Doughnuts with Dad

In honor of fathers day, the Kindergartners had a special Doughnuts with Dad morning. It started at 7:30 am in the gym. Mark came home the night before just so he and John could go together. John was so excited to have dad take him to school, play games, eat and make a craft with him. It was one day that John did not have to be prodded out of bed to get ready for school.

Mark is so not a morning person! So to my surprise he set his alarm that morning to wake him up extra early. I was excited to get to sleep in because I did not have to get John ready for the 6:55 am bus ride. Imagine my disbelief when Mark's alarm goes off at 5 am and he is dressed and ready to go by 5:30 am! And of course Mark is very good at getting ready quietly in the morning. NOT! He could not understand my frustration with him and why I was still in bed. Shouldn't I be up getting John ready? Then I pointed out to him the time and he realized that he had not re-set his phone to Pacific Time (his words). Which I still do not understand, because cell phones automatically set to the current time zone where ever you are. Anyways, somehow the alarm clock did not get set to the right time, so Mark was ready to go extra early.

The guys had a wonderful time together that morning and Mark enjoyed a nap that afternoon.

John said

While playing outside with the neighbor kids, John was talking not so nice to one of them. I told him to come to me in the house for a minute so we could talk. He went to the side of the garage where I could not see him, but could hear that he was doing something.

me: "John, come in and talk to me for a minute please."

John: "Why? If you want to talk to me you come out here!"

me: "John, we do not talk that way to our mothers. Come here now or you can come in for the rest of the afternoon."

John: "I am busy. Would you just stop talking to me. If you want me, you come here!"

me: (walking to the garage now) "John Davis, you do not talk that way to me. What are you getting in to?"

John: (while throwing down his helmet that he had been trying to put on) "Just forget about it! You wouldn't understand anyways!"

me: "I would not understand what?"

John: "I saw this beautiful girl riding her scooter and I wanted to go and say Hi to her. But now she is gone and I missed her. So just forget about it!"

To which he stomps off out of the garage. Now I as the mother was left with a choice. Do I go after him and teach him a lesson about respect for his mother? Or do I turn around so that he does not see me laugh at his "beautiful girl" comment? I chose the latter. This girl by the way, is about 11 years old, lives somewhere in our neighborhood and apparently is beautiful.

I am left to further ponder: When did you get so brave in your disrespect to your mother? Why are you disrespectful to your mother? If you are 6 years old and trying to say hello to beautiful girls, what are we in for over the next 15 years? And I thought school was hard!

Alison's Graduation

She did it! Alison has offically graduated from 3 year old preschool. She had so much fun this year in school. She really enjoyed going to school and getting to paint, cut, paste, play and have "jobs". I can't believe how much she has grown. She will always be my baby, but she is telling me now that she is a big girl. She is so big in fact that I am not allowed to give her kisses any more, unless she requests them!

Friends + Food = Fun!

Memorial Day at Rockaway Beach with all of our friends. Priceless!

The Edson family, McBride family and our family rented out a beach house in Rockaway for the weekend. We had so much fun. Unfortunatly, the typical Oregon weather had returned and it was long pants at the beach. The kids still had a lot of fun. We had so much food, we did not know what to do with ourselves. There is not a lot of pictures from the beach trip because we were all having so much fun talking and playing, we forgot to grab the camaras!

The kids all got along great and let the adults play and talk. Poor Spencer Edson is only 18 months and none of the kids wanted to let him play with them. But the adults gladly helped to keep him entertained. We made it down to the beach each day for at least an hour. Any longer than that and we were frozen! On Monday, we left town via Tiallamook Cheese Factory for a good bye ice cream and squeaky cheese. Mark McBride made all the cars a Rockaway Beach CD to listen to as we drove. It is great! The kids still request it to be played every time we get in the car! It has a lot of fun summer beach songs on it that the kids just don't know how we know the words to them. We are always asked to stop singing.

It was a wonderful weekend that is requested on a frequent basis. Oh if money grew on trees, life with friends and family would be so much easier!

Going to the factory for ice cream!

Susan and Mark McBride and Mark figuring out the bill for lunch.

Alison and Ella being girls!

The troop watching a movie.

Impromptu Family Beach Trip

Jennifer and Mark, so romantic!

The kids playing in the "river".

So the Relief Society Beach Trip was over and it was time to head back home to an un-air conditioned home, 2 hot kids and 1 hot husband. And it was still 95 degrees in Oregon City while the coast had at least dropped a bit. So I called Mark and asked him if he wanted to get the kids swim suits, towel, and sunscreen and come meet me at the beach instead! He said yes and two hours latter we were walking to the beach as a family with the sun shining on us! In the 6 years that we have lived in Oregon, this is the first time that we went to the coast and actually could wear bathing suits and say we were hot!

Some might call it the beach here in Oregon. To me, the beach is in Southern California, Florida and Hawaii. Oregon on the other hand has a coast. Nice sand to play in. Trees to work your way around and admire. Water that is so cold only your toes can stand to touch it, and that is only for about 3 seconds! Wind that is always blowing. Swim suits on the kids followed by sweat shirts and wet suits on everyone else. But for today, we all enjoyed the sand, surf and sun. Okay, so we really did not go in the ocean, we were in the "river" that forms when high tide recedes and leaves this nice shallow water that can actually get to be a somewhat normal temperature. It was so much fun to play and rest at the coast together.

And for an added bonus, there was a kite festival that weekend on the beach! It was so neat to see all of the different kites blowing in the wind! My personal favorite was the circle kite. Amazing!

Alison filling up her treasure bag.

John holding his shovel daring the waves to come and get him.

My personal favorite of the kites!

Ladies Beach Trip

The ward had it's second annual Relief Society Beach Trip this weekend. It was a record breaking 95 degrees! Even at the coast! Two of my friends and myself started the trip off with lunch at P.F. Chang's and then enjoyed ourselves on the 2 hour drive to the coast. We stayed at a beautiful home in Rockaway Beach filled with about 25 women, and no air conditioner! It is Oregon, who needs air conditioning, right? It was a lot of fun and so relaxing to be with friends for 24 hours!

The case of the...

POOP PELLETS!

Scene: 2 found in Alison's room

1 found in John's room

1 found in hallway

1 found downstairs

Suspects: 3 very potty trained children

2 moms

all wearing underwear and long pants

Admission: no one, but a lot of finger pointing

As for this detective, I am too tired to get to the "bottom" of it. The crime scene is cleaned and the case is closed. I of course have a theory, but for now we will just wait and see if a giant rat ever appears in the house, since none of the humans did it.