After The Rain

Z's little boots make me laugh. They are a great size for his feet, but not for his legs, which makes walking a bit difficult for him!!
`~~~~~~~~~~
below, left: Z very interested in Daddy and the ladder. Middle and right: Z laughing at Daddy up on the ladder.

A different kind of Book Report

E had a book report project due this past Friday. The project to accompany his report was called, "Recycle a Scene." What this entailed was for the kids to pick out a favorite scene in their book, draw a picture, paste it into a shoebox lid and then use recylables (a.k.a. TRASH) to decorate it.

oh, joy...

So E chose the scene from James and The Giant Peach where the peach of enormous size has come away from the tree, rolled down the hill (after smushing Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker) and on its way down the hill, has crashed through THE chocolate factory (Willy Wonka's to be sure!) sending rivers of chocolate rushing out of the factory. The children (and even some of the adults) around the town, rush out and swim and play and drink in the chocolate. This chocolatey part was E's favorite part of the story (mine was where the horrible aunts were smushed flat!). So he drew the scene and we decorated it with what we could think of. Not the prettiest looking project, but interesting...

We put some chocolate syrup in a baggie and taped that behind his picture where the peach crashed through the walls. The peach itself is a lid off of a honey jar. I DID draw the peach on after E went to bed, traced over some of the kids he drew with a marker (otherwise, they looked like bugs!) and generally did everything that required the hot glue gun. Fortunately, that was not much...most of the stuff could go on with just regular glue or tape. :) I love his little characters riding inside the peach! Too fun!

Rearranging

When we moved here, Dana and I searched in many stores for bunk beds so the girls could have a fun place to sleep as well as have lots of space to move around in their room. The beds have stayed "bunked" for nearly 2 years, but MG has slowly grown adverse to her top bunk. Main reasons: (a) it is hard to make the bed, (b) it is very difficult to get in and out of it without waking up D-D, and (c) it is not very easy for mom and/or dad to get in some good snuggle time with her without waking up D-D when mom and/or dad get down. So, while Poppa Claus and G-G were here, we rearranged the room. Though there is definitely less space to swing the cat (good thing we don't have a cat!), I and the girls really like this set-up. And, since E still likes to sleep in the room with his sisters, he is glad there is still space for him to camp out (you will notice his sleeping bag, pillow, and bedtime companions residing under D-D's bed).

Learning

After Sunday morning service and class, we came home to eat at "Mom's Place." :o) Since it would still be a little bit before I had everything ready to eat, I was allowing the kids to get one SMALL snack. I cannot remember what MG and E chose, but it was not a huge snack (I think MG got some carrots). D-D decided she wanted some candy. All the candy that we have left from Halloween and Valentine's Day is Sweet-tarts. D-D dug through the candy bucket for a few minutes, pulled out one of the MANY tart packages and asked what it was. I told her and she said that she would rather have fruit chews.

After eating her chews she went for the tarts again and I told her, "No, D-D. Just one snack right now. You cannot have the candy, too."

It took several times of saying no and scolding her for whining before she finally gave up the fight for more snacks.

We had lunch. The kids played outside. They played with Dad. They watched a short show on TV. They watched me get dessert ready for group that night. Then, around 3 D-D comes to me as I am finishing the last of the dessert making and says, "May Oy have MOY sweet tahts now, please?"

"Certainly!" I say.

A huge sigh of relief and joy escapes from D-D and she says in her encouraging little voice, "NOW yore being noice! Good jobe, mwommy!"

mmmmmmmmmrrrrrrrrggg!!! No amount or simplicity of explaining could change her mind about how I treated her earlier ("woooohd-lee" in her opinion) .

So, I'm wondering...whose learning here? Me or her?

This is the face I made at her

when her back was turned.
ha, ha, ha!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Brother Love

STRIKE!!!!

E got to go to a birthday party the Sunday we left for Oregon. Poppa took him to the party, which was at a bowling alley, and E bowled for the first time. I was so sorry that we missed it, but am glad that he got to experience this with his Poppa Claus. Poppa remembered to bring his camera:

Spring is Bustin' Out All Over!!!

I know that the song, from the musical "Carousel" really says, "JUNE is bustin' out all over, all over the meadow and the hill...", but it is not June. It's still March! I thought you might need to know that! ha, ha.

Our azaleas are not in full bloom yet, but the roses and yellow jasmine are. It smells divine in our backyard.

the yellow jasmine

our peach tree

These roses are very small.
That finger is my pinkie!

We also have a lot of pollen falling from our pine trees. Our neighbor, washing a car left outside for 2 nights, had rivers of yellow running down his driveway. It actually looked like bright yellow paint had been spilled! So, though we are enjoying the scent of the jasmine and peach tree, the pollen is making us sneeze and sniffle and cough! Pine seems to be THE tree in our neighborhood. Even if we got rid of ours, we would still have tons of pollen from everyone else's. And, strangely, we also have some other little thing falling from our pine trees. The same thing happened last year and we wondered...it happened again this year! Little, tiny white/yellowish wormy things! Ew! We are wondering if they are some sort of bug larvae...and since we tend to get lots of ladybugs, we hope that these little creepy crawlers are related to them! This picture below shows Z and a little randchild to one of our neighbors jumping on the trampoline. You can see little white flecks under their feet---all are those little buggies!

A Night With Poppa Claus

MG and E went to a Teacher Appreciation Banquet with G-G while we were in Oregon. Poppa Claus was in charge of feeding and playing with D-D, Z, and their cousin A from Virginia. The next day we got this email from him about his time with three of his grandkids...and the dog:

G-G/Mimi took MG and E to church Tuesday evening for a teacher's dinner. All the tables were decorated differently. The food was delicious.

Papa stayed at home with A, D-D and Z. After playing outside in the dirt and mud D-D and Z required a wash job prior to changing their clothes so we could go out to eat at McDonald's. First Z ate apple sauce and crackers at home then I had to change his cloths again, not counting the apple sauce that I got on me, the chair and the floor.

Okay we are ready to go to McDonald. "Papa, I have to go to the bathroom" D-D said. Everyone back in the house.

Now we are ready and in the van taking our trip to the funny farm. "Papa," D-D said, "you are going the wrong way to McDonald's, Daddy doesn't go this way." Believe G-G must have told D-D to tell me how to drive.

Walked into McDonald's with Z in my arms with the diaper bag over my shoulder and D-D in one hand, A watching the rear for anything that I may drop. Got up to the counter to order and D-D said, "Papa I have to go to the bathroom."
GGRREEAATT.

Okay let's go to the bathroom. Got to the door and D-D said that she wanted to go into the women's, DON'T think so. In we go to the men's. Don't touch anything. Had Z stand, don't move and don't touch anything.

Covered the seat and held D-D's hands up in the air, during this whole time watching Z and saying don't move and don't touch anything maybe twenty times. Okay lets wash our hands.

Back at the counter we finally got to place our order. Onto the next obstacle: the tray full of food. A walked Z holding onto one hand with D-D close behind. Finally we are in the safe room/play room.

Everyone did a good job with their food. A asked for ice-cream so off we go to get everyone the good stuff.

After the ice-cream and cleaning up D-D and Z, now it is play time. "Papa" D-D said, "I have to potty"
GGRREEAATT.
Off we go.

Now back into the safe/play room. IT'S play time. They all had fun.

Okay it's back in the van and on the way home. G-G calls my cell phone and says "where are you?" They got back from church and the house was locked. She got in by the back door.

Finally walking into the garage and E opens the door and out comes Abby the dog on the loose.

Another great day with the grandchildren

Poppa

Trip

Dana and I went on a trip over his spring break. Well, he had to work, but I got to tour the city!

His parents came to watch the kids while we were gone. G-G and Poppa Claus are much more fun---they give you ice cream before you go to bed!!

We went to Portland, Oregon. Beautiful place and mostly wonderful people. There was free public transportation that ran from our hotel into the downtown part of the city. I think that one of my favorite spots to visit was a book store. It is one of the largest New and Used Bookstores in the U.S. It covered an entire city block, was three stories tall and held almost everything. Just down the street from this bookstore, there was another one that hosted only technical books. Same name, different genre. The one at the different location covered about half a block, but I am not sure how many stories held books as I am not interested in "technical" books and did not feel the pull to peek in and shop. It was great fun to wander around. I never dreamed there were SOOOOOOO many books in the world and was quite giddy at the prospect of finding something for a good price----

----I found several somethings!

And then I went looking for two particular authors...and they had no books in stock with either name!!! Can you believe in a store that covers so much space, there were at least two books not in there?!!!? I don't know why, but this is a hoot to me!!

We also went to a great chocolatier for some hot cocoa (I tried--for the first time--Mexican Hot Chocolate...ummm...I can only say, "yyyyyyhhHUM!!!!!"), got to eat a really great freshly made bagel in a darling bagel shoppe and then we went to see one of God's wonders of nature.


After spending a little more time with our friend (we knew them when we were newly married...were in a Home Bible study group together and they moved up here; a blessing to see them!)and their children, Dana and I went and hung out at a mall. As neither one of us really enjoys shopping, we found something a little different to occupy our time:
What a funny time. Our ankles are still sore!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We thought that we could skate for about an hour or more and then we would go get something to eat.

An hour or more!!!!! aaaaah-ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!

We skated for about 30 minutes, our ankles crying after the first two extremely wobbly, hand-holding-the-rail trips; ankles sobbing during the next rounds about the rink; and ankles screaming loudly enough to drown out the music near then end of our ice-capades. We took several breaks but could not last long at all!



Dana tried to make it look like it was me who caused the last scene of this film. It wasn't though!!!! REALLY!!!! :o)

Falling for Oregon

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahck!!! Faaaaaaalllllliiiiing!!!!

Monday, March 16, 2009. Multnomah Falls, Oregon:



Above left: standing in Oregon, looking past the Columbia River at a storm rolling over the mountains in Washington! Breathtaking!!! "The Mountain peaks belong to Him. The sea is His, He made it! And His hands formed the dry land."

"Multnomah Falls is the second-tallest year-round waterfall in the nation. The water of the Falls drops 620 feet from its origin on Larch Mountain. Unusually cold weather can freeze the plummeting water into a majestic icicle." (this paragraph copied from a website)

St. Patrick's Day

We went downtown to try to find what to eat this evening, knowing we should probably stay away from Irish eateries. :) One our trolley ride to downtown Portland a man and his dog got on the car. This man was wearing a skirt!!! :) A kilt, really. :) He was all decked literally from head to toe! It was a beautiful site, but...do the Scots celebrate St Patty's day, too? Apparently so, because...



We walked around quite a bit, got turned around like you wouldn't believe, and laughed when others around us said the same thing we were feeling. We heard one lady tell her friend, "I know we left the store we just went in, but now I have no idea WHERE I am!!!" During our walk we saw some interesting statuary and some great advertisement for a restaurant, as well as some really spectacular architecture:
Above: a cool looking elephant in the middle of a pedestrian park. I am not sure of the significance of it. I imagine it was just something a commissioned artist did for the city. Far right, a beautiful church's building across the street from the Portland Art Museum.

Below: left-- great advertising, and a little scary. We did not walk down that street. It creeped me out a little! :) Middle: an American Indian symbol on this building...at least it looks like that great bird spirit! And the last one is just a pretty building. Kinda gives you a feel for the way the city is built and the care they take of their streets and little pedestrian parks.
You will see my favorite statue in another post. And some interesting people we met that night at that statue.

This next photo is of a chocolate shop. It is not anything special in and of itself...at least not to our knowledge: we did not try any of its chocolates (the store was closed), but we loved the name. It reminded us to send a prayer up for some friends of ours whose little boy is named the same as this shop. A little guy born at 25 weeks and working hard to survive. The name means "lion-like." Please pray for this little guy, too!

Favorite Statue

This was one of my favorites. We were walking around trying to work up an appetite for supper...and to see what else we could see. We stopped here to look at our map and saw this statue. But...wait a minute! Is that REALLY a statue?!!? Oh, how cool!!!!!

On closer inspection..........

......it WAS really a statue but cleverly done to look like one of those people who paint themselves and strike a pose! I touched his arm and it was very solid...metallic solid, not muscle solid! And if you look closely, his tongue and teeth are the same color as his face as well as his eyes and the whites of his eyes.

Yep!!!! Definitely a statue and not a man.

Phooey!!!

But we were not the only ones fooled! These people in the photo below wanted a picture with this statue, too. I think that at least three of them knew it was all metal, but the one who was quite inebriated, if he remembers anything, probably still thinks it was a walking, breathing, very talented man!