A visit from our CA cousins

This week Ed's parents came up from CA. They brought Ed's sister Jennifer and her kids, Elijah and Katie. Ahren and Nora were surprised to see their cousins. Ahren Saturday night when he answered the door and saw more than just Grandma and Grandpa at the door. Nora didn't get the full surprise untill Sunday morning. She tried to stay awake, but just couldn't make it. We even woke her up to say hi, but she had no memory of that. This picture was taken Monday afternoon. My kids have half days this week, so they were home kind of early to enjoy extra playtime.
On the swingset are: Elijah, Ahren holding Brock ( he's one of my day care kids), Katie in the baby swing, Nora, Tori ( Brock's big sis) and Ahren's friend Bradley from down the street. The kids had a great time running around. I was lucky to get them all in one place for the minute it took to take this picture. The photos below are of the epic battle that insued. Truly George Lucus worthy.

The Bug

This is our Nora. Last weekend turned out to be pretty special for her since her brother decided he needed to have a little alone time with the tv, and hanging out with the family at Costco and going to lunch is not his idea of fun. After the Costco feast of samples we headed to the 48th Ave. Salon for hair cuts. Ed's and Nora's, not mine. Nora was really tired of her long hair. She has an incredibly sensitive head, so I was all for shortening the every morning hair brushing battle. As you can see it turned out adorable.

In the above pictures our little ladybug is enjoying the wonder of chocolate gelato. After being closed for over a year, our favorite little Italian restaurant, Russillo's, has reopened at track 29 on Yakima Avenue. I love their pizza salad, served in a pizza crust bowl with the dressing of your choice and almost every pizza topping you can think of. Nora had her favorite, spagetti noodles with parmissan cheese, and nothing else, which she ate enough of to earn the gelato.

After lunch, it was off to the bowling ally. For this Ahren graced us with his presence. Nora loves to bowl, but she loves the nachos more. She is pictured below picking out the perfect bowling ball. Having a small child bowl with you tends to increase everyones score do to the invention of bumpers. Where were these things when I was a kid? Ahren likes real bowling because he can usually beat his sister, unlike in Wii bowling where none of us stands a chance against her.

Bug just had her first soccer practice, so look forward to upcoming post featuring shin gards and cleats (with pink stripes, or coarse).