My favorite thing about living in Western Washington is

going to beach parks in the summer. They are just so beautiful and fun to visit. I feel like I am living in a resort area as I sit in the sand and see the green trees and beautiful houses surrounding the lake. This summer I took my kids to several of the beach parks in our area. The first one we went to was Idlywood beach park on Lake Sammamish. This one is my favorite because it has lots of nice clean sand to play in. In this photo my big girls are hard at work building a pool in the sand.
And here they are enjoying it with our friends the Smiths. Nine kids in dirty water--priceless!

The second park we visited was New Castle Beach Park on the east side of Lake Washington. We went there with our friends the Molinas that we met in Texas 10 years ago. These two boys had fun playing with trucks in the sand.

Megan had fun with their son her age wading in the water. I think she may have a crush on him.

And Holly and her friend enjoyed checking out the dock.

Our third beach park was in Seattle. Matthews beach park on the west side of Lake Washington. We went there with our Walker cousins. I love this photo of Nathan and his cousin from behind.

The kids waded in the water and found some little seashells but unfortunately we hadn't brought our swimsuits.

Luckily there was a fun playground complete with this fun spinning toy to play on. My five kids are on this as well as their three Walker cousins.

Our fourth beach was Lake Wilderness in Maple Valley. We went here with my brother Aaron's kids. They had fun looking at the lake while standing on a log.

There was a fun botanical garden to explore.

And of course a fun lake to wade in. Nathan went ahead and got soaked. Boys will be boys!

Our final beach to visit was Idlywood (same as the first). Laura's kids had fun playing in the water and sand with my kids. Melissa was turned into a mermaid.

Holly built a cute little sandcastle.

Megan got buried up to her head.

And all the kids rode around in their tubes and our raft in the lake. Holly was nice to pull them all.

Our highlight at Idlywood beach was seeing a Bald Eagle fly by and dip down into the water to catch a fish. It was like a real life version of the nature channel.

So come visit us during the summer and join us at a beach park. I'd be happy to share my beach blanket and umbrella with you. Friends make everything more fun. (:

look what we can make

This month we spent a day in Leavenworth, Washington. It is just adorable with so many cute shops to visit and beautiful flowers everywhere we looked.Our family sat down on a bench in the park and I had a nice lady take our picture. It turned out so cute that I just have to post it. You may be seeing this photo again come Christmastime as our Christmas picture.We visited a Miniature shop and I bought this cute tray of treats. The tray is very small as you can see and cost $9. A lot of money for something so small you may say, but I had bigger plans.

I knew my mom had lots of sculpey clay so when we home we asked her if we could use some. The big girls set right to work rolling and cutting and making the cutest little food. Some would be used in my dollhouse and some for Emily's playmobil people.This is Holly's food. Keep in mind it is sitting on a notecard, so it is very small. In fact, this picture is close to actual size.And here is some of Emily's food.After cooking the dough, Emily got hers set up in her Playmobil school cafeteria.Holly made some little treats to copy the ones I had bought. The ones we bought are on the left and Holly's are on the right.She even made this cute tray to put them on. My kids are amazing, at least I think so.Today I am thankful for:

*lots of sunny days in a row

*playdates for my girls, they are so much happier around their siblings after they have been away from them for a while.

*Cousins who live close by (Yesterday we visited cousins in Maple Valley)

A very purple bedroom

My daughter Emily had a cute room with light purple on the bottom half of her wall. But she claimed it was not purple enough. Rather than paint the whole wall purple we decided to try something new.My friend had recently painted her son's room in three shades of blue and I thought we could do something similar in Emily's room. My friend painted the darkest color at the bottom but since we already had light purple at the bottom we decided to keep that and make the darkest color at the top. Scott did the painting and this the before picture.Middle color is done.All three colors are done.And the completed room. Emily is very happy with her purple room.I found this cute picture of Emily when she was four and sleeping in a toddler bed. Wow, she has really grown up.
Today I am thankful that:
*We had a fun day playing with our Lynnwood Cousins this week.
*We got to go to the beach (on Lake Washington) with friends from our Texas days who now live here.
*All the kids are happily watching movies (upstairs and downstairs because they couldn't agree on just 1 movie) and I am getting a much needed break.

My Dollhouse

When I was 10 years old I moved with my family to Virginia. I became friends with a nice girl on our street and she had a wonderful toy in her basement. A dollhouse made out of wood with little furniture and people inside. Wow, I loved it. So when Christmas rolled around I asked for a dollhouse. I was so excited to find one (well the makings of one in a box) and some dollhouse furniture on Christmas morning.My mom and dad helped me put it together. I remember we tried using wood glue as the instructions directed but it just would not set up fast enough so we pulled out the glue gun and glued it that way. I painted it blue with white trim. I started on the roof but it was tricky and my grandpa finished it for me when we came to visit. I put carpet inside and wallpaper on the walls. And I saved my babysitting money to buy cute furniture for every room.I would go to fun miniature stores like this.
Well, I grew up and moved away and the dollhouse stayed at my parents house. One spring I came to visit from Arizona with my two little girls and I helped my mom have a garage sale. Since I didn't think I would ever be able to get my dollhouse from Washington to Arizona and since my girls already had lots of nice plastic dollhouses I decided to sell the house. I kept the furniture since I could bring that home on the plane with me. On occasion I would get out the dollhouse furniture and my girls would set it up all around the carpet and play with it. And then I moved to Washington.

Last week I went to some garage sales with my girls and we found this dollhouse for $5. Of course we bought it and my girls quickly filled it with my old furniture. This dollhouse is not as big as mine was but it is still pretty cute.

My four girls have loved playing with it. Then a few days ago we went on a family trip to Leavenworth and visited one of the same dollhouse stores I went to as a girl. This huge amazing dollhouse was on display.And this is the inside of the house. It was for sale for $3000. We passed (because that is a lot of money) and because we now have a cute wooden dollhouse.It is so fun to have daughters who share my interests.

Today I am thankful that
*Holly has a friend over and is making cookies with her.
*I have purchased the school supplies for my four kids heading to school next month. It wasn't my brightest idea to take them all to Target with their supply lists and a fussy 2 year old though.
*We are not burning up here in Washington unlike other states.