Strawberries

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far, away....before children, I thought that when I became a stay at home Mom I would have lots of extra time to make jam and plant a huge garden....because babies sleep a lot, right? Well I now know how completely exhausting (fussy baby Thomas would cry inconsolably from 10:00 pm - 2:00 am ) caring for an infant can be!
At long last I was able to find that "extra time" and made 12 pint jars of strawberry jam this past weekend. And because of the abundance of strawberries we had strawberry shortcake (yep just strawberry shortcake) for lunch on Sunday. This was a HUGE hit, and I think it would be a fun tradition to have shortcake for lunch at least once during the summer.

Evergreen State College

One, Two, Three, Seven...hmmm.... We have concluded that if Kelsey's counting skill's don't improve not all is lost, she can always get an economics degree from Ever-gangrene, I mean Evergreen State College :)

First Bike

 
Zachary received his first bike this week, he was so excited to have a "big boy" bike just like Thomas. Our original plan was give Zac a bike for his fourth birthday (which is what we did for Thomas), but since Zac's birthday is Oct. 27th, right in the middle of rainy season we decided to give it to him now so he could get some riding time on it. Plus Zac is about 98% potty trained and we definitely wanted to reward that accomplishment! The next day after he got the bike Zac woke up at 5 A.M. wanting to go outside and ride his bike, Jerry told him it was a bit early and to go back to bed :)

A Fun Day At The Beach

 
Last Saturday we took a road trip to Grayland, WA and spent the day at the beach. Minus the overcast sky (but we were in Grayland so what else could you expect?) we had perfect weather, 65 degrees and hardly any wind at all. We had a great time roasting hot dogs, playing in the sand, and wading in the cold water. There was a minor incident of Zachary getting sand in his eyes, but he recovered quickly, chocolate chip cookies have AMAZING healing abilities. Kelsey also ate far more sand than Thomas or Zachary's mother would have ever allowed, check out her sand goatee in the picture of her next to Jerry. We are hoping to visit Grayland again soon, and stay longer, there are some cute little vacation cottages for rent near the beach that I want to check out :)

Last day of Kindergarten

 
Yesterday was Thomas' last day of Kindergarten. Where did the time go? What happened to the two year old who would only say seven words? (those seven words were, ma-ma, da-da, kitty, ice, yeah, oh boy!, & no) I just had to smile when Thomas got into trouble at school for talking too much! Yes, I addressed the talking issue, but I still had to smile! The last day of Kindergarten was celebrated in grand style with the Kindergarten Olympics. Thomas received a gold in the hoop shoot, 10 yard dash,& long jump, silver in the obstacle course, & bean bag toss, and bronze in the nail pounding. Wise Mrs. Wilson (Thomas' teacher) had the kids divided up into groups of three or four all according to their ability so the kids were all fairly evenly matched. Overall Thomas received a silver for the long jump when the distances of all his classmates were compared. Great Job Thomas! :)

While mom is away......

 
While I was refereeing a sword fight between two pirates, Kelsey helped herself to the cookies that I had cooling on the kitchen counter. The boys NEVER did this! At Kelsey's age, 17 months, Thomas would have stood next to the counter pointing at the cookies saying, "Oh boy!" while furiously signing "please". Zachary would have stood next to the counter pointing at the cookies saying, "cook plee, cook plee". Kelsey? She just pushes a chair up to the counter and helps her self!

The Beach

 
Last weekend Kelsey and I took advantage of the fact that the boy's went camping and had a "girls weekend" on the Oregon coast with my Mom and Grandma. The last time Kelsey was at the beach she was only 6 months old, so she really took no notice of where she was. THIS time however, Kelsey ran and played in the sand and tentatively put her feet in the water. Kelsey did NOT like the water AT ALL, not only was the water cold, but it was really disconcerting to her that the water "moved" and would come up behind her. Poor little girl. She was much happier playing in the dry sand away from the water. On a side note, only in Oregon would you find 20 something year old guys hanging outside a organic free trade coffee shop listening to odd music from India next to a Prius. I guess I'm weird, I found it quite funny :)

Camping

 
Last weekend Jerry, Thomas, Zac & our friend Ryan went camping with a group of guys from our church. They had a lot of fun and even found enough snow to do some sledding :) Zac especially loved the trip, and is already asking when he can go camping again.