Allison

Amy’s 40th Birthday Party

Amy turned 40 this year. The extended family got together to celebrate Amy’s 40th at Grandma Dottie’s house. Kevin, Tyler, Katherine, and Allison all performed charades. Rosebud joined the fun, too.

Amy suggested that we leave yellow sticky notes around the house with a note for my parents. The kids had fun finding interesting places to hide the notes. Steve placed his on the ceiling. You get the idea.

For brunch, the adults had curry chicken salad, a family favorite, and the kids had pizza. We concluded with a 40th birthday game, actually 40th times two. It was good to catch up with the Bushes and Olbrights and talk about growing older together.

Allison’s 7th Birthday Party

Allison turned 7 this year. On her birthday, Allison had a birthday celebration at OWS. Katherine joined the celebration which really made Allison happy. Each member of the class told a story about what they liked about Allison and received a popsicle to celebrate. Mrs. Sorenson, Allison’s teacher, put on a birthday hat for Allison to wear for the rest of the day. Allison decided that we would bring in most of her jewelry to wear with the crown. In Allison’s mind, a Queen needs her jewelry.

In the evening, we celebrated Allison’s birthday with a cake. Katherine tried to help Allison light the candles but Allison gave her typical response: “no, I do it!”. Overall, Allison had a great birthday with several celebrations (OWS, extended family birthday party, and just the nuclear family). For presents, she opened her American Girl bedroom set.

Katherine’s First Basketball Game

What can I say nine year old girls playing basketball is a new experience for me. Lots of screaming and parents saying ohhh. Katherine is having a great time but I need to spend some time with her on the basics. In the first half she got a rebound and shot attempt. With 3 minutes to go in in the half the score is 22 to 0, OWS losing.

In the last 1 minute in the half Katherine scored the first OWS basket. She posted up and was wide open. The crowd roars! Mom and dad are so proud. Grandma Dottie and Grandpa Bill exclaim to dad: that’s our granddaughter.

With 10 minutes to go the score is 36-8 Hebrew Academy ahead. Katherine has the responsibility of passing the inbound pass. I need to remind Katherine to keep her hands up and to follow the ball.

Overall, it was a good game though the OWS team lost. Katherine really enjoyed being part of a team and the ups and downs of competition.

Mother’s Day 2012

On Sunday we celebrated Mother’s Day as a family. We started out the morning with breakfast in bed. Dad and the girls produced a smilie face breakfast plate for Christine. At 10A, we met Agnes at Din Tai Fung in Lincoln Square for Dim Sum. Afterwards the girls played arcade games to earn tickets.

In the afternoon, we attended a Seattle Storm pre-season game. On the way to the game, we passed a runner doing pull-ups using a bus stop overhang. We discussed whether or not any family members could do that. Allison exclaimed: “I could pull up my pants!” that many times. We all chuckled.

On the way to the game, Allison said, “Look, Raffi on the sign”. Christine and I said, “huh?”. Allison exclaimed again: “Over there, Raffi on the sign”. Finally, we connected the dots. Allison was talking about graffiti. The family had a good laugh.

Our season tickets seasons are new this year. We moved to center court, three rows back. The people around us are nice and we can see both sides of the court. The girls also love the “bottomless” popcorn though we’ve limited it to one bucket per half.

Nice Day in Bellevue

A beautiful day at the Bellevue downtown park.

Allison’s Family Birthday Party

We celebrated Allison’s seventh birthday a couple of days earlier with the extended family. Allison’s original request was to just have the grandparents. She woke up Sunday morning wanting the Olbrights to attend as well. Luckily the Olbrights were free in the afternoon so we could all celebrate together. It was a beautiful, sunny day. We spent most of the afternoon outside enjoying the sun and playing in the backyard. Allison learned to catch baseballs with uncle Jason and cousin Tyler. Rosebud entertained everyone by chasing us around the backyard and vice versa. It turned out to be too windy to light and blow out the candles outdoors so we piled into the house to sing happy birthday to Allison and blow out the candles. Then we moved back outside to enjoy cake and ice cream. After opening presents, Allison decided to give a violin recital. She played several pieces from her past lessons to everyone’s enjoyment.

To conclude the evening, we got out the fire pit. Our marshmallows had expired long ago so we promised to roast marshmallows another time.