Not quite forgotten

A couple of picture I forgot to post with past blog entries...

Above: Silas sporting the hat he made in school earlier this month.

Below: These were the little knitted fish I made as prizes for the Pin the Fin on the Shark game at Silas' birthday party.
And there you have it!

Party in the park

It was windy, and could have been a tad warmer, but... it didn't rain! And, I think, a good time was had by all.

Above: pre-party set-up.

Craft time: Barb made bags for the kids to paint...

They turned out beautifully! Silas' is on the right:

Another big hit was the fishing game. I made origami sea creatures as prizes, and the kids took turns "fishing" for them.

We let them go again and again until all the sea creatures had been claimed. Several of the kids took turns helping Patrick behind the ocean/scenes put the prizes on the hook/paper clip.

After that game, it was time to play pin-the-fin-on-the-shark. It's a good think I knit 3 little fish as prizes because we had a 3-way tie!

Cupcake time! We sang Happy Birthday, but it was too windy to keep the candles lit, so I suggested he pretend to blow them out, and Silas obliged.

Yum!

Towards the end of the party, the sun came out and it warmed up:

What's a party in the park without time spent on the playground?

Some of our party-goers stuck around afterwards, and the party continued. I think Silas and his friend, O must have spent 20+ minutes in those swings.

Silas was so wobbly after finally getting out of his swing, that he walked right into another swing (in mid swing) before we could stop him. Party hard, Silas!

Party prep

I think we are about 85% ready for Silas' party tomorrow. I baked 5 dozen cupcakes today (3 dozen chocolate, a dozen berry lemon, and a dozen vanilla gluten-free, and all dairy free because Silas is allergic).

The Pin the Fin on the Shark game is almost done to:
We're (almost) ready to party, preschool style :)

Happy 4th Birthday, Silas!

Are you ready for a lot of birthday pictures? Okay, here goes...

Above (actually the last picture of the day, just before the bed), Silas poses with the sea creatures I made for him, plus Sherman the worm, of course.

Yesterday, just before leaving for school, Silas poses with his class birthday treat:

I took the day off of work, made 2 dozen donuts, and spent the morning in Silas' preschool class playing with the kids and celebrating Silas' birthday with his class.

He got to open one of his presents a day early...Woo-hoo, a hermit crab!

Thanks Patrick! Silas loves playing the chef at his cafe, which he named The Rusty Marshmallow (he says his first restaurant, Stinky Pie Cafe, closed, but The Rusty Marshmallow is doing well, I am told):

Opening presents from Mom and Dad:

Present for mom: My boys met me at work and we went out for lunch:

And Silas got to open his present from Barb:

She made him this fabulous quilt! Wow!

My cuddly birthday boy and me:

But wait, there's more! Or, there will be. He's having a birthday party this Sunday.

It's outside.

In March.

In the Pacific Northwest.

Several nights this week, I woke up and listened to the sound of rain hitting the roof and wondered what we were possibly thinking to plan a park party. We are taking a big gamble but currently the weather reports are somewhat promising. Fingers crossed!

It's become a habit...

We watched Sound of Music last weekend. Can you tell?

snip/cut

Every time I cut Silas' hair, I get slightly less awful at it.

This time, I used the following video as a tutorial, which proved fairly useful. He's completely resistant to having his hair cut, and will only consent to have me do it if I "threaten" to make him go to the hairdresser instead.

Unlike the charming and obedient child in the video, Silas refused to be pacified with a DVD, so that idea was thrown out the window. He cried bitterly for a bit and then finally sat there and let me cut it, with little complaint and only a bit of squirming. Sheesh. He seems happy with the outcome though, don't you think?

"Take a picture of me!"

"Take a picture of me making silly faces!"
"Take a picture of me where my birthday party is going to be."
"Take a picture of me on top of the sea star."
"Take a picture of you and me together."
Aye-aye, Cap'n!

Because we all need a little funny...

Silas would like you to know that the sunnies they give you at the eye doctor when you have your eyes dilated is the latest thing in spring fashion this year.

Wear them with pride, peeps.

Sherman

I forgot to include these pics on my Valentine's Day post. I knit this worm as a little valentine for Si. He named him Sherman and has been sleeping with him every night. Sherman also "sits" in bed with us each night while we're reading. Both Sherman and Silas seem to be enjoying the Marvelous Land of Oz (we finished the Wonderful Wizard of Oz a few weeks ago, so now we're on book two of Baum's series). Guess he's a bookworm (groan).
More about this project can be found on my knitting blog.

Valentine

I'm not inclined to make a big deal over Valentine's Day. When adults are celebrating it, it's a pretty cheesy holiday in my opinion, as well as almost comically commercial. But it doesn't have to be that way, and it is a great kids holiday. Watching Silas get excited about it his first Valentine's party at school, brought back fond memories from my own childhood.
I love that boy, funny faces and all!

Pacific Science Center

Ah, the Pacific Science Center. Where do I even begin? Giant Caterpillars...

Giant guitars...
...and so much more. I don't think we knew what we were getting ourselves into when we walked through the gates. There's so much to explore that we will have to go back to see it all. But here's a brief run down of what we did see:

Mechanical dinosaurs: Silas was a bit spooked at first, but then warmed up to them. He wasn't afraid to get close to the ones that were listed as plant eaters. The meat eaters, on the other hand, he eyed with suspicion, and kept a ready-to-run stance, just in case.

Space exhibit: Planets, a "holographic" orb, outer space exploration, etc. They have observatory shows as well, but as much as I wanted to, we didn't partake...next time!

Insects: (including our giant caterpillar friend). Lots of different exhibits. A giant mechanical fly, live hissing cockroaches that you can pet (Silas declined, as did I), examples of six different food items made with insects (scrambled eggs with bee larvae anyone?). And also:

The butterfly room:
They must like orange, because Silas was very popular.

And so were bananas:
Backhoe: fun times for boys of all ages.
Also, a scale model of the Puget Sound, naked mole rats, physics exhibits, human body science exhibits (flexibility, sght, endurance, etc.). And more. We didn't even get to the downstairs area, the special exhibit, or the laser show. We did, however, make it to an imax film, and this is monumental, because Silas had never been to a movie in a theater before. We've held back, partly because he's usually only allowed to watch one video per week and we weren't sure how he'd react to the stimulation, etc. And partly, because, we figured, what's the rush when you're not sure if you're kid is going to freak out or decide to talk loudly through the whole thing. But the movie came with our City Pass, and we thought we'd give it a try. So, Silas' first movie was....drum role please....

BUGS -- A 40 minute nature film narrated by Judy Dench. On a ginormous imax screen.

Not a traditional choice for a first movie experience, but he loved it. He sat on the edge of his seat and politely whispered questions to me, when they came up. And he didn't even get upset at the end of the film when one of the "protagonists" (praying mantis) ate the "female lead" (butterfly). So, perhaps there will be other movies in his future.

That sums up the Pacific Science Center experience. We have one more City Pass to use before the end of the month. The zoo it is!

Argosy Tour

On the same day that we went to the aquarium, we also headed out on a 1 hour harbor tour on an Argosy boat, the Lady Mary.

Since we take the ferry across the Sound whenever we want to go to Seattle, we would never have thought to go on this tour. But I'm glad we had our passes because it was really quite fun. We got up and personal with some California sea lions:
And we went all the way into the port of Seattle, where we got to see a container ship being unloaded with gigantic robotic cranes.

And hey, did you know we import things all thew way from... China?
The Coast Guard icebreakers were admittedly pretty awesome.

You can't beat the skyline.
Last weekend, we went to the Pacific Science Center. The City Pass fun continues, so stay tuned!