Colin Homecoming

This morning Colin and I went to visit Miss Adel at The Ark. She was his daycare teacher until the end of January and Colin adored her so much! I'm not sure he recognized her face, but when she started talking with him he immediately smiled as though he knew her. He also enjoyed seeing Lillian and Judit.

There are so many fun toys at The Ark that I think Colin would be content to climb up and play for a while with the toys. I am now trying to alternate his toys at home so he doen't get bored with the same things over and over.

I don't miss the routine of getting up and driving him to school each day, but I still feel so blessed that we found such a warm and loving environment for him to enjoy when I was working.

BCC Class

Colin's class at BCC

Fun with sand and water table

This year Colin and I have really enjoyed a parent-infant education class at Bellevue Community College. We only have a few more classes for the year, so today we took a group picture -- about half of us were here today, as it is really a much larger group of around 25 families.

Today they had one table set up with partially crushed cheerios encased under a clear plastic liner and mallets and dump trucks on top for the kids to pound away and roll their trucks right over the cheerios without making a complete mess -- such a simple thing that they really loved!

He also LOVES the water table in class, so he got one for his birthday that is half sand/half water. Now he can have endless fun on his own patio!

Grandma and Colin playtime

The weather had been just fabulous this week, so Colin has tried out the play areas at three local parks with Grandma Walker here visiting from Texas. He and Grandma "horsed around" here at the local "down, down" park (named that by our neighbors' children because you go down 2 hills in our neighborhood to get there.)

The Bellevue City Parks are by far better than any parks I remember growing up -- there are lots of parks here to explore all summer long with some along the beach, as well. Yep, no beaches in Panhandle, Texas as I seem to recall!

The Amazing Icecream Sundae

French toast and a rubber ducky -- what could be better?

Wow - it's SOO big! Do I eat it?

Water painting is alright, but can I rip the paper Miss Kathy?

Colin has had a good birthday week! We have had a few days of temps in the mid seventies, which has made for fun play out in the yard. On Wednesday, his actual birthday, we took him out to dinner at Red Robin and they sang him the happy birthday song. He loved the attention and was so amazed by the large ice cream dessert they placed in front of him (the picture speaks for itself.)

On Thursday we went to our class at Bellevue Community College, where he had fun experimenting with a paint brush dipped in water...he was much more interested in ripping the paper canvas than he was in painting with the water-dipped brush. Tearing paper is one of his favorite past times when Mommy isn't watching.

Today we are capping off the week with a visit with our PEPS Mother/Baby group to the Cougar Mountain Zoo in Issaquah to see reindeer, cougars, and other wild animals...you know, we take our wild animals to see the other wild animals : )

Turning One is SOOO much fun!

Balloons are SOOO much fun!

Dad is thanking our guests for attending the party.

Dad is carving the turtle cake.

Can I keep playing with this toy before we move on?

Side view of the turtle cake.

Although Colin doesn't officially turn one until this Wednesday, we had his big party this past Sunday and he had a fabulous time! We packed in 16 adults and 9 kids (including Colin) into our kitchen/den area and Colin had such a fun time walking around with a balloon and watching everyone. He was definitely excited to have all of the guests greet him when he woke from his afternoon nap.

We all enjoyed great food and fellowship, and Dad said a special birthday prayer for him before we all sang happy birthday. Then after that we all enjoyed a chocolate turtle-shaped cake (which Mom slaved over in the kitchen a good bit of the day Saturday -- turned out pretty good) and Colin and Dad opened presents. Colin just wanted to stop and play with each toy before moving on. It's hard at this age to understand the whole "opening multiple presents" concept.

Colin was fortunate to have his Grandparents and Uncle Dave visit from Colorado, and they helped with much of the photo taking during the festivities.