Emerson is getting the hang of pedaling. Woot Woot. For some reason it's only on this bike that she can pedal...her smaller, easier to pedal bike, not so much.
I know I've mentioned how much I love Hannah's teacher and I should have known better than to be surprised with his St. Patrick's Day outfit. I laughed so hard as he walked out in his 1970's lime green polyester pants (he was thrilled that they still fit), green sport jacket and bright green Dr. Marten's. As if his outfit wasn't enough, apparently a leprechaun visited their classroom and left behind gold sparkles. There was no way I could compete with that. Our St. Patrick's dinner...tacos (with lettuce and avocado for the green) and mint chocolate chip ice cream. Nothing screams Irish like tacos.
Today was Mom's birthday. We celebrated her day out at Becky's with spaghetti and chocolate cake. Oh...the chocolate cake. Happy Birthday Mom - we hope you have a wonderful year, we love you!!!
It was PTA skate night tonight. We started out thinking only Hannah would skate, but then Emerson decided that she REALLY wanted to give it a try, so we all got skates. She cracked me up with her ability to skate. She got so comfortable out there that she did NOT want Tom or I holding her hand. She just assumed she was one of the big kids and could head out on her own. I think that Tom was the one who took the biggest fall and I missed it. *sigh*
Oh the zoo! We love the zoo and today was a perfect day for the zoo. We've decided that our new favorite exhibit is the Willawong Station. You can purchase a seed stick and feed the birds. It's a money sucker as Tom called it. We spent more than Tom would have liked for a few moments of fun but the memories are well worth it.
Another wild and crazy Friday night at the Walker house. We had a fun night of playing Wii Fit Plus.
I've been plopping a picture or two in one of these cute computer desktop calendars for over two years now. After two years of doing them one would think that I would be better about getting them done on or shortly after the 1st. I'm usually lucky if I have them out to my mom, Caryl, Judy & Tom before the middle of the month.
My sister and Rob took their taxes by Tom's office today and were nice and picked him up a coffee. She texted me and said she knew what her picture of the day was going to be and sent me the above picture with a great big "LOL". She was thinking she might even frame it and hang it in her kitchen. I guess it IS pretty funny but I don't know about hanging it in the kitchen. I have to admit that I do get a good giggle out of the barista's reaction at Starbucks when I order his drink. I don't think I've documented his difficult drink...so, here it is, my picture of the day, taken by my sister. Tom's tall 1 pump caramel, 2 pump vanilla, 1 pump mocha, with whip mocha. I love that guy!
Us Walker girls had a rough day today. Hannah made several trips to her room and Emmie to her crib. I for one could have used a timeout. What's the rule? One minute per year of age? I should have had a nice time out. I had to laugh when I went to get jammies and saw this on Hannah's door. I guess that during one of her many trips upstairs she had to get out a little anger and took it out on the door. "No babby" I had to break it to her it would be a more effective sign if Emerson could read. Thank goodness the day is done.
Hannah was so proud of her outfit today. I'm not sure which I like best, the hair or the socks.
I couldn't figure out why I was getting strange looks on the freeway and then I looked in the rear view mirror. 
JJ & I took the little ones to Sky Valley Gymnastics for open gym. Emerson and Caleb had lots of fun playing on all the equipment. It was hard for me to not jump on the trampoline or jump into the foam pit. Too much fun!! As JJ put it "it's the best $5 I've spent in a while". I agree completely!
It's Dr Seuss week at Hannah's school. I made a frantic search through all of our books looking for any and all of our Dr Seuss books. This was all I could find. No Green Eggs and Ham or Cat in the Hat. It's just a shame! I know we have One Fish Two Fish but it wasn't to be found tonight. This will have to do for now. I'm actually surprised I found the Ear Book. I was pretty sure I hid it real good. It was the only story Hannah liked for a period of time. :)
Edited: We now have Green Eggs and Ham, Cat in the Hat (thanks to Aunt Susie) and "A treasury of Dr. Seuss Classics" Six by Seuss which includes And to Think I Saw it on Mulberry Street, The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins, Horton Hatches the Egg, Yertle the Turtle, The Lorax and How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Pheeewww...I feel much better now. :)
Tax season means late nights for daddy which leads to little girls waiting in the window for him to pull into the driveway.
This was my early morning text from Leina & Rich. Baby Alex made his entrance into the world early this morning. Alex Walker 3.1.10 - 12:20 am - 7lbs 10 oz - 20.25 in. Welcome sweet baby Alex!
For Tom's birthday breakfast I made these yummy French Breakfast Puffs, from his "girlfriend's" website. They were VERY messy to eat but OH SO YUMMY!!
At our house we think it should be a law that you can't work on your birthday. Unfortunately, for Tom the big guys at Eastham Foster don't think like us. Tom got home from work fairly late on his birthday so we didn't do much celebrating. He opened presents and then we quickly had some cake before bed. Hannah made the cake for her daddy with a little help from Grandma Judy.
The girls went to spend the night with Grandma Judy & Grandpa Kevin. Grandpa Kevin met the girls and I at Tom's office for the big drop off/kid exchange. Rather than sitting in traffic only to have to turn right back around I decided to hang out at the office. I brought the computer and worked on my pictures while waiting patiently to start our date night. It's such a treat for us to have date nights! We went out to dinner at Changs and then we went to see Sherlock Holmes (a great movie). It was a fun night. Thank you Grandma Judy and Grandpa Kevin!
Tom's brother Kenny was in town this week for work. We met up with him at Buca di Beppos for some yummy Italian. Nana just happened to be in town today with her sisters (one of her sisters had a doctor appointment in Seattle). It also just happened to be that she was staying across the street from Beppo's. So we surprised the girls with a few extra dinner guests. The girls were so surprised to see Nana. :) In honor of Tom's upcoming birthday we decided to celebrate...the giant cupcake may or may not have been the real reason for letting our server know it was his birthday on Saturday. :) I love this picture and Hannah's reaction to the giant cupcake.
Tuesdays are my day to help out in Hannah's classroom. I laughed REALLY hard when I rounded the corner to their room and saw the bulletin board in the hall. The class did an art lesson on Andy Warhol and they each had to "Andy Warhol" themselves. This will be a keeper for sure!
With as much as my girls love blueberries, I thought it would be fun to have our own plant. Costco to the rescue...two plants for $11.99. I am excited to watch the girls watch the blueberries grow.
Sunday...Tom's day off. We met up with the Henry's to go letter boxing at Lords Hill in Snohomish. We ended up finding one of the 6 different boxes and spent close to 3 hours walking. The kids all did wonderful. The complaining started about 10 minutes from the car, which in my book is pretty darn good. I did get a good laugh out of our fearless leaders. You can see the confidence right on their faces. :)
Hannah's newest favorite toy, Littlest Pet Shop. At first I thought they were ugly little things, but now I think they're super cute. Look at that little fishy, so cute and so fun to play. Today Hannah and I had some quality LPS time while Emerson napped.
Apparently, while I was at work, the girls were busy helping papa with his trains. The girls love "helping" papa and I think he gets a kick out of it too. :) Thank you mom for picking up the camera and capturing this for me today.
JJ and I took the kids to the park before school again. We are taking full advantage of having warm sunny days, in February. The trees were absolutely gorgeous in downtown Everett. I think spring might be a little early this year. YAY!
It was a warm and sunny day today. No coats for us as we dropped Hannah off at school. Spring is just around the corner.
At least someone will look at me when I'm taking a picture. :) Emmie sat down with her baby and they were watching Yo Gabba Gabba. A new favorite at our house. If only we didn't have to watch the same episodes over and over again.
Our beautiful Caitlin turned 18 today. 18. I cannot believe it!! We all went to eat at Terracotta Red to celebrate her big birthday. I laughed pretty hard when I looked over and Caitlin and Casie were acting so maturely. I really laughed (gagged a little) when Alex, Caitlin's boyfriend, grabbed the chopsticks and started using them. Happy Birthday Cait-Cait, we love you.
Valentines Day 2010 and this is the one and only picture I took. We spent the day just being together as a family. It was actually kind of a lazy Sunday, which, during tax season is a welcomed thing. Tom made his famous manicotti and the Henry's came over to enjoy it's yumminess with us. We spent the evening playing Mad Gab and doing a LOT of laughing.
The girls and I have had fun watching our Amaryllis grow. We were amazed at how fast it grew so we thought we'd keep track. Each black line represents one day!! Hannah and I joked that if we watched closely we could probably see it grow. Good thing my girls don't grow that fast, they grow fast enough as it is. 
Tom and I got to celebrate our Valentines a little early. Grandma Judy & Grandpa Kevin took the girls for the night so we took advantage of our kid-free status and went out to dinner. We've been meaning to try the somewhat new Terracotta Red restaurant in downtown Everett for a while now but just hadn't made the time. OH MY YUMMINESS!!! Seriously one of the best meals I've had in a long time. Think PF Changs meets Everett. We had garlic noodles, Mongolian beef and sesame honey chicken and for dessert...Chinese donuts. The Chinese donuts were to die for. Little donut holes covered with sugar and they come with a passion fruit puree to dip them into. OH MY! I would have been happy just drinking the passion fruit puree. So. Good.
JJ and I went to a Yoga class tonight. I was a little worried when JJ posted on Facebook that she is a "Yoga Rebel" and tends to giggle in class...giggling and Jamie are not a good combination. No giggling actually happened in class which I was really relieved about. It was a nice class (not the beginner 101 as pictured above :) ) for me and my beginner status...not too hard but not too easy. I'm really glad that we went. It was a great. We could have done without the Mexican food afterwards....but boy was it yummy. If we venture out again next week, we've decided that we'll skip the bad food afterward. It kind of defeats the purpose. :)
With no school on Friday, the big Valentine exchange was moved to Thursday. Hannah and I had fun making her Valentines with the stamps that Nana let us borrow. Sure beats the store bought ones. :)
Starbucks really knows how to make my day. When I got my coffee today, this cute cup greeted me. It's like a little hug from my coffee. :) And here I thought the Christmas cups made me happy!
The Pohl's are in town for the weekend and tonight we went to the Silvertips vs. Chiefs game at Comcast Arena. The Pohl's, specifically Grace & her friend Rachelle, are quite the Chiefs fans. It was rather interesting sitting with them and their loudness. :) The Silvertips won 5 - 1. I was the only happy person in the group. :) 
Crazy Hat Day! I had to change this one to black and white because I wasn't paying attention to my camera settings. It takes away from the cuteness of Hannah's matching outfit, but you get the idea.
Distilled White Vinegar...oh how I love thee. What I love even more is that both of my girls love the smell of the house when I'm cleaning with it. :) I'm pretty sure they'd like to drink from the bucket.
After school we went to the park to soak up the remaining sun. We've got to take advantage of it while we've got it, even if it's chilly outside. :) Hannah really wants to be able to cross the monkey bars, but it just hurts her hands too much.
I can handle waking up early when the sky looks like this. So beautiful! Funny thing is that 5 minutes after I took this picture we were completely socked in with fog. Crazy!
