Birthday party for our ONE YEAR OLD!

Ginny's First Birthday!

We celebrated Ginny's first birthday with some special guests; her grandpa Marc and grandma Ann came down from Fairbanks to help us celebrate the big day. I wanted the house to be bright and colorful, so we decorated with a rainbow theme, and even brought back a rainbow of tulips from our trip to the Tulip Festival.

 My friend Jennine made the cake for Ginny, and she did a beautiful job. My cakes are always uneven and goofy looking, so it was really nice to have such delicious and beautiful cakes for Ginny. And just wait until you see the inside! Thanks again, Jennine :)

We didn't really plan any games for the kids; they're just to little for much organized activity. And people dropped in as they were able, everybody had to accommodate nap times, so it was nice to just let everybody play. We got Ginny a watertable to play with on the deck this summer, so we brought out a bunch of floating toys for that. The day was hot, perfect weather to splash around, so the kids had a ball. And, for something special we got a bubble machine. SO MUCH FUN!

Check out that cake! Beautiful, right? And the kiddo's took home sand toys for the summer and some bubbles to play with in their own  yards. Ginny dove right into her little smash cake. At first she poked at the frosting- I don't think she's ever eaten anything quite that consistency, but once she got the hang of it, she gobbled it right up. And then bounced off the walls all night :)

We "wrapped" her gift from us in a basket full off raimbow colored felt scraps, so she got to dig through it and throw it all over the floor! Perfect! Under all the rainbow felt there was a little wooden train with cars that hold milk jugs, a cow, and boxes of veggies, and farm animal magnets.

Grandpa Marc & Grandma Ann got Ginny a little elephant slide which is the PERFECT size for sliding on, climbing up and down, and throwing toys down. Hours of fun! And, lots of cute outfits came her way too... perfect for a new summer wardrobe.

So, a pretty great birthday!

More pictures from the party.... and the grownups had something to play on too... the Raus brought their slackline to goof around on.

The end of an aweome day!

And the aftermath the next morning..... kind of like a tissue paper tornado hit our living room :)

Ginny's Tulip video

Ginny was REALLY excited to see all the flowers and colors right at her height. She ran all around the garden, and would stop and point at tulips that caught her eye.

Tulip Festival

Mt Vernon, WA has a Tulip Festival every year in April, and we ALWAYS talk about going, but have never managed to make the trek over to see the tulips. This year, we decided we couldn't miss another spring, so we hit the road, and then the ferry, and then the road again to get there.

Ginny is relaxing in her carseat waiting to load on the ferry....

Todd and I spent the ferry ride from Port Townsend to Coupeville chasing Ginny around. She is getting hard to keep up with... notice the blurry little feet in the picture below :)

We had to duck out on the deck for a few minutes and check out the scenery.

And then we were there! The valley has all kinds of fields and farms, and we stoppped at Rosen farms to wander through their fields and gardens.

Ginny LOVED all the color right at her height, and ran all around the garden.

They had amazing beds. Our favorite was the one planted like a rainbow.

The view across the valley was beautiful. It stopped raining for our whole visit to the farm, and we even had about a half hour where the sun poked through the clouds. You can't ask for more in Seattle in April!

Todd took LOTS of pictures of the fields....

I put on my mud boots and we tromped around in the fields.... Ginny is a squirmy worm these days, and it takes a quick hand to get a picture of her before she's off and running.

We will definately be going back next year... And, now we're scouting around the yard for a place to lant some bulbs... we're hooked on tulips, that's for sure!

Easter

Easter morning, looking for the Easter bunny.

Sad bunny, happy bunny...

And this time last year? Tiny bunny!

Happy Easter everyone!

Baby in a basket

Ginny loves to explore- especially things that AREN'T toys ;)

She found the basket of Samson's toys, and since they aren't hers they are obviously infinitely more interesting than anything else in the house. So she decided to crawl into the basket and just roll around with all of Samson's awesome toys (like her gross old soccer ball!!!!). Fun times!

Painting Party!

We seriously have the best friends. No, seriously. We do.

We invited them all over for a "party" where they got to work away for hours painting our house. And they actually showed up! And they helped up put up NINE GALLONS of primer! In three bedrooms, two hallways, the stairs AND the dining/living room. Whew, it was a crazy day.

Todd and I spent the week prior prepping: covering floors, taping windows, patching walls. That part actually takes a long time, and Ginny was a good sport hanging out in her walker (thanks Albistons!). We kept a steady supply of snacks coming her way, which she was a big fan of.

Personally, my favorite part is covering up the old, dirty walls with clean, white primer.

Ginny's favorite part is waiting until mom and dad's backs are turned and making a mad dash for the nearest bucket of paint. So squishy! And fun to splash in! Hooray!

Our crew hard at work. Those grimy walls don't stand a chance!

And the nursery department in the kitchen ;)

We did feed our laborers; a breakfast casserole, chili and buffalo chicken dip. Our first meal in the new kitchen, and I loved sharing it with our friends.

I love this picture of our hallway and spare bedroom because you can see five people painting- No wonder we tore through all that primer!

Even Samson got in on the action. She brushed up against a wet wall and added to her white spots :)

Well, it was a great day. We loved having company while we worked, and loved having our friends in our house. We are so lucky.

Moving into our house has never seemed so close. We got two coats of primer up on the entire main floor and upstairs, and we're busy putting paint on top of that. It's starting to look like a house you'd actually want to spend some time in, and we're looking forward to the day we can host parties that don't involve any slave labor. Soon, very soon...

Thanks again guys!

Snowed In!

We are having a storm of epic proportions here in the Puget Sound- as much as 5 inches of snow!!!

It's kind of amazing how such a small amount of snow just brings everything to an absolute halt. But really, our town just aren't equipped to handle snow, nobody has snow tires, people are very scared to drive on snowy roads, and once the freezing rain starts, the road do get very scary. The best thing to do is stoke up a fire in the woodstove, put a pot of soup on to cook all day, and hunker down at home. Really, who could ask for more?

Well, maybe one more thing; a walk in all the winter glory. Ginny's never had so many layers of clothes on (thanks Stewarts for the cosy mittens!)

Even the tree in our front yard is far more lovely covered in snow.

We headed up on the logging roads through the tree farm behind our house and followed a power line out to this view:

Happy campers all bundled up!

A few last shots from our house: the row of snowy mail boxes

And our icicles