these are a few of my favorite things...

 

Playground trips on sunny days   A sampling of breakfast foods from london plane in Seattle  

Day trips with Isla & friends

 My kids

Also, Mexican hot chocolate is favorite too.

Sparks visit

 We had a visit from Grandma and Grandpa Sparks. We love having visitors...wink, wink! Here are some pictures from our trip to Carkeek park.

Gnome hunt

We went on gnome hunt/hike with a group of friends from school at Evans Creek Preserve. It was really fun. I really need to get out and find more hikes in our area.

chris and myleka visit

 Chris and Myleka came for a visit and it was epic. We had a lot of fun with them and I am so glad we were able to catch up with them. We ate good food, relaxed, went to lake Sammamish, hit up Pike Place, got a bunch of root beer and the root beer store and went to the Seattle Center. Thanks for the fun C&M.

Spring Breaking...2014

We decided to stay home for spring break. We went to the zoo, the children's museum at the Seattle center, Carkeek Park and had fun at home. Here are some pics.

Burke Museum

 Last Thursday we went to the Burke Museum with some friends. It was the free day at the museum, so we only had to pay for parking. It was a very fun and informative visit. We really loved seeing the native artifacts from the Seattle area. Penelope wants me to add that she really liked the dinosaurs best and then the telescope. After the museum we walked around the UW campus, it is a beautiful campus.

In the park

Bryan and I got to go to the Shakespeare in the Park presented by Wooden O (A part of the Seattle Shakespeare Company). We attended the performances at Pine Lake park, we saw HenryV and The Tempest. Both Plays were really well done. It was a new experience to see Shakespeare in a really informal, outdoor setting, it was charming. The best part is that they were both FREE! We did have to pay for a babysitter, but how often do you get to see a professional acting troupe free? This will definitely become a regular summer activity for us and when the kids get a little older, we will take them too.

Now, I wasn't supposed to take pictures... I didn't realize that until I had already snapped a couple of Pics and since I'm a rebel, I'm posting them

We also attended the Movies at Marymoor with the kids. That was an adventure. They had some really tasty food trucks there and some entertainment before the movie (we went to The Incredible). We filled our bellies and ran around a little and then we watched the flick. It was fun. Isla got restless in the movie and then it went pretty late. I think this is a 1x a summer activity until the kids are older.

Summer things I

 I have been slow with the blogging lately. Summer has taken its hold on us and our schedule and we have been busy having fun. Here is a list of summer things that we have been up to. I will endeavor to try to be more punctual, so that these things don't pile up, but i don't want us expecting too much of me.

1. Swimming. p has been in swimming class. She is now swimming independently over short distances and is overly confident about her new skills... Isla is scared of the water, but she will stand on the steps and hold onto the side or the rail and jump up and down.

 

2. Roller derby. For my B-day I went to the Rat City Rollergirls.  It was loads of fun and I am hoping to make this a more regular event for the Sparks fam.

 3. Da Beach. We have to take advantage of all the lovely lakes in the area. The kids loved to go to the beach when we lived in SD, so it is nice that we can still get our fill of sand, sun (usually) and water.

 2. Berry Picking. We picked raspberries last week. Penelope was a great helper and isla mostly just ate the berries and collected treasures (flowers and sticks mostly). We made jam, froze berries and still had plenty to snack on. YUM!