Mother's Day Part II 5.8.11

Kim and Jeff
Shane and Logan

Our family.

Logan and I and the heart shaped rock Uncky Mike helped Logan find to give me.

My adorable parents.

Like I said, it wasn't sunbathing weather, but we always know how to have a good time at the beach. Whether it's skipping rocks, chasing seagulls, or combing the sand for great finds; it was the perfect way to end our Mother's Day afternoon together. Life is good.

Mother's Day 5.8.11

Shane and Logan with some "friends."
For Mom's gift this year, I bought her the movie "Eat, Pray, Love". Then I gave her 3 more gifts, 1 for each word of the movie. For "Eat" I gave her Dove Dark Chocolates. For "Pray" I gave her scratch and win lotto tickets. For "Love" I gave her some scrapbook supplies. It was very fun to put together and I think she really got a kick out of it.

Kim is such a wonderful mom to Shane.

Mom and her kids...eventhough we're all in our 30's, we're still kids, right?

The reason this day means so much to me!

For Mother's Day this year, Dad, Mom, Jeff, Kim, Shane, Mike, Logan, and I all met for a lovely lunch at a local resturant we all like. While we ate and visited and laughed and reminisced and got free dessert (woohoo), I realized how amazingly lucky I am. I'm so lucky to have grown up with the mom that I had. She taught me by example how to compromise, how to stay cool in a crisis, how to love your children unconditionally, and how there's nothing a little hard work can't accomplish. I'm also so lucky to be Logan's mom. I get teary even thinking about trying to sum up how full my heart is with love for this little guy. Everyday I try so hard to do my best by him and just when I think how much I'm teaching him, I realize just how much more he's teaching me. We had a beautiful afternoon. After lunch, we walked around the plaza checking out the arts and craft booths that were there. Then it was off to the beach. Now, it's not like we were sunbathing or anything, but growing up in the Northwest you learn that any weather is beach weather. There really is something I love being bundled up on the beach with the wind blowing off the water and feeling really cold, but not wanting to leave at the same time. Fantastic! {For about an hour anyway, then we all called it quits.} It was a wonderful Mother's Day. One I'll cherish for a long time to come. Life is good when you're a mom!

The Home Depot 5.7.11

Logan was SO excited to get to work.
I really appreciated the employees helping Logan learn the right way to use all the tools.

That's shaping up to be a very nice flower pot.

Ta-Da!

For months and months I had been hearing about how The Home Depot offers little workshops for kids on the first Saturday of the month. The kids get a Home Depot apron, they get to complete a project of some kind, and once they are done, they get a pin representing that item to pin onto their new apron. And all of this is FREE!!!! I had been so wanting to take Logan, but Saturdays are his days with Mike. Well, Mike had a mini-shift this week, so Logan and I jumped in the car and headed to our local Home Depot. What was really neat {besides simply being able to participate} was that because it was so close to Mother's Day, the project was intended to be a Mother's Day gift. Perfect! When we got there we ran into Craig and Macie who were just finishing up their projects and then it was Logan's turn. He was making a flower pot. So cute. The employee helping him was so great. He explained to Logan all about tool safety and then we followed along with the instructions and lo and behold it wasn't but a few minutes later that Logan had completed his first Home Depot project. What a great experience. Logan said he had a lot of fun and we decided we definitely need to get back and do it again when we get a chance. Life is good with a handy little fella around the house! ;o)

The Second Annual Cow Pie Drop 5.7.11

The boys did a great job of manning the "concessions".

"Bessie"

The Cow Pie Crowd

Craig and Logan



After Kevin's party, Logan and I headed to Bill and Jolene's to help with the Cow Pie Drop. Just like last year, a bunch of us got together to sell tickets to help raise money for Relay for Life by putting on a little cow pie drop. And like last year "Bessie" couldn't do her business quick enough. Bill opened the trailor, she stepped out, and she pooped. I actually missed it completely as I had my back turned for all of 1.4 seconds! :o) Ah well, the weather was less than desirable anyway, so we all had a good laugh and headed back inside. Before that though, the boys did their part to raise money by offering lemonade, chocolate milk, cookies, and chips. They even made the signs this year. Too cute! We ended up raising a fair bit of money for Relay for Life and had a good time doing it. Life is good when we are working for a cure.

Kevin's Party 5.7.11

Mick and Cheryl along with Brandi and Kelly hosted a lovely lunch today to try to get the whole family together to see Kevin while he was home on leave. Being in the Marines, leaves us little time to see Kevin so when he does get home we are all clammoring to check in with him. As always, it was a delight to spend some time with my "little" cousin. He's turning into such an amazing man. We're all so dang proud of him and how he's turned his life around. Anyway, it was a great day and I walked away taking only 1 picture. Crazy, right? What was wrong with me? Ah well, it was of adorable little Aubrey! So, she's full on representing the entire clan today! Life is good when Kevin is home and safe.

April Projects 4.30.11

Logan's work from preschool for the month of April. Life is good.

More Easter 4.23.11

Shane and Logan...fyi, Logan LOVED his tie. So much so, that he wouldn't stand for it to be tucked in under his vest...he wanted it out for everyone to see!
Logan with his basket.

Ultimate Echo Echo!!!!!!

I filled in for the Easter Bunny today. ;o)

Hunting for those eggs.

Just a few more shots of the day. :o)

Easter with Family 4.23.11

Easter Boys.
And the frisbee tossing begins...Jeff...

...Logan...

...and Mom all got into it.

Logan catching a cool breeze on the way home!

Later in the day, Logan and I headed out to Mom and Dad's for some more Easter fun. As usual Mom and Dad hosted a wonderful Easter afternoon for us all. We had a delicious spread, great conversation, and such fun with all our Easter activities. The boys each got a basket at Mom's house and then I headed out and hid a bunch of eggs. This year I really tried to make it challenging for Shaneo...he is almost 11 ya know! :o) It took the boys awhile, but they found all their eggs. The boys got these great frisbee like items in their baskets, so after all the hoopla, we all headed outside for some fun! They were a huge hit. Jeff and Shane really got into it and were pro's in no time. It was a lovely day spent in the perfect way. Thanks family for such a wonderful day. Life is good.

And the hunt is on... 4.23.11

Karen and Brett waiting for the go.
The boys had fun playing with their baskets {thanks again Karen for the loan...cannot believe I forgot his Easter basket on the day of the hunt?!?!?} while waiting for the hunt to begin.

The boys after the 2.3 seconds it took for thousands of eggs to be snatched up!

He found one! Woohoo!!!

Ya had to be fast for this hunt!!!!!

Once Logan got dressed and had breakfast, we headed out to meet Karen and the boys for a local Easter Egg Hunt. We thought we were doing a good job by being about 10 minutes early....ummm, apparently 1,000 people had the same idea. It was a great event, but wow for the amount of people and kids and dogs there. They had sectioned off a bunch of soccer fields into sections by age, so once we found the right spots for all the boys, we just had to wait for the whistle. The boys had a great time, but some of the parents were cracking me up. The detailed instructions they were giving their kids on how to get the most eggs was hilarious. Logan did great...he ran his little heart out and didn't fight over any eggs with other kids. It was so nice for the community to put this event on for the kids. Thanks to everyone who donated their time and energy and candy! :o) Life is good.

Easter Morning 4.23.11

Veggies and water for the Easter Bunny, tulips from the Tulip Festival (Logan's pick), and animals from Hallmark!
Logan's Easter Basket.

Ben 10 Ultramatrix...Logan's favorite show.

By the look on his face, can you tell it's early in the morning?

I love the look on Logan's face in this one...some of those eggs were really hard to get open.

Oh what an Easter we had this year. Last night Logan put out some yummy treats for the Easter Bunny. {I think this year especially Logan was into the Easter Bunny after seeing "Hop".} Then bright and early this morning he was up to see, not if he had a bunch of goodies, but instead his focus was on whether or not the Easter Bunny had eaten all of the veggies we had left out. I simply loved that that was his focus and not whether he got something. But, he is 5, and once he saw his Easter basket he was thrilled. Not only had the Easter Bunny left him some gifts in his basket, but he had also hidden eggs around the house. As you can see by the picture, Logan couldn't even take the time to get dressed {he's been choosing to only sleep in his undies these days} before he had to check everything out. It was a fantastic start to our day. Thank you Easter Bunny. Life is good.

The Tulip Festival 4.22.11

Now that's what I call face painting!
The boys were so good about posing for pictures for all of us. I love this one with the kites in the background.

Me and my guy.

Kim and Shaneo.

I really like this one of Grandma and Logan as well.

After an awesome morning at Kindergarten Roundup, Logan and I returned home for some lunch and a little rest, then it was off to the Tulip Festival to meet Grandma, Auntie Kim, and Shaneo. Talk about a perfect spring Friday! With all the rain we've been getting, I was nervous that our sweet little tulips were going to stay in hiding forever, but as you can see, they bloomed and they bloomed well!!! It was a little windy, but that just made for some great kite action. The tulips were beautiful as always and the fields weren't too crowded. I can't imagine ever getting tired of this lovely local affair. The colors are simply breathtaking. I am determined to plant some tulips this year in our flowerbeds. {However, I have said that for the past two years...} After we were done exploring the fields, Logan got his face painted and then we all headed out for a nice dinner together. It was fantastic! Life is good.

Kindergarten Roundup 4.22.11

Future "Cougars"
Logan at the coloring and cutting station.

Registration paperwork.

Logan getting asked some very interesting questions. :o)

Me and my soon to be kindergartener!

What a big day we had today! I was able to take this lovely Friday off to accompany my 5 year old little tyke to Kindergarten Roundup. Oh my gosh. Almost too much for this Momma. With Logan starting kindergarten in the fall, I really wanted to be able to continue to take him to Mari's for daycare, but to do that, Logan would be attending a school that we are technically out of district for. So back in March I filled out the appropriate waiver forms and now we're just holding our breath. Not only would I like him to attend this particular school because we could keep Mari, but also, I love the idea that it's a smaller school {the entire school only consists of grades k-8}, and seems to have such a tight-knit community feel for it. I think it would be a terrific fit for us. {I'll keep you posted on if we get in or not.} So assuming Logan gets in, we were invited to the kindergarten roundup. Our appointment was at 11 and without any planning on our part, it happened to be when Craig and Karen's appointment was as well. How's that for coincedence? The roundup itself went great! They took Logan's picture, got a copy of all his vacanations, and then he went to five different stations where we was asked to complete some specific tasks. All the while, I was filling out a mountain of paperwork! Logan did great and he even got to meet the gal who {if he gets in} will be his teacher! What an exciting step for my little guy. I'm so proud of you Logan and I know you're simply going to love kindergarten, whether it's at this school or another one. Life is good with an almost kindergartener!