End of season for T-ball

This was one of the coldest, wettest springs I can remember. Unfortunately for Zander, many (almost half) of his games were canceled due to weather.

Zander had his last regularly scheduled game last night. He got to play first base and pitcher! A couple weeks ago he hit his first pitched ball. We were all so proud...and surprised! He playes one more time on Saturday at 11:15. There will also be a bbq at the field for anyone who is interested in joining us.

Here is Zander with his t-ball trophy. He was so excited!

Here he is with his coaches.

After all the trophies were handed out we had cake.

The Last Day...

I've never really liked the "last day" of anything. Whether it was school or summer camp or the last day of a vacation. The last day always means that something fun is about to end. I can still remember feeling sad even on the last days of school. I would miss my friends and my teachers and all the fun things we did.

I kind of feel sad even on the last day of school for my kids, no not because they will be home all summer, but it is kind of bitter sweet to see them complete another year of school. It still seems weird to me that Zander is all through with preschool now. In all the business of the spring field trips and programs and memory book coordination, it flew by so fast and now he is done!

Let me catch you up on some of the recent happenings in the life of Zander. Warning...lots of photos! I'm kind of behind!!!

During the last Chapel, Zander received his certificate and his memory book. Look for the memory pages on my Paper Caper blog.

On the last day, all the 4 year olds got to have a picnic. Zander was so excited to use his new bento box that Uncle Andy brought back from Japan. Hayden is using his too.

One last chance to play with friends Karly and Carson.

Field Trip to the Farm

We got to hold the baby chicks!

The baby sheep were just a few weeks old and were jumping all over the place. I've never seen sheep jump...didn't even know they could jump.

Here's another one on the left jumping and playing with all the sheep under the tree.

Zander got to plant some flowers too.

After snack, Zander had fun playing with his good friend Carson.

Bubble Day


Zander and his teachers.

Henry and Mudge Play
We all went to New Hope church to see the play. Here are the kids in front of the stage.

T-Ball

Eye Appointment
Here's Dr. Holland checking Zander's eyes. When his eyes are dilated he can see if his optical nerve has any preasure on it, thus indicating a problem with the shunt. Fortunately, he didn't see any thing wrong with Zander!!!

Here he is with his "robot glasses." He got to look through all different kinds of glasses, including 3-d glasses. It was obvious by watching him do the vision tests that he doesn't see 3-d. I also noticed this at the 3-d Muppet movie at Disneyland...he was the only kid not reaching out to try and touch things. The doctor says he still has depth perception, just not 3-d.

Grandma and Grandpa Roush came to watch Zander on Monday.

Grandpa tried Zander's helmet on and it fit!

Our lunch on the Willamette

Last year for my birthday, Dan gave me a certificate for a cruise on the Portland Spirit. I lost the certificate and just recently found it back in January. It's a good thing I found it when I did, because it expired in February! I made reservations for April 19, thinking that we would have better weather if I bumped it up a few more months...

While we didn't have the sunny weather I was hoping for, it was much better than the rain mixed with snow the folks at weather.com were predicting. The morning was cold, but the sun was out (and by "sun was out," I mean occasionally it would peek out from the clouds), so we were content with that!!!

After boarding, we were shown to our table and given some warm tea.

Our lunch was yummy. I had the grilled herb chicken and Dan had the beef shoulder entree.

On the ride back, we stepped outside for some up-close sight seeing.Here we are on the bow of the boat, just about to pass under the Marquam Bridge (my least favorite to travel over!) with the Hawthorne Bridge in the distance.

Here's the famous Portland landmark. I remember when it used to say "White Stag" instead of "Made in Oregon."

Here's a very ominous picture of the Steel Bridge. We passed under most of the bridges south of the Steel bridge. Fun Fact of the Day: Apparently the Steel Bridge is a railroad bridge (lower deck) owned by a railroad in Oklahoma and in order for it to lift up and allow ships to pass under it, they need to get special permission from Oklahoma and therefore the Spirit of Portland generally doesn't go under it.

Here is one of the recognizable towers you see on the Burnside bridge.


The Old Spaghetti Factory. Lots of fun memories here. I remember the first time I went to eat here was with the high school youth group (for Jason Birman's birthday I think!) Anyway, I'd pick this location over the Clackamas location in a heartbeat...even if it takes twice as long to get to! Dan and I always order the salad with creamy pesto dressing and the spaghetti, half meat sauce and half mazithra cheese with browned butter....so, so good and of course spumoni ice cream to finish it all off! Mmmmmm!


Of all the big fancy newer homes along the water, I think I'd rather live in this old Spanish-style estate... you know, if money were no object. Nice hu? Just a wee little thing, right!!!

On the return trip, we got to ride with the Captain and watch him "park" the boat. He has a separate control out on the deck that allows him to steer the boat up close to the sea wall. Doesn't he look just like a captain should?

After disembarking from the boat, Dan and I walked down to the marina and took some pictures of the dragon boats. He is going to be designing t-shirts for the Leatherman Tool Group's dragon boat team and needed to get some visuals.

Right after I took this shot it started to rain and...snow!!! So we ran up to Riverplace and then back to our car.

Are you kidding me? These photos were taken about 7:15 last night after dinner! I had to run out to the pump house and turn the pump back on so the pipes to the pool don't freeze!!!

The poor Rhododendron thought it was spring and was trying to bloom!!!

Fortunately, I hadn't planted these Dahlias yet and just brought them inside the house to warn up in their little pots. (See procrastinating can be a good thing!) This morning when I woke up there was still snow on the ground! Weird, weird, weird!!!

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.