Busy Busy

So I'm totally behind in my blogging entries. So here is a catch up for our recent activities. We've been gardening and getting lots of produce. It's fun to do, even if its not the easiest work.


Yesterday we moved the chicken coop. No pics, but it was funny trying to chase the chickens to their new home. Chickens are interesting creatures.

I've been organizing and sewing like mad. I think I have pregnancy cravings that are hobbies, instead of food. With Roger I craved reading. With Allen I craved exercise. With Margaret I craved cleaning and nesting. With this one I crave crafting. Those crazy hormones I guess. I redid our bedroom, thanks to craigslist. :)

Before
(well I had already started so everything was discombobulated)

After
(still a few things to find home for, but a vast improvement)

And here is a T-shirt remodel I did. We'll see what else I come up with.

Before

After

And in the meantime, with me and my sidetrackedness, Allen has been taking self portraits. :)

Roger's Birthday

I am finally posting about Roger's birthday. He had a great time. He really wanted to have a party like all his friends, but I just didn't feel up to it. So instead I told him he could have one friend come over. His friend came over in the morning, and after playing for awhile and stopping at the Credit Union on the way, we went to Jantzen Beach to ride the carousel. They had a blast. Then we went to McDonalds for lunch and playing on the big slides. Then we came home for more playtime. When Will got home from work we had cake and ice cream and Roger opened his presents. Easy and low key for me, and a very happy 6 year old. It was a fun day for all!

The aliens the kids got at the Credit Union.

Ready to ride.

Here we go!

Yeah!

Hands in the air!

Legos,

Star Wars toys,

Finger skateboard,

and Transformers!!!

And here he is playing with his Transformer.


***Update***

I forgot to mention that that following weekend we had a get together with my side of the family to celebrate Roger's and a couple of his cousins' birthdays and had food, a sheetcake(sheetcake success 2x now), and a swim party. It was fun, and we had a great time, as most of my siblings ended up coming in for "surprise" in the end. Roger also got to go out to gelato with my parents and to the safety fair for a ride on the fire truck. Fun times!

Labor Day Gardening & Fun

So I've been behind in my postings. Here are some pics from Labor Day.

This was our garden this year.

Somehow we ended up with giant marigolds instead of just regular sized ones.

Here are our Roma tomato plants.

A few of the giant heirlooms that we grew.

Some poblano chili peppers.

After a morning of gardening we went for a walk on a local trail. It was kind of a gloomy day, but perfect for a walk.


On our walk, Will and Roger took turns with a little rock baseball. :)

After our walk we went home for some naps, then we went to a cousin's birthday party and then to some friends barbecue. An event filled day, but so much fun!

School is Cool

All excited and ready to go!

Yesterday was Roger's first day of Kindergarten. He had a blast! It was his Smart Start day(the day they only go for a few hours with a small group of kids from their class). Tuesday will be his first full day. Roger loved it. Allen was bored without Roger, but I took him to story time at the library so it wasn't all bad. Here are some pics of Roger's first day.

Roger getting ready to enter his first day.

The classroom. He is part of the KIDS program where they have school at a portable at a local high school, and they get to have high school helpers to work one on one with.

When Roger came home he had lots to say about everything he did. He absolutely loved it! I think he was a little tired though because he opted for a nap while Allen took his(it was a short one though). Allen was glad to have Roger home and they have been playing school ever since. The game should actually be called "Let's go to school" because they walk around the house packing their backpacks and going from room to room to "go to school." It's kind of funny to watch, but they are happy as clams.

In case you didn't know, my children love to wear matching clothes.
They pick out matching outfits all the time.

Although Allen wishes he could go to school, he is happy to have Roger's old backpack.

"Oh it's pear canning time in Vancouver..."

My little helpers

"Oh it's pear canning time in Vancouver."(There is actually a tune to this line, and I don't know what the original song was, but growing up it was a common song for us to sing in the garden or canning or working. Eg: "Oh it's peach canning time in Oregon City," or "Oh it's cherry picking time in Oregon City." You get the idea, so I am passing the ditty along to our kids.)

Check out these tasty looking jars.

Roger asked if he could take a picture and I said yes, hence the closeup.

Roger and Allen were troopers and helped out. Allen had a hard time peeling, so his job was to fish the peels out of the sink while Roger peeled the blanched pears. I canned with the boys on Wednesday and got 14 quarts. Today my sister came up to help and we finished off the boxes I had gotten and got 20 more quarts. Whew! That's a whole lot of pears! We will divide them with my sister and they will be much enjoyed. :)

These are the 20 quarts from the second day of canning.

I should also note that I learned a valuable canning lesson today. Despite many warnings, I finally broke a jar in the canner. :) I generally pour boiling syrup over my cold fruit, so sticking the jars into boiling water has never been a problem. Well today, my syrup wasn't quite hot enough and a jar broke when I put it in. Oops. We salvaged the pears, but I've learned a good lesson. :)

Wednesday afternoon, after all the boys hard work ;) they spent some time skateboarding out on the patio. They got so hot and sweaty that I made them take a 10 minute reading break. They opted to take their books outside, and I looked out the sliding glass door to find them thus.

Boys are so fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A Busy Week

So I got really busy this week. I was going to post every day, but well...

*Monday, we went to OC to get ready for the garage sale.
*Tuesday we had to run errands and we kept an eye on the chickens(we got them last weekend) and then Roger got sick. Will also installed the bathroom fan this night.
*Wednesday we stuck around the house for the invalid and I tried to get cleaning and organizing done.
*Thursday we cleaned house and everything to get ready for Friday, then that night my sisters family came up so her husband could help Will do the wiring for the bathroom fan.

*Friday the boys' cousins came to stay the night during the garage sale. Then Allen got sick and went to bed early, while all the rest of the boys had a slumber party in the living room and watched Kung Fu Panda(cute movie). Today we will be installing insulation and having more fun with a house full of rambunctious little boys. Here are some pics of our week.

Chickens wating to be let in the yard. Black/white one was a chick this year. Her name is Potpie. The red one was our friends hen, who raised the chick. Her name is Red Raspberry.

The boys watching the chickens(quite fascinating for kids who've never had pets).


Allen's beautiful "smile for the camera" look. He's gotten better so that not all pics are like this.


We gave the chickens our corn cobs when we were done and they picked them clean. Yummy!


Oh it's apple eating time in Vancouver. :)

Swinging at the park for a few minutes before the rain.

Bedtime after a long day of playing.

The Laughter of the Children

When I was a teenager my mom had these silly smiley face dolls that vibrated and laughed, followed by a, "That's funny!" I always kind of wondered how they got the laugh to sound the way it did. Now I have come to realize that that is just how a kid laughs(or at least mine).

Today I moved our couch farther back in the living room to make space to lay out quilt blocks for a RS project I am working on. After I had picked up the blocks, the boys had fun with the space and just ran around in circles. For some reason kids really enjoy simple pleasures like that. The pictures aren't near as telling as the audio clip. (Ok, I can't figure out how to put the audio clip on here. My camera doesn't have audio, so I recorded it on my Sansa. If I figure out how to get it on here I will update this post.)

Running...

running...

then jump on the couch! Hooray!

Later the boys wanted a treat and Roger came up with this idea. :) Yes, it is mini marshmallows and chocolate chips. I like that my kids are still easy to please(or at least they were tonight).

A happy day.