Kid City

For the past 6 months, our church has been re-modeling the children's department to resemble a small city. Today was the Grand Opening, but I was able to get some pictures last week before all the parents came to pick up their kids.

The facility is now known as "Kid City" and looks amazing. 

On either side of this road are lots and lots of little "buildings" or rooms where the kids go for Sunday School.

Here is Natalie sitting on the park bench near the entrance.

 

Zander stands by the Texaco station next to a real car. Natalie sits on the steps of city hall which is located right next to the room where the kids gather for singing.

Natalie is mesmerized by the water fountain near the entrance.

Here I am!

I've been a bad blogger! Actually, I have just changed locations for a spell. Most of you already know I'm on Facebook and that is reason number one for my absence on Blogger. Here are the other reasons...my photo account where I upload pictures to post on the blog is about 95% filled up and I now have to pay money to increase the storage capacity. It's not a big financial priority these days, so I haven't upgraded. Also contributing to my problem is my broken camera. Yes, it's broken again. Thankfully, I have been able to borrow cameras from other people for the important events, so eventually I will be able to share those special moments with you all.

It's hard to believe that September has almost come to an end. What a beautiful month is has been. I just love it when the warm sunny days of summer stretches into fall. We are planning to close up the pool this week, but Dan went swimming in it as recent as yesterday. 

The kids have been in school almost a month now and are doing great. Zander scored really high on his kindergarten assessment. Over the summer he taught himself to read and is constantly looking for new things to learn. Right now he is fascinated with numbers, addition and measuring things. He also likes counting really high using his calculator. At least once a day he asks me how long it would take to count to a billion. He is also keeping track of how many more days until his birthday, giving us daily updates.

Natalie is doing well in second grade too and has scored 100% on both of her spelling tests. This summer we read Anne of Green Gables together and now she is reading it (the children's edition) on her own. We also watched the movie and went to an Anne of Green Gables tea this summer. Over the weekend Natalie got to bring home the classroom gnome named Tom. She was assigned to write about what Tom did while at out house. Tom got to go with Natalie to sign up for Girl Scouts, to the Teddy Bear Parade and to church. I have lots of photos of Tom that I will share soon.

Hayden has adjusted to preschool better than I thought. He loves the idea of having "his school." His teacher is new to the school and is just the nicest person. I gathered from talking to her that Hayden doesn't talk much in school which doesn't surprise me. Last week was the teddy bear picnic and I got to hang out with Hayden at his school. The best part about Hayden being in preschool was that it forced him to be potty trained. He was pretty much potty trained when he started, but once he began school, he stopped having accidents of any kind!!!

Well, that's it for now. I'm gonna try to work out the kinks and get some photos posted. There is lots to share from our recent summer adventures as well as back to school fun.

So many things I want to share with you

Wow, I have been such a slacker with my blog this summer. I guess that means we have been busy. I always think that once school is out we can have a nice relaxing summer, but usually the opposite is true. Between trying to keep the yard up (which I am failing at miserably), keep on top of my veggie garden, keeping the pool up and let's not forget about all the housework, then add to that swim lessons, VBS, library reading program, birthday parties and playdates, I feel like I can't wait for September to get here so I can have a break!!! We haven't really had any pool parties yet and the summer is almost over...currently the pool is being treated for an algae bloom that hit right when we had one of our hottest days. It was such a bummer not being able to use the pool, but it should be ready for swimming soon.

Swim Lessons

Zander is learning to swim with his face in the water.

Natalie can swim really good and even goes off the diving board and swims in the deep end of our pool!

After swimming lessons the kids enjoyed playing in the newly constructed splash park...until Zander slipped and fell and landed on his head.

Here is a video of Hayden jumping into our pool, going under water and then inching his way back to the steps. He did this over and over for about 20 minutes one day last month. Dan and I couldn't believe how brave he was.

Fashion Show

My sister Toni works at Penney's at the mall and asked if Natalie and Zander could model some back-to-school clothes for the children's department. Their cousin Becca was in the fashion show too!!

Here are the cousins

My little models looking so sylish in their back to school clothes.

Day out with Thomas

Last Sunday we drove out to see Tomas the Train who was stationed in Hood River. Each of our kids has got to ride on Thomas when they were about 2 years old. The first time when Natalie was 2 1/2 was just 3 days after Zander had his brain surgery. Then when Zander was 2 1/2, I was pregnant with Hayden. This time, instead of the whole family taking the train ride on Thomas, I took Hayden while Dan did all the other activities with the older 2. The price of the tickets to ride were significantly higher than before, so we agreed (although I would have loved for the other kids to come along to) that this would be Hayden's special day!

Hayden was seriously shocked...could it be true? Legos that make Thomas!...He was in train heaven! Next you see him all ready to go as he boards the train.

The kids had lots of fun with their balloon creations. The boys got swords with belts to hold them and Natalie got a unicorn. There were all kinds of fun trains to play with.


Zander and Hayden with Sir Topam Hat.

Looking out at the scenery. When the train started moving, he was so excited "Train moving," he said over and over, until he was distracted by his other favorite thing "TRACTOR, TRACTOR!!!"

He did this pose all on his own...I guess he thought is was pretty cool!

Here they are with Thomas.

Father's Day Fun

Last Sunday on our way to the Great Wolf Lodge in Washington, we stopped off at a rest area for a picnic lunch.

The entrance to the lodge is really fun with huge wolf carvings and lots of rustic touches everywhere.

The lobby has huge vaulted ceilings with a clock tower that expands three stories tall.


Here is the check in counter...it was just like Disneyland...waiting 30 minutes in line. Fortunately, although check in wasn't until 4 pm, we got to play in the water park while we waited for our room.


Here is the other side of the lobby. Through the windows you can watch all the action in the water park.

For the price of a regular room (4 person occupancy) plus the extra person charge ($30) , I was able to reserve the kid cabin room with beds for all three kids in a cute cabin.

The kids were so excited to see that inside our room was a little cabin just for them with bunk beds and their very own tv. Natalie was sure to call dibs on the top bunk!

Our room also included a log cabin bed for us and a fireplace in the corner.



So that concludes the first part of the tour...I'll be back to post some fun water park photos later.

Natalie's last day of first grade

Today was the day we were dreading all week...the last day of first grade. I had tried to give Natalie a heads up by warning her...only three more days of school, only two more days...and today...well, it was just plain hard to say good-bye. All week long Natalie kept saying "I don't want to be done with the first grade." It was hard even for me to write the thank you note this morning. Natalie's teacher is just one of those people who God put on this earth to teach little kids. She is truly amazing, kind and very patient. She raises the bar and they excel because she gives them the tools to succeed.
Here is Natalie sharing a painting she made for her teacher with the paints she gave her the day before.

We got her a pretty daisy to thank her for a great year.

Natalie has learned so much this year. She is now an expert on penguins and humming birds, she can read books, do double digit addition and subtraction, count money, write a simple report and read it in front of her class; she has learned new painting skills, new songs, and made new friends. It was a fun year for sure and I got to see just a small part of her experience when I volunteered on Mondays.

Of course I took lots of pictures and just like I did last year, I made a DVD slide show of the year's events. This year I was lucky enough to get to watch the slide show with the class and see their reactions...it was so much fun. They were giddy with excitement whenever a new face would appear. "that's me!" they would all cheer. It was also touching when I turned to her teacher and she had tears in her eyes. She told me she was going to have to watch it again at home with a box of Kleenex where she didn't have to keep her composure.
Here is her class, all dressed in their pajamas watching the DVD. The kids got to have a popcorn pajama party on the second to last day for receiving over 350 compliments during the year!

"Have a cool summer" ...so far it really has been cool. Let's hope it warms up a bit!

This afternoon when Natalie stepped off the school bus, I went out to meet her...and wasn't surprised one bit to see tears just streaming from her eyes. I tried my best to comfort her without falling apart myself. One thing I knew for sure would cheer her up...Ice cream!

I am continuing with our annual tradition of taking the kids out for ice cream on their last day, so she knew it was coming and it helped distract her from her sadness.

Our busy weekend...

Last weekend was super busy...I'm still catching my breath. Let's see, Friday night I signed Zander up for T-ball, drove him to his team pictures, then drove Natalie to Sarah's birthday party. We went to one of those paint your own pottery places and the girls got to pick out a figurine to paint.

The next day, Saturday I got up and had Zander to the opening day for Little League. It was wet and cold and not really knowing what I was doing the whole time, I was completely exhausted by noon when we left.

After we went home for lunch, I drove to Aaron's house for Alexis's birthday party. She turned four this year (on 04/04...her "golden" birthday!

The party was fun and relaxing, but I had to try really hard not to fall asleep...Eventually, it was time to go home.

As you can see, I wasn't the only tired one in the bunch.

Once we got home, we snacked a little more, then went over to our neighbors. They invited us over for dessert because they wanted us to teach them how to play Settlers of Catan, a fun and addicting game Dan and I like to teach to our friends.

The next day was Sunday. We went to church. After church we chatted with friends while the kids played in the "snow" made by the blossoming tree near the church.

After church we went out to Changs Mongolian Grill with the Mickles, then over to Walmart to get some T-ball equipment for Zander. By the time we got home, we had to feed the kids and turn around and go to Awanas...and later that evening work on Natalie's reading homework.

Whew...it was a crazy weekend for sure. Monday was equally crazy as it was the final yearbook deadline of the year. All the pages had to be turned in, so I (along with 4-5 other moms) and Natalie stayed after school in the computer lab until 7 pm. Then we went home, had dinner, did reading homework, got the kids in bed. Then at 9 pm I called the other advisor, we proofed the pages one last time and submitted them on-line...and by 11 pm we were done!

Now it's Thursday and I am just now catching up on things that need to get done around here. I've got most of the dishes done, but I'm way behind on the laundry...my least favorite chore.

So for now I'm going to call it a night.