Monica's First Communion

During grandma and grandpa's visit, we went to join Monica's celebration of her First Communion. She looked so beautiful! It meant so much to us that she and her mom attended Sarah's baptism day, so we couldn't miss this special day for her! Sarah was excited to give Monica her flowers and we had a great time meeting Monica's family and horses! She lives right across the street from us on lots of land, but I haven't ever been able to explore their backyard until now. It was so neat!
This is a new horse Monica's dad recently brought from Mexico. She (he?) is a dancing horse! This guy was having her do some neat tricks! It was really neat. I think this is the same guy that was getting Sarah to dance to the fun Mexican music that played while we were in line getting food. (O: That was pretty funny and I was impressed that Sarah came out of her shell and danced a little! (o:

Natalie LOVED the horses and giving them snacks!

Angela and I were a little more timid.

The two week old pony - awwww.

Eva has so many fun things set up in her backyard for the kids to do - the inflatable bouncing house and trampoline and this little merry-go-round were a big hit!

Best Birthday Ever

I honestly had the best birthday this year! It must be the kid in me, but I really like having birthdays. Having my in-laws here was the best present I could have gotten! It was so great! We decided to do something we haven't done in Oregon before, but is a very popular summer past time. We went strawberry picking at a local farm. I was surprised how excited everyone else was about it - that made it extra fun for me. All the girls got really into it, even the ones who don't care for sweet strawberries. They were so proud when they found big ones and we had quite the stash of strawberries by the time we were done.

After we bought our strawberries, we explored the farm.

There was an old playground . . .

beautiful flowers . . .

a huge tire swing . . .

a baby cow, baby pigs . . .

and baby ducklings - see Sarah's expression, "ooooh those are SO cute" she is saying.

We had a great time. It was a fun farm, a little quirky (like finding the pig that wasn't breathing )o: ), but it's such a neat experience for the kids to see what farm life is like and the people there are so nice.

Shortly after we left it started raining and we headed for Subway for lunch.

Later Vern* joined us for a Papa Murphy's dinner and Star Wars movie. Yum - the Veggie Delight pizza is the best! We also had poundcake with our fresh strawberries for my "birthday cake". It was the best.

I used my brand new Royal Red Kitchenaid (thanks honey) to whip up the whipped cream for the strawberry poundcake. It's so fun to whip cream with one of these! Especially when it's red!

Mom and dad sent me some beautiful flowers which was a really sweet surprise and made my day! Thanks mom!!

My sweet friend Angie brought the yummiest cookies ever - she is so thoughtful. It meant a lot to me. (o:

And Shannan gave me some beautiful Gerbera Daisies (RED!) Which have looked so gorgeous on my counter next to the red Kitchenaid! (O:

Thanks everyone for the sweet gifts, phone calls, and birthday wishes. I felt so loved and love all of you too!

A Wonderful Visit!!

We had the BEST start to our summer with a visit from grandma and grandpa P. They arrived the day after school got out and got to stay a little longer than the last visit which was soooo nice! We were thrilled to have them! It's always such a fun time when they visit. The only thing that could have made our 4 days together better was if Bob* didn't have to deal with work crap almost the whole time. Sorry to use such "strong" language, but it has been pretty crappy for poor Bob* lately and that's actually a really mild adjective. So back to the fun stuff . . .
We had a wonderful time visiting a local farm - more on that in the next post - eating good food, laughing and just hanging out together. It was so great to have them here for my birthday and father's day! That made our week extra special. Life is happier with grandma and grandpa!

Grandma and grandpa brought the coolest books for the girls. We had fun looking through them together - one had amazing pictures of ocean life and the other was called "Incredible Earth" and also had awesome pictures. We had fun learning new and interesting facts about the world. Like, for instance, did you know that some species of starfish live in the freezing waters near Antarctica? Amazing. (o:

One of Sarah's favorite things to do when grandma comes is to play all her latest piano songs and then play duets with her. It really is sweet and will be such a special memory for her as she gets older. I love that they share a love of music.

I think Natalie will be making grandma hold her until she's 14 years old! (o: What a good sport grandma is.

Last Week of School

Natalie's teacher is a super woman - I don't know how she does it all. She did so many fun things with Natalie's class this year. I think Natalie's most memorable highlight was the day that a farm came to school. A local farmer brought all kinds of farm animals right to the schoolyard for the kids to see, pet and interact with - a pony, chicks, lamb, baby pig, etc. Natalie still talks about those animals. I was VERY sad to miss that one! Anyway, Natalie was lucky to have such a great teacher!

These pictures are all in crazy order from the last week of school.

These ones are from the Kindergarten Messy Day! Good name for it! What a riot!

I spent a LOT of time at school with the girls during their last week of school - field day, talent shows, class plays, "messy" day, kinder graduation and all the hoopla meant that teachers could use a hand and these are all things I LOVE to be a part of. I love being at the school, especially on fun days. I loved when I worked at the elementary school during my college days and I love it even more now that I get to be there with my girls. There's such a fun and happy atmosphere, lots of energy, playful children, friendships with teachers and parents - elementary schools are just a fun place to be.

Sarah was soooo excited that her name got drawn to play "Little Red" in her class' last day of school fractured fairytales play. She practiced all week and did such a great job. She was hilarious! My shy baby has come out of her shell!

Here she is playing a minor role, in a lovely gown, for the 3 Little Pigs play. Sarah's class is so darn cute. Those kids really have a lot of fun together, I hope next year Sarah is as lucky. This has been her favorite year in school so far.

Jenna, Sarah and Mallory - such cute friends...

We are ready to party this summer! Just behind the girls the teachers were all lined up to wave goodbye to the buses. They were so funny. They had music playing and were dancing - I think they were a little too happy to say goodbye! (O:

Sarah and Sadie

These pictures are a little backwards on this post - this was field day.

This picture really captures Sarah's competitive edge. All the kids are standing around having fun, but Sarah is taking the tug of war VERY seriously. In fact, if she wasn't so patient with all her friends I could totally hear in her mind her yelling at them to put some muscle into it!

Sarah's best friend, Silly Monica! (o:

Waiting for their turn during play practice.

This is Natalie's favorite thing to do in Mrs. B's room. (o:

Lunch together on field day! The kids get to eat outside when the weather is nice and warm. Sarah read us her joke of the day. (o:

Alaina in Sarah's class was so darn cute with Angela. She totally took her under her wing most of the day. Angela loved it!

Natalie and Lauren sat by each other the whole year! Except a brief time when they were talking too much and had to be separated! (o: I'm glad Nat had such a cute friend to sit by this year.

Messy Kindergarten Day!!

Natalie's darling card she made for her teacher. The ears are being held up by popsicle sticks.

Natalie's First Lost Tooth!

Look at that itty bitty thing!

"Dear Toothfairy, I lost my tooth and this is my very first one." (o:



Dear Tooth Fairy,

Natalie was so brave. She's had a wiggly tooth for some time, but today it was extra wiggly. She started wiggling and wiggling some more. She almost got it all the way out all by herself, with just a little help from daddy. I was very proud of how calm she stayed even though it freaked her out a bit.



I hate to complain, but when a cute, little girl is so brave and soooo excited for her first tooth to come out, it really is a bad time to "forget" to come. I knew you forgot the next morning when I woke up to Natalie sobbing in her room. It was so sad. I know how hard it is to keep track of everything that you do, but please, please, don't forget to come tonight! I can't take another morning of waking up to such a sad, little Natalie. (o: Thanks.

Things that made me cry this week...

We have had some terrible tragedies in our community in the last few weeks - heartbreaking stories. The kind of things you hear and wonder, why do these things have to happen and what is wrong with the world?

A couple weeks ago, we heard a horrible story about someone finding the bodies of two little kids and their father at one of our local favorite parks - Jackson Bottom Wetlands. It was concluded soon after that it was a murder/suicide. It was sickening to hear about and then soon after we started figuring out connections to this family. Herb* found out that the dad was someone he had worked with at his previous fab. He was shocked and could not believe that he would be capable of something like this. Then we found out one of the kids went to Sarah's old elementary school. I also found out from Sarah that one of the boys in her class was his best friend. While talking to her teacher about it, I heard that he was going to have a sleepover for the little boys' birthday that night. He showed up with his pillow, a present, etc. )o: Ugh - when you hear all these things from people who know the victims it makes it seem even more real and makes it even harder to believe.

Another tragedy affected the family of one of my young women. Two teenage boys were driving really fast on a nearby highway at night, lost control, and hit a tree. The picture of their car was horrifying. Neither of the boys survived. One of the boys was the 18 year old cousin of the girl in my YW. He was getting ready to serve a mission this fall and had saved enough money to pay for it himself. He sounded like a wonderful young man. Poor Heidi, and her family, of course, were devastated. My heart just aches for them, especially his mother.

It might seem weird that I am blogging about this, but it has been on my mind and has made me (as things like this often do) more aware lately how fragile life is. I am grateful for a knowledge of life after death and that we can continue our family and friend relationships after we die. This definitely brings peace. Still, it is so hard to hear about children and teens losing their lives. It's hard to think about how much their families will miss them until they can be reunited someday. It makes me want to hold on to my little sweeties and never let go.