Happy 3rd Birthday Sam

Nemo rules Can you tell what movie Sam loves? Everything was Nemo and Bruce the Shark. The other constant was Sam's love of yellow! We had a small birthday party as we really didn't know anyone well enough to have a big party. Now, a year later, it's a different situation. Sam has lots of friends. His outgoing personality help that immensely. "I'm Sam. What your name?" is a typical line when we're at say.. the grocery store.

Fun in the Rain

The Seattle Center
we visited the Seattle Center a few times. Madeleine had her first roller coaster ride and Sam loved driving his own car. There is a huge fountain that even in winter plays music as the water dances. The warmer the weather the wetter the kids get. They try to dodge the water which is such fun. Especially when they think they've outsmarted the fountain and they haven't!
We joined the Children's Museum which isn't as good as lots places but ok for a rainy day. They do have a cool rock path that ends in a cave along the way it has rocks to turn over to see what lives under them. The IMAX, Science Center, Experience Music Project are all part of the Center. Madeleine and I saw Black Stallion at the IMAX. She is all about horses so was a memorable film.

The French School

100th day of Kindergarten Although for Madeleine it was probably about her 115th day. Given that she started in Mid-August in TX and went to the end of June, Madeleine had the longest year of school that she'll ever have. Not that she minded. She loved Kindergarten and this teacher Beth was her favourite. Beth teaches English. Madeleine also enjoyed Deborah her main Kindergarten teacher but being with her in a totally French environment just wasn't as comfortable. Madeleine learned to understand a lot of french but could only say one phrase: Je peux aller au toilette?

Our special Trip to Houston

Houston Birthday Party Baylee, Madison, Sam, Abby & Madeleine
We don't spoil our kids do we? We took a special trip to Houston so that Madeleine was able to celebrate Claire's birthday and be with her old Texas friends. She really missed her friends and this was arranged before we left so that she would have something to look forward to. We all went and we all had a great time. It was Valentine's weekend so we also got out with Tony and Pam.
The birthday party was awesome with lots of horse rides which Madeleine and Sam loved even when their two horses were at odds with each other and tried to kick. Pam had organized it so nicely with the bandanas and all. We miss Houston even though we are enjoying Seattle.

Rolo's stay

Rolo stays with us in our apartment with Royalty
We had a 3 bedroom apartment in Issaquah where we also had a pet for a couple of weeks while our friends Juan and Joanna went to get married. It was a wonderful couple of weeks. One of the highlights was Ron getting up to walk the dog everyday. Other highlights included explaining to Sam who was newly potty trained that yes, dogs pee outside but people pee inside; Rolo's wrath when he wasn't allowed to sleep on the sofa (he explained his wrath by chewing every paper in sight as well as a cell phone and cover!). But don't let your kids hang out with a dog then say that you can't get a dog of your own. We will be dog owners before 2005 is over I'm sure thanks to Rolo's influence.

Being new to the area, I read the Seattle Times quite closely for things to do. One Saturday there was a kids Craft Fair in Kent. It was really amazing how many different crafts from different countries were presented. Not sure if that's where the crowns come from but other crafts did decorate our apartment.

Sunday in February at the Beach

West Seattle Alki Beach We went for breakfast and played on the beach. Mostly chasing seagulls but also admiring the ferries and the beautiful Olympic Mountains to the west. Sam's pink boots are a fixture in our life. Aren't they great?

Vancouver weekend visit

Old high school friends meet in Vancouver

It's great to live on the West coast and have Canada so accessible. Almost like going home! We drove up to see friends Lynn and George who were out from Ontario for a conference. We walked around Stanley Park while Madeleine rode her 2-wheel bike and showed her newly acquired skills. We went to Granville Island and had beers (Quelle surprise!). Fun visit and our inaugaral trip to Vancouver since moving to Seattle. Not a bad trip at about 3 hours to get there on a Saturday morning but on Sunday afternoon it took much longer. Too bad about those border crossings.

The aquarium in February 2004 was our favourite place. Here Sam pretends he is a jelly fish! 

Seattle Aquarium - Our weekly visit

Madeleine playing TicTacToe with a diver in the big tank at the Aquarium.
We bought a membership at the Aquarium in February of 2004 and it has been the best investment. We love the "touching tanks", Madeleine loves the octupus and Mum loves the river otters. The car pool lanes work so well in Seattle that I can pick the kids up at 3 and be inside the Aquarium by 3:20 then whether we stay 40 minutes or 2 hours depending on Sam's mood the trip home is just as fast.

Madeleine took a real shining to the mother octupus that they had at the Aquarium. She learned all the facts including the one about releasing her so that she could have her babies then die. It was the exhibit that fascinated Madeleine and so cool for her to have a passion. Sam, on the other hand, raced from exhibit to exhibit and the only tank that came even close to slowing him down was the one with a clown fish...a Nemo!

Year in Review - February 2004


We spent a lot of time at the NW fixture of Starbuck's. These kids really do share and get along well.

The Year in Review - January

One year today we moved to the Northwest. We arrived in time for a snow storm that was to close school for 2 days the first week of school. We were living in an apartment in Issaquah and were quite house-bound as the apartment was up a steep hill and I did not know where even the nearest grocery store was. Here are the kids showing the snow behind the apartment.


See the snow!

Madeleine started at the French Immersion School of Washington (FISW) in Kindergarten. We chose the school partly because of my fetish for French and partly due to the public schools here only offering 4 half days of kindergarten. In TX, Madeleine had already had 6 months of full day, 5 day per week kindergarten. Since we had both very successfully made the transition, kindergarten in the public schools felt like a step backwards. The school was a great decision and almost from the first day Madeleine had new friends.

Today, looking back, I can't believe how easy this part of the transition was, yet was the one we dreaded the most. (Madeleine had made the summer of '04 pretty miserable for us as she cried about missing her TX friends and how she didn't want to move.) The hunt for a house and the sticker shock overall was a much more difficult part of the transition. Luckily T-Mobile was very understanding and we were housed for almost 5 months in the lovely apartment in Talus.

New Years Eve

We were invited to attend a small NYE party with parents of Sam's classmate. Lydia's mum and dad (Jean and Paul) hosted us along with Jean's parents and some neighborhood friends. A subdued affair with a fabulous seafood buffet - crab legs, mussels (not from PEI), clam chowder prepared by yours truly, and some really great crab cakes.



Mad and Sam about to kiss

Our First Post

It's January 1st, 2005 and we are ready to enter the world of blogging! Our intent is to capture a picture of our lives, sharing both the mundane and the extraordinary happenings. With the kids you know there will be lots of both.

If executed well this should become a place for friends and family to keep up with the goings-on of the SmithGriff's and maybe even remove the pressure of year end card and letter writing.

Look for lots of posts in the early days as we upload photo's of the kids.

Ron