Rollin

If I'm going to get a picture of Rollin, I have to be quick. This little guy does not let grass grow under his feet! He's only good for one, and then he wants to run.

Case in point:

Photo 1

Photo 2

quick! we're clean!

Now that it's summer, the only time I see all four kids (relatively) clean is for the three hours we attend church. And I say relatively because we go at 1pm, so there's a lot of time in the morning to cancel out the scrub down they receive on Saturday night! Oh well, I love summer and I love seeing their clothes covered in dirt and berry stains and popsicles. Because they're kids and it's summer and the more dirt, the more fun!



Evan is often the messiest of them all.

Be Bop Breakfast

Yesterday, Zig got up with Evan and made the both of them breakfast. So what's a sane mother to do when the early bird is occupied? Sleep in, of course. But I can never really go back to sleep in the morning so I walked a couple steps to my computer and visited one of my favorite cooking sites. I can't rave enough about Cynthia Lair, but suffice it to say she's the real deal. I've seen her lecture, been in a class of hers at Bastyr, attended her cooking classes, and own her cookbooks. She's fantastic.

But anyway, after just a few minutes browsing her breakfast recipes, I was totally inspired to try this new breakfast called Be Bop Breakfast. And it did not disappoint. It's a take on a Korean dish that I love as well. In fact I had to run find Zig out in the yard afterwards and tell him about the awesome breakfast I was going to make for him the next day. We eat eggs and kale a lot in the mornings, but this recipe had rice and the condiments really make it sing, especially the Thai Chili sauce. A definite new favorite. In fact, I just made it again!

Art

The girls are just finishing up their first year of art classes at Seahorse Studio. We feel like we hit the jackpot this year with these amazing classes. I mean, how often do you get an incredible teacher whose passion for art and interest in children is unmatched, small classes and tons of individual attention, beautiful location, and convenience? The studio is just around the corner from our home.

One word... heaven. (I think I may have mentioned before how being in the car too much sucks the life right out of me!)



The kids all love art. Not a single day goes by in our home where the pencils, paints, markers, etc aren't pulled from the shelves. And I love it. It's so much fun to watch the kids go through phases where they focus heavily on one particular medium or subject and then all of the sudden, one day they move on to something totally different. It's another great way to observe what is important to them at any point in time, as well as a peek into their changing interests.

At the moment, surprise surprise, Rollin is into dinosaurs so he works on those all the time. He has his artwork (and those he commissions from Rachel,our babysitter) taped all over his wall with blue tape, masking tape, and who knows, maybe even glue. Basically, if it's sticky, he'll use it. He is so proud of his efforts, so I try not to focus on how uneven or messy his wall his. I sit on his bed a lot when I nurse Evan and when I look past the disorder, I see a perfect snapshot of an energetic, passionate little 4 year old boy and all the things that matter in his world. And what an exciting world that is!




He also loves having us draw him dot-to-dots, dozens and dozens of them, and don't make them easy, okay?! This child wants a challenge. He makes all kinds of creatures and loves to create with tape. Oh boy, this Christmas he is getting a Costco pack of tape and I think he will be the happiest kid around. Last week, he transformed one of his dinosaurs into a super dino by taping to its main tail, lots of additional tails with little rocks dangling from them. He spent hours and it was a masterpiece. And a rather formidable looking creature, I might add.

Nina is writing books and illustrating them right now. I love her determination. She just completed her first book, Silly Makes a New Friend, last week. It took her several weeks and she worked on it a little bit every day. The last day, she secluded herself in my room to get away from the distractions and finished the last five pages. She is so tickled now when I read her her OWN book for a bedtime story. She also likes to draw pictures of happy people and puppies.



Nina's "Alouse Owl" won 3rd place in a local art contest.


Sela is also writing a book right now called "Prickles" about hedgehogs. I peeked inside and saw that she wrote an official looking dedication to Nina and I inside the front cover that said, "To my dearest Mom and sister who love hedgehogs." She draws mostly animals, and sometimes people. She focused a lot on owls this year, and then moved onto bunnies. Her bunnies on silk are one of my favorite pieces she completed this year.



Sela's seaweed pressing.


Sometimes I feel out of the loop without tv, but when I think of how the kids fill their downtime, I am so glad we've opted out for now. I doubt they would head for the art supplies as often if the tv were an option. I so enjoy watching their creativity blossom and watching them grow in their artistic expression. Television will always be there, but these early childhood years go by so fast and I'd much prefer them to spend it with a paintbrush in hand rather than a remote control.

The art classes have given them exposure to many other mediums, techniques, and artists. They have done lots of silk painting, architectural drawings, block printing, aboriginal dot drawings on rocks, sculpture, and one of the coolest recent projects was seaweed pressings. One day I arrived to pick up Nina from class and the studio smelled like the sea. There were buckets of seaweed of all shapes and sizes all over the tables. The kids were making compositions with seaweed Suzy had gathered from the Puget Sound that morning. And the pressings turned out gorgeous.

I've made an effort to display their art amidst the other art we have in our home. I recently moved a piece we recently acquired from a very visible spot in our house to my little office and replaced it with Nina's hippo on silk. When she came home from school one day and saw the change, she was so excited.


Her hippo makes me happy every time I look at it, and that is exactly what art is supposed to do.

Here are a few shots from one of Nina's classes. The project was plant/ flower pressings. The children gathered their own flowers from Suzy's yard (endless choices), arranged them on the paper, applied paint, and pressed them through this big press thing...I'm sure it has a name. But anyway, how fun is that?!


Right this way....

Horses and chickens...what's not to love











Nina, Suzy, and another work of art.

Last, but certainly not least, is Matisse. A gentle giant and occasional guest in the studio.

emerald city salad

I am FINALLY making Emerald City Salad. It's been on my mental list of things to cook for oh, probably 5 years. Unfortunately, I have misplaced my camera cable in the craziness of the past few weeks, so I have no photo of my own. But I used the video of Cynthia Lair, one of my favorite cookbook authors, as a guide. She's awesome and I'm a visual learner so I loved the video tutorial. This salad is so good and with all the yummy greens in season right now, even better.

Suzanne's Shower

Michelle Borozan and I hosted a baby shower for our friend Suzanne. She is having her 4th, and this baby was a huge surprise. I'm pretty sure they got rid of most baby stuff and were looking to the next phase of family life. I'm excited she will be joining both Michelle and I in the "4" club. There aren't too many of us in our area.

Suzanne is a super natural mama, peaceful and zen, thoughtful, super crafty and kind. It was so much fun to celebrate with her. We had a luncheon while the kids were in school and since most of the women in attendance were through having babies, it was fun to talk all things baby again. Fun to see the cute little girl clothes and blankets and such.

I was horrible at taking pictures and only took a group one after half of the ladies had already left. Oh well, it was a busy day, and a babysitter in this zipcode could not be found so I had little Evan as my sidekick once he woke from his nap. Fortunately I was able to get the lunch served before he woke up. I love cooking for friends and had fun trying a new recipe or two. I made a Creamy Asparagus Leek Soup, Provencal Tomato Olive Gratin, White Bean Rosemary Dip, Herbed Foccacia Bread, Red Cabbage Slaw, and Lavendar Cakes with berries. Michelle made a super yummy Asian Chicken Salad and Chocolate Tort and or friend Jodi brought a spinach salad. Good food and great company. And the cutest pregnant mama around!

for dad

The girls found a box with a bunch of old newspaper clippings that Mom saved for me from high school. They look through this box now all the time. It also has a bunch of dance pictures so they want to know all about the dances and who I went with and was it fun, etc. But they are far more interested in the tennis pictures, thankfully, as I'd much rather talk about tennis than who I went to dances with :)

The newspaper cuttings are all tennis, except for a couple. Some have quotes from me about certain big matches, which are pretty funny looking back. There are pictures of me and my old doubles partner, Merridy McKibbens, who I love and have so many great memories with. There are write-ups about how after years of playing together as a doubles team, our high school split our senior year and we had to play for different teams against each other in the in the District finals. Bittersweet. And then the year where our team went to State and Merridy and I were "lovingly" referred to as "the freshmen." I loved the comraderie of being part of a team. I love how we joined hands in a circle and said a prayer before matches. We had a wonderful Coach, Jerry Hirst, who is still a dear friend, and lots of great teammates through the years.

Anyway, yesterday they had the box down again and I sat there as long as they wanted and actually took a look myself. As I thumbed through the papers, I remembered such a fun time in my life, but also reflected on what a huge amount of support I felt from my parents. It's Father's Day today, and I was thinking about my Dad as I looked at the newspaper clippings. He spent hours and hours and hours playing and teaching Brant, Erin, Ryan and I to play tennis. And not as a pushy tennis parent living vicariously through the successes of their child, but as a parent who loved the game himself and enjoyed watching his children have fun and grow. Tennis was a great family sport for us. We had a tennis court at our home in Fredericksburg and we spent lots of time there together. I remember Dad having me bounce balls on my racquet for hand-eye coordination and how I would try so hard to beat my old records. And when I tell the kids to give the ole ball bouncing game a try, I can almost hear my Dad. Later when we moved to the Valley, we would all hop into the car many, many evenings and go play at the tennis center in town until they turned the lights off. Good times.

Lately when the weather is nice (sore subject), I have been taking the kids out to play tennis. We do our little drills and everyone is getting better and having more and more fun. This year is so much easier than last because Evan just toddles around the court following the balls happy as a little clam. He's ruining every single item of clothing dragging them around the court, but whatever. He's entertained.

The kids all want it to be their turn all the time, which is a good sign. Rollin all of the sudden can hit an entire bucket of balls only missing a couple and asks me to "make him run!" I can't tell you the joy, but anyway, there are moments of frustration as well, though not as often. I hear a lot of "I KNOW's!!" from a certain child when trying to give even the tiniest amount of instruction and I'll admit, I get a bit flustered at times. And I can almost hear the laughter from my parents as they read this post...I've been told that I,too, uttered this phrase a few times myself over the years. I don't remember it, and anyway, that's not what we're talking about today, thank goodness!

But then I think of my Dad, and I don't remember him getting frustrated with us, ever. I know in my family we have a tendency to only remember the good and how wonderful things were, but really, I don't remember a time on the court where Dad got impatient with us. So, needless to say, I'm appreciating his good nature, sacrifice, and dedication so much more these days as I head down the same road with my kids. We're getting there, and having fun along the way, and we're doing it together, which is a huge reason why I love the sport. I got roped into playing in a league this fall, and the girls would really like me to earn another trophy since Mom (with my permission) threw away all of mine the day I went to college (she's no clutter bug! :) I told them I don't think they award trophies at this age. It's their turn.

So, Dad, on this Father's Day, I wanted to tell you how much I love and appreciate the wonderful influence and consistently kind, patient, and supportive parent you have been. I love you. I treasure my childhood memories and appreciate so much the home environment you and Mom created. The tennis is only a small part, but a pretty special one I happened to be thinking about this week.

Happy Father's Day, Dad.































I realized in writing this post that I don't have a lot of pictures of my Dad. So watch out, Dad, next time you visit get ready to say cheese! But here he is teaching Sela to dive, playing on the beach with Rollin, and getting mauled by his 5th and quite possibly favorite child, Scruffy! Even my greatest tennis victories could not make my Dad light up quite like he does when this beloved little rescue mutt comes running! Just kidding, love you Dad!

Hollywood Hill Talent Show

Sela and Nina wrote and recited poems about dogs for the school talent show a couple weeks ago. Sela wrote her poem a few months ago, just on her own for fun. I found it in her drawer one day when I was cleaning out the kids' "special drawers" and told her how much I loved it! I'm not sure how they decided to perform these in the talent show, but Nina came up with her own cute little poem as well.

For the show, they created actions to each other's poems and while one read the poem, the other one acted it out. We were struggling to come up with a costume to wear (we could only locate one set of doggie ears in our dress-up box) and I just could not muster the energy or desire to run around all over town looking for dog paraphenalia(end of the school year fatigue)! Then I thought of my friend, Francee, from church, and her face painting skills! I called her up and even though she was leaving for San Juan Island with friends, she took the time to make a quick stop at our house on the way to the ferry to work her magic and transform Sela and Nina into little puppies. She was AMAZING and even promised Rollin she would come back and turn him into a big scary dinosaur when she had a little bit more time! She doesn't know, but she truly saved the day.

Sela and Nina were so excited with their look and had fun greeting Zig at the door when he came home. The talent show was so fun. There was a good variety of talent, both serious and silly, and all the kids both in the show and in the audience were so supportive of one another. There were a couple of times throughout the night were you could tell a child either forgot words to a song or got flustered and it was the students who immediately started either chanting their name, yelling encouragement, or clapping. It was really sweet to see.

During the intermission, everyone did the YMCA, and all the kids ran up on stage, those who performed and those in the audience. The place was rockin! What a fun evening! Ruff, ruff.




A Dog’s Heart
By Sela Serafin

All we hear every day
Is the silly words that you humans say.
These words are boring
And not so fun
When you say sit, we want to run.
DOWN! STAY! SIT! ROLLOVER!
It’s time for some new words
I’m getting bored of those!
I understand a lot more than you think
For I am a dog and I have a heart.
I have feelings too, I don’t just bark.
When you talk to me from now on
Make it interesting and let’s have fun!

My Little Puppy
By Nina Serafin

I have a little puppy
He’s no bigger than my hand
Some people think he can’t do tricks
But I know that he can
He can sit, rollover, and even stand
But his favorite place is in my little hands.

Issaquah Kids Triathlon

It's a good thing we had so much fun at the Issaquah Kids Triathlon this weekend, because I'm still doing laundry from the race. Zig and I were up till past midnight getting all their stuff together and packing the car. Bathing suits, bikes, helmets, towels, change of clothes, flip flops and running shoes, snacks, timing chips and numbers. There was a huge downpour on Friday so the course was a muddy mess. That made it all the more fun for the kids, and more of a challenge for the adult races. Our shoes were sopping wet before we ever began our races. But, the SUN did shine! I did a 5K at the last minute and Lisa ran the 10K. My neck and back have been really sore lately so I wasn't sure if I would be able to do anything but I felt fine for the short run. Zig has some problem with his foot so he didn't run at all this time.

SWIM: Here are the kids pre-race checking the water temp.


They all got anxious and excited waiting.


Sela out of the water


Then Nina in the next heat. Poor girl, not an ounce of fat on that body to keep her warm.


Rollin not listening to instructions. He just followed the crowd during the swim (tried to get as little water on himself as possible) and got busy when it came to the bike portion.

Where's my bike?!


BIKE: The kids were all in different heats so it was hard to keep track. Zig had to stay in the transition area until they all got to the run portion so I was trying to snap pictures and cheer them all on.




Rollin had the eye of the tiger. He gave this part his all!




He did well on not getting frustrated if people passed him (we had lots of talks about this on the drive over!), but he was not even near the back of the pack. He was the youngest competitor by 2 years.


RUN: The last part was the run. They were all happy to pass the finish line and receive medals, because I'm pretty sure they'd do almost anything for a medal! And then of course, all the goodies were fun as well. We lost Rollin for 20 minutes because he kept going after the finish line. He ran across the park back to the transition site where no one was waiting. I think he wanted back on his bike.

Nina ran hard and always looked like she was enjoying herself and really focusing!








































Last, and definitely LEAST, I ran the 5K because, well, why not. It was a swampy,soggy, muddy course, but after getting over the inital feel of running with shoes full of mud and slosh, it was fun and a good start to the day. Lisa, a real runner, rocked in the 10K. We all had a GREAT time!