Advent Activity Calendar Round-Up

Molly and I had a great time with her Advent Activity Calendar! This is definitely something I see us continuing for years to come.

I did learn a few lessons from doing this though. One important lesson is to BE FLEXIBLE! We changed a few activities at the last minute due to pregnancy fatigue, sickness and weather. It happens! We also had to curtail some of the activities due to Chicken Nugget's early arrival. I also decided that we'll leave out the chocolate next year. It gave Molly a weird rash on her chin and I think she missed out on connecting some of the activities with the calendar due to her love for the chocolate.

You can see the whole set of Advent Activities on Flickr.

Adventures with Molly - Jetty Island

This week's adventure took some time to coordinate but in the end it was well worth all the work! I read somewhere that Jetty Island up in Everett was a special place and that it was perfect for kids. It's just a short boat ride across from the Everett Marina. I think you spend more time lining up for the boat, loading the boat and launching off the dock, than you actually spend riding in the boat. Molly still found it to be an exciting adventure.

There is only one bathroom on Jetty Island and it is a rickety looking shack on the boat dock. Luckily I didn't need to use it but it is nice to know it is there if one does. After you exit the boat, you walk up a sandy path toward the ranger's station. They have a big board with departure tickets. We grabbed an earlier departure and ignored our reserved time. This later turned out to be a wonderful thing.

We found a great place on the beach and got the kids into their beach clothing. Molly took off running right away and found some kids to play with. I had brought along her beach bag full of beach toys but she preferred to use the other kid's toys. Ugh!

We played for a few hours, ate a very sandy lunch on the beach and then packed up our gear to go home. Molly was so tired that she practically whimpered as we loaded onto the boat. She did not fight me as I got her into her car seat and was asleep before I even started the car!

We are definitely going back next summer with Daddy and Chicken Nugget. It's the perfect place to spend a sunny, summer day! You have to get in quick though as the season is short, running from July 2nd to September 2nd. Reservations are highly recommended, especially with little kids who are not great at waiting.

 

Adventures with Molly - A Visit to MOHAI

Last week, I took Molly to MOHAI (Museum of History and Industry). They recently moved from Mountlake to South Lake Union and I wanted to check out their new space. I had also heard that the new space was extremely kid friendly, which it was! The additional bonus to their new location is that we were within blocks of Scott's office so we popped on over and had lunch with him after our museum adventures.

We started out by exploring the fountain by the museum which was covered with Canadian Geese. Molly ran right up to them and started waving which caused a lot of honking from the birds. The child has no fear so I had to quickly usher her away before they decided to peck at her.

We entered the museum and Molly quickly began exploring while trying to touch all the things that say, "Do NOT touch!" We checked out the railroad room and Molly got to build the tracks. We looked at the native Seattlite room and learned about their culture. We explored the exhibit on Seattle movies and the World's Fair along with checking out displays on Microsoft and Amazon.

The museum is huge and has so many awesome things to check out. There was a lot that I didn't get to really look into due to Molly's constant moving. She told me that she had a ton of fun at the museum though.

We ended up staying at the museum for about two hours and then headed over to enjoy a nice lunch with Scott. I'm excited to go again but this time I think we'll take Scott. He'd love MOHAI. 

I neglected to talk about our adventure to St. Edwards Park a few weeks ago! We went on an awesome hike through the park with my PEPS mamas. The only downside to our hike was that it rained! We've had a very dry summer around here, something like 35 dry days, so the rain was unexpected. My lawn was quite happy to get a nice, cool drink though. 

I mainly carried Molly in our hiking backpack but about halfway back up the hill to the car, I let her out. I think my days of hiking with Molly on my back are limited. She's heavy and now that Chicken Nugget is getting heavier, it is a bit of a strain on my body. I may need to limit my hikes to weekends when Scott can carry Molly. 

St. Edwards Park is beautiful though and I'd highly recommend getting out there for a hike, picnic or just to enjoy the scenery. I really haven't explored the park as much as I should, especially since I went to high school near it (back in the dark ages).

After our hike, Molly and I met up with my parents for some Taco Del Mar even though we were quite wet from our hike. It was my Mom's birthday so I tried to coach Molly into saying Happy Birthday but she wouldn't do it. She did give her a big kiss though. 

Adventures with Molly - Blueberry Picking at Mercer Slough

For this week's adventure, I decided to take Molly blueberry picking! There is a wonderful blueberry farm about 30 minutes away in Bellevue. I emailed a bunch of friends and we all gathered for some hard-core fruit picking.



Before we started on our adventure though, I took Molly to Eltana Bagels for breakfast. They have this great deal where you can get a third half for a $1 in addition to your regular bagel order. It's perfect for Molly! We enjoyed our bagels and then headed across the water for berry picking.



We arrived right as the Mercer Slough Blueberry Farm was opening which I'd highly recommend. When we left a few hours later, there was no parking and the sun was really starting to beat down. The farm provides buckets for picking, you just need to leave your photo id. They even have kid buckets!



We headed out to the fields and started picking. All of the kids started eating blueberries directly off the trees. We tried to show them which ones to eat but I'm pretty sure they ate a lot of the green ones too. The funniest part was watching the kids figure out that eating berries out of the buckets was faster than off the trees. One by one, they learned that the buckets were filling with berries and would try to grab berries as quickly as they could.



The farm provides these HUGE buckets and I had dreams of filling it to overflowing. Sadly blueberry picking is not a quick process. After an hour of picking and chasing Molly, the bottom of my bucket was barely covered.



The kids started to lose their patience with the Mommas after about an hour and a half so we headed back in to pay for our loot. I was pleased to see that they had more blueberries for sale. I teased my friends and said I was going to lie on the blog and tell everyone that I had picked ALL of the blueberries I was buying but not to give me away. But hey, I decided to be truthful! I did end up picking about a pound and a half of blueberries (about 4 cups) which was great! I bought 4 more pints and on Friday will share what I made with all my berries.



I'd highly recommend heading out to the Mercer Slough Blueberry Farm if you live in the Seattle area. It's a beautiful farm and the berries are cheap! Only $1.50 a pound! I'm planning on going back soon with a girlfriend to pick more berries. This time though we are leaving our children behind so we can actually pick some berries.

Adventures with Molly - Kelsey Creek Farm

One of my summer goals is to take Molly on a weekly adventure. The best part of this is that a lot of our friends are super excited to join us in our adventurous ventures!



This week, we headed over to Bellevue to check out Kelsey Creek Farms. Located in central Bellevue, Kelsey Creek Farm is a quiet and secluded place full of farm animals. Owned and operated by the Bellevue Parks and Community Services Department, the farm is free to visit. 



The animals were everywhere! Molly quickly began mooing at the cows and baaing at the sheep. She and her little friends may have spent most of their time checking out the chickens though. This cracked us up because one of our friends has chickens at their house. We can see chickens any time! 



We also got to see some day campers putting on a horse show. They had decorated their horses and were doing tricks with them. What a fun camp to attend!



Our first adventure was so much fun! It wore Molly out and she slept the entire way home from Bellevue. I ended up sitting in the grocery store parking lot waiting for her to wake up so I could pick up a few things that I had missed earlier that week. Luckily I had my knitting to keep me company.