Shoeless Seth

In the last couple of days, Seth has had some unfortunate accidents involving things falling on his big toes. As a result he's been without shoes the last couple of days. Here's a survey of the damage he's inflicted on himself:
Pretty ugly, huh?

Mariners Game, Part Deux

It seems we are destined to go to each major league sporting event twice this year. We had the second opportunity (first, for some of us) to go to a Mariners' game thanks to several people at Jon's work that opted out of the annual firm game. In their defense, the weather was really crummy, which I guess shouldn't matter because of the retractable roof; but let's be honest, it does. Oh yeah, and the Mariners are really lousy. We were willing to brave the weather and the poor playing (true to form the M's lost and we even witnessed a ball going through the second baseman's legs) because it was better for me to go than to stay home with two ornery boys while Jon put in "extra time" at work.

Seth got a lot of camera time while Matthew and Jon made a bathroom trip.
I know that it's super disgusting that Seth has a mouth full of sandwich, but I love the face he made when he noticed Jon and Matthew coming back.
Sethie, showing that he's ready to catch any ball that comes his way. Especially after fueling up on kettle corn.
Matthew was able to track down the moose once again.
We didn't end up staying to watch the Red Sox complete the sweep; we're not at all hardcore. We'll definitely be hoping for better weather and a better team next year; although with either one of those, we'd probably be back to just one game a year!

Rockets

Some friends set up an end-of-the-summer model rocket launch evening. Matthew and Jon got a rocket kit several weeks ago, and they spend many nights working on the rocket a little each night.

We had a lot of fun when the evening finally came around. Matthew was very eager to see the rocket go up.



He was especially anxious to push the button to ignite the engine.


We didn't have the most powerful engines, so the rocket didn't come down too far away from us.


That made it easy to recover the rocket and reload it with a new engine for sending it back up.



Matthew was well-prepared with his binoculars in case the rockets went really far away.


Seth was a good sport, mostly watching on the side. Julie had fun watching the rockets and talking with friends.


By the end, Seth was tired and ready to go. He kept begging, "home...go...home".


Thanks to the Schmidts for putting the evening together. We had a great evening with friends and rocket fun.

Something I never thought I'd do . . . .

. . . put my kindergartener on a bus. But after two days of constant begging, I relented. I soothed by this fact; he's riding a bus to a school of 62 students, 2/3 of whom are kindergartners. He should be safe, right?

Kindergarten

We officially have a kindergartner! And so far, he's loving it. It was no holds bar on the first day celebrating. We started the morning with a very nutritious breakfast at IHOP. The truth be told, we probably wouldn't have gone out except that the boys woke up much too early so we needed to kill some time AND we were all out of eggs and milk because I hate to grocery shopping with two boys.

Before breakfast we took a few pictures of Matthew and his enormous backpack of supplies. Next year we'll put the classroom supplies in a separate bag!

Yes, Matthew's bag is reflective; I'm a poor photographer.

Seth didn't want to be left out of the picture taking action!Jon opted to go into work late so he could come along to drop Matthew off at school. Matthew quickly found his locker, the lunch box bin, and the kids' folder basket; a good start to learning the routine! We watched as he found an activity, we took the obligatory first day pictures and then Jon, Seth, and I were off.

Milestone

To avoid being negligent, I figured it was about time I recorded this important milestone in Seth's life. We've been slow to note it because he only sleeps in his big boy bed with limited success (i.e. we have had and mostly likely will continue to have quite a few sleepless nights). But here is proof that he does indeed sleep in his bottom bunk . . . sometimes.

Vintage Aircraft Show

My boys are lovers of all things airplane. So, when I found out about the Vintage Aircraft Show at Paine Field I decided that we should try to go, depending on how the boys were doing, and whether we could get our messy house clean. Surprisingly, the house was clean and errands were run all before 10am on Saturday, so we headed up to Everett.
We actually arrived before the start of the "opening ceremonies" and the first round of flybys, so we were able to check out most of the airplanes before positioning ourselves on the berm to watch the flybys. While waiting for the flybys we were able to watch a blimp take off, which is a lot more interesting than you would think!
Our last stop and scene of one incredible five-year-old tatrum, was a creativity station. Matthew and Jon worked to create a self-propelled machine that could move from a designated point A to another designated point B. Frustration and exhaustion (he was up late because of the Mariner's game) quickly set in and Jon had to carry a screaming Matthew away from the innovation station, through the front entrance, and all the way to the car. Sethie and I followed along too. After continuing to cry and scream for the majority of the ride home, Matthew finally agreed that if he'd good all year so we could go back next year. If we do, hopefully it will be on a much better nights' sleep.
And because Seth was seriously under represented in the pictures, here's a picture in closing. It turned out that Seth's favorite craft at the show wasn't an aircraft at all!

Mariners Game

Thanks to our Mariner's fabulous record (only35 games under .500!), there are lots of tickets available for relatively cheap. We found some tickets in the lower bowl on a Friday night for only $9 each. So, we got three tickets (Seth is still free) and we were excited to go as a family.

Unfortunately, Seth started getting sick the day before the game and we decided that it was best for him to stay home. Instead, just Jon and Matthew went to the game.

They arrived with plenty of time before the game for Matthew to enjoy his favorite part of Safeco Field--the kids' play structure!


Matthew also wore his Lincecum Giants shirt. Knowing that his loyalties still lie with the Giants made Jon happy. And, Seattle fans like Lincecum (he went to the Univ of Washington), so no one gave them a hard time for wearing a Giants shirt.

Their seats were pretty good and, as you can tell, they had plenty of room to spread out. There was no one in front of them or in back of them for about 10 rows each way. They hoped that a foul ball would land in that wide range, but no such luck.


Matthew knew that there would be cotton candy at the park. He started to prep us many weeks in advance, saying that he hoped that a guy carrying cotton candy would walk near our seats. Of course, once he spotted the cotton candy guy, there was no turning him down.



The other thing that Matthew really wanted to do was to get a picture with the Moose mascot. The Moose hangs out down by the dugouts for a lot of the game, so we didn't know whether Matthew would get a picture with him. Toward the end of the game, Matthew spotted the Moose walking behind their section. He jumped up and told Jon that they needed to run. Once they got up there, Matthew was so excited to get his picture taken.


Even though the Mariners aren't very good this year, it turned out to be a good game. The Mariners' pitcher took a no-hitter into the 7th inning, and it was a pitchers' duel all the way. The Mariners won 1-0.

Mischief

It may be that we have more stuff to get into this time around, but I honestly don't remember Matthew being as mischievous as Seth is now. I have mostly given up taking showers at home and opt instead to shower at the gym, for fear of the trouble that Seth seems to be able to cause when unsupervised. This little shenanigan took place while I was changing into my gym clothes.

SETHIE!!!!