New Blessings!

June was filled with joy and new adventures as I moved to a great apartment with my friend Erin, in the neighborhood of Ballard...celebrated my 33rd birthday with close friends...and became an aunt for the 6th time, welcoming Caleb Thomas to the family!

My New Apartment (above the garage).  

My sisters came to visit shortly after I moved.

Living room...my Victorian Etching are on view behind the couch

Looking on to the Dining Room

Our light and open kitchen

Cheering nephew Jonathan on at his first T-Ball game

Walking with the Windham kids: 

Jonathan (6.5), Alaina (nearly 5) and Audrey (nearly 2)

Wine tasting in Tacoma to celebrate my 33rd birthday with friends

My amazing sisters!

Celebrating my birthday in Seattle with a beautiful cake made by my friend Emma. We spent the evening watching the Tony Awards and sipping champagne!

My new roommate Erin!

Visit from my dear friend Stephanie

Visit from the "Reptile Man" at preschool...yes that is 6 kids holding a Boa Constrictor!

Chloe and the large tortoise!

Birth of Caleb John Thomas on June 27th!

I love being an auntie!

We did it again...

Last Thursday my friend Emma and I headed to the Opening Gala of the Seattle International Film Festival.  With signs in hand we asked, "Have an Extra Ticket...for a Teacher?"...within 2min we were given someone's extra premium passes!  Premium meant we could have unlimited drinks all night long!  The opening film was called Your Sister's Sister, a humorous dramatic film shot in the San Juan Islands and directed by a local Seattle film maker.  After the film we headed to the after party where we enjoyed bubbly, cupcakes and dancing!  Thankful for my buddy Emma, and such fun adventures in this city!

Family Fun in the Sun!

This is my crazy family!  In April we took our "summer vacation" early, as Britlese is due with baby boy Thomas at the end of June.  Some family friends lent us their home in Arizona and we lounged poolside in the sun for a week!  

Fun in the pool!

Gotta love the new sunglasses (we don't use them much in Seattle...haha)

We had our 2nd annual 'Family Olympics' one afternoon for the kids...quite funny!

Late night gelato

Jono reading (on an ipad!) with Grandpa

An attempted photo of MorMor and Grandpa with their grandkids...Audrey was not in the mood!

Family Portraits

A little craziness

Fun memories!  As you can see I am barely in any photos...happens when you are the family photographer!

Caterpillar News

As you can tell...I LOVE these kids.  I am so blessed to continue to have a job that fills me with Joy!  Yes working with preschoolers has its daily ups and downs, but kids are so resilient and for the most part flexible.  I learn so much from them.  We had a great time celebrating St. Patrick's Day and Easter in the classroom.  Now that Spring has come to Seattle, we have enjoyed going on nature walks around the neighborhood, and learning about frogs, farms, boats and ladybugs!

Ready for our St. Patrick's Day Concert...gotta love the Leprechaun Hats (and Savanna's wig)!

Frog week: hanging is a sequence project on the life cycle of frogs.

Dying Eggs for Easter

Our beans we planted in class our beginning to sprout!

For farm week we made footprint tractors... how cute are those?!

Beauty of Spring

I love new spring blossoms, they give me HOPE that our long winter is finally over.

Colored Chicks?

One of the fascinating things I saw while I was in Honduras was colored chicks!  It must be a cultural thing for so many families had them running around their homes.  Unfortunately they remain the biggest mystery to me...why and how they do it?  Our only guess was that they must dip them in dye somehow right after they are born?  Cruel perhaps but it doesn't seem to have harmed them.  They sure looked cool and made for some fun photos.