Summer was beautiful in Seattle and we love spending our weekends enjoying the outdoors. One weekend we went for a bike ride and Z pulled the kids behind his bike on the John Wayne Trail. The kids continue to fight all of the time and at one point Gabe yelled for Z to stop the bike. When we stopped Gabe said he was soaking wet because Zara spilled her water on him. Amy assured him that it was just an accident when Zara piped in “no it wasn’t it was on purpose!”

The kids have started a habit of sleeping together. We didn’t even know they were doing it until we went into their room one morning and found Gabe in Zara’s bed. For the next few weeks we would hear one of them say to the other “do you want to cuddle.” It’s pretty funny how close they are but how much they continue to fight!

View our July 2013 photos.

Posted in Gabriel and Zara, Outdoor activities, Seattle 106 Comments »

The kids transitioned very well into daycare. They love their teachers and have enjoyed making new friends. When they talk about their new friends from pre-school they always say the kids’ first and last names. We like the school a lot – they seem to do a lot of fun activities and they even have Spanish lessons once a week. We spent a lot of time outdoors in May hiking, going to the beach and to the playground.

For Z’s birthday we hiked to a fire tower. Gabe hikes so fast that it’s difficult to keep up with him. They’ve both started walking a lot more on hikes which makes it much easier for us!

We also introduced the kids to a new treat a TV show. We don’t usually allow them to watch TV so Daniel Tiger’s neighborhood was a very special treat for them and quickly became a favorite!

View our May 2013 photos.

Posted in Friends & Family, Gabriel and Zara, Seattle 2 Comments »

We enrolled the kids into Pre-School starting in April. The first few days were full of tears but after the first week the kids were pushing me out of the classroom and were excited to be in school. We’re very happy that they love their teachers and are learning a ton. Getting the kids ready and out the door and dropping them off at school has been a little challenging but with each day we seem to get more and more into the swing of things. It’s $1 per kid per minute if you don’t pick them up by 6pm so at times it’s a little stressful sitting in traffic hoping that tonight isn’t the night there is a bad accident on the highway!

April has been a wee bit challenging with behavior. Whoever made of the term “terrible twos” clearly did not have children who were 3! It seems Gabe & Zara are fighting over EVERYTHING these days……even make believe items. One ride home stands out in particular. The conversation went something like this.

Gabe: (acting like he was picking fruit out of a book)
Zara: SHARE! Mommy Gabe is NOT sharing
Me: Sharing WHAT Zara?!?
Me: Here Zara – here’s a strawberry (virtually)
Gabe: NO! That’s MY strawberry

Two minutes later…
Zara: Gabe stop touching me. No thank you Gabriel, do not touch my body. (*this is something Zara learned in school)
Gabe (virtually touching Zara): I touching you! I touching you
Zara: (freaking out)

Two minutes later…
Gabe: I looking out your window
Zara: NO NO NO! Stop looking out my window

Don’t get me wrong – Zara is NOT innocent. While Gabe is very open in his harassment of Zara, Zara is much more sly in picking on Gabe. We know that Zara is picking on Gabe when she starts singing… It usually goes something like this “I have blueberries and Gabriel does not. I love blueberries. Yum Yum blueberries….” Gabe: “Blueberries! I want Blueberries! Zara has blueberries and I do not.” Etc…

View our April 2013 photos.

Posted in Gabriel and Zara, Seattle, Uncategorized No Comments »

We had a busy January with an activity nearly every weekend. Our friends Susanne and Bill came to visit from Dallas and we had a nice dinner out and enjoyed a hike with them on their visit. We love “Sudan” and still think she’s a “pox.”

We tested our cross-country ski outfit for the first time and the kids enjoyed the stroller/skis . We weren’t sure if they would be able to be so close to each other in the sled but they quickly fell asleep and said they had fun!

Amy came down with Bronchitis and spent much of the months of January and February trying to get over it! We had another date night for Amy’s work party but Amy had mostly lost her voice so it was a pretty early night for us.

The following weekend, Amy went to Hawaii on a work trip. Her company rewards employee referrals with a trip. This year the trip was to Maui, Hawaii. Amy had a great time in Maui and Zvonimir survived the weekend as a single dad.

View our January 2013 photos.

Posted in Activities, Cross country skiing, Friends & Family, Gabriel and Zara, Seattle 102 Comments »

December was filled with a lot of fun activities. The twins club hosted a kids concert with Caspar Babypants a local artist (formerly of the Presidents of the United States of America). The kids sat on our laps for the first 30 minutes of the concert then it was as if a switch turned and they got up and started dancing and had a blast. We also attended a few holiday parties where the kids enjoyed sweets they had never before tried such as hot cocoa. They are a big fan! We also joined Amy’s company participating in the Jingle Bell run which is a 5k race with lots of people dressed as Santa and Elves and lots of jingle bells.

We decided to pick out a Christmas tree even thought we were planning to spend the holiday in PA. We picked a super cute Charlie Brown tree and the kids had a blast decorating the tree. We celebrated Christmas a few days early since we were flying out Christmas Eve. Gabe insisted upon wearing Zara’s pink striped PJ to bed the night before we opened gifts – we figured it was just more material to show his future girlfriends. They had a blast opening gifts. Zara slowly and methodically tore the paper off of the gift while Gabe ripped each gift open as quickly as he could. Since we bought them many of the same gifts we tried to keep them opening at the same time but often Gabe was ready for the next gift while Zara was easily sidetracked playing with new toys or trying on clothes. By far their favorite new gifts were the pillows / pillowcases that Santa made for them.

View our December 2012 photos.

Posted in Gabriel and Zara, Jingle Bell Run, Seattle 94 Comments »