week 28 in pictures

sunday:    dave, crossing the finish line of the STP.

monday:    this is layla’s (and noah’s) actual birthday, and kat made a cake for them and shane so we could celebrate while we were down there. we took a little break from playing in the water at GWL to go have lunch and a little celebration with them.

tuesday:     shane’s birthday! flashing 12 with the help of the 9 candled birthday crown.

wednesday: ??? no pic.

thursday:     layla and micah playing in our pop-up fire truck. (yes, we wear turtlenecks in july here.)

friday:     shane was off on an overnight ‘fern hike’ in cle elum with our neighbors, so I took the little kids bowling with a bunch of friends. it was a HOOT! micah had never been bowling before and LOVED it. I had to keep a close eye on him because he kept pushing the buttons on the computer that controls the score screen, and, he was not very good at waiting his turn. several of his friends had ‘help’ with their bowling turns.

saturday:   this is from our neighbor, who took the POTD(s) for saturday. micah was sick with the stomach flu and I didn’t photograph anything involved with that.

the extra pictures of the week:    interestingly, these are all from sunday. oh well.

extra pics from layla’s birthday:

extra pics from shane’s birthday:

dogs on the bus?

here’s a little glimpse into my daughter’s psyche:

of course, this has to do with dogs… there has been discussion lately about the prospect of dogs riding the bus. we recently read all of the henry huggins books by beverly cleary. (aside, if you or your children are between the ages of 5 and 100 and you have never read these books, go get them now! fabulous, wholesome, whole family entertainment. they precede the ramona books, which more people might be familiar with and are just delightful. I read them all to shane a few years ago and have just finished them with layla. we are now onto the second ramona book and loving it as much as I did when I read them as a kid. go read them. now.) at any rate, at the beginning of the first henry huggins book, when henry first gets ribsy, he tries to bring him home on the bus, which he’s told he cannot do, unless the dog is tied in a box. so in layla’s mind, dogs are not allowed on busses. then, the other day, we drove past a bus stop near our house, and there was boy there, that we see frequently walking through the neighborhood, with his dog. they were waiting at the bus stop, which set up this whole new dilemma for layla, because, according to the authority of juvenile literature, dogs are not allowed on busses! I told her that the our local transit department does allow dogs on busses, at the discretion of the driver. (bet you didn’t know that!) but still, her general assumption is that dogs are not allowed on busses.

just now, I put on 101 dalmatians for her to watch while micah naps (to sleep off his stomach bug – blech), and she noticed that, on the menu screen, there is a scene where pongo gets on a bus! a red “double ducker” bus, no less! (that’s what micah calls them.) she wanted to know why that was okay. my first answer was something along the lines of “well maybe that’s okay there.” and my second defaulted to “it’s a movie and they can do whatever they want.” apparently, neither of these answers were sufficient for layla, because she then presented the obvious answer that my highly illogical, adult brain was unable to come up with…

“well, he is a dad, you know. and dads go to work. and, you know, some dads go to work on the bus. so that’s why he had to ride the bus.”

of course! he’s got to support all those puppies somehow! LOL!

oh, to be 6!

week 27 in pictures

sunday:

dave and layla had a ‘date’ and went to the mariners game. her choice. she lasted about 4 innings…

monday:

happy 4th of july! the POTD is shane w/ his ‘roman armpits’! (inside joke.)

tuesday:

after a late night the day before, and a long day in the sun, riding buses and watching gramma and papa’s lions club parade, micah PASSED OUT on the way home and didn’t wake up until about 3 hours later.

wednesday:

yes, mary, this picture is for you! I went to warm something up and found THIS in my microwave… I plead the 5th.

thursday:

shane has never been a big fan of chocolate, and had this idea that he wanted to make some chocolate chip cookies, but without the chocolate chips. odd, but whatever. I found the recipe for him and helped him here and there, but, for the most part, he made them all on his own. they were pretty good, too. even w/out the chocolate chips.

friday:

best night of the MOMS club year! the end of the year party. so much fun, and LOTS of yummy food, thanks to holly! love these ladies!

saturday:

first leg of the STP down… this is how we found dave when we arrived in rochester!

and the extras:

no, that’s not beer in the red hook glass. it’s apple juice, but it looked so funny that I had to take a picture. she chose the glass. LOL!

great wolf lodge!

it’s birthday time around here, and this year, we celebrated with a family stay at great wolf lodge. an indoor water park is a relatively new (and much needed) addition to western washington and the kids have been begging to go every time we pass it (which is with surprising frequency), so we decided to surprise them with an overnight stop there on our way back up from portland.

everyone was very excited and it took forEVer to get everyone to sleep that night. (side note: I’m convinced that putting kids to bed in a hotel room is a new level of hell.) in the morning (layla’s 6th birthday!), we opened a few presents, helped her with her new puzzle (a gift from gramma and papa that she’d been dying to get at), and then got our suits on and headed to breakfast.

looking through the lobby window at the water park:

after breakfast we headed in to the water park and had a BLAST!!! this place is really family friendly and has stuff for kids (and adults) of all ages. layla was about half an inch too short to ride the BIG slides, but that was okay. they had 2 kids’ play areas with slides and squirty things and splash pads, plus the bigger slides that are on the top of the big tower thing that has water EVERYWHERE w/ the big bucket on top. they could also go in the wave pool and the other big swimming area. they had life vests there that you could use too. so they had a ton of fun.

dave and I took turns riding the big slides with shane, which were SO much fun. I wasn’t going to do the ‘howlin’ tornado’, but shane made me. it was really fun and a little bit scary (I’m not a big fan of drops), but I survived and did it again after that – this time, I was the one going down backwards! holy cow that is way freakier! at any rate. the slides were loads of fun, and we were thinking about how awesome it will be when the little kids are a little older and we can all ride them together.

everyone had a great time. layla had a very fun birthday, shane was equally happy(which is good, since this counted for his birthday too), and I don’t think I’ve ever seen micah that happy!

I didn’t take a ton of pictures, since I was too busy having a good time and don’t have a waterproof camera, but there are a couple.

micah, on the squirting jetskis in one of the kids play areas (and layla running away – pink swimsuit bottom):

family picture when we were getting ready to leave. micah is tired and mad that we were leaving:

attempting to get a shot of the kids sitting in the big bear chair by the entrance. micah, grumpy, didn’t want to share with anyone:

layla wanted to have a picture taken of JUST her in the chair:

the three of them by the entrance:

all in all, a great time! I can’t wait until we save up a million dollars again so we can afford to go back!

STP!

this past weekend, dave and his friend, cole, participated in the STP bike ride. that’s seattle-to-portland. they rode their BICYCLES from seattle, all the way to portland – roughly 200 miles over 2 days. WOW!!!

this is them on sunday afternoon, just after finishing.

dave, crossing the finish line (blue helmet). shane was standing right in front of me and was, appropriately, cheering as I snapped the picture. that’s his hat and arm in the shot. cole crossed just in front of dave.

dave’s parents were in town for the lion’s club convention so they joined us for the drive down (basically to meet them at the end). we spent the night in rochester (centralia area, which is the half-way point) on saturday, and then drove to portland the next day. I was VERY happy that we got there at just about the right time so we could see them finish. it was very exciting! about 10,000 riders participated.

and I had to include this one (sorry, dave):

this is how we found him when we arrived in rochester the first day!

there is already talk about next year… shane is possibly wanting to do it, and dave is trying to convince me that I should do it too…

first things first… I don’t currently own a bike.

happy 12th birthday, shane!

okay, this is a little ghetto, but since I did layla’s yesterday, I figured I had better do shane’s as well. one problem, half of shane’s birthdays did not get captured in digital form. so, lacking a scanner, I took pictures of pictures. LOL. whatever. It’s a blog. crappy photos can suffice.

oh my, this is a lot of birthdays to try and remember! here goes…

july 12, 1999: shane edward was born at 3:13 pm at swedish hospital. he weighed only 6 pounds and half an ounce!

 

this picture isn’t actually from shane’s first birthday, but it’s from around that time. I don’t actually have any pictures from his first birthday, 1) because he was sick that day, and 2) my camera was broken. boo. at any rate, due to illness, there was obviously no major celebration that occurred.

 

july 12, 2001: shane’s 2nd birthday went much smoother than his first. he celebrated with grandma, grandpa, mom, and uncle joel!

 

july 12, 2002: shane’s 3rd birthday. he had a big party at marymoor park with lots of friends from church, grandparents, aunt marilynne and uncle loren, grandma’s cousin janet, and even (first cousins once removed) anna and elsa.

 

july 12, 2003: shane’s 4th birthday. had another park party – this time at st. edwards, with some friends from church, aunt marilynne and uncle loren, mom, grandma and grandpa. this was the year he got the “shamine cake”. it was construction-themed, with road-building machines on it. he couldn’t say ‘machine’ quite right and it always came out ‘shamine’, and I found it hilarious when, in his excitement over the cake, he announced, “I got a shamine cake! I got a shamine cake!!!”

 

july 12, 2004: shane’s 5th birthday. nothing major ON his birthday, but a few days later, invited friends, sean and jordana to go to “rumbling farms” (remlinger) for the day. the big story on this birthday, is that it is the year that sophie at his cake. the hamburger cake was a replacement.

 

july 12, 2005: shane’s 6th birthday was a little odd. he celebrated at the henry county hospital with mom, dad, grandma, grandpa and NEW BABY sister, layla, who was born the day before!

 

july 12, 2006: shane’s 7th birthday. he got to have his party at chuck e. cheese in toledo, ohio with some neighborhood friends, mom, dad, layla, grandma and grandpa, and aunt mary and lily. check out those new teeth!

 

july 12, 2007: shane’s 8th birthday was celebrated with dad and nolan at the mariner’s game.

 

july 12, 2008: shane’s 9th birthday. he had a pirate-themed party with a ton of friends from all over.

 

july 12, 2009: shane’s 10th birthday was celebrated in gramma and papa’s backyard with lots of family and friends. he had a fever earlier in the day, but you can see he rallied for the party. that was a weird, random illness, but fortunately, that fever was the end of it. who knows!

 

july 12, 2010: shane’s 11th birthday. dad and mom took him out to dinner at the olive garden, and then we opened presents and grandma and grandpa’s house. this was the year he got his cat, toby.

 

july 11, 2011: shane’s 12th birthday, having just finished celebrating his and layla’s birthdays at great wolf lodge the day before, this ACTUAL birthday was a mellow day. he saw cars 2 in 3D with his friend wyatt, then had a birthday dinner with mom, dad, layla and micah, and grandma and grandpa at home. he chose the menu and selected shrimp, corn on the cob, chow mein, and grape juice!

wow. hard to believe I’ve been a mom for 12 years! I wouldn’t trade it for anything! thanks, shane, for giving me the best job EVER! I love you so much!

happy 6th birthday, layla!!!!

SIX!!! can’t believe it!

july 11, 2005, henry county hospital, layla came into this world at 6:00pm (eastern time) on the dot! 6 pounds, 9 ounces, wide awake and ready to go!

july 11, 2006, we celebrated layla’s first birthday in napoleon, with grandma and grandpa, uncle joe, aunt mary, and cousin lily, erv and erma haas, and (of course) mom, dad, and shane!

july 11, 2007, we celebrated layla’s 2nd birthday at home (our current home), with mom, dad, shane and nolan!

july 11, 2008, we celebrated layla’s 3rd birthday at home, with mom, dad, shane, micah, and grandma and grandpa.

july 11, 2009, we celebrated layla’s 4th birthday in california! in the morning, we had pancakes at the hughes’ cabin in big bar, then headed to gramma and papa’s house.

july 11, 2010, we celebrated layla’s 5th at home with mom, dad, shane, micah and grandma and grandpa.

july 11, 2011, we celebrated 6 at great wolf lodge!

happy birthday, sunshine! I have loved having you in my life EVERY SINGLE DAY of the last 6 years!

project life–week 26

this is the half-way point!!!! can you believe it?

the spread:

the first half:    sunday’s pic is from the last day of our trip, actually from the way home.

as is the only extra I have for this week:

the later half:

I can’t believe that’s the july bookmark! wow, this year is going by quickly!

week 26 in pictures

monday:  layla and, especially, micah, have discovered the game of life. they have some interesting rules for playing it. it’s very fun to listen to them play… not so much fun to try to convince them to clean it all up…

tuesday:    I made some ‘all-fruit’ popsicles with watermelon, strawberries, and grapes. they loved them!

wednesday:     I found this baby bunny out my front window one morning. so cute! but it had better stay out of my garden!

thursday:    micah LOVES corn on the cob. this kid can plow though an ear in minutes! I bought some on tuesday and we didn’t have it until thursday, which was torture for him. every day, he would pull it out of the fridge and ask if he could eat some!

friday:     I took layla and micah to the park in the afternoon. dave met us there when he got off the bus after work. then we got our friday pizza, and brought it back to the park for a picnic. layla was jumping off the swing! not sure if it was her first time, or just the first time I’d ever seen it… she thought it was pretty fun!

saturday:    well, even though it wasn’t the official start of summer in the PNW (july 5th), the kids convinced dave to set up the pool. you know, because mid-70’s is “hot” around here…

so there’s our week. and yes, there’s a noticeable absence of shane. that’s because he wasn’t here! lucky kid was still in california!