I heart Thursdays!

Who knew sidewalk chalk could be so entertaining?



3D glasses are a front yard necessity!



The finished creations, Piston cup race and a farm.

life needs cupcakes!

Why not?  it's Thursday, the sun is shining and I love to bake, there is no reason ever needed to enjoy funfetti cupcakes with homemade butter cream frosting! I made a ton, don't you wish you were at my house this afternoon?

Theo is waiting so patiently for Carter to get home from school.

this might become my new mantra!

T H E O

Theo has been writing his name for awhile but always at my suggestion or with a bit of encouragement or even some help.  Today, however Theo was getting some toy together for his sharing day at school for tomorrow and I told him it needed to be in a bag with his name on it.  He went and got the bag and wrote his name all by himself and even hung it up by his backpack.  It has been such a joy to see my little guy growing up and becoming a self sufficient four year old.

What could possibly be better than 3rd grade curriculum night and a hot date at Matador afterwards with my favorite husband...not much right?  but, right this very minute, the house is totally quiet and I am enjoying left over chicken fajitas from last night's dinner,  after a very productive morning of lawn mowing (fingers crossed that it's the last time this year) and grocery shopping (all by myself!) and pretty soon I get to go pick up my green eyed and auburn colored hair cutie from preschool and then even further into my day I get to see my sweet 8 year old who never ceases to amaze me.  Seriously people, I totally love my life!

turns out she has had her hair up before!

creativity, gotta love it!

well, this is a first,

Pigtails!



This morning Theo and I were doing a little early morning cuddling on the couch and he said "I love you mom"  and of course I said that I love him too, he then says he loves daddy, Carter, Bryn (our dog) and last but not least he says and "I love myself!"  I love a good healthy dose of self esteem!

scratch that...

3 big cheers for sunshine!  76 degrees mid-September deserves it's own blog post!  The kids and I are trying to soak in as much sun before the Seattle rainy season sets in which tends to run a bit long (October-March) but today was beautiful.  Theo and I met some friends for a park play date at 1, then ran home at 3:30 to pick Sis up from school, then to only run to another park until 5:30.  Fresh air, running around, sun, snacks, making friends, and feeding ducks makes for one fantastic day.  I should also mention that my husband made dinner for tonight, last night at 10pm because he's nice like that so my day got so much better before it even began.  I heart sunshine!

3 cheers for...

big & long scarves

rain boots, rain jackets and cute umbrellas

funky and thick warm sweaters

Welcome back Autumn!

I don't know about you but I really feel like I have some of the best neighbors around.  We not only ride bikes with and/or swim in their pools but also borrow flour or eggs or any number of items from any number of neighbors.  One of my favorite days of the month (book club Wednesday) are all neighborhood ladies, truly a great time every month.  Today, one of my delightful neighbors (who, also happens to have seriously fantastic hair) took me to coffee (hello, super hot chai latte, I love you!) and also treated me to a huge box of chocolates from her family chocolate store Oh! Chocolate.  I have tried REALLY hard not to sample any until Jeremy gets home but I gave in and had one and a half and they are heavenly.  My favorite is the salted caramel and pretty much everything else is my second favorite.  I feel like we live in such a great spot.  We are walking distance to Theo's preschool and a public library, two doors down from Carter's bus stop and surrounded by really generous and nice people.  I might just have to eat one more piece of chocolate just to celebrate our good fortune with our location!

Oh! delicious

just a regular ol' Thursday night at the Person house!

Theo starts pre-k!

Theodorable!

Walking to school, it's so great to have his preschool so close!

me with my big boy!

glow in the dark

on the way home from swimming at the gym this evening, Carter mentioned that her big knee scab/scratch was healing and Theo asked if he could see it.  This was around 7:45pm and it was already getting dark, so I asked Theo if he would be able to see her knee and that he may have to wait until we got home to see it in the light and he said "I have glow in the dark eyes", "oh really" I say and he replies "yes, God told me that I have glow in the dark eyes" and Jeremy said "when did God tell you this?",   "next week" was Theo's reply. Apparently, Theo is a prophet.

well that's annoying!

I tried to update the side pictures of our family and after erasing a few pics and trying to post new ones it says that I am over my quota of allowed pictures?  anyone know how to fix this?

dance, we will!

Any self-respecting dinner party should always turn into a dance party! 

too much movement for my silly little iPhone, but you get the idea!

We have been relishing in our "new' life where Jeremy is home for dinner and most importantly he is home on weekends.  It. Is. Awesome.  Our weekends fly by with bike rides, Costco and/or grocery trips, park playing, car driving, sitting out back and reading, nap taking and all around nothingness, it's lovely, really.  We also have been able to see friends.  The great thing about being back in Washington is there are some super fantastic people here, many we have known since we were both kids.  It's so fun to get together and reminisce about our elementary or high school days all while watching our own little children running around and becoming friends.  Smoked ribs, homemade baked beans and cornbread along with new rockin' loud speakers make for one fantastic Sunday evening!

9/11

It's a day I will never forget, how could I?  How can anyone, really?  Jeremy called me from work to tell me that a plane had hit one of the World Trade Center buildings, we all assumed for a brief moment that it was a small propeller plane that had accidentally hit it.  Jeremy looked down 5th avenue and saw the 2nd plane hit, it was no accident.  I was at work on the Upper West side.  A nanny to two very adorable kids, one was at school (2nd grade) the other was with me.  The housekeeper and I turned on the upstairs TV and tried to keep the little one occupied so we could watch the news but not alarm her.  NYC was in panic mode.  I worked across the street from The Natural History Museum which was on the list of possible targets, it was evacuated immediately.  All the streets around the museum were closed, buses and subways were stopped, needless to say I was scared, NYC was scared.  No one thought that the towers would fall.  Then, they did.  Phone lines were down, people were frantic. It was surreal.  Jeremy and I were trying to talk, my mom, dad, and friends were all trying to call.  We were okay, thousands were not.   It was without a doubt the saddest day of my life.  People lost.  New York was forever changed, so were the people who lived there.  I knew one person who died, he was on the 105th floor.  He had a young daughter and a full life, it was devastating.  Every year during this time magazines and TV show images that are heartbreaking, it makes me cry.  Jeremy and I both saw people who were in the buildings, on our commute home that day.  Jeremy shared a taxi home with a lady who was able to escape, she was covered with debris.  That night American flags were passed out from one stranger to another, candle vigils were lit, everyone wanted to do something, we all felt useless.  We watched the news and even the reporters didn't know what to do.  It was and is still hard to watch footage of that time. I can't believe it has been 10 years, it feels so close and yet so distant but it always reminds me to be so thankful for the blessed life that I have.  It also reminds me that without a doubt that New York City is by far the best place on earth, I know I lived there.  I saw the camaraderie and outpouring of love from millions and millions of people, you can't take that away and I know that in my life time I won't experience anything like it again.  To all the many lost lives, broken dreams and heartache...I heart NYC, more than ever.

chalk city

Theo and I are taking advantage of the beautiful weather and have spent two days working on this chalk city.  He's having a blast with his matchbox cars and in these pictures he was drawing robots that were attacking the city, I think all the people were hiding inside the church and McDonald's!

I doubt this qualifies me for "mom of the year" award but...

my kids were just arguing over the last of the celery and carrot sticks!

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

I am not sure if it's my new 6:30am wake up time, or my coffee cake making, laundry going, floors vacuumed, bathroom bleached, sheets changed, all by 9:30am today..or the 3 to 4 cups of coffee I drink all day long to help me recover from all those activities, but this momma is TIRED!  I need a really good night of sleep. Tylenol PM is calling my name.

3rd grade!

I can't believe my baby is in 3rd grade, how did that happen?  and so quickly too!

so excited to be in 3rd grade, before school silly photos!



Carter loving on her not so little brother!




such a big girl!




already hard at work!

 *please excuse the poor quality of these i phone pictures as I accidently left my camera at my in laws over Labor day.

girls date

Carter and I had an impromptu girls afternoon today.  We started with cupcakes, where my girl saved half of hers for her brother but I really think they were just too sweet for her and she didn't want to waste  $3 dollars on a cupcake, so she asked if Theo could have the rest.  Oddly, Theo didn't seem to notice that all the sprinkles were gone and most of the chocolate frosting was licked off,  he was just excited that we got him a ridiculous cupcake shirt with antlers on sale for $7.50  (it's really absurd, in a fantastic way) and he got a few bites of Carter's leftover cupcake.  We then headed to the mall (one of  my least favorite places on earth, yet, I am there often)  I had to return an unfortunate color palate of make-up to Sephora, I am pretty sure their lighting makes everything look better in store.  Cart decided for the first time ever that she wanted to test some lipstick, it was pretty cute. 

new pink glasses too!

 We then went to a few random stores and goofed around and had fun.  We went into Gapkids for one last school clothes check where Carter found no great clothes but some pretty precious charms, kinda wish we skipped the cupcake for $3 and bought the charm for $5 but you can't have it all!  I asked C if she wanted to get her ears pierced, big. fat. no. to. that. period.  We did, however spend some time in Build a bear which would explain why she is not ready to get her ears pierced because she still likes that store, not sure when she'll be over it, I was over Build a bear quite awhile ago. Sometimes, it's nice to sneak away even for an hour or two, let the boys ride bikes and do boy stuff, we girls need to try on lipstick and look at weird bear clothes!

C, looking oh so chic!

We are doing a lot of all day pajama wearing on the last few days before school starts! 

The kids eating some broccoli in pj's with an ever so eager dog just wishing some broccoli will fall to the ground, notice little feet under the table?! ...and I do feed my kids more than broccoli and water for lunch but only every once in awhile if they are good, ha!