Bothell Country Village - what a fun place...





The Village Bean cafe has a great section for kids, and we loved the simple, clever magnetic pipes for arranging and rearranging and for dropping balls through...








And no place is complete without a pirate ship...

Back at Soundbridge...

Joel, at the end of the day: "My knees are wobbly because I was too fascinated today."

As Joel woke up this morning, the first words out of his mouth were "Shaun the Sheep!"

I can't blame him, really--the show is fantastic.

Matthew: "Mom, I want to get you a really special present for Christmas."

Abigail: "What is it?"

Matthew: "The Polar Express!"

One of the great things about foreign films (other than the fact that, well, they're great) is that they force you to refrain from multitasking while you're watching and reading the screen.

You might just have to put your feet up and have a bite (or several) of chocolate.

And that ain't bad.

(One of our favorites lately was "Vitus".)

We love this time-lapse video of some gorgeous views from the space station as it travels around the globe. Way cool! The beans (and parent-beans) especially enjoyed the lightning and the aurora borealis.

Abigail, to Matthew and Joel this morning when they were both wearing cute stripey sweaters: "You guys look really handsome."

Matthew: "Indeed!"

Remember this black walnut tree from our neighbor's backyard that I posted about the other day?


And here it is now...


And the neighbor's feisty cat on the roof of his garage, next to said black walnut tree...

Where did my baby go? I look at this photo of Joel and think how big he's gotten recently.

Anyway, he and his big bro have always liked helping out in the kitchen, and here J-Bean is with his Green Eggs and Ham Speedy Diner Game hat. (The boys love that game.)

Did you hear about Steve Jobs's final words before he passed on? He was looking over his family's shoulders, into the beyond...

Matthew's and Joel's newest favorite book, Monsieur Saguette and His Baguette, starts out like this:

One Sunday afternoon Monsieur Saguette made himself a pot of hot carrot soup.

'Ah, soup and bread,' he said, smacking his lips. 'My favorite!'

Well, as it turns out, the Beans's favorite combo is also soup and bread, so that's exactly what we had for lunchies today: carrot soup and a baguette--in honor of M. Saguette!

It's been a very busy weekend and certain beans have been waking up WAY early for the past few weeks, and waking up in the night, so to keep them (and ourselves) awake this afternoon, we hung out at our favorite nursery, Swanson's.

We kept the koi company (above) and also the holiday train (below) in the holiday greenhouse. Such beautiful Christmas items for sale, and the trains were a delight--I have a feeling we'll be back there a lot between now and the end of December, especially as they are going to have a couple of reindeer, a camel, and a donkey on site.

Matthew, out of the blue today: "When I grow up I'm going to have a dog and I'm going to name him Pack."

Matthew, when Stephen asked him if he liked the mashed potatoes that Stephen had made for dinner: "Mmmmm, good. But I think I'd like them with a bay leaf for a little more flavor." [The potatoes were really yummy, by the way, and nice and garlicky, just the way I like 'em.]

Our new tradition for dinnertime every night--the beans love it! And it's so cozy.

Most hilarious moment: At Woodland Park Zoo, with my beans, watching the Northern tree shrews. The tree shrews literally do crazy back flips from branch to branch, causing hilarity to ensue.

Most frustrating moment: Going to the GP for Joel's persistent cough, getting medicine for it, and now listening through the monitor to him coughing continuously in his sleep. Poor bean.

Sweetest moments: Kisses and hugs from my beans, and hearing Matthew happily screech as he looked out the window this evening and saw the moon.