Sammamish Summer Part 2 - Lambert Family Reunion

Cousins arrived to the lake house a few days later and we had five, fun filled days together. We celebrated Paco's birthday (a little late), spent lots of time at the lake, visited two parks, and fit in a few different crafts. It's a rough and tumble group with all these boys, but every year they seem to become better friends with less adult oversight needed - a dream come true!

Golf ball hunt for Paco's birthday!

The cousins were all excited about the donut tower cake - Happy 61st Paco!

First time out to the "Dragon" park on Mercer Island. It was a fun, new place to explore

Paco pulled some old sparklers out to play with

Play time at the elementary school playground

Swimming at the neighbor's pool

Sophie led us all in an edible craft she learned at summer camp - campfire cookies!

Home Depot craft kits with the dads

Picking blackberries

Making tie dye t shirts, messy but fun!

These cousins can never get enough boat time - they love the tube!

It's always fun have cousins around to play with

Spring is Just Around the Corner!

I think most people assume that we don't have much of a winter here in Texas, but Amarillo does get cold. We rarely get buried in snow or ice like the northern states, but temperatures do go below freezing from late November to March and the blasting winds here always make it feel at least 10 degrees colder than it really is (which is heavenly in the summer, but bitter in the winter). Our cold season is coming to an though and we are starting to see signs of spring!

One day in March we hit 76 degrees, so after dinner we drove over to the park for a fun evening of play before bed. Coats were optional! The kids were so happy to be outside, and we were so happy they could run and play. Tired kids sleep well, which makes bedtime easy for us :)

I scream, you scream!

Charlie did his best to follow the big kids around on the play structure

Davey trying to grab me on the swing

I taught Sophie how to go upside down on the bars and how to do a flip!

School Carnival

The school where I work had a carnival on Friday evening. Rather than drive home and then back again with the kids, we decided to just hang around Orem until it was time to party. The play space at University Mall closed down a while ago, and a new kids area just reopened this week so we went over to check it out. Sophie loved it! There isn't really a play structure, but there are lots of fun things to climb on, around, and under. There is also an outdoor area with some water fountains, stairs, and rocks that she had fun scaling. I see us coming back here often since it's only a few blocks from the school.

Sophie was in shorts because she had a potty accident at the babysitter's house and those were the back up clothes I had in the bag. It actually was a really nice day, however, so it didn't matter she had no pants. It is time for me to start rotating out the summer clothes though!

We sat on a bench and soaked up some sun while Sophie played. Davey really wanted to eat my phone.

After playing we went back to the school and Dave met us there with some Arby's for dinner. It was a well attended event and all the kids seemed to have a great time. Sophie had fun playing the games, but the bounce houses were a little too crazy and it wasn't long before we had to take her away in tears. It was nothing a cotton candy couldn't fix though :) There was also a silent auction to help raise money for the school and we won the bid for a Chick-fil-A basket. Unfortunately we didn't realize until later that the meal vouchers are only good at the Orem location, so we're going to have to travel a bit to redeem our prize. It will be worth it to not have to cook though!

Face painting always gets the longest line so we made it our first stop. All day she had been talking about getting a snake or witch painted on her cheek, but when she sat down she decided she wanted a rainbow instead. Later she went back and got a spider on her other cheek.

I wish I had taken a video of her playing bean bag toss because she went 4/4 and won a football!

There was this awesome pirate play ship that the kids loved. Sophie is somewhere below deck in this picture. 

The highlight for her was getting to eat some cotton candy!

Another Day, Another Park

Normally we use one of our membership passes on the day I work from home, but for the last few weeks we've been attending library story time and visiting different parks around our neighborhood. I know our good weather days are numbered, so we are trying to spend as much time outside before the cold/wet forces us indoors. This time we went back to a cute little park I found driving home from Costco a few months ago. I have no idea what it's called, but I like it because there are lots of things for Sophie to climb and it's never crowded.

Davey caught a cold from Sophie and had the saddest little cough. It was nice to see the swings finally put a smile on his face after being miserable all morning. 

Sibling rivalry has already started. I took Davey's picture on the log, so of course she had to have her picture taken there too.

 And on a side note, we are still trying to figure out how to get this boy to eat some food. He will not open his mouth for a spoon, and if I ever do manage to get anything in his mouth he starts spitting. He seemed to think, however, that this apple core was awesome and gnawed on it for a good 20 minutes. I don't know what to do with this boy....