Birthday Zoo Bash

For my 30th birthday on June 25th I asked Mike to take the day off from work so we could go to the zoo as a family. We had a great time enjoying the animals God created. It's amazing to think the animals at the zoo are only a tiny sampling of all the creatures on the earth! These animals did not come to be by accident, they were designed!

We thought it was so funny how this cougar was sitting on the limb. He was resting his bottom on the branch with his back paws and his tail hanging down. It was a real treat to see the cougar so close up. The other times we've been at the zoo he's been sleeping way at the back of the cage where we couldn't see him.

Here's Grace petting a goat.

I'm holding Elsie because she was a little nervous about being in the cage with the goats. Elsie's also afraid of dogs and cats. It's strange to have a child who's afraid of animals because Mike and I grew up with animals and Weston and Grace were used to having Moses for their first years. I'm hoping she grows out of it!

Noah looks like he's protesting having his photo taken.

Some other highlights of our zoo trip were the polar bears (they were walking around in circles doing a funny dance) and the orangutans (one was hiding under a sheet right next to the window). We also enjoyed watching the bats once we got over the smell!

Later that day my friend, Jane, came over and had ColdStone ice cream (you get a free one on your birthday if you join their birthday club) and shopped for awhile with me. My girlfriends from college also had a birthday gathering for me Saturday morning and we had "Death By Chocolate" torte for breakfast (Becky also made some granola so our tummies wouldn't get sick from only having dessert and coffee for breakfast). Over all, I had an excellent birthday!

Updates From the Past Month :)

We celebrated Mother's Day the same weekend as Weston's birthday. This year for Mother's Day the kids and I made flower pens for the grandmas' gifts. We also made a pen arrangement for our sweet neighbor, Claudia, and helped our neighbor girls, Veronica and Kayla, make some for their grandma and mom. The basic instructions for the pens is to remove the ends off Bic-type pens, wrap them in floral tape, and hot glue leaves and flowers to the end. You then stick the pens in light-roast coffee beans (less oily) in pots or jars. I used popsicle sticks to make little cards for each pot. The pens were easy and fun to make and turned out pretty nice if I do say so myself :)

It doesn't work to well to get a photo of the kids looking toward the sun. A bit squinty :)

I think it's cute how they're all looking at Noah. They take such good care of their little brother. He's already a spoiled baby.

While the men were working on the fence in May, the kids were working on a huge muddy hole where cement will eventually be. You can tell they had a fantastic time playing in their little "pool". We couldn't coax Tirien out of the hole to pose for a photo.

Check out Weston's sock (the match was lost in the mud)! No amount of bleach would get those puppies white again!

Check out our barbecue in the background :)

How much mud can come out of one little hole?

This is a beautiful Dogwood tree in our backyard. These huge blooms were on the tree for at least 3 weeks!

Noah is now 9 months old and has the "army" crawl down. It's quite the feat to keep on top of him every minute he's awake :)

I told them to pretend they were asleep for the photo. Most of them were pretty good actors :)

Rose Garden

Here are a few photos from a family trip to the Portland Rose Garden on the weekend of the 13th. Mike's parents, John and Shirley, were gracious enough to come down for the weekend and babysit so Mike and I could go to the OCEANetwork homeschool conference here in Portland. After the conference we all spent a little time taking in the beautiful roses God created for us to enjoy.

Noah was also very impressed with the roses :)

You can see how many roses are in the background of this photo and this is probably not even one-third the roses at the garden.

I think it's cute how Grace was cupping Elsie's chin for the photo.

Elsie is posing in a little outfit John and Shirley bought for her birthday this year.

Thanks, John and Shirley, for blessing us with babysitting for the weekend. You did a great job!

Weston got into the "smelling" action. These were some of the prettiest flowers at the garden.

Cookie Dough!

Elsie and I made some chocolate chip cookie dough today. You can tell she made herself right at home on the counter licking the beater. I'm going to try to make homemade cookie dough icecream. We purchased the icecream maker attachment to go on my Kitchenaid mixer and it works great. So far we've made vanilla, mint, and strawberry and they've all tasted wonderful!

The two talking cats, plus gecko

Random but so funny!

Cockatoo Dances to the Beat

Aren't God's creatures incredible!

T-ball Photos!

We have successfully finished our first season of t-ball! After doing a season of soccer and a season of Little League I definitely think Little League fits more with our family's personality. We were blessed with awesome coaches who kept a very positive and laid-back atmosphere for the kids. Weston was thrilled to get opportunities to run around outside with other kids and enjoyed every minute of it! Mike and I also had some pretty good laughs watching 5 year-olds try to play baseball. The kids are so little that they look like bobble-head dolls running around the bases with the batting helmets on. It took the kids quite a few practices and games to figure out that it's not supposed to be a pile-on for the ball when it's hit into the field. The first game all of the players on Weston's team were running after the ball and fighting each other for it instead of staying near their position.
What a tough-looking t-ball player!

Weston is #9.

Some of Weston's team.

His sisters also came to cheer him on.

His swing look just like Ichiro's, doesn't it?

Weston's 6!!!

Weston turned 6 years old on May 13th! We had a great time celebrating his birthday the weekend of Mother's Day.
This mug was Mike's when he was much younger. Apparently Mike used to be a 49ers fan :)

Memaw Mary made Weston's awesome shark cake! Weston originally said he wanted an eel cake, but I was able to talk him into a shark instead (the picture I had in my head of an eel cake was not too pretty :)

It looks like it'll bite your hand off. My mom made the teeth from gum.

He blew all the candles out on the first try!

Aunt Haley was here visiting from Georgia. My brother, Kyle, had to go to training in Texas for a couple of weeks and agreed to fly Haley back to Oregon during his trip. It was awesome to spend time with her and we found even more things to love about her! She truly is a sister to me!

The weather was so awesome that we were able to have the party outside! Mike's brother, Tim, came down from Seattle for the day and night and both sets of grandparents came for the weekend. Dave, Julie, Laelie and Tirien also came from next door for the festivities.

Tons of fun for a 6 year-old!

Two of the Best Things in The World!

Coffee and......
Friendship!

Here's Julie and I on our way to a girls' get together in Dundee a few months ago. We stopped into Coffee Cottage and then walked around campus at George Fox (where we and our husbands all went to college). It was a beautiful day to enjoy our coffee and our friendship!

No Training Wheels!

Last Sunday I took the kids to Bend for a couple of nights by myself. Mike had a ton of catching up at work to do and needed to put in some extra hours. It worked out perfectly for us to go last week because there were no t-ball games and my parents didn't have to work.
As soon as we arrived Papa started teaching Weston to ride without training wheels and away he went! We thought he would fall and shed some tears but we were wrong! He did great and hardly fell at all. We probably should have started teaching him last summer but the time slipped away too quickly and we don't have a great place to teach him on our street. You can see my parents' driveway is perfect for learning to ride. Here's an action shot of our "no training wheels" boy :)


Elsie can't really pedal yet, but she didn't want to be left out.
Grace spent some time practicing on her scooter. Papa also took Weston and Grace bowling and driving bumper cars one morning. They had a great time!

I took this photo of Noah yesterday during his nap. He looked so sweet :)