Big 'ol update from spring and early summer 2011

Sorry for the insanely long post, but I figured I needed a big huge update to somewhat make up for my lack of blogging the past few months.

Crazy Dress-Up Days
This year Drew and Sam went all out in their outfits for their school's crazy dress-up days.


Here are Drew and Sam on "crazy appearance day"


This is Sam on "Favorite Character" day. She was Fancy Nancy. If you've ever scene the "Fancy Nancy" series of books, you'll recognize that she absolutely nailed this one.


Drew on "Favorite Character" day. Not hard to realize that his favorite character is a soldier just back from deployment to Afghanistan


Drew and Sam together on "Favorite Character" day

Easter 2011
This year's Easter celebration was one for the memory books. First, our church held one massive service at Qwest Field in Seattle with thousands of people attending. It was an amazing service, even when it started to rain a bit. Second, our son Drew decided that he wanted to be baptized at this service and John was able to baptize him at the Easter service. After the service we had dozens of friends come over for a big meal and Easter Egg hunt.


The set up for our church's Easter service


Drew at the Easter service

Drew preparing to be baptized


An amazing moment


The big 'ol Easter egg hunt


Family picture on Easter


It was great to have Grammy and Grandpa (John's parents) in town to help celebrate Easter

Tee Ball and Sounders FC


Our little tee ball player


"Swing, batta, batta, batta..."


There are few things in life more adorable than watching little kids play tee ball!


Missi and our friend Jessica at the Sounders game


At the Sounders game

Sam's Seventh Birthday Party!
We had a great time celebrating our little lady's seventh birthday. There were about 12 of her friends who came over for a makeover themed party and sleepover.


Sam and one of Drew's friends who came to assist with the party doing an at-home manicure


The birthday girl getting her nails done. (notice how her hair has been crimped as part of the "makeover")


Dance party to Hannah Montana!


Massive pillow fight!


I loved the irony in the fact that the girls had a "makeover" themed birthday and then promptly went out into the dirt and worked on building a fort.


I can't tell if "Pillow Pets" are popular among 6 and 7 year old girls

End of School Year and Visit from Alaskan Cousins


Hazelwood Elementary Class of 2011!


Drew and his great teacher at the graduation ceremony


We LOVED having the Alaskan cousins in Seattle for a short visit. So fun to catch up with them!


Sam and her wonderful first-grade teacher.


It was incredible to have this guy be Drew's teacher for the past two years. He'll be missed! Notice Drew rocking the end-of-schoolyear mohawk

Bracing My Back and Girding My Loins

I need to mentally and physically prepare myself for about 12 fifth grade boys and girls coming over to the house for Drew's 11th birthday party this afternoon. You read that right - DREW IS TURNING ELEVEN. I had to write it in CAPS just to see if it is any easier for me to digest. Nope. I really can't believe that we have an 11 year old son.

But stepping away from my stage of denial, I'm proud of Drew for the party he has planned. He has invited both girls and boys to the party, and we are going to start things off by going on a hike in a greenspace near our house. Then the group will be divided into 3 or 4 teams and will have to embark on a scavenger hunt. Here are the list of items the teams need to "scavenge":

1. Something orange
2. A coin that was issued on the year Drew was born
3. A piece of string longer than 12 inches
4. A napkin with a McDonald’s logo on it.
5. Something with a Starbucks logo on it.
6. Something written in a language other than English
7. A battery
8. Something that you would get in a hotel bathroom (travel size shampoo, conditioner, soap, lotion, etc…)
9. An airsoft BB
10. 5 business cards (from different people – not 5 of the same card)
11. One lime
12. Something with the ‘Y’ logo on it (from the YMCA)
13. A balloon
14. A to-go menu
15. A starlight mint (the kind you can get from some restaurants – the red and white mints)
16. Something with a logo of a bank
17. A piece of Bazooka gum (hint: Sweet D’s)
18. A button
19. A Lego piece
20. 20 toothpicks

After that, it will be back to the house for some time playing the Kinect (Drew doesn't know it yet but he is getting an Xbox and a Kinect for his birthday - shhhhhh!), home made ice cream sandwiches (Drew isn't a fan of cake so he and Missi made the cookies and we added in his favorite type of ice cream - coffee - in the middle), and presents. But the fun doesn't stop there: about 6 of the boys will be spending the night and the boys have an airsoft battle planned for tomorrow.

Wish us luck! And I'm sure there will be pictures to follow!

Samantha's Sixth Birthday Party

This post is a bit belated, but I wanted to share some photos from Samantha's birthday party. But first, a short aside...

If I were to ask you what type of "theme" most six-year-old girls would want for their birthday party, how would you answer? Probably you would say that most little girls would like to have a princess themed party, or perhaps a tea party, or maybe ballerinas?

Well, what about if that six-year-old girl has a ten-year-old brother who loves exploring in the forest? Well, in that case, perhaps the little girl would like to have a "forest" themed birthday.

And that's exactly what Samantha asked for. She wanted to have a "forest" party. So that's what we tried to give her - we hauled tables and chairs down into the forest, built a fort with all of her friends, and all of her guests painted a "plate" that was made out of a round of cedar log that I cut for them. It was a really great time!

Here are some photos:


Here is the forest party set-up. We have a huge forest area near our house and we set up a few tables and chairs in a meadow. You can see the "plates" that the kids painted. The "plates" were in fact slabs of cedar that I had cut with a chainsaw off a log and then sanded down and coated with polyurethane.


Here comes Sam running down to the forest with her friends in tow. Look at that look of sheer joy and excitement on Sam's face.


Here's the birthday girl.


Our beautiful six-year-old girl.


We were so fortunate to have our great friends John and Kirsti come to the party. They were up in Seattle from Portland and it was great to have them.


Sam painting her log plate.


Sam and her friends painting their log plates. It turned out to be a really fun activity.


Blowing out the candles


Make a wish and blow!


"Mmm....that tastes good!"

Memorial Day Weekend Recap

What a weekend! We left Seattle late Friday evening and headed south to Portland. After crashing at my parents house in Tigard, we had a very full day lined up on Saturday and Sunday. Missi had to work on Saturday but the kids and I got to head out to my grandfather's house in Scholls (after we had breakfast at Davidson's Restaurant - where I worked as a server and busboy 12 years ago!). After working in the garden at the farm, playing a game of Wiffle Ball, taking a tractor ride, and getting some lunch at the quaint "South Store," we headed off to swim at Tualatin Country Club. One of the biggest factors to making this an amazing weekend was the consistent 72 deg temperature and blue skies. The swimming was part of the birthday party for Missi's younger sister, Ella, who was celebrating her ninth birthday. After the kids had a BLAST swimming for a few hours, it was off to Maggie (my MiL) and Fred's house for a BBQ. Sunday was spent going to church at our old church, having a picnic with some of our closest friends, and then to Missi's grandfather's house for his birthday party. After a few hours with the "Hillier" side of the family we bundled the kids back into the car and headed north. What a whirlwind!






















And that was only Saturday and Sunday!!! Today we had a lazy breakfast, went for a bike ride around Mercer Slough, swimming with friends, dinner on the back deck, capped off by a great game of croquet with neighbors. To sum up this weekend, I pass along a thought that passed through my mind tonight: "This weekend was so great it almost seemed like it was out of a made-for-TV movie!"

Our beautiful five year old little lady

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