Goodbye Dear Friends

The second I met this lady I was in love…. Yes, with her! Our daughters were 5 months old and we chatted about feeding them. That was it…. But I was hooked on Molly. It was a bummer I lived in Hillsboro. But then, a year later we moved 4 doors down from her. Sometimes it felt like we lived together (I still think we should have). It has been the funnest year…. Possibly ever. I don't know, that's tough to say, but I'd definitely rank it in my top 5, without a doubt.

Molly and her family move tomorrow. I'm really sad. Sad is an understatement.

Molly is my craft soul mate. Jen, Molly, and I got together and crafted once a week… it was such good therapy. Here are us girls at Jen's baby shower.

But not only is my dear friend leaving, but Jefferson and Reagan's best friends! Jefferson doesn't like to talk about it much. I'll ask him how he feels about Miles moving and he says "not good"…. And that's it, end of conversation. These boys have played almost EVERY day for the past 10 months. They have had their share of fights, but they see each other as much as brothers.

Reagan asks for Hattie every day. I even use Hattie as bribery to make Reagan calm down or to get her to do what I want, "Do you want to play with Hattie?"……. It always works. Here's a picture of the girls after I went outside to take their picture and they locked me out. They think they're so cute!

Okay, they are!

Reagan feeding baby Hawkley

Last night the boys had a sleepover. Jefferson made everyone's beds. He made Miles a special bed with cushions because "he is moving, so he gets a special bed." They were up 'til 11pm playing, reading, and telling ghost stories.

Here are some pictures mine, Jen's, and Molly's kids. We dressed them all up and took their pictures. Wow, 9 kids….. 9 best friends!

3 of which are going to be missed….

But, you guys have an AWESOME job and an AWESOME future ahead of you. We're so happy you're moving (for that reason only). I guess this is just a post to let you know what an impact you've made on our lives. Your entire family is AMAZING and I feel so lucky to have spent this time with you. Jefferson will forever love Star Wars and collect things for his treasure box. Grant will forever try to make a longer skid marks on his bike. Reagan will forever dance better and insist on me doing her hair. And I will love more, compliment more, smile more, look for the good in my kids more, show more patience, laugh more, (and craft more
of course)…… because we were blessed to know you!

Our first beach day of the Summer

There was one other day of sunshine during my mom's visit. We had planned to go to the coast for the annual Sandcastle contest. The weather report said it would be rainy, but we went anyways… why not? When we got there we were surprised to see the sun shining. We were definitely over-dressed.

The highlight…. Getting to DRIVE along the shoreline and park on the sand. okay, is it wierd that it excited me?

It was amazing to see all of the groups making their sandcastles (could they be called 'professional' sandcatle makers?) I don't know, but we were pretty impressed with their building techniques. This is some serious sand construction…

The beach was CROWDED. SO crowded I was convinced I was going to lose one of my kids (thankfully I didn't). And SO crowded our friends were there and we never saw them once…. Except in this picture when we got home….. hi guys

We sat and watched them build for an hour or so, then went into the town to get some lunch. A couple hours later, the contest was over, and we went to check out the finished castles.

Grant, Jefferson, and my Mom checking out the competition.

I wanted to share a few of our favorites, but couldn't decide which ones were my favorites, so I'm sharing them all…..

Impressed? I was for sure. I've been inspired. Someday I want to compete in a sandcastle contest. Seriously! The groups constructing these had at least 6 or more people on their teams…. So, I need to recruit some other sand castle enthusiasts. Interested? Hey wait, I already have 3 of them here at home.

This octopus one in the background was the kid's favorite.

I don't know who the actual winner was, but…

The honorable mention went to this castle……

Built by…..

Of course, we didn't win anything…. Except a bathtub full of sand. But we had a blast!

Beach + sand + sunshine = HOURS of enjoyment

Buckets of Fun!

This last week we were lucky to have my mom visit.

The kids died and went to heaven. They got a suitcase full of surprises, someone to read every book in their bookcase, and cuddles galore.

What did I enjoy? Besides having the company of my mom around, I got the luxury waking on my own. Instead of barging in and demanding I wake up at 6:30am, the kids go straight to her bed. Ahhh, glorious. It's the small things that make me so deeply happy. Don't feel bad for my mom though, she took a nap every day!

Reagan (who's sick in this picture) and my mom.

The week was gloomy. What is with this weather? It's almost July for crying out loud! The days were cloudy and rainy, so we didn't do much except sit on the couch talking and reading books. We watch our fair share of movies too. My mom and the kids went to McMennamin's and watched the movie "Furry Vengeance". Apparently, Jefferson was the only one who enjoyed it.

At the first glimpse of sunshine, we headed out and went strawberry picking. For $1 a pound, and an hour of pure enjoyment, who could resist?

The kids had a great time. They had flags in each row and asked that we choose a flag, pick strawberries in that row, then move the flag to where we stopped picking. Jefferson struggled staying in one row, he wanted to run wild and pick all over. He made it clear that "they have weird rules at the strawberry patch."

We filled 4 baskets of berries! Of course, many of them ended up here….

Grant is a true berry picker. He plopped himself down and picked until his bucket was full. We made a competition of picking the biggest, reddest strawberry. I'd say Grant won!

Here's my mom and the kids, showing off their latest picks.

Yeah for my mom visiting!

Yeah for the ONE beautiful day!

Yeah for 10 lbs. of fresh, juicy, sweet strawberries!

Yeah for the best strawberry pies I've ever made, if I do say so myself!

Happy Father's Day

We LOVE this guy!

If you know Shawn, you know what an amazing Father he is. Hopefully he knows how much we love him. He must.... after we let him sleep in yesterday. That NEVER happens, trust me. Jefferson, Grant, and Reagan ADORE their father..... I mean they are head over heals for him. The second he walks in the door, they drop what they are doing to run to him and attack him with hugs.

All of you dads are truly amazing.

Happy Fathers Day

“The funnest day of my life”

Wednesday morning at 2:30am Jefferson turned 6 years old. I was SO tempted to wake him up at 2:30 and sing to him…. I decided I'll start that tradition when he's a teenager, he'll LOVE it!

He went to the park, watched a movie, and rode his bike to the Farmer's Market… pretty uneventful for a birthday I know.

The real CELEBRATION was on Monday. He had his very first "friends" birthday. Yes, it has taken me 6 years to throw my child a birthday party.

Here he is, the day of his party.

The decorations

The birthday banner I made with fabric I am in love with

The Friends (L to R): Miles, Jefferson, Noah, Lewis, and Jacob. The party theme was "Mad Scientist", that is why they are wearing safety goggles.

The kids arrived and we got busy doing science experiments. Grant is ready! Here's what we did:

Everyone got a turn spinning the tornado tube. We even put some marshmallows in to watch them spin like crazy.

We made slime. Oh goodness, the kids loved making this.

I guess putting it on your ear is the thing to do….

Then we did an experiment with a hardboiled egg. Shawn lit several matches and dropped them in a bottle. We wet the egg and placed it on top of the bottle, and watched. I'm glad I had hardboiled several eggs because the kids wanted this done OVER and OVER.

Jacob and Noah playing with snow they made.

We also did 'milk marbleing', created chicken sounds with a plastic cup, and mashed marshmallows with air pressure.

But the best experiment had to be the Elephant Toothpaste.

We doubled the recipe because we wanted double the fun. We thought it would never stop foaming.

For the very last experiment we had the boys make their own ice cream creations. Okay, maybe this was their favorite.

Jefferson opening his gifts

The boys playing with the gifts. This tool box my mom got for Jefferson is legit. It has REAL miniature tools that he can use. Along with the wood scraps she gave him, he has been entertained for hours hammering and sawing (I feel sorry for my neighbors).

It was a blast. I was reminded why I don't throw parties every year for my kids…. These things are hard to plan and without the help from Shawn and my mom, I don't think I could have done it. But it was WELL worth every second of work. We kept overhearing Jefferson say "this is the funnest day of my life."