some of the fondest memories of my childhood was going to see musicals with my mom. I remember going to the Paramount and 5th Avenue Theaters and seeing The Sound of Music and Annie. I also remember seeing Peter Pan as a child and was so impressed by how Peter Pan flew out over the audience. It was so fun to finally be able to take one of my children to see a great musical performance!

Here is my handsome boy all dressed up outside the theater.




J in his seat right before the security guy told me I couldn't take pictures in the theater. . .Whoops!

The Lake House

We had a great weekend at the lake house. On Saturday, since it was a beautiful sunny day we decided to take the boys on a walk around the lake.

Here is Bryson on the bridge by the country club.

Jaden riding his bike.

and posing by the lake, which was so calm and clear as glass!

Daddy and B hiking.

Jaden and Todd on the dock by the dam.

Gramps reading some stories to the boys.


Now I can't wait for summer when we can take the boat out and go swimming!

Great Wolf Lodge

On Wednesday morning we headed south to the Great Wolf Lodge. Since it was built and opened about a year ago I have been wanting to take a family trip there. Fortunately, a friend of mine organized a group rate and we quickly jumped on it. We had reservations for 1 night and we checked in around noon and were in the water park shortly after. I was really amazed at how many different attractions the water park had: a wave pool, a kiddie pool area with things to climb on and slide down and squirt, a big climbing fort that had a huge bucket on top of it that dumped 100 gallons of water every few minutes, a swimming pool with basketballs, and floating creatures to crawl on, 4 huge waterslides, and an indoor/outdoor hot tub!

On our way there we stopped off at McDonald's because the night before Jaden asked me why he has never had a Happy Meal. I was shocked! Where had he even heard of a Happy Meal (darn his peers at school). Since Todd and I felt like we had deprived him of the golden arches experience we stopped at a Micky D's on our way down south. We even let the boys go in the germ-infested play structure--and they didn't want to leave. . . what did we start?!?

Here they are hyped up on McNuggets and chocolate milk.

All my boys in our hotel room.

The first day we didn't take our camera into the water park, so here's a pic of Jaden and his buddy Kellen at dinner.

Todd and Bryson (who loved his soft-freeze ice cream).

After dinner we went to story time at the clock tower.


The next morning Bryson and I headed down to the water park around 10 while Jaden and Todd went to the arcade for a bit.

J keepin' it real

Bryson LOVED the kiddie pool area.

snack time

This picture turned out cool b/c Todd happened to catch it when there was a quick break in the waterfall.

B in the wave pool

Progression shots of J in the water circle.



Here's a pic that I took while waiting in line with Jaden to go on a waterslide.


Here's a video of J and I heading down the slide!

(Don't you feel like you were on the slide with us;)

Bryson and Todd waited at the bottom of the slide.

Another progression shot of the "BIG bucket" as Bryson frightenly calls it and continues to talk about it. . . I think he actually has dreams about it, we may have scarred him for life!




On the fort


We left Great Wolf around 3:30 because Bryson was pretty exhausted by then. Both boys took naps in the car and by the time we got up to Seattle we decided to head to the Old Spaghetti Factory for dinner. Yum!



We had so much fun that we are definitely returning to Great Wolf Lodge again next year!

A Day at the Zoo

Since Jaden is off from preschool this week, I am trying to do a fun activity everyday. Today we went to the Woodland Park Zoo. It was a beautiful, sunny February day and the kids were really excited to go. Bryson was looking forward to seeing the "roars" (lions) and Jaden wanted to see the wild dogs. Kailee came along too as did Erin, Laurel and Evan our neighbors/friends:)


Bryson in a hut in the African village.

Silhouettes of the kids (from L. to R. Evan, Bryson, Jaden, Kailee & Laurel).

Trying to get a group picture with 5 kids age 5 and under is not easy!

Jaden in front of the elephants.

Kailee too.

Just an elephant

Lastly, Bryson

We love to spot the orangutan's on the trail of vines, they are often found hiding under burlap sacks on the ground but we were lucky to see this guy sitting in a tree staring back at us.

After lunch we visited the Zoomazium which is a indoor playground. Here's J about to jump off the boulder.

J and B had a ton of fun going down the slide together, they must have done it a dozen times!

Kailee tried to walk down the slide!

We also visited the outdoor play area, here J is climbing the web.

Laurel, Kailee and Jaden

Evan and Bryson too!

Silly boy;)

My 1st born is getting so long and lean!

Bryson staring at the stream. Soon after taking this picture he decided to go run into it (even while I was telling him "NO")! I ran after him, grabbed him and put him in the stroller to turn around and see that Jaden just ran through it too! That marked the end of our trip to the zoo, since I had 2 exhausted, soggy-shoe little boys!