dave’s company picnic

dave’s company picnic–2012 edition

every august, dave’s company hosts a picnic at a local park. there is food, a bouncy house, games or toys or something like that for the kids, etc.

we went right after church on sunday.

the littles hit the bouncy house straight off, and then discovered the table full of kites they had out for the kids. seriously TONS of kites. so we assembled one for layla and figured we’d all go fly it. it wasn’t exactly windy. shane had a little success, as long as he kept moving. but then layla wasn’t so thrilled because he had commandeered her kite. I kept asking if he wanted his own, and he kept saying no… eventually he gave her her kite and wandered off. when I asked where he was going, he said, “to get a kite.” alrighty then.

it took a few people to get the kite up, but they had fun… well, mostly. micah was pouting about wanting HIS own kite, so he and I went back to the table and assembled one for him.

micah was not particular about the specifics of getting it aloft and making it stay up there… as long as he was running and it was up in the air behind him, he was “flying a kite” and happy as could be!

he even wanted to go fly his kite with shane.

after we ate, we played some corn hole. we were introduced to corn hole in ohio, where most of the backyard corn hole sets have ohio state paraphernalia painted all over them…

here, not so much. this is an engineering firm dave works for, so everyone is a washington state alum.

there were also bubbles for the kids and sand pails and shovels. once again, shane and the littles went out to the beach to play in the sand. once again, shane did not want his own bucket. once again, he commandeered his sister’s…

and then it was time to come home and let the dog out of the shop.

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first day of school

so, we started school today. this is a big deal because it is OUR first day of official homeschooling. you know, here. at home. most everyone reading this is already aware of the fact that shane has been homeschooled since first grade, but that he has spent the majority of that ‘school’ time, with my mother as his ‘teacher’. this was a fine arrangement, she was willing and more than qualified, and he was learning. but for a variety of reasons, not the least of which being my mother’s current cancer issues, it had become clear that it was time for me to take over. AND,with layla being 4 now, i really wanted to do a little bit more preschool stuff with her. being a little bit of a chicken flake, i (with much urging from my loving husband) decided the best route to go would be with a packaged curriculum. i figured it would be the most time-effective way to cover what we needed to cover, and be somewhat dummy-proof, but at the same time, having the option to supplement with as much

i have "done something"

about shane's room. if you notice over there on my BIG FAT TO DO LIST, for ages now, i've had "do something about shane's room" on the list. and it has sat there on the list, doing nothing. well yesterday, we "did something". i couldn't put "clean shane's room". that wouldn't really cover it. i wasn't sure exactly how to phrase what is was that needed to be done in there, mainly because i don't really know the proper grammatical term for "set off 4 sticks of dynamite followed by much jackhammering and industrial vacuuming". needless to say, it was a pit! every saturday, one of his chores is to clean his room. but at this point, that was just putting clothes in the basket, books on the shelf, toys in bins, etc. anything else was WAY too big of an undertaking for a 9 year old boy on his way out the door. sadly, i didn't think to take a 'before' picture, so i didn't bother with an '

for my not-so-american friends

i didn't have an actual roll w/ the green plaid on it, but i found a refill and an empty roll in my junk drawer (yeah, i know, that should tell me something). but even the empty one says 'scotch' on it. there you go! SCOTCH TAPE!

Micah’s Birthday

This kid had the audacity to turn 13 yesterday… As was expected, I was a bit of a hot mess about the whole affair. Here’s his “last day to be 12” photo. He ran out of fingers a couple years ago, so taking a page out of Shane’s book, he borrowed a couple of feet from the cat to make 12. But, not too old to choose Lucky Charms for his birthday breakfast. He got his happy birthday facetime call first thing and got to open his gift from Gramma and Skip while they watched… He’s had a boom box on his list this year. You might remember that 2 years ago, it was a Walkman. The obsession with 80s audio continues. Gramma found this one and it seems to fit the bill. Looks totally retro, plays and records tapes but also has radio AND a USB port so he could use some modern tech with it, as well. So, he spent the morning taking advantage of the birthday allowances of not having to do his weekend chores and lifted time limits on video games… all while listening to the radio or one

project life–week 18

the three amigos… this trio of the neighbors’ poultry is always in my parents’ yard. and spark way too many “why did the chicken cross the road” jokes. these are the two lilacs I gave my mom for mother’s day two years ago. last year, only one bloomed. looks like this year, both will have some nice flowers! when I get to the bottom of a bag of chips and they’re too small to effectively scoop up salsa, I just dump them in a bowl, pour salsa over them, and eat the whole delicious mess with a spoon. not ashamed. dave got himself a new set of bike tools. everyone had to check it out. first grade music concert. micah had a solo! saturday baseball fun. pitching, homerun derby, bouncy houses, dunk the coach… and of course, eating kettle corn and horsing around.

rachel's continued ramblings

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