Lost a tooth!

Leia lost her first tooth this month. She stayed up late many nights trying to get it loose enough. Finally she got annoyed with it and asked me to pull it using floss and slamming a door. Getting floss on her ridiculously tiny tooth proved difficult and while she impatiently waited for me to figure it out she reached in and gave her tooth a good yank and out it popped! She was so proud that she pulled it herself. I was so proud of the tooth fairy for remembering to show up later that night. 

 

Art Camp and Soccer Camp

Leia spent 5 mornings at soccer camp with her best friend. Each day she was exhausted and each morning she awoke ready to go again. 

While Leia was in camp Kate and I made up our own art camp. We planned out the projects ahead of time and enjoyed getting creative. 

Day 1 & 2: Sketch the fountain at the marina and watercolor paint it. 

Day 3: Aidan joined us and we created designs with masking tape on canvas and painted the negative spaces. 

Day 4 & 5: Sculpture creations. Kate created a Sculpture Park out of random materials we found around the house. 

We plan to do this "camp" again next summer. It was a wonderful way to spend some one on one time together. 

Opa and Oma take us Camping

Opa bought a new RV so we though loading it with kids and grandkids was a great way to break it in! Turns out we were right, though I don't think we actually broke anything.... We stayed at an RV park just north of Bellingham, WA so that we could hike Rock Trail (one of the top items on our summer bucket list). I have learned that RV parks are where grandparents go with their grandkids in the summer. There was a fantastic heated pool, a decent size playground, and a million other grandkids set loose on bikes and scooters. It was so refreshing to set the kids loose to explore and make friends and know that everyone else was doing the same thing. The kids enjoyed the freedom and independence and the grown up enjoyed....the freedom and independence.
Rock Trail was everything I hoped it would be (getting up close with many varieties of rocks, contentment of being out in nature, and just the right amount of physical challenge for the kids). After completing the trail we weaved our way into a small neighborhood to find a hidden sculpture park. It was fantastic. Then of course we headed back to the RV park for more swimming and scootering. It was a wonderful weekend and something we look forward to every summer.
Loving kids that can swim unassisted:

 Book Club:

 Let the scootering begin!

 The hike:

 Taking advantage of art that doubles as a bench:

A Few More Drops in the Bucket

We spent July completing all sorts of bucket list items. We hung out with friends from Georgia, friends from Oklahoma, went camping in Opa's new RV, and spent 4 fantastic days babysitting my best friend's daughter. We also hit some classics: Remlinger Farm, VBS, and a garage sale. AND we made a second trip to Chelan. Throw in a Sounders game or two, a bachelor party, and a bachelorette party, and another bestie coming to stay for a few days and all of a sudden it's August!
Our favorite kids take on VBS:

 Hands up for the roller coaster at Remlinger Farm

 Taking Maisy to the park, or maybe she took us?

 Buried up to their necks to stay warm on a breezy beach day with our friend Claire.

 Grubbing on some ice cream with Remy after running amok in the International Fountain at the Seattle Center.

We LOVE summer!

Surviving the Heat of Chelan

It has been a crazy hot summer around here. And it's only just beginning. We planned an escape to Lake Chelan with our close family friends. When we planned it this sounded amazing. The reality was more heat!! It was 105 at least 2 of the days we were there. I now know what it feels like to be inside a dryer. The upside was that we had a pool and a lake to cool off in. We all just swam, and swam, and swam, and swam.... you get the picture. It is trips like these that make me appreciate that my kids are good swimmers. And that they trust our friends enough to be coerced into jumping off a high dock (because that was NOT going to happen for mom and dad). Many popsicles were consumed and everyone came home happy, sweaty, but happy.

Summer Bucket List #1

The girls have made a summer bucket list and we are committed to making it happen. Today's mission was easy: mini golf. 

Kate is in the foreground and Leia is putting away in the background. 

It's amazing how cooperative these two can be when we are doing something that was their idea. 

After dinner we restarted a tradition we began last summer of a "Quick Dip Before Bed." We trotted down to our favorite hidden beach to cool off in the lake before calling it a day. I'm looking forward to a lot more of these this summer. 

The Bradley's Take On.....Spring Sports

For the first time all four of us are doing sports at the same time. This makes for a busy busy week, every week. Leia is playing soccer (which I get to help coach), Kate is running track, I am playing indoor soccer, and Scott is continuing his Karate. It is so fun seeing the girls embrace their activities and be excited for each practice and game. Scott and I love how easily they pass out at night!
Leia's soccer team is the Pumpkins, or the Tigers,...it depends on the day. She gets to play with her bestest friend Rylee and the two of them are relentless on the field.

Kate is running track on the Rocketing Roadrunners team. I appreciate her willingness to try something new and something she knew nothing about. After the first practice she told me it was more running than she thought it was going to be! She seems to have managed her expectations about that and is settling into it. I doubt she'll do it again next Spring but at least she is trying hard now.

Leia turned 6!

Leia turned 6 and we were so excited to celebrate her. Other than a minor glitch at breakfast when I gave her a #4 candle to blow out (subconscious denial that she is growing up), we had a wonderful time spoiling her. Birthday morning was complete with flowers, donuts, and balloons. We went to dinner at her favorite pizza joint with Aunt Kristi and Cousin Aidan. Instead of a party she requested a full weekend sleepover with her best friend Rylee. There was a great deal of squealing and giggling and even a decent amount of sleeping. We hit the Family Fun Center and let the girls go on rides and play arcade games. They loved it! Happy Birthday to our youngest girl.

The Ever Shifting Home

I love to rearrange. It's what I do when I'm stressed, or bored, or feeling uninspired. It happens often. Scott is very supportive as this rarely involves him and keeps me busy. Until it involves the kitchen, then both he and Dagny (one of my very favorite people) both spew words of frustration at me. You know you have found a lifelong friend when they know your home so well that rearranging the kitchen throws them off their game. ;) And yes, that means she cooks for me....and my kids...and Scott...or just for herself.
Now I'm off track, back to rearranging. Whenever Scott is out of town I try to complete some sort of home improvement project. This time it was creating a true desk space for the girls in their rooms. I also like to engage my thrifty side and be creative in how to complete my vision without spending a noticeable amount of money. Ikea was the answer for this project. 8 years ago my MIL bought me cubby shelves for the baby room. These shelves have been moved countless times and been used in so many ways that I would feel lost without them. Now, with the help of some inexpensive hardware and materials, they are the base for the desks I put together.
The addition of a purposeful desk space makes their rooms seem so grown up. There are still plenty of toys to trip over and poke you painfully in the foot in the middle of the night, but the focus of the room is shifting. Part of how the shelves needed to be arranged in Kate's room meant exposing the back side of the shelf. On a whim we grabbed some leftover scrapbook paper and decorated the unattractive backs of the cubbies. I suggested she tape pictures to the papers and she immediately grabbed the school photo of her BFF and stuck it on there. That made it feel like she is even closer to her teenage years.

Kate got to build her first piece of Ikea furniture. She was so happy I finally found a bedside table for her. Shh, don't tell her it's supposed to be a garden table. 

Drawer and Spoon. And Pinwheel

Drawer and Spoon
While Scott has been out of town the girls have taken turns sleeping on his side of our bed (i.e. smashed up against me so close they might as well be in utero again). One night on Leia's turn this conversation happend:
Leia: "Mom can we snuggle?"
Me: "Yes"
Leia: "Okay but we should face away from each other so we don't smell each other's breath."
Me:"That sounds wise." "I'll be the big spoon, you be the little spoon."
Leia: "How about you be the drawer and I be the little spoon?"
Me: "Sure kid."

Pinwheel
I have always described sleeping with my youngest daughter as "sleeping with a pinwheel." She does not stay in one place and has an amazing ability to kick me in the chest while dead asleep. My last experience sleeping in a bed with her has led me to a new definition of her pinwheel antics. This time she snuggled up against me so close that once she was fast asleep I moved to Scott's side of the bed to sleep. Like a heat seeking missle, a few hours later she was snuggled up against me again scooting me off the bed and back to where I had begun. On my own side. Now I am the pinwheel. It's exhausting having Scott be away on business!

Date Night Sunset

 Twice while on vacation we got to go on a date night with Scott's brother Ben and his girlfriend Jessica. We are spoiled by the giving hearts of my in-laws. And appreciate the opportunity to walk along the Malecon (the main oceanside strip) without worrying my children are going to get distracted by the vendors selling glowing light toys and run off to bask in its glow.

Oh Mexico

A Bradley family tradition has been created of spending every other Christmas in Mexico. We love the sun, the pool, the beach.... As the kids get older each year becomes a little more relaxing. On our first full day the girls spent 9 hours in the pool. 9! Day 2 was basically a repeat. As a parent I did not expect to be able to read a book on vacation again until my youngest was at least 8. I am so happy to have been wrong.
Somehow this trip turned into "How many animals can you encounter in a week?" It was nuts.

At one point Leia had 1 monkey on her head and 1 monkey on her shoulder. And the green bird in the upper left photo is almost as big as Kate's entire torso. But wait, there's more.
Before we left we told the girls we were not getting them gifts for Christmas but would take them swimming with Dolphins. They were immediately agreeable (and luckily the place wasn't booked, we would not have been forgiven!).
Uncle Ben, Jessica, and Aunt Sky helped make it possible.

Gigi, Papa Scott, Scottie and I watched from the stands that were fairly far from the pool but even we could see the huge grin on Kate's face when she was riding on the dolphin's belly.
New traditions were created (we are absolutely watching Elf every year, the kids laughed so hard) and old traditions were continued. Now it is time to detox from Margaritas and nachos.

Until next time Mexico.
P.S. I think I could fill a photo album with just the elevator selfies we took. A true test of photographic skills, and not meant for those with short arms.