Summer vacation - part two - Seattle

After our Vancouver trip, we went to Seattle. Seattle was nice although it did rain one of the days we were there. Guess it wouldn't really be Seattle if it didn't rain though, right? We stayed at the luxurious W hotel which is conveniently located by the shopping district, the monorail and not far from the pier.

When we first arrived in Seattle, we headed over to the Children's Museum which the kids loved! It had a bunch of fun hand-on exhibits.






They even had one about different cultures including one on the PHILIPPINES!!! So it was very cool to see some of the stuff that we see in pictures from the Philippines.

Filipino market:

Another day, we went CD shopping. John got to spend the day CD shopping and even the kids enjoyed it. John loves these pictures by the way...

Going on some rides at the little carnival outside of the museums.

Just eating dinner and posing for the camera. Ethan is drawing and obviously very serious and concentrating hard!



On the monorail (which was very convenient) and quite fun for the kids. We took it from the shopping district which was close to our hotel over to where all the museums were.

At the science fiction museum to see the robot exhibits (John loves robots):
At the kids section where Ethan is building a wall with blocks:

At Seattle's famous Pike's Place Market where they have tons of fresh fruit, fish and artsy crafts. It was fun and lively and probably one my favorite places in Seattle:


This place is infamous for fish throwing and we actually got some on video. Watch the last fish they throw!

Yup, they almost threw that fish at Ethan and John's head!

Ethan turns 4 years old

Ethan had his 4th birthday party at Little Gym. He invited about 15 of his friends from school and a few family friends and cousins. They had a great time - running, jumping, and bouncing off the walls. Here are a few pictures:

On Ethan's actual birthday, we brought cupcakes and goodie bags to his school for his classmates. His teachers made him a special crown and the kids enjoyed celebrating with him!

July pictures

Here are a few pictures of the kids taken in July. Here Zoe is pushing Ethan in her baby doll stroller. She is pretty strong for a tiny girl!

We baked and decorated cupcakes one day. Ethan decorated his first cupcake and could not wait to eat it. Basically he would decorate one and then eat one (instead of decorating all of the cupcakes and them eating them). They had a good time and the cupcakes were tasty.

Yahoo has their annual picnic for families. We went early this year so we can beat the crowds. We played all of the games and won prizes. Ethan drove Zoe around in the race car ride. Both kids got their face painted (well Zoe got her arm painted actually).

Of course - Ethan was Batman.
Zoe had a pretty butterfly painted on her arm.

4th of July

Ethan had a 4th of July parade at school where each preschool class made special hats, waived American flags and marched around their school:




On the actual holiday, we celebrated at Jim and Charity's house with Jen and Rommel and their family. They had games with fun prizes, kids dancing, showed an outdoor movie, tons of good food and a few fireworks. John and I even won the balloon toss game!

That is it for now!

Zoe at 22 months old

Zoe is 22 months old now and is quite a character. She loves to sing and dance. She learns new songs everyday but right now her favorite songs are "ABC's" and "Ba Ba Blacksheep". Here is a short clip of her singing ABCs (and doing a few dance steps too):



Last week, Zoe got her ears pierced. We've been wanting to pierce them since she was a baby but decided to wait because Zoe always scratched her ears when she got mad. Since she doesn't do that anymore, we decided it was time. She obviously didn't enjoy getting them pierced but I think she likes them now.

For her last birthday, Zoe got a baby doll and a stroller for her baby doll. Although she likes her baby doll, I think she likes the stroller more. In fact, her and Ethan take turns sitting in it and pushing eachother in this mini stroller. But when Ethan isn't there, Zoe doesn't wait around - nope, she just pushes herself around:

Ethan's special day

I have been wanting to spend some quality time with just Ethan since I find that I spend most of my time is with Zoe. John and Ethan a lot of time together and they do 'their' special things like go to the comic book store and cd store. So, I took a day off from work and pulled Ethan out of school. We decided to go to the Children's Discovery Museum and then to lunch. But any good day begins at Starbucks!

At the museum, we did so many things including played in the sand, in the water, painted with our hands and went to the story time, played with clay, etc. We spent three hours there but could have easily spent much more time there. Next time we will definitely spend more time there.

Ethan and I made a bridge which he is walking across here:

We're posing for the camera after making clay structures. We made an 'E' for Ethan but it got too dry and broke :(

Then we went to lunch at Red Robin. We got shakes to celebrate our special day! Ethan saw an episode of Jon and Kate plus 8 where Mady went to Red Robin with her parents on her special day. She got a milk shake so Ethan decided he wanted to do that too.

Gilroy Gardens

Memorial Day 2008

We went to Gilroy Gardens with the Patel family. We went on so many rides and watched a show, ate lunch and lots of sweets too! We had fun - gotta do it again soon.

Here are Ethan and Sana - holding hands and walking to their next ride.

From left to right:
Sai(20 mos), Sana (3 1/2 yrs), Zoe (20 mos) and Ethan (3 1/2 yrs)

Little kids racing up the slide. I think Sai is letting Zoe win.

Ethan is swinging like the monkey he is...

Ethan and Sana goofing off on the train ride