Sequoia (aka Princess Buzz Lightyear) and her Summer Adventures

This summer has been very busy, but we've been able to squeeze in some fun here and there.


Sequoia started swimming lessons this year and is now in the second summer session. We did the first session with her in the parent/child class (the polar bears), and is now in the independent 3 year old class (the tadpoles). She swims twice a week and she loves it.






She is also becoming quite the puzzle master. She now has three puzzles (Disney Princesses, My Little Ponies, and Dora the Explorer) that are 24 pieces each, and she can do them all independently. I have always loved puzzles and I love that she loves them too!



We've also enjoyed a trip to Faerie Worlds--and we will definitely be going back in future years. It's much smaller than our beloved Celtic Faire, but it fit into that missing piece of our year. I took Sequoia the first night while Dan was away at a fire training event. We listened to great music (Brother was there--which I first heard about 10 years ago), enjoyed yummy food, looked at the fun costumes, and got Sequoia her first pair of fancy fairy wings (from the same vendor I got mine from about 11 years ago!) We brought Dan back with us on Sunday and enjoyed another wonderful day.

Here are some more pictures to enjoy from our summertime adventures =)

Further Adventures of Sequoia

Finally, a long awaited update! Sequoia has been taking us on wonderful adventures like ice skating (pictured left), train track building, Lego building, and excursions about town. She has also proudly begun her training in video game mastery. She has been playing Zelda on the the DS--she only stays in the main town, but she has already figured out how to control Link for walking in and out of buildings, throwing rocks and pots, talking to citizens, jumping into water, and how to continue (this happens often as she loves making Link jump into the water repeatedly).

She starts the next level of gymnastics later this week and it will be her first parent-free class. Very exciting!

Sequoia has also helped redecorate the apartment. Her bedroom is now all set up for her (her bed is back in our room, but she's sleeping in it and not our bed, so it is progress). She also is great at falling asleep on her own now (as long as Baby is with her). Baby is her constant companion now-a-days.



We also redecorated her play area in the living room. We have bins for each type of toy and a book shelf for all of her books. It keeps everything organized and she knows where everything goes, so she actually can keep her area all nice and neat.

We are also starting to look into preschools for the summer. She asks if she can go to school like Daddy just about every day now.

Here are all the pictures from our latest adventures!

Sequoia's New Car

After our beautiful blue wagon was totaled (Dan was rear-ended) this week (everyone is perfectly fine) we got to have the interesting experience that is car shopping. We did a lot of research online, checked KBB, Edmunds, and Consumer Reports, and had many advisory phone calls.



The traveling from lot to lot was exhausting and Sequoia really didn't care for it (except for the one place that had a little playroom and the one place that had giant balloons). We looked at about nine cars and test drove about five. We ended up going back and making an offer on the very first one that we test drove. I knew that we had decided on the right car when they had a mechanic take the car to replace the defroster light bulb and Sequoia started yelling at him through the window: "Hey! That's my car! Come back with my car!"

It is definitely very different from our wagon, but we really like it. I absolutely love it! It is very fun and easy to drive. Sequoia likes it because the back seat is up pretty high so she can see really well out the windows. We just ordered a stick figure family bumper sticker, so we just have to pick up a new UO sticker and a Oregon Zoo decal. We're not sure if we want to replace our coexist bumper sticker since the fire chief thinks that the SUV was just trying to coexist with our car, and we don't want to encourage that behavior with the new rig. We're looking forward to trying it out on our California Christmas trip! So here's Sequoia's new car, which she is generously allowing Dan and I to use to drive her around to her various destinations.

It has been awhile...

Hello all and sorry that we haven't updated Sequoia's blog in awhile! It has been kind of crazy up here in Oregon. Dan has just finished up Fire Academy and is now an official volunteer firefighter!! I've been working many evenings in the pharmacy and getting home kind of late. Sequoia is just as cute and wonderful as ever (as seen above). So now that I have a moment, let me fill you all in on the latest and greatest Sequoia adventures.

Sequoia has been attending a gymnastics class every week (thank you grandma and papa!) and she absolutely loves it. She is very good at doing somersaults and walking across the balance beam. She loves the trampoline and knows a bunch of great stretches that go with fun narrations. On top of all that fun, she gets animal stamps and glitter lotion at the end of each lesson which she thinks is just the best!

Sequoia has also become very into make-believe play lately. She loves dressing up and she loves playing with her dolly and baby. She has been carrying her baby around the house constantly for the past week. Sequoia likes to "hold her like a baby." She has also been pretend vacuuming. She has been begging to do some baking this week, so I think we'll work on making some cookies tomorrow. Daddy found the train set (shown below) at a local toy and hobby shop, and it fit with some pieces that we already had. This has been a big hit in our living room. (I'm not sure if Sequoia or Dan likes it more).

We have also been doing weekly arts and crafts while Daddy is out at the fire station. This week we made a hand and foot turkey to decorate the window along with a set of pilgrims and a turkey which Sequoia colored all by herself. She finally has the patience to do some coloring and is quickly picking up the concept. We also made a Thanksgiving/Christmas countdown garland which she gets to remove one ring per day for the countdown. She thinks it's really fun--she doesn't quite agree that she should only remove one ring per day, but we're working on it.

Lastly, I must say I love the show "Word World." I must say that it (along with all of our library runs and reading) has really gotten Sequoia into language. She loves to point out what letter starts a word when she hears it (sometimes on new words which floors me every time). Being hooked on phonics is really working for her!

That's all for now. I know I've left out a ton of stuff, but hopefully I'll have time to start updating this more and we'll catch up a bit better. Oh yes, leaf and puddle stomping is also a favorite activity right now--and in Eugene there are a lot of large piles of leaves and big puddles!

Here are a couple of links for the picture galleries from October and November. Enjoy!