Sandcastle Contest

Sometimes I have really great ideas.  Frequently, actually.  If only they played out in real life the same way they do in my head...So I wanted to take the kids to the sandcastle contest this year.  They had a little class at the library that day as well so we couldn't head out until about 12:30.  Traffic turned out to be terrible!  What is normally a 1.25 hour drive took us 3-3.5 hours!  Of course, all those hours sitting in traffic just served to confirm my opinion that this was, in fact, an awesome event to attend (otherwise why would so many other cars be on the road?) and so Jerel & the kids weren't cranky at all.  Oh wait, that was how it played out in my head....in real life there may have been a little bit (and by little I mean lot) of complaining.  Anyway, we finally made it there and had a solid 30 minutes to run past all the castles before the police starting clearing everyone off the beach.  But there were some cool ones.  Isaiah really liked this one from the Lego movie.  I'm not sure which guy it is.  I thought it was Dumbledore, so you probably shouldn't go by what I say.

Here's Isaiah in front of the other Lego guy.  I thought it was Emmett, because that's the only character from that movie I've heard of.  But apparently it's the bad guy, Mr. Business or something like that.  Zay really liked the Lego ones.

 

What on earth is this guy doing?  There are cars driving everyone and he's just getting a tan?

And a picture of our car.  Turns out the sandcastle contest day is the only day cars are allowed to drive onto the beach for parking (although there are other beaches nearby that you can drive onto every day).  I love seeing old family pictures and making fun of the cars in the background, so here's to you, Future Isaiah & Eliza, mock on!

Summer happenings

 Here's Isaiah at the library, getting started on Summer Reading.  I signed both kids up, and this year I also got around to getting a Multnomah county library card so I signed them up for that Summer Reading program as well.  I figured as long as I don't count the same book for both programs it's not cheating.  They actually both already finished the Multnomah reading program.  They went to get the first little prize and were excited that cars were one of the option.  When I told them that the guy said the toys go quickly, they were super motivated to complete the rest of the chart so that they could get more cars for their next prizes before they ran out.  And so they read lots of books and ended up with 3 cars plus a t-shirt each.  Not a bad deal.  Eliza, by the way, has started making progress on reading again.  Her progress seems closely correlated with the times I am not too lazy to work with her on it, and now that we've started "summer home school" she's getting back into the swing of things.  She's got probably 50 sight words down, and can make the letter sounds to try to sound out words, although she doesn't often figure out what the word is.  She's a smarty for sure!

Saw this dishtowel at Target and thought, "Wouldn't that make a darling little skirt for Eliza?"  So I bought it, cut it in half, added elastic, and she hates it.  Whatever.  I still think it's cute.

The plate Isaiah  made for daddy for Father's Day this year.  It's a picture of him with daddy; there is also a sun and some orange trees.

Eliza's drawing for daddy.  It's an abstract piece.

I finally let go of my obsession with the plates and actually let the kids do the drawing this year.  But first I wanted to show off my artwork from the last three years.

Life is good.

A visit from Grandma

 I think everybody's been waiting for us to have another kid so they'll have a reason to make the trek from Utah.  A couple weeks ago Trudy was able to come visit.  She came up once a couple years ago when Jerel broke his arm, but she hasn't been up since we moved to our new house.  We spent one day up at Mt. St. Helens.  Isaiah was pretty nervous about going there because it's an active volcano and he doesn't want to get blown up.  But we assured him there are warning signs before a volcano erupts and that we would be plenty safe.

 Ryan and Amy must have told Trudy about the 4T hike and she wanted to do it while she was here.  So I borrowed the backpack carrier for Eliza and off we went.  Jerel had to work that day, so he once again missed the 4T.  One of these days I'll get him to do it.  I like doing it myself, except that my back (and shoulders and neck) get sore from carrying Eliza that far.  Miraculously, this time she walked!  The entire way!  We've turned a corner!

 Being first is very important, even if it means shoving people out of the way.

 I'm not sure if this is the longest uphill stretch on the hike, or if it just seems that way because it's straight so you can see really far.  Eliza and I lagged behind Grandma and Zay on this part.

When you say, "Hey guys, let me take a picture!"

When you say, "Guys, remember there's a treat for cooperators!"

So I didn't do any editing on this picture but it is weirdly partly color and partly black and white.  Odd.

We stopped at Newport on the Willamette River for lunch.

 When we were almost home from the long hike, the kids suggested we go swimming.  I guess they forgot the part about how long hikes make you exhausted.  Eliza didn't last too long in the water, but Zay wasn't done, so I bundled her up and laid her on a lounge chair.  She fell asleep pretty quick, wet swimsuit notwithstanding!

 I love that she will hold still long enough for me to braid her hair!

A birthday party

One of Isaiah's friends invited him to his birthday party at Pump it Up.  He had lots of fun on the inflatables.  Later, he and another friend decided "cake on a stick" is way better than eating cake like a normal person.  And lastly, a picture of what life is like when you don't like Capri Sun and you can't eat the cheese pizza because, well, because you only eat five cheese pizza.  Or sometimes four cheese.  The mom tried to apologize, but I would have none of it.  They generously offered a  meal and if he chooses to be hungry, so be it.

A picture of healthy self-esteem

Here's Eliza Mae right after finishing her last swimming class.  She gets to take Level 1 again and work on conquering her fear of the water.  Before the last class we talked about doing things well even if you don't like them, and how we can't always choose our situation but we can choose whether we have fun or not.  She did awesome that day!  Afterwards we were at this table waiting for Zay to get dressed.  I said "Eliza, I am so proud of you for finishing your swimming classes."  "Me, too."

Isaiah's first book

I should really put this back with the post about Isaiah's trip to the monster truck show, but that seems too hard.  So here it is; Isaiah's first book.  Written and illustrated by Isaiah.  He even got to read it to his whole preschool class during circle time!