What to do with strawberries?

Elena helped cut the strawberries we picked on Thursday. Using a steak knife, she carefully cut the stems off and sliced the berries in half.
After all the strawberries were cut, we whipped up some cream for the nights dessert - STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE!

Elena also recommends putting the strawberries and cream on waffles in the morning.

Reading to baby brother

Zachary joined Elena in bed for a bedtime story. She read Goodnight Moon to him. Actually, she made up her own words to go with the pictures...

Then it was time for a bedtime kiss and off to dreamland - so sweet.

Strawberry Picking

We went to Carnation today to pick some strawberries. There were lots of pickers out, but we got our share! The berries were a nice color, but not very flavorful. Maybe next week they'll be tastier.
Elena had a great time until she had to go to the bathroom. She wouldn't use the porta-potty so we had to end our berry picking early and head home.

Creating habitats - UPDATED with more photos

Elena's new activity of choice is creating habitats in her room for her small plastic animals. She makes them using her cars as fences and placing an animal within the barriers. She also makes them with the dishes in her kitchen. After all the animals are in their pens, the tiny Disney Princess dolls go around and feed them all. Elena took this picture, but we'll try and get a better one to post.UPDATE - BETTER HABITAT PHOTOS

Colored pencils make great gates for ponies!

Dinos get penned in by cars.

Looks like the dishes are now homes for dinos... before they housed whales and fish!

Kung Fu Panda

We saw Kung Fu Panda yesterday - it was great!

Elena's review is "it's really funny!"

She was laughing out loud for most of the movie. The klutzy panda was the main cause for her laughter. Her favorite character was Viper (probably because Viper is a girl...). Elena enjoyed the movie so much she's already talking about buying it on DVD.

Go see it and let us know how much you enjoyed it!

Seattle Aquarium

The whole family went to the aquarium last week.Elena led the way through the exhibits and the rest of us had to rush to keep up! She did slow down to view the fish from Finding Nemo, the octopus, and the seahorses.
She loved watching the seals and sea lions and sea otters. We were lucky to go when there was a whale naturalist handing out orca trading cards. Elena is so excited to go whale watching this summer and maybe she'll see the whales on her cards!
The river otters were sleeping, so Elena took their picture. So cute cuddled like kitties!
Hopefully the weather will warm up and we can enjoy more summer activities - like the beach at Lake Sammamish!

Beautiful day for swimming

Make-up swim lesson with teacher Patty today. Elena practiced all her skills - side breathing, back stroke, gliding, diving, and back floats.

Zachary came too and enjoyed the bright sunshine and occasional splash from Elena's kicks.

At the end of the lesson, teacher Patty turned the pool current on high and Elena went for a fun ride. We will definitely have to go to a water park soon (or at least to Terry's lap pool).

It was such a beautiful day - about time spring showed up... Elena looked ready for summer in this new dress from Nana and PopPop.

Happy Father's Day Daddy!

My daddy is the best! Since baby Zachary was born, he's home all the time and doesn't have to go to work! He's super silly and we have lots of fun playing. I like to play Mario Kart with him and tumble with him.
And we help take care of Zachary together.
I love you Daddy!

love, Elena

My baby brother

This is my baby brother. Zachary! He was born at 3:09am on Wednesday, June 11, 2008.

He has hair like mine and blue eyes like me too! I think he's cute and fun to hold and touch.
He likes to hold my finger because it's little for his little hands. Grandma's finger was too big.

Zachary kinda likes his bippy/binkie, but I really like hot chocolate.

Grandpa held Zachary too and I took their picture.

Let me know if you want to meet my baby brother, I can show you how to hold him! I still like to call him Beemer.

Love, Elena