Happy Birthday Dad!

For Keenan's 30th birthday, we went to the Mariners Game! The Mariners didn't play a very good game (they got stomped on by Tampa Bay) but that didn't stop all of us from having a great time!
Sam was very proud of his "nice, cool hat." and his Mariners baseball shirt. He loved cheering for Ichiro and Ken Griffey Jr. (When we played baseball in the backyard the next day, Sam was still cheering for "I CHI RO!" and "Go Gurffey.") He was very excited to meet the Moose, but was a little intimidated once we got to the Moose Den. If you want to here Sam tell you all about the game click here.

Grandpa Mike and Grandma Susan came with us to the game. They gave Keenan and Sam matching Griffey t-shirts as a birthday gift.

"Buy me some peanuts and cracker jacks" or rather pizza, hot dogs, chips and kettle corn. What's a baseball game without overpriced junk food to stuff yourself with.

Sam and his dad had a real good time together!

Sam was over by the bullpen watching them "throw the ball really fast" when Jose Lopez hit his 3 run homer - and guess who ended up with the homerun ball!

Molly Jane cheers on the Mariners!

Not - my favorite word

Sam really likes to say what things are not. If I give him milk, he says, "that's not apple juice." When we got in the car yesterday, a song on the radio was playing and he said, "that's not Row, row your boat." We passed by a painting of a dragon on a building at the park and Sam said (in his best gravely scary voice), "ooh dinosaur. No, that's not scary"
Sam's other favorite thing to say lately is "To infinity and beyond!"

Locked Out

It was a beautiful, sunny morning. I planned to go to the park to meet some of our friends and enjoy the sunshine. I went out to the car to load a stroller for MJ. I shut the door behind me and opened the garage and as I was carrying the stroller to the back of the car I heard Sam behind the door, banging and wanting to come out with me. We live on a busy street, so playing in the front yard is off limits which just makes the front yard a more fascinating and alluring place for my little man. I ignored his banging (this was only going to take a second) and loaded the stroller and went to go back inside ...and the door was locked. Sam had locked me out of the house! Then I heard a little scratching at the window. Sam was in his room watching me and playing with my keys. The little guy had locked me out of the house and stolen my keys and was taunting me with them. So there I was in the driveway, locked out of the house, my kids in the house - but at least I knew where my keys were. I thought it was so funny I took a picture of him with my phone.
I know Sam didn't lock me out on purpose, he was just trying to join me. He probably saw my keys and tried them in the door (which has a child lock on it so he can't open it) and then when that didn't work, went to his bedroom to see what I was doing out there. I went around back to the sliding door (he knows how to unlock and open that door no problem) and knocked until Sam came over and then he unlocked the door and opened it for me. I said "Do you want to come outside?" He said "No, I want that outside" referring to the front yard.
Next time I'm keeping the keys with me.

Easter: Take 2

We began our Easter morning on a search for our Easter baskets. After a beautiful and inspiring Easter church service, we went to Grandma Buddy's house for Easter dinner and other Easter festivities.

Molly and her Grandpa.
Molly loves Easter eggs. They are good for shaking, sucking, and crawling after.

I found one!
It was pouring outside, so we had an indoor egg hunt. Sam was thrilled to find that his eggs had "easter beans" inside. He's never really had candy and didn't really like the jelly beans much, but he kept shoveling them in his mouth sucking on them for a few seconds and then spitting them out. Mmm sticky.

Newsflash: Molly started crawling on Easter. She had been scooching and rolling with a bit of crawling, but now she is crawling up on all fours. It was the plastic Easter eggs that really gave her the motivation to get moving. They roll away and then you can chase them!

Easter: Take 1

The first weekend in April we had an Easter party at Grandma Susan and Grandpa Mike's house. It was a rare beautiful sunny day. We had an egg hunt all around the swing set outside. Sam enjoyed it so much that we rehid his eggs about 3 times. Then he realized there were bunny snacks inside!

It was wonderful to have such a beautiful sunny day to play with our family and celebrate the atonement and resurrection of our Savior Jesus Christ.

Easter Eggs

An Easter Egg dyeing tutorial by Samuel

1. Color egg with a crayon

2. Carefully place egg in the dye

3. Wait

4. Remove egg from dye

5. Repeat steps (although you may just repeat 2 and 4 and forget about 3)

Be sure you put a few eggs in lots of different colors until they becomes a nice earthy brown color. Pink and then green and then pink and then orange and then green works great!

Imagine

Sam has entered the world of imagination. I love watching him pretend these sticks are "big jets" "flying really fast". I get endless entertainment watching him drift off into his own world and catching the little phrases in his land of make believe. He gets much of his inspiration from the books we read together and movies he watches. It is so funny to see him close his eyes and say "speed, speed speed" (from Cars). He loves to build things with our couch cushions. Latest creations include a garage, rocketship, and tall tall tower (which he climbs with sticky shoes to rescue princess Daisy).

This smaller stick is a "rocket ship" and it is "flying really high." He brought this "rocket ship" home from the park with him and wanted to sleep with it that night. He resumed his rocket ship play when he found his stick the next morning.

Sam isn't always off in the land of make believe. He loves his new frog boots and is on the look out for puddles whenever he has them on. I love his exuberance and joy!