The Hefford-AndersonsTyler, Jennifer, Samantha, Finley, Declan and Saviah

Today was one of those FABULOUS Seattle fall days. The weather was gorgeous, the sky was clear and we didn’t have anything planned, except cleaning the house. So after hearing someone talk about going walking on Alki I packed up the boys and we headed out. What a perfect day. Finley has been begging to go to the beach to play in the sand and fly a kite.

The Gorgeous View

Digging and Loving It

Looking back at Seattle. Wish I had a better zoom.

As we were rounding the corner to come to the sandy side of Alki Finley exclaimed, ” oh no, we forgot the sand toys.” I remember the conversation before we left – I asked him multiple times to get his bucket and shovels and then I got distracted and we left. Now I am feeling bad. We left the house to go to the beach to dig and build castles and we forgot the tools. So I drove all the way to the end of the commercial area of Alki hoping that maybe I could find a store selling a pail (we had a shovel in the car). Finley is really upset at this point and I feel awful. So we head out and I think a cup will work. So we head to Starbuck’s and my morning latte and cup of water turn into the best Seattle sandtoys ever. We had tons of fun with them.

Our Seattle Sand Toys

Mommy and Declan enjoying the sun and the sand - in October - gotta love Seattle.

On Tyler’s last day at Cedarbrook his produce guy gave him some club level seats to the Mariner’s game. So we took the boys and had a great time.

Declan at his first game

Trying to get a good picture of mommy and the boys - boys weren't cooperating.

Mommy and Declan

Finley enjoying his favorite part of the game - snacks!

It was a gorgeous day a few Saturday’s ago so we decided to go to the zoo. Tyler was working and I decided to take the boys. Megan and Josh ended up coming with us and we had a great time.

Finley in the boat at the new penguin exhibit

Finley and Auntie Megan on the Komodo Dragon

Finley and Auntie Megan on the Carousel

Our friends attend another cooperative preschool in the area and they had a fundraiser at The Bouncy Place. It is a huge warehouse filled with bouncy toys. Finley loves it. So we headed down there and had a great evening. Finley, Tyler and Samantha bounced the night away.

Each week our playgroup has a letter that we work on. A few weeks ago we focused on B. We looked at B words and made Banana bread.

Mixing the bread

Our finished bread.

Samantha is officially a teenager – hopefully we’ll survive.

we started the celebration with our long standing tradition of a trip to the Spaghetti Factory for dinner.

Samantha listening to them sing to her.

Finley laughing while they sang.

The weekend before her birthday we had her family birthday dinner. The tradition in our family is that you get to pick your own birthday dinner and celebrate with the family. Samantha picked (as I think she has picked every year for at least 5 years) Spaghetti with meat sauce, garlic bread and Caesar salad.