Long Overdue Update

Instead of attempting to do a lot of posts, I'm just updating the last few months all in one.

The beginning of May Brandon and the kids got in a car accident.  Same car I wrecked in December, but the front end this time.  Thankfully they were all fine, but it made for quite a seen as my parents and I all rushed out of a fireside after seeing Brandon's text.

After 3 weeks or so we finally got the car back, and as Grace has said numerous times, it is "nice and shiny." We have now replaced the front and back ends and it is looking good.

 The boys both played spring soccer, and Grace became a decent spectator.  

 Kyle liked it enough that he played the summer season too.  He has come a long way since last year and apparently has decided to be a defender.  He stopped many a goal and could care less if he ever scores one.

  

 We bought a zoo pass and have managed to use it twice so far.  I see many more trips in our future.

  

 We visited Grandma Jean and took the traditional pictures in the tree.

 Lots of time with grandparents.

 We had a little preschool graduation welcome to summer party with some friends.

 We caught 2 squirrels that were destroying our tree and garden and released them a few miles away.

 Both boys did swimming lessons the first 2 weeks of summer.

  

 Katie and Baby Paige were here for 6 weeks and we spent a lot of time playing with them. 

 We visited where I grew up and the boys got to fish the same place I used to.  

 My dad even snagged a few starfish for them to touch.

 Last night we went to a fireworks show and took a few pictures at the capital building.

Now if I can just stay caught up and not have to do one of these very long posts again soon.

Garden 2012

 Brandon here with a look at our little, but productive garden.  This has been a fun year for trying out new things in our garden.  Not so much new in the produce selection, but new as in methods to the madness.  We love the little raised beds in this corner.  They get a good amount of afternoon sun.  Cool thing about this years garden is that most of it is grown from seed.  I don't have a great place to do starts inside, so I wondered how I could do tomatoes and peppers without the traditional indoor starts.  We discussed tenting the raised bed to make mini greenhouses and what do you know, IT WORKED!   I made little A frame roofs for each bed with 1x2 furring wood and attached clear plastic painters drop-cloth with a staple gun.  Sorry I didn't get a picture, but t kept it just hot enough to keep our seeds alive through a very cool March.    In this picture, you can see our tomatoes: 3-Brandywine heirlooms, 3-Black Krim heirlooms, 2-sweet cherry, and 1-Yellow pear heirloom; some garlic, walla walla sweet onions, green onions, cilantro, Serrano peppers (need more tenting), zucchini, yellow squash, carrots, and lettuce (the massive bushes in the front right)  We are planning on harvesting the lettuce more aggressively and replanting again since it grows so well.  We may just try growing lettuce with the tents right into the winter.   Oh the two pots on the right hold some ornamental gourds and to the right of the oak tree is a new strawberry patch.

 

Moving right along, along our back fence, you can see our beans (under heavy attach of noxious slugs)  and peas in the distance separated by the viola.  This may be the last year I do beans here.  I don't think there is enough direct sun to get these things moving.

The peas, on the other hand, seem to like the shade and are creeping right up the stringers we put up.

Next to the house we planted two blueberry bushes last year.  So far, they are ridiculously full of berries and seem to be overwhelming the small bushes.  We wonder if we should build supports for some of the branches that are bowing to the ground.  The kids are very excited for these to ripen.

Kyle's 5th Birthday

 After a week of celebrating Kyle is finally officially 5.  He started his celebrations with a trip to Toys R' Us and Red Robin with Grandma and Grandpa on Friday.  According to him it was awesome.  He got a huge Lego set that we all got to help put together the next morning.

 Sunday we had his family party.  He wanted an Angry Birds party, but we couldn't find Angry Birds wrapping paper, so if you look close you can see that Brandon drew one on all of his gifts.

 We had 3 very excited children for present opening.  He got lots of Angry Birds stuff and Legos which is just what he wanted.

  

 Such a cute boy.  I hate how old he looks though.  I'm not ready to send another kid off to Kindergarten.

  Angry Birds cake courtesy of Daddy.

 Then Angry Birds cupcakes for preschool.  Lucky he has a Dad who can decorate cakes.

 Preschool party on his birthday.  They played games, colored, and had root beer and cupcakes. 

 Showing off his new outfit which apparently makes him super fast.  He has worn it 3 days and slept in it 2 since Sunday.  Today it is in the wash.

It is amazing how much he has grown up in the past year.  He has definitely come out of his shell which has been so fun to watch.  It makes me less nervous to send him off to school.  He has done preschool, soccer, and swimming this year, and he loved soccer enough that he asked to sign up again for summer.  A year ago you couldn't get him on the field without holding somebodies hand and this year he ran right out there and scored 3 goals.  He is starting to read a little which is very exciting too.  I can't wait to see what the next year brings for him, I just wish the time would slow down and I could keep my little boy a bit longer.

Blog Catch-up

 Here is a little of what we've been up to.  We bought a new camera and these two cheesers wanted to pose for it.  They have become the best little buddies lately.  Makes me sad Kyle is going off to school next year.

 We planted our garden.  More on that in a later post.

 We finally decorated this wall in our house.  It isn't totally done or perfect, but such an improvement from the plain wall we had before.

 Evan has continued to pull out his teeth.  The last two he pulled out 2 days apart.  He is currently missing 4.

 Again with my little buddies.  In the afternoon when they are tired the enjoy watching cartoons together, apparently in a somewhat zombie like state.

 I had a birthday and we went out to dinner at the Spaghetti Factory.  It has been my tradition for quite a few years.

 Grace ate her entire meal and and dessert at dinner.  

 31 hasn't been too bad thus far.

 My traditional rice krispie treat cake.

 Fishing season opened.  Grace loved trying to catch them but thought they were scary up close.

 The Spring Fun Fair happened.  Evan's school made a 70 foot long reading dragon that the kids got to help carry.  He earned 20 scales for it and was very proud.  He had to read 100 minutes or write a book report for each one.

We walked in the parade with the dragon, which as usual lulled Kyle to sleep.  How he slept through Grace is beyond me.

Train Ride

The end of April we did an impromptu preschool field trip.  By the time everyone arrived at the train station the train was already there and we were in a panic.  The tickets were twice the price we expected so we broke it to the kids that we wouldn't be going.  The kids were not so happy, but luckily the train conductor (or some train employee) took pity on us and let us on the train free!  Thank you very kind train man, you made 4 little kids day.

 Kyle and Sawyer

 Braden and Hallie

 We just rode 20 minutes south and hung out at the train station for an hour.  We had snacks and then got on the next train back.

A very fun morning and quite an adventure for our little preschoolers.