I Wanna Do (clap clap) Pt. Defiance Zoo!

Alright Sissy!
For YaYa's _0th birthday this year, we drove to my hometown and did the Zoo!

I have been to the Pt. Defiance Zoo approximately 8 million times, but never with my own offspring! Finally, we found our opportunity, and after a delicious picnic with the fam, we explored the zoo.

We saw just about all there is to see at the zoo!
Can you spot the monkey hiding in the picture above?
What sets Pt. Defiance Zoo apart from the closer/bigger Woodland Park Zoo are the aquatic exhibits. Pt. Defiance has an entire aquarium AND shark exhibit (which we didn't do this time for time's sake). Clem loved watching the otters and walrus swimming underwater.
(When we got upstairs, we read the sign noting that this walrus exhibit was being called a Mating Pen. Ahem. That explains what happened down there.)

A great day was had by all. My family's vote determines Point Defiance the best zoo around.

Holding on To Summer

...just a little longer.

1st Day of school

Feeling sentimental, I set out to capture our Preschooler's pictures on her first day of school this week. I sat her in the rocking chair on the front porch and started clicking away.
I got about 3 clicks in before this girl decided playing with my picket sign was far more fun (my strike ended about 45 minutes after Clementine went to her first day. While I hate to strike, I was afforded the luxury of taking my baby to her first day of school because of it!)

I took away the picket sign, can you tell?

It didn't take long for the goofballs to come back, though!

County Fair

A few weeks ago we headed on over to the Lynden Fair. We took a look at all the animals (there were mostly pregnant, in labor and recently birthed critters there). Clem loved all the babies. She got to pet a calf that was only a few hours old.
And we watched this litter of about 8 piglets nurse. Clem said "Those babies really like their mama's boobies!" (So we talked about mammals that make milk for their babies.) I really wanted to take home a piglet. They were so stinking cute!
There was so much to see at the fair. Clementine took pictures with the cowboys,
and Spongebob.
This year, she was big enough to go on a few more of the rides. Waiting in line proved to be a bit of a challenge for our girl, but on daddy's shoulders waiting was a little bit easier.
We rode the carousel together. (What a difference two years makes!)
Then the girls did some rides on their own! Kyah and Clementine rode the Jalopy ride together.
And they rode the Dragon roller coaster (which was a little scary for both of them).
I still wish the fair was every weekend!

30 Seconds of Awesome-ness

She gets her sweet moves from me, of course.

Reception

We had such a blast at our Reception/BBQ. I couldn't believe how many people were down to celebrate with us! We had family travel here from as far away as Alaska and Mexico, friends came all the way from U.P., Snohomish and Seattle. Cam and I were so touched!
We had such a good time mixing and mingling (and drinking and eating) that we didn't get many pictures! So, dear readers, if you have some pictures, will you email them to me, pretty please!?
Our day started at 7:30 a.m. when the Jump Jump was delivered. While the day was such a blast, most memorable will be bouncing with Clementine in our PJ's having just rolled out of bed. We had the whole thing to ourselves, laughing and holding hands as we jumped to our hearts content.
Then this beauty was delivered (please ignore the garbage bag behind it, we try to keep it classy around here, you know) and it was all I could do not to dig in there right away. I love cake, and this was a GOOD one!
We kept with the color scheme throughout the house,
and guests signed our super cool family platter! I love this!
This was one of the few moments Clem came out of the Jump Jump for refreshments.
Of course, Meg and Patrick came to party. Meg was in charge of decor and bossing folks around.
Holla' Quigleys!
The twins charmed every single party guest.
Even Margot got in on the Jump Jump action (please someone tell me they got a picture of that!)
And when the day was done, the fellas partook of some cigar action.

Hopefully, more pictures to post later, I know there are a lot more out there!

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.