random august things

Summer is coming to a close, we are trying to fit in all the fun things we can before the kids go back to school and the rain (and rain , and rain) starts up. It has been absolutely gorgeous here, High 70s or 80's every day, there is no where more beautiful than the pacific northwest in the summer. We went to a lake near Seattle called Green Lake last Saturday.

They had little sailboats for rent. Josh got one, while me and the other kids got a paddle boat. The kids all got turns with Josh, they sailed circles around us.

Here are Ally an Ava and Ally;s friend Maggie sporting their lifejackets.

So Ally has started cheer. And Luke is in football. Ally gets to cheer for Luke;s games, it is super fun to watch them. Ally loves cheer leading. It has made for a busy August thought, football 5 nights a week for 2 hours, cheer 3 nights a week. Green! Green! Green! Green! blackblackblackblackblackblackblack and white (clap clap clap clap) and white (clap clap clap clap). We just finished up a full day of cheer and football, those cheers have a way of staying with you long after the game. Ally is in the back middle of this next shot.

All in all, we are having a blast this August, and sad that we start school after Labor Day. This summer just zipped by, one more week of playing, swimming, picking blueberries, hanging out at the beach, and running through the neighborhood. 9,7, and 5 are the BEST ages. I love this stage of life!

just ava

Since I didn't have any pictures of Ava in the post I just did, I thought I better put one in. Here we are at the park near our house today. This toy makes me sooooo dizzy.Hi Curly.

So for years, Josh has gone to the girls ballet recitals, the kids school programs, soccer even, but I have never seen this smile on his face for any of them. Here they start tackle football at age 7, so now that Luke is....he is signed up. They start practice in August, but Josh took him in to get geared up on Saturday. It takes Luke a long time to get dressed in all this stuff. Hopefully we get it down by August, because he has to wear it five days a week.

He looks so tough, yet small under all that stuff. Hope he doesn't cry when he actually gets hit.Friday was a half day, so I took Ally and Luke and a buddy each to the zoo. Ava stayed with a friend. They loved the peacock.
the zoo right now has a pretty cool dinosaur exhibit with dinosaurs that move and make sounds. This is the T-Rex, but as you come in the front, there are two dinosaurs that move their heads and spray water out of their mouths about every 3 minutes. the kids got soaked, but loved it. We had the zoo almost to ourselves, which was nice, I guess not everyone had a half day.

back to blogville

Whew, so it has been at least a year since I posted last, and it took me forever to figure out how to get back on here. I thought the blog was lost forever, but (as you can see) I figured it out, so we are up and rolling. I will be better at doing this more often. I will. No eye rolling out there. I am back on it. So, sorry for the random pictures, I was more curious to see if I could even remember how this all worked. Why oh why is it my destiny to be so dumb about computers? My kids spin one-handed computer cartwheels around me, even Ava who is four can get on here, find some cartoon fancy ladies to dress up and have them eating dinner with their cartoon boyfriends with nails all painted and hair all done. All while getting the Wii to play Netflix movies and like or not like her favorite songs on Pandora. I am actually kindof worried about this generation. But that is for another day, because I am back on. Wahoo.So can you tell who this potato is supposed to be? White glove? Microphone? Doing the moonwalk? That's right, it's a potato (this was a St patricks day school project for Luke's 1st grade class) dressed up as Micheal Jackson as a california raisin. This is because Luke is obsessed with all things Micheal Jackson. Its a whole new Pepsi Generation.
So since this time last year, we have moved from Eagle to Mill Creek WA, about 20 miles N of Seattle. We were sad to leave, but happily report that rain (and rain and more rain) aside, we love it here. My kids have adjusted very nicely, here is Ally at Red Robin with her 3 new best friends, after shopping at the mall all night. We still miss Eagle, but are glad we are in such a nice place with so many nice people.
When we do go home to Eagle to visit, Grandma and Papa spoil these kids. During spring break, they took them to do a little chicken shopping. They ended up getting 2 new chickens each (6 chickens total) who got their little chicken feathers nearly patted off during that week. They all happily made it through though, and my little farm-babies-in-their-hearts are excited to go back to collect eggs in the summer. Thanks Grandma and Papa.