Dash Point Beach

June 25, 2008

The Young Women of our ward had an activity at Dash Point Beach in Federal Way today. BreAnna, Spencer and Josh were able to come along with us for a picnic lunch and a beach excursion. They all had a great time! Last year we took the kids there as a family but the tide was in way too high, there wasn't much beach front left. Today, the tide was way out and the water was actually quite warm and shallow to wade in so it was perfect as was the sunny weather, YES! We ran into a huge reef area just packed with sand dollars, you couldn't even step without stepping on them. The kids brought a ton of them home in their buckets, we plan on drying them out completely then bleaching them.

I took a ton of pictures of the boys that turned out fun so I put them into a few collages. The boys just love to dig in the sand! Matt is in the process of designing a sand box to build for them. I tried to convince him that the green-turtle sand box that we saw at Walmart that came w/ a lid would do and be just fine but he thinks they need a bigger one. I think a bigger one would be an open invitation as a litter box for all of the neighborhood cats, ugh! Matt said he'd design a top to cover it to fix that problem, we'll see.

After we came home from the beach and picked Jarom up from the church where he had been dropped off after Cub Scout Camp, BreAnna had a Activity Day Girls recognition evening and afterwards the kids hit the neighbors slip & slide. Jarom had a baseball game tonight at 7:30pm that Matt took him to, I knew that since Josh had missed his nap this afternoon that he'd be a pill sitting through the game so we opted to stay home. Ellie has been gone all day, she spent the night at grandma & grandpa Jacksons house last night and went to her cousin Bailees b-day party this afternoon. It was cute, I just over heard Spencer talking to BreAnna from downstairs and he asked her if she missed Ellie and he goes, because I do. Then Bre came up and said that Spencer was almost in tears as he told her that he missed his sister. Ellie and Spencer really do play well together and I thought it was touching to hear him acknowledge that he missed her being around.

Summer Scoop...So Far

June 23rd, 2008

Jaroms Cub Scouts were off to camp this morning, it goes Monday-Friday so we are keeping the fingers crossed for nice weather this week since the camp is outside.

Jarom & Layton one of his best buds getting ready to head out.

The kids LOVE WATERMELON, especially Ellie & Spencer.

Good job dancing girls, it was a fun recital night!

Cheese!

Last Monday was so nice, the kids were outside literally all day & night long. Too sad for Spencer, his skin must be ultra sensitive being a blondie? I put sun block on him but he still got sun burned pretty bad and today being a week later he still looks pretty red just peely now! Since then, I've learned to leave his shirt on and re-apply the sun block numerous times through out the day.
Jarom hitting a double-header, way to go!

On 2nd base.


Enjoying some Basket & Robinsons (as the kids call it) after a Friday night game.

The air conditioning was cranked up too high inside so the kids took their icecream cones outside to eat on the curb.

BreAnna had her friend Kaylie spend the night for Kaylies b-day the other night. The kids Summer break is off to a fun filled start! My personal free time is slim to none but I'll get used to it, I don't exactly have a choice in the matter now do I? The slight problem I'm now facing is that not only do I have my own five children throughout the whole day but a neighborhood of kids joining them to keep happy. Maybe we'll have to resort to the one friend per kid at a time rule. For FHE last week we made a chore and morning routine chart for the kids to pull their weight around the house and to keep them on top of reading & math for the summer, it goes into effect this morning...being Monday & the first full week that they are out of school. They are actually all quite excited about the chart at this early stage, I hope it lasts. They do get to put a sticker on each day with rewards through out to aid in the process, so we'll see. We'll keep the reading and math fun as well not to make it seem boring. We decided that after lunch they will be able to play with friends after the morning routine. Hopefully this will keep their rooms cleaner along with my Monday cleaning day a lighter load. There's nothing wrong with a little summer structure in my eyes!

DADS...

Happy Fathers Day Dear!

Saturday June 14, 2008

Matt absolutely LOVES LOVES and LOVES Branks BBQ, lucky for us it's just a hop-skip-and a jump from our house. We get take-out because it's that much easier for us with the kids. If you get a meal it comes complete with home-town cooking cornbread, baked beans, baked potato/french fries or potato salad, cole-slaw or green salad, and dirt (a yummy custardy pudding for dessert.) Their St. Louis style & baby back ribs and chicken just melt in your mouth and here's the kicker Matt didn't even like BBQ sauce before he tasted theirs! I'm their unofficial spokes-person. So here he is our "DAD of THE YEAR" as he is so enjoying those ribs. Mmmmm.....The Best! We got ribs tonight since we will be spending tomorrows night dinner with his dad and family for Fathers Day.As Matt was thrilled that I was taking a picture of him covered in BBQ sauce, this really cute yellow birdie landed on the fence outside of the window so I snapped a picture of him as well. He wasn't a very timid bird, he stayed on the fence as the kids all gathered around the window trying to get a glimpse, kinda made us wonder if maybe he was somebodys pet that had escaped?!

Sumner Swimming Pool, The kids went to a B-day party at the pool today for their neighbor friend Nathan Thomas. They had a great time and BreAnna even built up enough courage to jump off the diving board, way to go Bre!
After swimming, they sure worked up an appetite for cupcake cones! It was nice as the older kids swam, Matt and I took the younger two boys Spencer & Josh to get some groceries next store at Fred Meyer. It had been awhile since Matt had done grocery shopping w/ me, and boy was it so much easier with another set of helping hands!

THE SIX YEAR OLD B-DAY GIRL

Happy 6th Birthday Miss Ellie!

June 12, 2008 This year we had Ellies 6th b-day party on her actual birthday. The party was after school w/ pizza, games & cupcakes & icecream at our place. And happy enough, the Seattle rain was no where in sight, so it was perfect!

Ellie was SO EXCITED for her party, she came and got in bed with me right after Matt had left for work around 6:00am (she usually gets up for school at 8:00 am) saying that she couldn't sleep because she was just to0 anxious for her party! We sent cookies to school with her to share with her class for her special day, we were a tad bit concerned about them making it to school in one piece in her back pack! But this way, it gave me a chance to get the party ready & decorate the house while she was at school instead of bringing cupcakes to her class like we usually do for the kids b-days.

B-day party fun! Ellie blowing out her six candles & Ava having a turn pinning the beak on the flamingo.

PIZZA TIME.

The boys. Spencer helped out before the party by pumping the "Flamingo Eggs" with air for a game.

Decorating their Habiscus flowers.

Presents, presents, presents!

Thanks for all of the fun presents everyone! Ellie had a great party and loves all of her friends & family, she was happy they could all share her special day with her! We sure love our Ellie, what would we do without her and all of her energy?!

There were 27 KIDS in attendance to Ellies party this year. (This pic was snapped before all of the kids had arrived.) Ellie had invited 18 friends, then you throw in our kids & brothers, sisters and even a niece of a friend who tagged along and there you have it! We were actually quite surprised after we counted when everyone had left, we knew it was quite a few but the party went really well for having so many kids in the home! Left to right: Mary-Ellen, Ellie, Hannah, Emma, BreAnna, Shelby, Bailee Tuck, Mariah, Bailey McNall, Ava, Hailey, Jade, Madison McNall, Solice, McKenzie. Not pictured: Kiaya, Allison, Sierra, Amelia, Madison (Amelias niece), Emily, Jarom, Hunter, Spencer, Naomi, Noelle & Gracie. TALK ABOUT A HOUSE FULL OF KIDS! Thank goodness my sister Jeana and neighbor Linda helped out, not sure what we wouldv'e done w/ o the help!

RE-LIVING HIS YOUTH

SIXTEEN ALL OVER AGAIN?!

June 10, 2008

Today Matt took and passed his driving test, no not the written test (he took that a few weeks back and passed it w/ 100% w/o even reviewing the handbook.) Why was it necessary for him to take these driving tests a few may ask? Well, it all started a few days after his birthday in May as we were just pulling out of the Sumner Church building parking lot after a Scout Pack Meeting, all of us were taking a look at a lady who had been pulled over by a cop on the side of the road. We were headed to McDonalds for icecream which is just a few doors down from the church on the same street when those sneaky Sumner Police were standing on the intersection checking for seatbelt wearers or actually non-seatbelt wearers on the corner of Valley & Main, then they would walkie-talkie to the officers who were on each side of the street to pull the cars over. Matt got caught red-handed not wearing her seatbelt. He ended up with a $124.00 ticket (lesson learned on Matts part) and we ended up with no icecream. Matt had to meet one of Scouts up at our house to go over his Eagle project so after waiting for the officer to fill out the ticket we had no time left to go through the drive-thru for icecream. As if that wasn't enough, the officer was like and by the way your license expired a few days ago. (Which Matt had no clue.) This was his Idaho Drivers License, yeh' we know we lived in Idaho years ago. He's just a busy guy & in his defense, he had tried to get a Wa drivers license on two separate occasions, on a Sat. & Mon. both in which the DOL was closed & I guess it just wasn't a priority or something that he thought about on a daily basis since it was still valid. So, the next day he goes down to get himself a new license and is informed that he will need to take both the written and actual driving test over before they can issue him a new valid Wa drivers license since his license had expired and was from Idaho. If it was a Wa state drivers license it wouldn't have been necessary. I believe he said he got a 88% on the driving test, (he didn't signal when parallel parking, went too slow in a residential area...with five kids is there such a thing as going too slow in a residential area? Guess he was going 20 vs. 25, and he didn't stop twice when backing around a corner.) So lucky Matt, today he got to feel like he was sixteen years old all over again!

Jaroms New Friends

AN AUSTRALIAN LOBSTER

June 8, 2008So a family trip to Walmart isn't complete w/o taking a look at the fish, the kids love them! Last night as we were admiring the fish, the kids found a new friend Mr. Australian Lobster. The fact that it's blue (Jaroms favorite color) only added to the coolness. Any time we get a new fish to add to our existing fish tank, it either has problems w/ the other fish or dies so I'm never thrilled about getting any new fish friends. This little blue lobster was no exception, despite that the fact that the fish-guy at Walmart assured us that there would be no problem! (We should have known better, he was just a kid.) With in only a few minutes of being in the tank, he had a confrontation with the dragon fish & then he tried to attach our little African froggie, he had the frogs leg in his pinchers and the frog was going crazy ALONG WITH THE KIDS! Matt quickly got the lobster out of the tank and he now is in a little glass jar in Jaroms room. We'll need to get him a few things to make his house feel like a home tomorrow.

TECH DECKS

These little Tech Deck skate boards are Jaroms latest craze, see... we said he gets on these little kicks and it's all about them for awhile. He always carries it either in his pocket or shoes, the boys play with them at recess at school. When you get them, they come w/ different little wheels and tiny screw drivers to change them out.
He built these skate board ramps with his dad this weekend for his tech decks, it was nice because after the fact he was also able to mark off a requirement in his Cub Scout Bear handbook.

It's A Party Thing!

June is the PARTY MONTH!

June 7, 2008June is such a fun-filled month & it has got to be the ultimate busiest month as far as family parties & birthdays go around here! Just in our family alone (meaning Matt and I and our parents, siblings & spouses and their children) let's see there is eight birthdays, then there is fathers day, a couple anniversaries, then you throw in all of the exciting end of the school year festivities & parties and then the kids friends b-day parties...it's just PARTIES all around! Ellie and BreAnna went to their friends (Makenzie and Braylees Luau b-day party this afternoon, they are sisters in our ward.) They had a lot of fun. Then the funniest thing as I sit here blogging about parties Jarom ran up to tell me that he just got invited to Nathan (a neighbor friends b-day party) he's excited because I guess they rented out the Sumner Pool...too much fun, it's great!
Last night was Dress-Rehearsal for the girls dance recital in a few weeks.
Then we headed to the twin cousins Naomi & Noelles 4th birthday party, they're growing up too fast!
Happy Birthday Girls, we love you! With all of this colder weather, it inspired me to boil a bird today (meaning a chicken) we made some home-made chicken noodle soup that's simmering on the stove for dinner. I think after dinner, we'll make a family trip to Walmart. We got a phone call from Jaroms baseball coach saying BB practice starts Monday, he needs a new mitt & baseball pants (unfortunately he's grown out of the old ones) luckily we're still good on the cleats, thank goodness they still fit! That's one nice thing about having a good sized family with baseball and soccer gear in that it's perfect to pass on to the younger ones when it's their turn, you feel like you get your moneys worth a bit more that way! With the colder weather & no sunshine it was nice not to even break a sweat mowing the lawn today but I do hope that the rain holds out and the sun comes next week as baseball practice starts, we'll see!

Rain, rain go AWAY...Come again another day!

June 6, 2008

Ellies field trip to a local Sumner Park turned out to be rained-out today. They left the school on foot around 10am (they walked there) and a few minutes later it started to rain. I was planning on meeting her class there w/ the boys since it was a day at the park which I thought the boys would enjoy also. Ellie was so excited that her little brothers would be able to join her for lunch. Shortly after arriving at the park, they decided to pack up and head back to the school, it was just too wet, cold and miserable for the little kindergartners. So sad! They did have a plan-B and after a snack back in their class room they got to go watch a movie in the gym on the big screen-projector. We left at this point since Josh won't sit down quiet for more than two seconds. After the movie, "Rattitoui" they still got to have a school-provided picnic just inside vs. outside. What can we expect from the great Northwest but rain?!
Mom and the boys made a trip to the grocery store afterwards. Now, is it just me or does anyone else have a love/hate relationship with these big car or bus shopping carts? The kids love them and beg to use them at every single grocery store visit but they are just so hard to steer and maneuver!
Ellie & her hands on creativity strikes again!
Nice spikey mohawk.And creativity strikes again with these comfy lounge chairs that she made for her and the boys...notice the horses and intertoob she used, she really amazes me with the things she comes up with...pretty much on a daily basis.