April was a busy month for us. First Sean's cousin Matt came to visit.
We celebrated Easter with friends, dyed Easter eggs, and even made it to the Bunny Bounce at the zoo.

We went to the tulip festival and tried to get pictures with everyone smiling.

A friend of mine came from Germany for a week which turned into longer when air travel was halted throughout most of Western Europe because of the volcano. While she was here, we looked for sandcrabs and flew kites at Camano Island. We also went to the Tulip Festival again!

We tried to get decent pictures of the kids at the Bellevue Botanical Garden until it started raining.

We celebrated Riley's teacher's new baby with a party at school! I even made butterfly cookies.

Sean is still in school working on his MBA. I'd say we've figured out it's really a waste of time and not worth anything, but it's been a growing experience for all of us to have him working full time and in school full time.

We hosted an au pair from Brazil for two weeks which the kids always enjoy. I'm so glad it's almost May and can hardly believe it's almost the end of Riley's 1st year in full time school! We're all looking forward to longer, sunnier days ahead!

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Skagit Valley Tulip Festival 2010

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SAN FRANCISCO

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It's a New Year!

I can't say I've started out the New Year with any outrageous expectations. I had those for last year. While it wasn't everything I expected, I can say last year turned out to be, well, not so bad. Sean and I are still happily married after 6.5 years.

Riley likes to argue semantics, but otherwise is a happy go lucky cheerleader for all of us.

Reagan is a pistol who quickly mastered the English language and uses it well. She's a communicator intent on getting her point across. She loves accessories and chocolate and frequently asks to visit her best friends. If I'm not careful, I can find her calling anyone on my cell phone as quickly as she can get her hands on it.
Aside from their constant fighting, deep down I know it's how these two say they love each other. She wants everything he has and he's just watching out for her. Sigh.
We spent New Year's weekend enjoying Seattle's sunny and chilly weather at Carkeek Park and Deception Pass. We're looking forward to a year we haven't lived before and we anticipate a great year ahead! Happy 2010!

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November

We haven't had a busy November. Riley is enjoying school. He's been learning fine motor skills and his coloring has gone from scribbling to amazing! He brings home these works of art that look more like something Sean worked with him on than something I would do. I'm so happy with his school. It's been a wonderful experience to feel great about taking him there every day and not worrying about taking him out or moving him or what to do next. It's been the best year we've had with him since he was two.

Reagan learned to talk and exploded with words. She doesn't care about descriptions or detail, but she has very commanding language and uses it well. Don't do that! Give that back! Hey, Spit that out! I want that now! Everything about her is so determined and tenacious. You can't tell Reagan what to do and she is not so easily persuaded into something as Riley was. I have to pick my battles with her. For now, we've drawn the line at throwing things at people and hitting them. Her victim is usually Riley. With some proper channeling, she has potential to do something with that someday. Right?

Reagan understands numbers in a way Riley never seemed to care. She understand proportions and one and one. She doesn't care what a letter is as long as it's a letter or what a color is as long as it's a color and she classifies animals by horse, whale, and bird. Everything falls into those categories by whether it swims, flies, or walks on 4 legs. She is very big picture if ever a child was big picture.

Both the kids have been sick. Riley was in so much pain the other night that we finally decided we had to take him to the emergeny room. By the time we decided to go in, the doctor's office was about to open. We went straight to the office and Riley laid down on the floor in front of their door. They let us in early and saw him. I felt really glad to have dodged the emergency room having spent way too much time there myself in years past. It was a dangerous infection and we spent most of the day going back and forth until we got the right medicine.

He seems to be ok, but we'll have to take him to have his hearing tested in about two weeks to make sure he's fine.

November has been it's cold, rainy, windy self. Thanksgiving is next week and with Santa already making his rounds the holiday season is in full gear.

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