Chalk Art

Each year since we moved back to Bellingham, we have gone to the annual Downtown Chalk Art Festival. It's a blast, and so many incredible artists participate. This year, our own little artist got to participate as well!
This year I took my summer school students downtown to participate in the show. We road the bus downtown (Clementine was more excited about riding the city bus than any other part of the day) and each student got to create within a 3x3 foot square of downtown sidewalk.
Make sure to take note of the picture above, Clem is indeed wearing SHORTS.
Here's the little artist at work. She told me she wanted to draw a frog and a Princess within her square, so I helped her get started.

Now look at her legs.
Cameron came to meet up with us downtown about 2 hours into the festivities. He was planning to take her home while I continued with the older kids there with me for Summer School. When he got there, he was confused, remembering that I had put Clem in SHORTS when we left, he wondered when she'd changed into pants.
No pants here, that's CHALK! Our girl was COVERED head to toe (new school shoes included) in chalk dust.
A wonderful day was had by all, and we were so proud of our little chalk artist.

Reception Info.

While our dash to the courthouse was {mostly} a surprise our reception sure shouldn't be! We are really looking forward to celebrating with our friends and families on Saturday, August 13th with a casual little backyard BBQ.

Here are the details:
Food: Cam will be working the grill cooking up some dogs and burgers. We'll have lots of sides and drinks, too. If you had a hankering for something more robust, feel free to bring your own meat and Cam will cook it up for you!

Registry: We have put together a little registry at both Macy's and Target under our family name (something we never use on this website but if you need help finding/remembering it, call Emily).

RSVP: Please RSVP by calling us at home or leaving a comment here on the blog. Since it's a public blog, we're obviously not giving out a ton of details.

Your kids: Our kid will be here mixing and mingling, of course, and your kids are welcome, too! We are trying to get a Jump-Jump for the soiree, as well.

I think that about covers it! We can't wait to see everyone!
XOXO
-Cam and Emily

Our {mostly surprise} Marriage Appointment

Surprise!! We're married!!! Cam and I tied the knot last week in a {mostly} secret ordeal. We told our immediate families and that was it. Neither of us really wanted a big deal to be made, we envisioned just a small group of us headed down to the courthouse with lots of drinks and good food after. And that's pretty much what we got.

This marriage appointment (my friend Ann named it this and I love it! It wasn't a wedding but a marriage appointment!!) has been a long time coming. Cam and I have been together for almost eight years and we've done the living together thing, the baby thing, the house buying thing as a happily unwed couple. BUT, when it came to having a different last name than my beloved and our offspring, I felt smarted a bit. So to make it completely legal, we made it completely legal.
Travis stood up with Cameron and my sister stood up with me. The babies ran around the whole time. I was giddy (see the first picture) getting ready to go to the courthouse. We filled up the day making DIY bouquets out of mums and baby's breath. Kelly, Sissy and I went and got pedicures and there was lots of visiting in between.

I was still giddy when we got to the courthouse but as soon as the judge put on his robe and started to do his thing, I got the weepies! Sissy told me beforehand just to let it out, not to try to fight the tears. So I leaked out one single tear before Cam started cracking me up. When the judge said marriage was an added responsibility, we both snorted with laughter (the judge was not so amused). When it came time to say our vows, Cam made faces at me and got me really cracking up.


The judged pronounced us husband and wife (tee hee!) and then it was picturepicturepicture time. We took pictures in the chambers, pictures outside, pictures in the sun and pictures in the shade. There were pictures with the grown ups and pictures with the babies.






It was a fabulous day, exactly how I pictured. After all the pictures we went to a restaurant for a delicious dinner downtown. Cam and I even got to sneak away for the night!

Next up is a great big party at our house in August! More details soon!

Summer of Fun 2011

This is the first summer in our family's history that all three of us are planning to be (mostly) home through August! I will be teaching summer school for most of July but Cam and Clem are home, having a blast. We decided to make this once in a lifetime opportunity the Summer of FUN!
We kicked things off just like we do each year with a trip to the Woodland Park Zoo. On this beautiful sunshine-y day I met up with Sissy and Nolan, my friend Erin and her 2.5 year old triplets and my friend Danielle and her almost two year old twins! Altogether, we had 7 toddlers with us! It was such a blast!!
We saw all the critters in the place throughout the day. On special exhibit are animatronic Dinosaurs which I thought Clem would love. All through the park are these big blue Dinosaur footprints, leading the way to the separated area; she loved hopping from one to the next.

But when we got to the exhibit, the first thing we saw was this angry looking guy who spit water and roared. Nolan ran shrieking away while Clementine stood frozen in place, terrified.

Here's a face I have rarely seen on my fearless explorer: the look of true fear!
She was a trooper, of course, but often wanted me to hold her as we walked past the growling, roaring, angry ones.
Until we found the "babies" hatching from their eggs. This was a display she could really get behind. She watched the babies hatch over and over again, cooing and pointing to these little critters.
By the end, she was less scared and she even went to sit on the last dinosaur in the exhibit. We walked through the gift shop and got her a T-Rex chomper.
When she went to see the penguins, she held the T-Rex up to the glass and the penguins swam right on up to check it out. It was really funny to see them so interested in the chomper. Clem loved teasing them with it.


Fast forward a week or so. Next adventure was to the Everett Children's Museum for a play date with Nolan! We've seen our share of Children's Museums but this one is, hands down, the best. This one has three stories inside where kids can play on the farm, climb a tree house, pretend to fly a Boeing 747 and squirt stuff in the water room.
What sets this place apart is the rooftop deck. I had no idea what to expect up there, but I was truly blown away. There is a Dino Dig mock archeological site, some steel drums and the mother of all big toys. They have a three story big toy with slides, bridges, monkey bars, you name it.
We spent 2 hours there before going to get lunch with the fam. Then I forced Cam to take us back and we spent another 2 hours there! We really could have stayed all day long, it was that fun.


Fast forward another week or so and we went to Annabelle's 2nd birthday. Clementine had so much fun playing with "the baby" and checking out a whole new toy bin! (I loved scoping out Jen's beautiful, DIY home and landscaping projects!!)

But the hit of the party was, of course, the home-made barnyard cake! After polishing off her first slice, Clem literally dove into the cake with both hands, shoveling more chocolate-y goodness into her mouth. I'm so thankful for other moms who understand impulsive three year olds!

Summer of 2011 has already been such a blast. We have so many more fun weeks planned. I am so grateful for this time that we all get to spend together.

Recently (3.0)

Recently, Clementine has discovered the hanging bench on our neighbor's porch.
She had a playdate with her BFF from preschool. We went on a bike ride but Clem was far more interested in pushing/steering her friend than riding.
Recently, Clementine got a hold of my camera and took 30+ pictures of her stuffed monkey in various poses.
She's been practicing her letters (she's matching cut-out magazine letters and gluing them on top of my hand-written letters) and taking it *very* seriously.
I recently spent several hours dealing with this toy room. This picture was taken about a half hour in to the clean up. I recently deduced that this girl of ours has too much stuff!

The Perfect Weekend

Last weekend Sissy and Nolan came up to enjoy a little fun in the sun!
We hit up the Scottish Highland Games at Hovander and saw some incredible bag pipers, drummers and dancing. But the BIG hit, of course, were the JUMP-JUMPS!
Clementine and Nolan each took a couple turns going down the huge slide, then bounced to their hearts' content in the Bounce House.

I love this picture capturing Clementine mid-bounce while the baby girl in there with her does a face plant!
The next day was almost just as nice, so we packed up the babes and headed to the beach.
There was a lot of smiling and laughter,
a little mud-eating (Nolan),
some "swimming,"
and lots of exploration.
There was also a lot of this: both babies giggling like mad while Clementine tried to tickle or hold hands or, like in this next picture, trying to hug Nolan.
All things ended like this; both babies toppling over in the next gentle wave. Both still giggling like mad.
Then, Nolan discovered how enjoyable throwing mud at Clementine was. I think her running and shrieking away from him just egged him on more (funny how quickly she turns into bossy older sister and he turns into pesky little brother).
With both babies covered in mud (and Nolan's lips turning blue from the cold water) it was time to head home.
Both kiddos had a great weekend spent running and playing and, most of all, laughing together.