Big Game James

Well, I am really behind in getting these posted, but here they are. Pictures of James' basketball. He had a really great season with a great team...they won every game! And they had lots and lots of fun.

James aka Prince Ronald

Towards the end of the school year, the 1st-3rd graders at James' school put on a play for all their families. They did a play that their music teacher wrote based off of a book called "The Paper Bag Princess". All of the kids worked very hard and practiced for at least a couple of months. James would come home from school everyday and talk about it and work on his lines. Yes, he was one of the characters in the play, Prince Ronald. Finally the big day came. James couldn't wait to perform and show us all of their hard work. We were wondering how he would do as this was his first time performing like this. He was excited, but seemed a little nervous, so we weren't sure if he was going to have stage fright or not. Well, no need to worry there! He rocked it! He was so confident and did such a great job portraying the character of Prince Ronald! He definitely has some acting skills. The play was a great success and enjoyed by all. And I don't think anyone was as proud and beaming afterward as James was.

I'm back!!!

Wow! It has been awhile since I've posted anything! I was gone almost the whole month of June and didn't have any computer access where I was. Hannah and I went on a road trip to Idaho and Minnesota to visit family for 3 weeks. Nana (my mom) and Uncle Drew (my brother) went with us from Idaho and we had a wonderful time!!! I will post pics and details soon. But first I'm going to post some pics of James that I meant to get up before our trip, but didn't get around too.

Anniversary

May 20th my hubby and I celebrated our 3rd anniversary. We had a sitter and were able to go out for about 4 hours and have some "couple" time. We went downtown Portland to the 30th floor of the US Bank building to the Portland City Grill. The view from up there is AMAZING!!! You can see all over Portland, Mt Hood, Mt St. Helens and on and on!!! The sky was so clear and beautiful on the day we were there so we could really see a lot. We had drinks and a really yummy spring roll appetizer in the bar area while we waited for our table. Then we got a great table right by the windows and shared a DELICIOUS steak dinner followed by fresh baked cookies with ice cream for dessert. We had such a wonderful time and just really enjoyed the time we got to spend together. I love my hubby!!!

O is for Owl

Here is a pic of one of the crafts we did last week for our letter O studies. They just turned out so cute I couldn't resist sharing. We used different craft foam shapes to make little owls that we glued onto magnets. The kids really had fun with it!

Garden Update

We have been having such nice, HOT weather the past week or so and the garden is really taking off! My first planting of corn is already more than a foot tall and the second planting is already about 6 inches! It is growing like crazy!! The two tomato plants that got planted in a garden bed are doing great as well as all of the peppers. The onions still aren't doing very well, but hopefully we'll atleast get a couple out of it down the road and maybe have better luck next year. The carrots and beans are also not doing too great, but alteast have been growing a little bit. I will need to get out this week and plant some more carrot seeds as only a handful of the ones I planted earlier came up. My herbs are all doing well, and I'm very thankful I bought those as plants instead of starting them from seeds...definitely the way to go! The peas are growing nicely and are starting to climb the trellis and the cucumbers should soon be following. The best thing is that we've been able to enjoy some salad from the garden!!! The other night we had spinach and lettuce salad for dinner along with our homemade pizza with fresh herbs. Yum! It was sooo rewarding to be able to just walk out to the backyard and get some salad. I can't wait till we are doing more of that! As for the Topsy Turvy tomatoes...........hmmmm.....I'm not thinking I would recommend them to anyone. I've noticed a tiny bit of growth in a couple of the tomatoes, but they look more sick than anything. I'm hoping they'll come around and give us some harvest. We'll just have to wait and see. I also finally got Hannah's tipi made the other day using branches that we trimmed out of the pine trees in the front yard. It turned out really cute! And she loves it! I planted a zucchini plant that the neighbor gave me and 4 summer squash (over kill maybe, but oh, well!). I'm hoping they will grow and climb up around the tipi along with the sweet pea flowers and peas that I'm going to plant around it. Then Hannah will have a cute little play house out in the yard. That pretty much covers what's been "growing" on in the garden the past week. I'm really enjoying our square foot garden boxes and have already learned so much! Next year should be even better!
Bed #1: Corn...it has already grown even more since I took this pic a couple days ago!
Bed #2: Two tomato plants, 4 hot chili peppers, 4 bell peppers, cantaloupe, onions and chives
Bed #3: Green beans, herbs and carrots
Bed #4: Cucumbers, peas, kale, chard, spinach and lettuces
Hannah's tipi in the corner next to the garden.

New Boots!

Okay, so the weather has been really nice all week long, and there is no need for rain boots now, but we DO live in Oregon, so rain boots are a good investment because you never know when it's going to rain. Last week (or whenever it was!) we couldn't play outside too much because of the rain. Hannah went with me to check the mail one afternoon and there were BIG puddles all over the driveway. Of course she wanted to step in each one! LOL This is when I decided we needed to get her some boots, so she could step in the puddles like she wanted, and I didn't have to worry about her shoes getting yucky or ruined from the water. Thank goodness for Wal-Mart! Hubby just so happened to be heading that way last Friday night, so we all decided to go. They had the cutest little boots and for under $10! Hannah was so excited that when we went out to play the next day she HAD to wear them, even though it was dry and sunny. She was so proud of her new boots!

Nature park

Monday the weather was great and I felt like we needed to get out of the house. So we called up some friends and went for a walk at the Tualatin Valley Nature Park. And since we are working on the letter N this week, I thought it would be a good time to start a little nature study. We didn't talk about much on our walk...just let the kids explore and have fun. We had a great time! And they were nice and worn out by the time we got back to the car. Taking the walk inspired me to make little Nature journals for the kids to record things in so everyday this week we've been working on adding things to our journals. We drew some pictures of things we saw on our walk at the park, drew some pictures and used words to describe things that we saw in our little "walk" around the yard yesterday, and today we found some small things like leaves and such to tape to a page in our natural journal. It has been lots of fun, and they are really enjoying being outside and looking at things. We've even seen two different kinds of bird's nests right in the trees in our front yard! So cool! God made a beautiful world and I'm glad we can get out and see it!

The boys! Our friend C, and the two boys I watch, B & J

Little movie stars. H and her friend N with their sunglasses!




Flowers! (Yes, I am addicted to flowers! Love them! Can't get enough of them!)
My little flower exploring at the Nature park.

Coming along.....

Wednesday last week hubby was home from work and spent the day sanding the built-ins...yes, I know, it has been over a month since we got them in and we are STILL working on them. It is a monumental task, and it is hard to find time to work on it with Matt working during the week and most Saturdays too, and with me watching kids during the week. We got it primed and sanded and we've started painting a little bit, but we still haven't gotten 1 coat on the whole thing yet. And it has finally reached the point where it is making us both grouchy. So tomorrow we are having a painting company come out and give us an estimate to paint it. It seems silly to have to pay someone else to paint it, when we are quite capable. But since we can't find enough time, at the rate we're going it would be fall or later by the time we get it done. Hoping it doesn't cost too much so we can just get it done and get things back in order around here.

Visitor

The other night when James was getting ready to go to bed, he looked out of his window and saw a raccoon in our maple tree! At first he thought it was a really big squirrel, and then he saw its face. So we all went outside to watch it for a little bit. He was so cute, and was watching our every move. The kids thought it was pretty cool. And, of course, Matt wanted to shoot it, but since we live in the the city, that wouldn't have worked out so well. LOL And me, well, I just hope it doesn't cause trouble in my garden.