Ready... Set... Tackle

Tackle football with the big kids at the beach.


Bless those 6th grade boys for letting Gray tackle them every time (and I mean every time).


A football has been added to Gray's birthday list.

Camp Westwind

Camp Westwind was a great weekend with 150 friends. Some old and many new.

campfire, kitchen duty, cabin sleeping with others, mud mucking, hours and hours in the sand, pirate cave, beach volleyball, good food, Apples to Apples, continually looking for Gray, sandcastles, tide pooling, and walks on the beach


Noah and Gray on their way to the beach.


Visiting the seals with Bryn and Ivy.


Sandcastle Contest. The beach fairies were very happy.


5 minutes after leaving camp.

No pictures of Hunter? He was way to busy with his friends having a great time.

April Showers, May Flowers

This year it's March, April and May showers bring late May flowers. I'm not a huge fan of blog posts that feature flower photos but this past week I think I've gained an appreciation for why they post those pictures. You can't help it. The flowers are so inspiring this time of year and you feel like to have to share that feeling with others. So here are my flowers from this week...

Wisteria outside my kitchen window.


A small snapshot of the 25ft tall rose bush that resides in my backyard. I'm not sure how old this rose bush is but you know it's got history.


Bryn, Hunter, Gray and all the neighborhood kids had a flower store operating from our front porch for about a week. I think they made about $5.00 each. I spent a lot buying flowers from my own yard. They had a great time but abandoned the operation when they found out how much money there was in snow cones.

Speaking of flowers my house is so full of them tonight. Today was my birthday and I received the most gorgeous lilacs, birds of paradise, and a beautiful assortment of flowers from family and friends. My living room and dining room smell so fragrant right now. It was a great day filled with friends, family and good food all day long. We ate dinner at Screen Door and I am in love. Kid friendly, great food, good drinks, perfect chocolate cake and the best customer service I've ever had. Hands down a perfect place with kids or without. If you're in Portland I highly recommend it. Thanks Melissa and Colleen for the recommendation.

More thoughts on loving my early (or early mid) 30s soon.

Happy Birthday to all those I know who celebrated today.
Jeannette
Becki
Dustin
Chris
Slade
Sage
Mafalda's brother
The guy at Screen Door with his family
Mr. T

Sunny day, sweeping the clouds away.

Here in Portland I feel like we had about 5 hours of Spring this year. I'm serious. It was from about 7:00am to noon last Thursday morning. Then a light switch was turned on and summer is here. It was the coldest spring ever (really it was just one looooooong winter) and now we're reaching record high May temperatures. Did someone say "Global Warming?"

While Sean is tired and withering away in this heat I am inspired and energized. So inspired that I've joined the Gift of Green Clothesline Challenge.

I signed up for the intermediate level. While I don't mind a crunchy towel now and then I think my family might. Plus, I'm not really willing to commit to the clothesline full time when I'm in severe distrust of the weather this year.

I just found this photo of me as a kid and was so surprised because I see something from all 3 of my own children in my face.

I've been thinking that life is same ol' same ol' lately. Then I wrote a family update for my mom's family blog and realized how fun life is right now even if I've been feeling like I'm running from one day to the next.

Sean:
*Has a new business partner and is very excited.
*Running almost every day.

Hunter:
*Collecting aluminum foil. Wants to hold the world record for aluminum foil ball. Which is currently 1600 lbs.
*Reading Spiderwick Chronicles and Diary of a Wimpy Kid over and over.
*Enjoying Boy Scouts.
*Playing the Catina song from the original Star Wars movie for his piano recital piece on May 17th.
*Taught himself how to make hand squeezed homemade lemonade and limeade. His family is enjoying it. Especially frozen into popsicles.

Bryn:
*At Tap dance class during free dance time her favorite move is the Bryn created Zombie swizzle.
*Has not decided on a piano recital piece yet.
*Enjoying a boxful of hand me down jewelry. A necklace she wore to school was taken by the teacher because it became a distraction in the class. Luckily, she got it back.
*Preparing to teach her friend Zoe and Meegan proper Hamster care.

Gray:
*Tree climbing.
*Still climbing into mom and dad's bed in the middle of the night.
*Will play Hot Cross Buns at the piano recital.
*Loving baseball season.

Sarah:
*After running a marathon last October I've barely run a mile since until last Saturday.
*Hoping to get back into the running grove.
*Managing it all.
*Having a great time getting to know Mako. A teacher from Japan.
*Hoping for a wonderful MOTHER'S DAY!!!!!

MAKO

Our new house guest arrived last week and yes we already have her packing a gun. Actually, just laser tag at UltraZone. What a great introduction into American family life. It's been so great to get to know her over the past week and we can't wait to show her more of Portland and Oregon.

You can follow Mako's adventures in the United States on her new blog.