gymboree

Lots of people do gymboree classes. but man, they're expensive when you multiply by two (versus kidsquest which is just a family membership). but then there was a groupon for a month of gymboree. so my friend audria and I bought two each (she also has twins) and signed up for the same class. in my opinion the class is okay. but when you're in a class, you also get access to open gym time, which is almost every day for a couple hours. it's then basically like kidsquest, except it's at Redmond Town Center (so 15 mins closer), it's a lot less crowded, and it is more physical play focused instead of mental stimulation focused. Of course both places have both aspects though. Also, you can see all of gymboree at once because it's just one room. Audria and I can chat in the corner and our kids can't wander out of our site. It's just a quick dash if somebody looks like they might need mommy's help. At KidsQuest it's big and Ethan loves to hide in this truck and the kids can wander far enough from each other that you can't see them both, so there's a lot of, "why don't you play by your sister over here?" Or today when Audria and I went together, a lot of, okay, you watch the kids in the truck, I'll watch the kids outside of the truck. Anyway, here's the kiddos at Gymboree!

this toy also flips upside down to be a boat you can rock back and forth on. the kids like it both ways. here kaylee's working on walking up and down stairs w/o using her hands (usually she crawls or uses the wall or railings). it was fun to watch her; she was determined to master this new skill and did it over and over. it was prob her favorite thing that day.

ethan was all about the tunnels.

that's ethan on the ramp, kaylee walking around checking out what to do next, and ben, and audria holding alaina, on the left.

claire! ben and claire are more courageous than my kiddos and will jump off things. kaylee on the other hand, will only go down a slide if you're holding her hand. okay, actually she's mostly outgrown that, but it was a ridiculous phase.

they LOVE this rocking horse. good thing it can fit two kiddos. kaylee can really get it rocking.

kaylee found a tunnel she liked.

and slides. of course there are a bunch of slides at gymboree too.

kidsquest

we bought a membership to KidsQuest Children's Museum in Bellevue. Buying the year-long membership was about the price of paying regular prices 3x, so we just did it. We don't go all the time, but we prob go twice a month (I went today in fact), so it's worth it. It's basically a giant indoor place to play. Indoor is key considering the number of rainy days we have here. Anyways, this time when we went we happened to run into Kennedy and her daddy Ryan while we were there. Ryan and Blake have been friends for a long time (since junior high?) and Kennedy is exactly one week younger than Ethan, so she's extra fun! You can read more about their family here.

Here are a few pics. :)

this is a see-saw that I think my kids would love if they weren't terrified of it. here ethan's being brave enough to touch it.

oh hey, look, that's kennedy over there! for those of you going, wait, which one... kennedy's hair is in a ponytail and she's wearing jeans.

kennedy showed us a treehouse that we'd never explored before because we thought it was just for big-kids, but apparently not!

there's also a whole water section to kidsquest. kaylee loves it, but is going for her skeptical expression here.

kennedy and ethan

there are little spouts of water and tubes that you connect to them to make the water go crazy ways. I think this is the favorite parent station. my kids just want the water to run over their hands, that's pretty fun. every time we go though there are parents (myself included) trying to build tube systems that go upward, split, fountain down, etc. :)

like I said, kaylee just wants the water to run over her hand.

ethan is at another station going for the same end result. please can I just stand here and have the water run over my hands?

after that we were all wet (despite the attempt at smocks, the water just runs off them and drenches the kids' pants and shoes) so we went home!

hello again

My apologies for not blogging for awhile. Here's what I'll do to make it up to you. I'm going to write a couple short posts now, and schedule them to post later so it will seem like I'm a little more even-keeled in my posting instead of feast or famine (which is closer to reality).

So let's get started. :) here are a few pics of the kiddos just having fun at home. sometimes you don't even need any toys at all, just running circles through the kitchen/hallway/living-room/dining-room loop is all you need. and maybe a parent that occasionally grabs you and tickles you. :)

kaylee running. she doesn't smile a ton when she's running, but she is having fun. she's just very focused on her fun. :)

wipe out! ethan took that corner a little fast that time.

no prob though, we're up and at it and smiling again.

oh my goodness, life is so silly!

I told kaylee to get the purple circle puzzle piece. her expression (you mean travel across shoe mountain mommy?) cracks me up.

that's all for now! look for another post later this week though!

squats

when I went to download the ring around the rosie video from the camera I realized I hadn't downloaded videos in quite a while! so I took a look through some of the older videos and found this one. it's from november last year, and is before kaylee got her hair cut and before we bought the piano!

my kids crack me up. :)