Ronald, WA Sunny Snowcation

Jeff and I bid on a little cabin in the mountains at Julian's schools auction last year.  Our plan was to take the family on a snowcation, the problem is that there is no snow this year!  There was the tiniest strip of old icy snow by the cabin, just enough to make a snow ball to throw in Daddy's face (the kids number one goal of the weekend).  Luckily the weather was beautiful and we were in walking distance to Cle Elum Lake and a little rocky beach.  We also spent a day touring Roslyn , which is about 2 blocks long - its big claim to fame is being where the TV show Northern Exposure was filmed.  Suncadia is a big resort place nearby so we spent a few hours at the nice playground there. Both nights were spent having movie nights while we ate dinner so the kids couldn't have been happier!

 Cle Elum lake and a tad of snow in the high mountains.  

 Leana spent her time playing Mermaid Kingdom and Juju spent his throwing rocks in the lake.

 Coal train in Roslyn

 Suncadia playground

 Outside the cabin, Juju has his tiny snowball ready to throw!

Happy Valentine's Day!

We spent the weekend at a little cabin in the mountains (post to follow) and celebrated with a heart shaped pizza, heart shaped cheese, and heart shaped cookies (plus wine for Mom and Dad!).  Jeff and I received about a hundred hand made Valentines from Leana in the weeks leading up to the actual day.  I got to help celebrate with Leana's class and had fun watching her excitedly pass out her Valentines to her classmates.  She didn't need any help from me reading her friends names off her cards!  Julian was excited to go through the bag of goodies he got in his class too, his favorite Valentine was a hot wheel car with soccer ball designs.

At the end of the night I told Leana it was one of the best Valentine's days I had ever had because I had such sweet Valentines and she she told me "we can be Valentines forever, Mommy".

We attempted a heart shaped pizza

Me and my Valentines

Leana's Half Birthday - 5.5 years old!

I guess when you are 5, being half a year older is a pretty big deal.  Leana was counting down the days until her half birthday and all day insisted on calling herself the birthday girl.  Her choice of activities for the day were: watching a movie, going bike riding, and going out to dinner at her favorite restaurant (Thai).

Her latest interests: Biking! She had a biking unit in PE and wants to ride her bike all the time (she went up a bike size too so she can move faster now).  Running! She is up to 40 miles of running with the school's running club (although she is losing some steam in the last couple weeks).  Swimming! She started swim lessons last month and was put in the most advanced group - our little fish!
Leana is also now officially a "Daisy" scout - the first step in Girl Scouts.  Lucky for us the troop got started just *after* cookie season, so we are all off the hook for buying tons of boxes.

She also still loves fairies and fort building and still plans to be a lion doctor and a professional fort builder when she grows up.

Favorite Leana quotes lately:
"How come kitty Mio never lays a baby?"
After hearing me remind Juju to hold my hand crossing the street: "you have to be careful Juju or a car will hit you and then Mommy will have to lay another Juju".

Leana doing her "bat" move

5.5!

After Leana made me tell everyone in the restaurant that it was her half birthday, the waitress was so nice to bring us ice cream to celebrate.  

Ballet/Tap Watch Week

Leana just finished her first semester of Ballet/Tap and like in her ballet class from last year, the last class is called "Watch Week" for families to come and see what they have learned.