Noah with an Anoa!

Proof if summer!

Peonies from my garden!!

Picture catch up....

                               So we left off with Noah's birthday, let's pick up with his new smile.....

READY?

 

(drum roll, please....)

TAAA-DAAAAA!! Granted, his teeth were a bit sticky, so his smile is not normally this big, but BOY! How awesome is THAT!!!!

Then we had a sunny minute, or two....

Some ingenuity....

We did some walking for Relay for Life (thank you to all who donated!)

A few more minutes

 of sun.....

And some outside time....Recognize that wagon, anyone?

(Sammy isn't crying, by the way, she is telling Noah to get out of the way.....)

Then, we had some guests! Meet my friend Nicole!

I haven't seen her since Mac was younger than this...

and now he looks like THIS!!!

Then we have the last day of school. FINALLY!!!

My camera pooped out on the picture of Lydia with her teacher, but I thought it was telling how the teacher remarked that she wasn't sure how she was going to make it through the summer without a particular someone telling her what she needed to do. (True Story)

But here are Ben and Noah with their favorite para educators...

and their respective teachers, Mrs Richarson (with the pink hair) and Mrs. Anderson, who despite her grumpiness at times, really did, apparently, enjoy Ben and vice versa.

Mac's teacher this year was Mr. Somerhiser.

But the real treat of the day was the return (if only for the day) of Mrs. Stevenson, his 3rd and 4th grade teacher who was out for cancer treatment this year.

THIS lady, however, Mrs Hughes, aka School Secretary, kept me out of the clutches of CPS when I would forget to pick up a late stayer, or at the last minute need to have them walk home etc. She made sure to let me know she was gonna be out of town for the summer.....yikes!!

Doubtful that we would have survived the year without her

Now onto the summertime activities!

Activity #1

The Point Defiance Zoo

Meerkats andWalruses

Polar bears and Elephant teeth

Noah doing what he does best (101 pictures taken this particular trip....)

and Lydia doing what she does best....

(that would be talking)

 This is a two-month-old Clouded Leopard cub...

I WANT ONE!!

And finally...well, you know what these are.....

Happy Birthday, NO-WA!!!

So, he lived another year, or more specifically, WE did! And I have to say that it has been the best one yet!! Noah has grown so much this past year I hardly recognize him for the same child I had to drag kicking and screaming across the lawn at the canal because he wanted to go on a boat ride that he, just two minutes before had turned down. Ms. Jean's tea party probably never had such entertainment!

This year he has come incredibly close to straight A's, has attended school EVERY day (that he was supposed to or wasn't too sick to go), learned the true benefits of using his inhaler BEFORE he was told to, has taken to eaten just about anything that is put on his plate, including spinach and sauerkraut, has learned to skateboard and RipStik, has turned into quite a creative writer and has become an all around pretty darn awesome kid.

Awesome job, NoWa!  I love you!!

De LIGH LAAAAAAAAAAAAH

So I got to go out to lunch with my Bible Study group today. We ate at Delilah's Cozy Kitchen. She is the radio host from 7 to midnight that Noah absolutely loves...In fact, that is where he went for his breakfast this morning with hopes of catching her there.....welll... he didn't.

But I did...... ;-)

She's a hoot!

Happy Birthday to Meeeeeeeee!

Wow,I can barely remember back to Friday....I seem to remember someone being home sick...oh yes, it is all coming screaming back to me, now. Lydia woke up Thursday throwing up, made it through half of the day at school and had to come home so that she could continue to be ill. Friday wasn't too much better in the morning, so she stayed home, well, figuratively. In reality, she rode around in the car for much of the morning while Jeff and I delivered the red car to the dealership to fix all of the things that could and did go wrong with it last week. Once I dropped them at home it was off to Home Depot to carpet and flooring shop. That carpet will never be completely the same after that last bout of illness and I am counting it as The Last Straw.  I was actually able to find stuff that I liked so today is the day that I am ordering it and scheduling for installation. More on that at a later date. Stay tuned.

The rest of the morning was spent getting ready for The Canal!!! This being our first full weekend out there for the year, we were all a bit excited and lots of plans were made. The biggest project being the painting of the main wall in the living room, but weeding, deck scrubbing, and general cleaning were on the list as well.

Once we finally got there, however, everything was put on hold until the following day. We were too pooped!

Saturday dawned, well, if not bright and sunny, at least dry and bright but WINDY! White caps dressed the canal and though it wasn't actively raining, it was too icky to work outside. But I was determined to get started on The Wall. So off to Ace Hardware I went with all of the information off of the paint can so that I could buy fresh paint. Who knew that HD Design is not common enough of a brand to have their paint information in the computer. Crap. I was foiled. Back at the canal, however, the boys were having a blast playing with Kelly's boyfriend's 11-yr-old son, Carson. An avid baseball player AND computer game freak, he shared his talents and the boys (and Emma) shared the canal.

They think we don't know

                                                                         what they are doing under there.....hint, there is a PSP missing from the table.....

Emma and Miles compare notes.

Mac and Hunter play dead. No, really. Very little blood.....

There were tons of excited cries and shouts as they hunted eels, crabs, starfish and even found a pearl in an oyster! Emma's pet of the day was a teensy tiny hermit crab she found on the beach and toted around in a bucket.  I was also able to get more than enough clams and oysters for my projected birthday dinner. By evening it had gotten sunny enough that everyone was out, and Jeff was able to BBQ a Copper River Salmon he had been given at work.  The capper was that Kelly was able to get my paint on a subsequent trip back into town, so I was ready for Sunday!

Sunday morning was not as pretty, and we had to get going early as we had to drive back into town for church because the boys were serving. Happy Birthday to me! Father Mike was back today after a month of vacation! What a treat, especially since Jeff's mom had come with us to attend church! 

Floki rode home with us too, in body if not in spirit as he was pretty pooped already having kept all of the kids busy throwing balls and chasing him.

Although the day was pooky weatherwise, it brightened up quite a bit when we got back to the canal and found Tutu and Grandpa Dennis waiting for us with gifts of garlic spears! Who knew that the tops of elephant garlic could be steamed and eaten like asapargus, only better!! Flower head and all! YUM! The day got even brighter (figuratively speaking) with the arrival of our friends, Kelly and Russ and their two girls, Micah and Olivia, toting smoked salmon and shrimp! Okay, so needless to say, the wall did not get painted on Sunday either, but that was okay. But we did get to roast smores, watch Floki play ball, do craft projects, watch lots of TV....and eat cake!

I dunno, is this wrong?

Ewwww,er, I mean, YUM!!!!

This is one pooped pup.

Ben made me a birthday cake on the sly at our neighbor's house. Olivia got to get in on the surprise as well, she helped frost it. She kept asking when we were going to eat the cake that "I made you!".  Ben was a good sport.  And it was DELICIOUS!!

By the way, Monday we got the wall painted.

The End of Baseball

We lived. The kids lived. Nuf said.