A day at the zoo

Made one last trip to the zoo before school starts...



The favorites are never actually animals, but transportation.


While waiting for the train to arrive, we made a quick visit to the cheetah exhibit. If you look inside this little hut, you can see a window, a very clean window. Each child had their own reaction to this window. When Aubrey and Sam first went inside the hut, the cheetah passed by and both of them jumped back, fearing they had some how entered the exhibit. When Chad went into the hut, he walked right into the window, causing a giant goose egg on his forehead (if you look closely, you can see it). Kinda sums up their personalities, right there.

Summer Update #2

We had family in town, good excuse for the beach! I hope the kiddies remember it just like this:

All misty and magical.








Chad and James came back a year older and wiser. Cake, ice cream, sand, water, legos ... can a seven year old ask for more? I'm sure Chad will think of something. Thanks for coming Jef, Julie, & fam - come again soon!

We spent the weekend in Bend for a friend's wedding. Three and a half hours in the car proved to be too much for the kiddies, but we all enjoyed the in between part.




We rented one of those car/bike things - it screamed tourism. And random people took our picture. We were the envy of the road for the 3-6 age group.

Half way over already?

Summer update :

A trip to Utah over the 4th of July. So many cousins, so little time.


I love how quiet it gets when ice cream is involved, all movement and noise just stop.

All of the grand kids, at one time and one place, looking in the same direction. Quite a feat.

Back in Oregon:

Gotta love the water fountains, no floaties involved.

Here Chad is waiting for the water to come on - directly in the line of fire (water actually), and was delighted when he got squirted in the face.

Baseball season is officially over. Once we convinced Chad not to kick up the dust or dance in the outfield, he did pretty well. He even hit a home run (according to Chad, a t-ball home run is just past the dirt and onto the grass - sounds about right).

Sam enjoying the game. He looks so innocent here, you would never know how many times this child sneaked off into the batting cage (at least 10 attempts per game).

Real Estate Mogul

This is my budding little Donald Trump:



Now who can I bribe to clean all this up?

Diary of a First Grader

Ah, the end of school. We are almost there. One of the highlights amongst the great migration of school papers - journals. I could spend hours reading these, and this is why (shared with Chad's permission):

10-22-09

"If someone makes me Mad i Git Bitr" That's it - the entire entry.

(Chad is the bitter one on the left and the offender is on the right). I wonder what was done to the child, to cause such emotion.

I just love his budding sense of humor, this entry was on Crazy Socks Day (where we apparently forgot to send the child with crazy socks).

"I did not bring crazy soks but thet are crazy Becos thaey cald runing socks it sons (sounds) like the sockes are runing. It is so funny."

Just one more:

"If I were a plant it would be wered case we would drink from our roots and we would eat from our leves. Now that would be wered."

There were also several mentions of Chucky Cheese, Pump It Up, and Out of This World, with a few entries describing his desire to vacation in Mexico.

Square Foot Garden

I'm quite taken with my little garden. Today, I picked my first crop - radishes! Not that I love radishes, but I know those who do. I first read about square foot gardening here, and read more here. James was kind enough to make me a box and the kiddies helped me plant my seeds (radishes, green onions, carrots, spinach, lettuce, squash, zucchini, and cucumber). I went all crafty (garden craftiness is a whole new level for me) and made these garden markers. Too bad they were no match for the Oregon monsoon season (just a little bitter). Now all I need to do is keep an eye out for those roaming neighborhood bunnies that ate my Styrofoam Easter egg decorations.