Week #21: Rattling Jack

 This week we...

...worked and played at the school book fair. The school does a trash to treasure book fair. The kids bring in books to exchange for book bucks that they can use later at the event. I went through their books first and got what I thought was a good amount of book bucks for them. However, once they saw all the books and experienced the fun of picking out new ones, they came home and pulled out MORE books to take in to the school. It was so funny because they selected books they wouldn't even let me touch the first time. :)

 Emma was having fun taking pictures

 Emma showing much enthusiasm for all the good books

 
...resolved the annoying rattling issue in the van. I was so happy when I figured this out. I could not stop repeating how glad I was to finally investigate and figure this out. For the past year and a half to two years, we have had this annoying rattling sound in our van. It was constant and drive-you-crazy-till-you-want-to-pull-your-hair-out kind of annoying. I would bring it up and Jason would say it was this or that. Recently, I was in the back of the van because Claire's seat belt was locking up (most trying). As I fixed the seat belt, I was right next to the sound and so I pulled off this nifty panel to find the cause. This is where the jack and tire changing tools are secretly stored. I pushed on the jack and found that it was indeed moving back and forth. What was this?! It was not secured tightly. I couldn't believe it. Could this annoying, plaguing sound be done away with this easily? Sure enough, there was a way to tighten up the jack against the side of the van and banish the sound FOREVER!

I thought we would have to put up with that rattle sound indefinitely. I was ecstatic to finally figure it out.


...finally fixed Emma and Paul's bikes. Their tires have popped so many times...and it's always agony when they have to wait for them to get fixed. Jason is a great handy dad, but it takes us a while to remember to get the parts and fix them up. This time we used green slime to help protect their tires. I had heard of this once before we used it. I was very surprised to find that it was indeed a green colored tire sealant with a brand name slime.

...learned that rhubarb isn't so scary after all. I got some rhubarb in my box from Fresh Picks and was a little nervous to try it. I was able to get a great crisp recipe from my visiting teaching companion and I now can say that rhubarb isn't so scary. It was actually quite good.

Week #20: A Second Birthday

 This week we...

...learned what to do with a birthday card. Lainey got a card in the mail from her Aunt Shawnee. It had a cute little puppy on the front that Lainey just loved. She was acting so cute with the card that I took some pictures.

...celebrated Miss Lainey's happy second birthday. I can't believe she is two years old. She is talking so well. Her favorite things to say are: "Lion scary!", "Airplane scary!", "Benny meanie!", "Give it me!", "Stop it!", "Love you Daddy!", "ALVIN!", "Donald's!", "Benny did it!", "Oh, dang!", "Oh, poop!", and plenty more. She loves babies. Wednesday I went grocery shopping and she was helping me carry in the oreos. A short time later I saw the oreos on the porch and no Lainey. She was two houses down at our neighbor's looking at their new seven week old baby. When she sees a baby she runs through the list of what a baby needs - baby needs milk, baby needs binkie, baby needs blankie, baby needs mommy. Every grown up she sees is either a mommy (female) or daddy (male). It's so funny!

She was making a nice 'H' sound to blow the candles out on the second try. Funny, but it worked. She also gave us some good faces during the present opening.

 

Doesn't it look like she's telling a secret to her Aunt Shelly?

She didn't like the string in her hair, Aunt Shelly was bugging her.

We thought we got her boring old shorts.

She showed us!

...went to a birthday party for our friend Paxton. Lainey was in charge of holding the presents. Silly kid!

...had tin foil dinners for dinner. They were SO good. ALL of my kids liked them but Paul. Lainey got started on hers right away. Emma exclaimed over hers and Ben and Claire ate without complaint. Oh, wait. There was one complaint - not enough left overs. Yummy!

...went to a luau! It was so much fun. Our friends, the Cooks, were in charge of the luau for the ward party. Someone roasted a pig on a nice Traeger BBQ. We had a live band, a hula performance, a haka performance, a limbo contest, and a Hawaiian shirt contest.

Chris Cook up there leading the band.

This is the roasted pig

That food was goo-ood!

 

Jason - back left

Lainey thought the limbo was pretty cool -

 Check out her moves!

...had frontier days at school. Emma and Paul were so excited for this day. They spent most of the day outside going to tons of stations that centered around the western theme. It was so well prepared and the kids had so much fun. There was roping, riding, milking, and dancing.

  In their chutes waiting for the signal to break out in wild riding.

 

 Paul was ready to go home.

Emma was ready to play.

...put some vinyl on the walls. We put some in the bathroom and along the stairs. I saw something on pinterest that I really liked for the stair vinyl. It was of course for couples, but I liked the message for my kids also. I want them to be reminded that I will love them and be with them every step of the way, no matter where life goes. Their reactions were great as they discovered the vinyl on the first couple steps. They were so worried and called me over...Ben said, "Mom, someone wrote on the wall!" I assured him that it wasn't just any writing, it was vinyl. Then I told them what it meant. Their eyes got big and you could tell that they felt and understood. Emma and Claire gave me big hugs. Ben and Paul had big smiles on their faces. It was cool!

pinned

 Mine's not as flashy, but I love seeing it there.

 The vinyl in the bathroom is just a border of words around the top,

 

and I added a silly word just for fun.

...took another trip down memory lane. I can't believe they were ever this little. This was the summer that we took some money and had our vacation close to home in the Tri-Cities. We took the kids to McDonald's and the movies. We got donuts and orange juice for breakfast. We took a bike ride and played at the park. It was so fun and we didn't have to go far away to enjoy a vacation. Once again, I found these pictures and don't want to lose them. So here goes...This would have been Summer 2009.

 

Week #19: Trip Down Memory Lane

 This week...

...we had a BBQ with our second cousins. We told the kids their second cousins were coming over and they wouldn't think of them in any other way. They're not friends or family, they're second cousins.

...Claire sported some new sunglasses. I took the kids garage sale-ing with me a couple weekends ago. Let me tell you, they really caught the good deal bug. :) And, it was quite fun to be out together. These glasses are one of Emma's finds, 25 cents.

...the kids decided to play in the mud on Sunday. This is Ben's favorite thing to do. AAAHHH! This has happened more than once...I'm silently commending them for playing so nicely outside only to realize that they've had the water running in the dirt making a huge mud hole for the past twenty minutes. Yeesh!

 
...Lainey got so tired she fell asleep without blanket or binkie. She does have the remote though. That's good for something.

...Emma and I went to a mother/daughter breakfast for activity days. Emma has really been enjoying activity days. This is exactly what we both needed. She gets an organized craft/project/activity twice a month and I don't have to plan it. :) She has great leaders that really make it so fun for the girls. This morning we had some great food and a good time being together.

 ...I went to Muffins for Moms with Emma and Paul. This was such a fun activity to go to with the kids at their school. In honor of Mother's Day, they invited the moms to come be with their kids in the morning before school started and share muffins and milk. We sat at the cafeteria tables and made tissue paper pom-pom flowers while we ate. It was great! They even had a little place set up for photos. I was very impressed - cool activity.

 
...Ben and Claire took the training wheels off. Whoo-hoo! They'd already gotten the hang of the balancing because their training wheels weren't level and didn't help out real well except for on the turns. We took them off Friday morning and by the afternoon, they were riding around like pros. 

  

 My Favorite!

 Riding free

 Look at that face! I don't get Ben to smile like that very often for pictures. He's the one that fights me most of the time. But, this is the face of one happy little boy.

...we enjoyed our fruit box from Fresh Picks. You might remember how we had such an awesome home teacher in Othello who would bring us fresh fruit all the time. Well, now I get more of their delicious fruits and vegetables, cider and jam. My former home teacher, Mark Rowley, is part of the Rowely and Hawkins Farm and they have started a box-a-week program. You sign up online -www.freshpickswa.com - and the box comes to my house every Thursday for you to pick up (if you live in the Pasco area - they have other drops in the Richland and Kennewick). The longer you commit, the cheaper it is - from three months, one month, down to weekly. Just get the order in by Wednesday to give them time and you have your box for the week.

We love their cider-yum! Their apples are crisp and delicious. The pears didn't even last the day. The pie cherries are in the freezer waiting to be put in a crust or sprinkled with crisp and the Raspberry Peach Jam is in the fridge with waiting to be sampled. I admit that I did share the rhubarb with Jason's parents because they love the stuff and I'm not quite brave enough to experiment with it yet. :)

 Our box of Yummies

 Taya showing off one of the yummy apples

Being Silly

 ...Emma went roller skating for the first time. Faith Ogle, Emma's friend from school, invited her to go out for the afternoon. They went to Burger King for lunch and then to the roller rink. I'm afraid the skating didn't last long because Emma kept falling down and wasn't having very much fun. So they came to the park by our house to play instead. They had a blast being together.

...took a trip down memory lane to remember our Day out with Thomas event. I was in the process of making this post, four years ago, when I accidentally copied over ALOT of our Day out with Thomas pictures. These are the only ones that were saved. So here are the pictures and text from that long ago 2008 post. The kids are so stinkin' little in these photos, it cracks me up.

We went and saw Thomas the Train in Snoqualmie. Just because you have a twelve passenger van doesn't mean you have to fill it to capacity on three hour trips. We took my mom, Jason's mom and dad, my two sisters, our four kids and their cousin Trenton.

We parked our car at a school and they bussed us over to the site. I was going to bring my purse and then not, going to and then not. So you can understand that I left the tickets in my purse back at the school. Jason saved the day by going back to get them.

The day was extremely hot. When I planned the adventure and bought the tickets, I didn't even think about it being the height of summer. The kids went up into trains and such as we waited for our train ride time. They were sweating in line and we were sweating as we waited. It was one of those days that you just endure the heat because you won't be doing it again any time soon.
  

The train ride was great. They did have a Thomas out in front, how much work he actually did to pull the train I don't really know. It was great for effect. (Paul really thinks he's real. Tonight at scripture study he said, "Thomas is in Heaven too." Crazy kid!) We sat in the last car that had all the windows open. It pushed us back out over the Snoqualmie Falls and then pulled us back in to the station. The kids were in Heaven. Benjamin has also turned into an avid Thomas fan. He was making the biggest, roundest "Ohs" as we would move or hear the train whistle. It was so fun to watch him.

After the ride they went in a Thomas bounce house, played with trains that were set up for kids to do so, watched a really great puppet show. Emma loved it, and even Claire sat there enthralled. We clamored here and there for pictures and eventually squished ourselves all back into the van for the ride home.