Seafood hunt at Pike Place Market...

Beautiful flowers...

Delicious fruits & veggies...

Clams galore...

Clams, oysters, crab & Salmon (in the bags)...

Papa & Uncle Dan...

Wonderful kids...

All of the ingredients for a wonderful day!

Slip 'n Slide

Grandma gave the kids a Slip 'n slide...

We didn't have grass to use it for a long time, but...

it finally grew in and now the kids want to use it ALL of the time!

Let's just say this has been the perfect summer for it!

New Project...

Dele came home with a go cart for he and the boys to work on together! Kayode is the only one who was gung-ho about spending the time to fix it up. So cute...
They chose to paint the Go-Cart red... Kayode loves helping!

The first test run...

Actually runs pretty good...

now we just have to get Kayode to turn the wheel at the right times!


More fun to come! They're not quite done with it yet!

We love Grandma & Poppa Dick

Thank you for letting us come down to visit! :)

We love you!

Special time with Grandma & Poppa Dick

My beautiful family!

We were very fortunate to be able to spend a week with my mom and Dick. The kids (especially me) love to visit them! Grandma (aka my mom) loves to spoil the kids and always has her cupboards stocked with their favorite things! She's great about keeping them occupied by playing games with them. Each of the kids had special one-on-one time with either Grandma or Poppa Dick. The kids love to play poker with Grandma. Even Carter played cards with her...Old Maid & Go fish. Poppa Dick is tumbling some of Ayodele's special rocks he found on a hike at Red Rock in Las Vegas, so he spent a lot of time with Poppa looking for new rocks and examining his new shiny rocks.

When we weren't playing games inside because of the weather, we were either at the beach or at the pool! They took us to three different beaches while we were there. The beach by their house is fun because we can walk to it and play for as long as we want! We went to another beach with beautiful tide pools. We saw lots of crab, sea anemone & even sea lions. The last beach we went to the kids had fun digging big holes in the sand and playing football.

The kids had a great time! Thank you Grandma & Poppa!

Our princess, Sade!

Ayodele loved spashing in the waves!

Derek & Sade... friends at last?!?

Crab in the tide pools...

Happy Fourth of July!

We had a terrific Independence Day! We got a late start in the morning since we spent the night before waiting at BOOM CITY for their HUGE firework display that ended up starting at 1am. It certainly was worth the wait, but boy were we tired!

The morning started with fireworks! Yes, the kids lit several fireworks even before breakfast was eaten! Dele had to DJ a party in the afternoon so I asked him to do all of the fireworks that I (as an overprotective mom) would not like to do alone if he were to not make it back from the party. The boys thought it was great! I distracted myself by going to help Heather, my cousin, set up chairs for the parade downtown Arlington. It was so weird driving down the main street lined with hundreds of empty chairs waiting for the parade - ours being among them!

After we finished our first round of fireworks and got everyone ready, we headed over to my cousin's house for a BBQ. We had such a great afternoon visiting, eating and watching the kids play on their huge water slide! Dele was with us for a while before he had to leave for his party.

The kids had a terrific time sliding down the gigantic water slide! It was very fun watching all of the cousins play together!

After a wonderful BBQ, we all headed downtown to the parade. It's been a long time since we've been to a parade and how much fun we had!!! The kids weren't so sure, but once the candy started being thrown at them, they decided parades were pretty fun!!!

Derek is hoping to make the football team this upcoming year in Arlington. He's been going to the weight room twice a week to lift and play some ball with the others. Last Thursday, they asked for volunteers for the parade and he didn't sign up. As the float rolled by, the guys recognized Derek and hollered at him to jump on the float with them! Wow... who would've guessed I'd have an Eagle in my house?

After the parade we went home to finish our fireworks. Derek had gone to BOOM CITY with Jeff and got a huge amount of very big fireworks! He could hardly contain his excitement! He put on quite the show for us. The kids did some sparklers and I tried to remain calm so I could enjoy the show!

The beautiful sunset from our neighborhood definitely helped keep me calm and enjoy the evening! Thank you, Derek, for a great fireworks display! It was awesome!

Another Day at the Stilly

We spent another fun day at the river on Wednesday! This time Jeff joined us! We took a lunch and lots of snacks and spent almost the entire afternoon enjoying the sun and water! Kayode loved swimming in the pool of water we found!
Sade played with the boys, looked for periwinkles and just enjoyed being outside!

Ayodele decided to get as wet as he possibly could! He took the buckets they were using for collecting rocks and critters and dumped bucket after bucket of water over his head!

Today Dele and I took the kids down to the Stillaguamish River to hang out and play. We found the most perfect place. We had to cross the river a little, but we ended up on a bank in the middle with a pool of water just about 2 feet deep for the kids to swim and splash around in! They could swim, splash, collect tadpoles or baby fish (not sure which) and crawdads! How fun! :) Derek and I went to the other side of the bank and skipped rocks and had rock throwing contests. Basically, we were the only ones there and it was terrific! The kids can't wait to go back. I think we'll be going again Wednesday... something to look forward too!

Gosh... so many things have happened...

I cannot believe it's been over a month since I have last written something here or left pictures memories to go back and see. I need to improve in this area, as I so enjoy going back and looking at pictures of things we've done. Even if this whole blog ends up being only for me, I love it still the same. Hopefully others are enjoying the pics of the family and all that we're up to!

Let's start with the very beginning... we did indeed move! We moved into the very best house on the block! We're living with Jeff & Carter and there is still enough room for the big kids to have their own rooms! This is our new house!

Dele arrived a few days after we moved in and he loves it just as much as we all did! The house is still not as I'd like it, but I try to remind myself that settling in takes time! The best thing about it is that the kids are constantly outside playing! We live on a coul-de-sac and there are tons of neighborhood kids. They are always running around, riding their bikes and playing on the play set in the backyard!

There's even a basketball hoop out front that Dele and Derek play on quite frequently! Derek really wants to make the team this year, so Dele's trying to prepare him! Here's a few pics of them playing ball... they (especially Derek) don't like it when I'm taking pictures of them... they say it's distracting! Whatever!

The kids seem to be adjusting to being in Arlington all right! Ayodele was placed in a "Continuous Progress" class with a teacher that my dad hired when he was a Principal in Arlington so many years ago. It's a great program and it means Dele will be in the same class next year with the same kids and same expectations. He's made some great friends already and loves his class. They did a really cool Solar System program at the end of the year! Dele did a great job and even learned most of the songs! Dele's peeking behind the boy in front with the red/white striped shirt... :)

Sade actually loves her school. The first time since Elementary School!!! She's going to try out for the Volleyball team, maybe Cross Country and the Jazz Choir next year! She's going to be very busy, I just know it! The choir did a concert the last week of school and it was fun for me to be back in Arlington at a school concert! The Jazz was great! (Sade's in the 4th row, 2nd person from the right)

Oh... forgot to mention my birthday! Probably the best one in years!!! Not only were we in a beautiful home with my husband and kids, but my mom, Dick and my grandma surprised me by being here after work! They made me a wonderful steak dinner and bought my favorite Chocolate Mousse Royale Birthday Cake from Baskin & Robbins! Yummy!!! Dele even cut me some beautiful roses from out garden!!! (They're a little wilted because I forgot to take a picture on my birthday! Oops!)

I finished my long-term sub job in Marysville teaching Music on the 16th of June and Derek's last day was the same day! I'm so thankful I had a job while I did, but hope and pray that something good comes up for next year! Since I was already out of school, Dele and I helped with Ayodele's Field Day which was the 17th... his last day of school. We all walked up to the school and helped for a while, then got to spend the rest of the time with Ayodele so he and Kayode could play games! What fun we had!

Derek's ready to go to Arlington. He's been going to weight lifting twice a week for football all ready! Wednesday he got his Driver's Permit, so watch out world... Derek's driving! I took him out yesterday and had to dig my nails out of the side of the car... today was MUCH BETTER!!! I even let him drive me to Haggen to get a treat! :)

The last thing and then we'll be all caught up for now... today Dele woke up and took us all Strawberry picking! Too much fun! The kids ate more than they picked, but we did get almost 10 pounds of berries! Yummy! Of course, they're almost all gone all ready! I guess we'll just have to go again! :) We're counting the days until we can go blueberry picking... that's our favorite!!!

Summer's here and the kids are loving it in Arlington!!! What more could we ask? Until the next time...