G is for...

Girl Scout Hike, Gum, Goggles, Good kids, and Goat Cheese stuffed Chicken with Grilled Peaches! Today was a Great day! We met up with Ilea's Girl Scout troop and headed up to North Bend to work on our Hiker patch. We went up to Twin Falls. It was a Great hike, shady the whole way, perfect temp, and a beautiful area. We brought snacks, and had a good time. We also stopped by Cold Stone Creamery and Got Great ice cream on the way home, which made them all Giggle!


Kyler LOVES gum, so I promised them they could pick their own Gum for G-day. We usually get sugar-free, so it was a treat to pick any flavor. Kyler chose Juicy Fruit and Ilea got Hubba Bubba. We have also been needing some Goggles, so we picked those up at the store also. Tonight I am excited to try a Gourmet recipe for Goat Cheese Stuffed Chicken with Grilled Peaches. I love Goat Cheese, and this should be a Good dinner!

F is for...

Free Family Film Festival, using a Frindle for F pictures, Flinging the frisbee, and Fun! We started out the day with a free film courtesy of Regal pictures. The kids saw Wallace and Grommit and the Curse of the Were Rabbit, at South Hill Mall. Check out the schedule in your area! It's a great deal. Then the kids used their frindles to draw these great pictures. What? You don't know what a frindle is? Spend some time reading Frindle, by Andrew Clements. One of the best kids books I've read in a long time.
Lastly, they had fun Flinging their Frisbee in the sun! What a great day! Beautiful summer weather. Loving it! They also got to watch Fantasia while I made dinner. 2 movies in one day? Why not, it's summer!The last thing we did was Fly the Flag... We're a few days early, but it never hurts.

E is for...

Elvis, Emperors, and Egg Rolls! Ilea thought of Elvis, and so we called the kids' Uncle Ken in Texas, who does Elvis acts. He was great! The kids had about 8 questions for Ken, and he was a great sport answering them! They asked about Elvis and his life and songs, and about what got Ken interested in him. They asked what was Elvis' most famous song, and Ken said that Can't Help Falling in Love With You was considered his most recognized song world-wide.

Kyler thought of Emperors, so we stopped by the library today to look up Emperors. Kyler got more excited about the Emperor Penguins, so he got a book on those. Ilea got a book on the Emperor's Clay Army, and is finding out about the clay pottery figures of warriors, horses, and of course, the Emperor. If they have time today, they may also watch Emperor's New Groove, which we haven't seen in ages, and we will finish the day with Egg Rolls! I'm so excited! I found a number of recipes for great egg rolls, so we'll give those a shot.

New candy!

Have you seen these? Coconut M&M's. They are chocolate inside, but have an overall coconut flavor. Kipp said they reminded him of a Mounds bar. We found them in the Dollar Tree store, for only 59 cents, and they are not bad! Too bad we didn't find them in time for C day...

D is for...

Double/Dos/Deux Dollar Days, Doughnuts for Dessert, and Done with camping! We came home today, and were tired, but managed to get in a few D's. I had to pick up something at the Dollar Tree store the other day, and the kids wanted to buy junk, I mean stuff too. I agreed to let them spend $2 of their own money on whatever they wanted at the Dollar store. Kyler ended up buying a white teddy bear (cause he needs MORE stuffed animals) which he named Snowball, and a giant snake hard candy sucker. Ilea found a small glass angel, and a box of Good N Plenty. It was only $2! They also picked out a doughnut each for dessert...a repeat from last year, but they LOVE doughnuts. It was all good.

C is for...

Camping, Candles, Cereal, Candy, and Cards! We continued to Camp, and a few more families joined us on Sat. The kids increased our Candle collection (technically on Friday - but we used them on Sat!). We had made these a few years ago using salt and food coloring, and then pouring wax in the top with a wick. But the wick was so short because it was only in about 1 inch of wax, and so we did it differently this time. We made the salt layers, sealed it with wax, and set a tea light in the top. They look really great on our Camp picnic table, and we keep them in our Camping box. I also let the kids pick out any Cereal they wanted for the Camp trip, and a Candy bar (like we needed more sugar.) Kipp and I played Cards with some of the other adults, which was fun.

Creating Candles

Camping by Costco - new tent! It was great. Big enough to stand up in, which made changing clothes a whole lot easier.

B is for Bears, Bubbles, and Bean Bag Toss

B & C are kind of mixed up together. Technically Fri was B-day and Sat was C-day. But to focus on B, we Blew Bubbles, and went camping with the other Bear cubs from Kyler's Cub Scout Pack, and played a lot of Bean Bag toss. The weather was gorgeous, and we had a good time at a great campsite at Mayfield Lake Park.



Bean Bag Toss

7 of those boys are Bears. The tall on on the right is one year older, a Webelo 1, and the 2 in the middle sitting down, and the one on the left next to Kyler are younger siblings. They are Tigers, I think. They mostly got along great!

Ilea Blowing Bubbles

ABC's of Summer

A is for... Apple Art and Aquatic center! Kyler and Ilea started our summer off with a craft project. I let them use a sharp knife for the first time....luckily no blood! I'm not sure what Ilea's is exactly, but Kyler has a happy face on one side and a sad face on the other.



We also went over to Federal Way to the aquatic community center, and went swimming. It's a fun place, and indoors, so it's great year round. We met most of Ilea's girl scout troop there. They have a lazy river section, fun water toys, a slide, and a basketball hoop. Good time until the end, when we discovered that someone had stolen Ilea's clothes out of a locker. No, we didn't have a lock, but there were 4 or 5 people's clothes in together, and I thought "who would steal some dirty clothes?". So one pair of pants and a school t-shirt are gone. But for $4, it was still a good deal!

Father's Day

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We don't usually do too much for Father's Day. There are always the school gifts, and cards, and usually a favorite meal, but mostly just family time. This year I was able to get a neat present for Kipp. Our cub scout pack was having a silent auction, and we weren't able to attend. But I got a friend to stand in for me and bid on an Airplane ride, and she won it for us! For a great price, may I add. So I kept it as a surprise almost until the end...he figured it out or had a good idea, but the kids didn't. I told them all on Friday, partly because the weather was iffy, and we might have had to reschedule.

We got to the airport and met John, the pilot. Because of it being a small plane, he had weight restrictions, so I opted to stay on the ground and let Kipp and the kids go. It was the first time for the kids to be in a small plane. Above, you can see Mom waving...the small dot near the corner of the grass!

He flew over our neighborhood, and Kipp and Ilea were able to see our house. Then they flew down to Pierce county, just sightseeing, and came back. They all had a good time, and it was a unique present.

Orange Belt

Kyler has been in Tae Kwon Do since January. Last week he took his second test, and earned his Orange belt. There are a lot of belts still to go! His group of Yellows did well during their test. Unfortunately, the whole class picked the thick board to try to break with their feet. Only 2 made it. Kyler switched also to a thinner board after a number of tries. In the group picture he is by his friend Anna, who started the same day he did. They go to school together also. There are 2 instructors, Master Kim and Instructor Morgon, who is pictured with Kyler. We love him. He's really good with the kids, and they have fun. Kyler looks great in his new Orange Belt.

Space

Everyone needs more, right? The Space Saver bags were on sale at Costco, so I grabbed some to try them out. We got 12 Large and Extra Large bags. The first one ripped. We were worried that this was going to be a rip-off! But we figured out how to use the next one, and we were off. This closet has always been full, with larger blankets & pillows leaning out over the shelves. We now have 9 full bags up there, and TONS of space in the closet! They are blankets, pillows, and other fabric items, that we use occasionally, but not often. Plus, when I called the company and told them that one of our bags ripped, the lady immediately got my address, asked what size (it was the extra large, of course), and said she would mail me one. It came today, fairly quickly. No receipt, no hassle, nothing. I am truly impressed with this company's product and service. Plus I'm loving my closet! I think we will also suck up baby clothes and other fabric items I'm storing because I won't get rid of them!

Ilea turns on the power in what she does best

I'm going to do a little bragging about Ilea. I hope it is alright...

In May, Ilea's teacher, Ms Lee, told Ilea's 4th grade class that there was a reading contest between the three 4th-grade classes. The contest was to see which class could get the highest average score in the Accelerated Reading quizzes. Basically, you read a book (or have a book read to you) and then answer a quiz about the book on a computer. You get more points for harder books. Something like Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone is 12 points. The winning class got an ice cream party for the whole class.

Ilea came home last week and told us that her class was in 2nd place with an average of 13 points per student and the leading class had 17. Ilea had something like 55 points. Ilea took it on as a challenge to take as many tests that she could. So the next day she had passed 100 points and her class was still behind 15 to 18. With one more day left, she was taking reading tests whenever she could, between subjects for any book she could remember (including all the Harry Potter books, plus Huckleberry Finn). In addition, her whole class had just finished a 3 point book so they all took a quiz. On the last day, Ilea found out that her class had won with 19 points per student verses 18 for the other class. Ilea ended up with 215 points in total for the month of May.

That was pretty incredible. She really put forth the effort to accomplish something with her classmates. We're so proud of her.

Anniversary

For our 17th Anniversary we went to a Mariner's game this year. There was a school family night, so we sat in a section with other families from Grasslake. It was a good game, but I think they finally lost. The Mariner's have been doing really well this year, beside that night! Not a bad day.

Jen's Flowers

Flowers make me so happy. I love to grow them. I love when they come back each year. I love to cut them. I used to love roses when I was young and impressionable. They do smell nice, and have a lot of colors. But they are harder to grow, and not all of them smell nice, and then there's the whole thorn issue....so I switched to Iris as my favorite after college. They are easier to grow, come in great colors, but don't smell. I love these white and yellow ones! They are amazing! I also have a purple one about to bloom in the back. The orange poppies are amazing...Oriental poppies. The blooms are 8 - 10 inches. A friend once came in and saw one and thought it was silk! They also grow with no effort (love it!). And my newest, maybe better than Iris favorite is Peony! It's like a rose on steriods, and without the thorns! They have a great smell, and are super fluffy! This was the first bloom, and I can't wait to cut more. It's at least 5-6 inches, and if the heads don't fall over and break, they are easy to care for also...I learned the hard way and got a support for the plant. Too bad they can't last all year!

Pokepals

Kyler decided to make some Perler Bead figures for a friend who like Pokemon, like Kyler does. Kyler decided to start a business selling Pokepals. He is giving the first one away free, and then charging 25 cents for each one. So far he's earned $1.50! And I've only had to buy one more tub of 8500 beads for $10 because he ran out of black! He's trying to get more business, and support himself...He's also willing to make non-pokemon figures, like a cat and a dog.

I got some yellow fuzzy pillows for Ilea earlier this year. Kyler also loved them, and wanted some for himself. So while I was getting fabric for something else, Kyler went to go look. Amazingly, he found the same stuff in the color he wanted - Red! So it only took me about a month to sew 2 pillows for him, one long rectangle and one triangle. He loves them, and they do feel nice.

Catch-up Post - Kyler

In March Kyler came home with a coffee-filter flower (don't remember where he made it). I asked him what he wanted to do with it. He said it was for Anastasia, our cat. I told him Anastasia didn't have a place to keep it. He said he had made it for her cat litter box, so that when she went in there she would see it and be happy.

Catch-up Post Cub Scout

So even though I've had to go to Mom N'Me Camp twice, Kipp has also had to go with the boys on an overnight. He gets to go to the Pacific Science Center in downtown Seattle. It's shorter, but they don't get beds. They go after dinner on a Sat night. The Museum is open to a lot of groups doing this same thing. They get to explore the museum, and there are some fun programs and presentations. They hit the sack (wherever you want to sleep) at about midnight, and have to be up around 7am. They also get to see the laser show, which looks great. This year there was a special exhibit about Letterboxing, my favorite hobby! Kipp does it for the same reason I go to camp - because Kyler likes it so much. Maybe we're bonding, but mostly we're just tired and follow the boys around....

Mom & Me Cub Scout Camp Try 2

After a disasterous trip in the fall, our group agreed to try camp in the spring. So from now on we will go on the spring, but this year we ended up going once in fall, and again this weekend. What a difference spring can make! We had 70 deg weather, gorgeous blue sky, and incredible scenery. Scenery we didn't get to see in the rain, like the huge waterfall in the mountains above camp. There were all the usual activities, nature Hike, skit time, BB guns and Archery, learning scout skills, and teambuilding. Everything that went wrong in the fall was great this time. We had a good cabin, with 9 out of 10 boys attending from our den, and a few more from the pack. Great hikes, fun campfire and a funny skit by the leaders (and skits about bodily functions from all the boys), and pretty good meals. The spaghetti dinner was really good, with a great sauce. Lights out at 10pm, and with only 1 nighttime mishap (one boy helped himself to a few too many treats and got sick at night...not Kyler!), and up again for a 6am Polar Bear Hike. We left camp after breakfast, about 9:30am, and were home by about 10:30. It was a fun weekend (I can't believe I'm saying that!), and I look forward to next year with my baby!

Shopping

We had an errand at Home Depot, and the kids were with us. Kyler asked if he had to go in and I said yes. I told him I always used to go with my dad, and that we would do yard work together, and then we'd need something at the hardware store and I'd go. Kyler said, "I guess I'm more the electronic story kind of guy".

2010 Olympics

After 3 tries, we finally were able to get tickets! There were 2 sessions in the fall, and we weren't able to get anything. Yesterday was the 3rd try. It was a pretty rough day... the site kept delaying the opening time, but when they finally opened I was one of the first people on (12pm, instead of 10am). I chose tickets for 3 events and put them in my cart. So you know how when you order something there is often a bar across with a few steps to show you how far you are in the process? There were 4 dots. The first dot was the cart. I had selected everything I wanted and hit Proceed to the second dot. The email we had gotten said that you could hold items for only 45 min in your cart. It was only 12:10 or so now. So the second page was the credit card info, which I filled out. I hit Proceed. The third page had a list of rules to agree to, and a confirmation of your credit card info and the ticket info. I hit Proceed. Then nothing happened. It sat there for about 4 minutes. I was so worried, and all of a sudden it kicked me back out to the first cart page. I had been praying the whole time. But my tickets were still there, so I did it again. It already had my credit card info, so I proceeded again, not sure if I would be getting 2 sets of tickets, or one. This time after about 30 seconds from the 3rd page, same place I was last time, it said that My Session had Timed out and My Cart Was Empty. When I spoke with Kipp he said that his company send the same message when their server is overloaded. No way to know if I had gotten far enough in the process for it to register or not, or if my tickets had gone back to the general pool. I was still logged on their site, but I didn't seem to have any tickets. I continued to pray! By now it was about 12:18. I tried to go look for tickets, but all the events we had wanted were sold out now. I kept checking my email for a confirmation note, but nothing came. I cried a bit. I tried calling their phone number, but it was busy for over an hour, and I gave up (I didn't try continuously, just every few minutes). I sent them an email, but not with much hope. Later in the day, after 3pm, with still no contact at all, I got through their line and left a message, again without much hope. I checked my email throughout the day, and at 6pm, right before I left for Bible study.

At 8:45, when I got home from my bible study there was my confirmation note from Co-Sport! I had gotten all the tickets I wanted, and we are going! God is so good! I don't know anyone else right now who has tickets. The whole family will be going to Short track speed skating and men's ice hockey, and I will also be going to men's figure skating - short program. I am one happy girl!

Ilea

We've had gorgeous weather the last few days, the first really warm days of spring for us. Sun was upper 70's, and in the evening after dinner I let Ilea walk up the hill by herself (she and Kyler are getting more privileges). We tried to make a fire in our fire pit in the back, and while Kipp was trying to get the waterlogged wood to catch, I drove up to find Ilea, because I knew she would want to enjoy the fire too, and it was getting on to dusk.

I picked her up as she was heading back down, and asked her what she had done for so long. She said she was just talking to God, thanking Him for the beauty and talking about other things.

Makes my heart melt...

Whack!

Kipp and I have been playing racquetball about 3 times a week now. We both have new rackets, and boy can they hit! I hit Kipp in the back about every other day, and this time he smacked me in the back of my knee with the ball. This picture was taken about 2 hours after he hit me! It was a huge red spot with a white welt in the middle, stayed for a couple of days. Mostly it's fun, but those balls can really get some speed!

Love my kids!

Ilea and Kyler really like each other, and most of the time they play well together for hours, making up games. This was not posed (although Kyler started to smile when he saw me). We had been watching a movie and Kyler snuggled up to Ilea. I love it! Mostly, they look out for each other, and are good friends. It makes me happy.

Art

One night Ilea pulled out the paints and surprised us with a couple of pictures. I really liked how she did the fire in the fireplace, and the sun behind the clouds. I was a little confused by the dot one, but she said there were hidden pictures in it. She made dots in patterns of smiley faces, so if you look carefully, you can see many smiley face patterns. Very creative! Then, Kyler wanted attention too, so he painted the forest and deer? the next day.

Kyler's Sport

Kyler is loving his Tae Kwon Do. He goes twice a week. He started in Jan, and in Mar he had his first test to move up to the next belt, yellow. We didn't know what to expect at this. It took over an hour for all the kids to pass their different levels, with some group skills and some individual skills. One of thier individual skills was to break a board with a kick (or punch for some of the more advanced students). Kyler broke his board on the first try! There was a thin board and a thick board. Some of the kids had to do a thick board. Only one boy had to switch to a thin one. The top girl, who was going for her black belt, maybe age 10?, had to do 4 punches and kicks. The last one was tough, but she made it! Now Kyler is a yellow belt!

Snow Again

We've had more snow than any other year since we've been up here, and natives are saying the same thing! I heard we've had 28 days of snow this year! One night it began snowing in the evening, and the flakes were HUGE! Ilea wanted to try to catch some big ones, so she ran out in her nightgown! Funny girl! It has been fun to see all the different snows. I've loved every one!

Coal Garden follow up

I'm going to try to get caught up on some of the happenings of our lives, so get ready for some old info for some, and some pics to go along with.

This is the follow-up to our coal garden. That thing was kind of fun. Basically it just kept growing until all the liquid evaporated. It looked pretty, and was very fragile, like powdered sugar. Hard to believe it could hold it's shape! We finally got rid of it, but the kids enjoyed looking at the new crystals growing. If you get a chance to get some coal, go for it!

Star Wars Slumber Party

OK, I'm going to start by saying we are NEVER doing this again. We've had girls spend the night, more than once, and they have been a piece of cake. 5 eight-year old boys are a different story! We started at 6:30, after dinner. They each got thier light saber, thier Padowan braid, and started thier Jedi training. This took quite a while actually, and covered all parts of thier training. They tested thier powers of observation to find a small lego figure hiding in plain sight; they tested thier brains by solving Star Wars word searches; they tested thier listening skills by doing Yoda Says, and SW Bingo; they tested agility by balancing on a board, running an obstacle course, and balancing on one leg while distractions occured around them. They also worked on their team building skills by working together to move a pretzel with thier light sabers together. I may have left one out, but it was a lot of fun. Finally we had cake and ice cream, presents, and then they watched Star Wars I - Phantom Menace. OK. So then I thought that after all that running around, and the lateness of the hour, and the young age of the kids, they would go to sleep pretty quick after the movie....wrong. I fell asleep before they did, and Kipp was up until 12:30 trying to get them to settle down. One of the boys said it was 2:00 before they went to sleep....and they were up by 6:20am! Kipp and I both got up (Kipp got to go to his men's group), and I started the waffles. Again, they didn't eat as much as I thought, but that wasn't a big deal. The problem was the parents weren't coming until 10am, and they were starting to get bored by 8am! One kept wanting to go out and have light saber fights, and some others wanted to watch a movie, and one was still sleeping upstairs. He finally woke up, and they made it until their parents came. Kyler had a great time, and the party was a success, by kids' standards. I guess that's what really matters...