Our 4th

OK, I know, total slacker! The 4th was over a week ago, but I've been really busy. We had Jamie and Kyle and Avery here and it was soooo much fun. Jamie actually put a fabulous post about it at her site :All Things Avery
We started out with a big ol pancake breakfast, then headed out for a bit of geocaching. We found 1 of 2, but the 2nd one seemed like perhaps someone else had found it and not returned it :( The kids love to take turns carrying around the GPS and treasure bag.
After some power napping, it was time to get serious about the celebration. We made some cute 4th of July crowns. Sage and Avery were extra excited, as every princess would be to have a new crown (or corona, as Dora might say). Marlee was happy to have one of her own too. I found the cutest straws at Target that were perfect for the project. I did not realize that they could also serve as pom poms, an added bonus.
The kids tossed around pop its in the driveway. We also had glow sticks for when it got dark-Pretty risky! We grilled and then headed to the river for the big show. Hayden and Sage crawled into my lap and watched the show. About two big booms in, Sage says to me, "Mom, this is fun, can we do it again?"
The whole weekend was tons of fun. We boated, played Wii, and got the world's absolute worst service ever at Wendys. Not even kidding on that last part.
I loved having them here. I especially liked to watch Sage and Avery play. Sage is sorta lacking in the little girl friends department. They are both at a great age and get along really well and are so darn cute. They both love Dora, and pink and dress up. I figure only another year or so and Marlee will jump right in there with them. Don't feel to bad for Hayden, he got plenty of boy time with Heath and Uncle Kyle playing video games. And that was only the warm up for his week with his cousins.

Missing

Missing: ALL OF MY PEPPERS!!! yes, my cute little bell, anaheim, and jalapeno peppers were pilfered! hmmm, any guesses? I can tell you that my kids know better, and even if they didn't, peppers are not the thing they would take.
The gap in the fence makes me suspicious especially since I saw Ashley the neighbor girl picking some cherries not to long ago.
Heath says its payback. He confesses that he owes Aunt Phyllis a big apology since him and Kody used to pick her apricots and throw them around the neighborhood. I am guilty of picking all the Benson's roses when I was a kid. I picked ALL their gorgeous flowers and put them on bushes in my yard. Real sneaky, huh?
Anyway, I am so sad, I was really excited about them. Probably will patch the fence over the next few days. If anything happens to any of my tomatoes, I might resort to electric fence around my garden.
...probably can't do the shotgun filled with salt like Heath suggested...

Week 3

Week 3 was all about house guests. We had my college roommate Amy,and her husband Seth and baby Levi. Then Jamie, Kyle, and Avery came. Sunday night, we got Dalton, Grayson, and Gabe. So the fun will keep going!
Hayden finished the first session of swim lessons. I think we will try to squeeze another session in somewhere before school starts back up. The first week of swim lessons, I tried to no avail to get Marlee in the splash pool. Sage loves it so I thought she would too. Nope. But last week, that was all she wanted. The little pool is only about a foot deep but that was enough for her. Marlee stood in the water and squealed and giggled and splashed. So cute. We set up our own little pool in the back yard for even more fun.
Tuesday, I had my second epidural steroid injection. This time I was super sore at the injection site. It was pretty miserable. The doctor says if this one doesn't work, he probably won't do another. Not sure what options I will have, and frankly, this last shot doesn't really seem to be working this time either. Very sad about that :(

Our 4th was so fun. The kids were so excited for the fireworks. Avery wanted to see the "big meatball" ones! They were so cute playing in the little pool, riding scooters and playing dress up.
We went boating on Saturday and it was wonderful. I forgot to sunscreen my back so I am a bit pink now. The kids all rode the tube and had a great time. Well, maybe not Jamie and Avery when they got sunk.
It was so nice to have visitors. We hope that they all had as good a time as we did.

Summer Week 2

All three, all day, all week...
We did a whole lot of running around.
Swim lessons for Hayden, while Sage entertains herself in the splash pool; Marlee just does laps around the fence.
First Soccer Game: Hayden's team, the Orange Jets got rocked by a group of girls in purple. :)
Hayden got his own library card. And we set off on the summer reading program. We are reading James and the Giant Peach, Mr. Baseball and Katie Lynn Cookie Company. Hayden wows me with his reading.
Lots of sun-Thank goodness for spray on sunscreen, and the glue stick looking sunscreen is fab for faces! Sprinklers, kiddie pools, friends, fountains and slip-n-slides, oh my.
Marlee 2-fistin popsicles. The cherry-mango is yummy (and it was mine, originally)Both top teeth have FINALLY come in!!! whoo hoo. Boy was she a bear the last few weeks (months).
Marlee's favorite outdoor activity: painting. Give her a bucket of water and a brush and she is good to go. No mess, no clean up. Sage loves this too.
Hayden and I played several games of Uno, I celebrated the graduation from kiddie games. It was lots of fun to play a real game. Unfortunatly I think Sage and Marlee still have lots of Candy land and Shoots and Ladders left in them.
Lots of yard work, got the back yard looking decent.
1st boat ride of the year. Oh wow, now it's really summer! Marlee loved the boat. I was a bit worried after last summer, but she just was too little. Sage and Hayden and I dipped our toes in the frigid river, too wimpy to go any further. Hoping to log many more hours on the boat before fall.

Spike!

Marlee's first up-do!

Summer-Week 1

Our first week of summer is in the books. What a week too!

Monday: LAST DAY of Kindergarten!!! Since Hayden is officially in first grade now, we decided that him and his friends could walk home from school. James and Michael are now big 3rd graders so I didn't need to worry about the short walk (but I am a mom, and so I did anyway!) Despite my nagging back, me and Stacy walked part of the way to greet them. They were pretty proud to be on their own, very cute! Then after dashing through the Welcome to Summer banner at Stacy's, they were ready to celebrate. Not with me though. Sage got invited to a friends (Oh my, isn't she big stuff) Hayden invited a friend over, but along the way they ended up at the neighbors for a big water party. Peace and quiet for me and Marlee. Hayden picked McDonalds for his end of the year dinner before his first soccer practice.
Tuesday: We sent Hayden off to Sports Camp! Whoo hoo. Heath took me to get an epidural steroid injection in my back. (jury is still out if it really did me much good). Played with the girls, and boy is it quiet without Hayden. Sage eats up the one-on-one though. All princess, all day!

Wednesday: More Sports camp, Hayden got to meet some players from the local arena football league team. He even got them to sign the ball he got at the game Saturday! Numbing medication still seemed to be having a bit of an effect, so me and the girls hit the craft stores and got all kinds of stuff to create all summer long.
Thursday: Sage had Brenna and Nathan over to play. It was a gorgous day, so there was a bit of sprinkler fun in the backyard. Hayden refused to swim at sports camp. It was also our 9yr anniversary! Yay! How did wii celebrate; let mii tell you: we got a Wii! Big fun. The kids were really excited too.
Friday: Last day of Camp. Sage's friend Marissa came to play. We painted toes and made crowns. Marlee was intrigued by painted toes. A few moms from church met us at the park for lunch and fountain fun. Whoa, was it hot! Aubrey the babysitter came over while we had dinner at PF Changs (it was fabulous, as usual).

Saturday: Picked Cherries, and for the second year, they are full of bugs, YUCK! by this evening, the kids were just about to melt down stage, they are so exhausted by all the weeks events. me too.

Team Apollo

Hayden is done with T-ball. He had a great season and loved every minute of it. He was so proud to have a uniform, and loved it when Sage had gymnastics before his games because then he would get to wear the uniform to the gym and Coach Brett would tell him how cool he looked. Hayden has pretty much lived for baseball the past few months. He practices hitting and pitching when he gets home from school, then meets the big boys as they come up the hill for a little game of baseball in our yard and waits for Heath to get home for some catch. We had a couple games of backyard baseball before my back got really bad and it was as close to Heaven as this little boy could imagine. We love his enthusiasm.
He loved playing on Team Apollo. He had a ton of really cute teammates. His buddy Cooper from our neighborhood was on his team, and he quickly made friends with all the other kids. One of the kids he really seemed to connect with was Claire. They loved to race each other to the parking lot after each game and loved to play catch with each other during warm ups. One day he came home from school so excited he could hardly talk (yeah, that's huge!) He had seen Claire at school!
Sage also formed a cute little friendship with the older brother of one of the kids on Hayden's team. Tad is in 1st or 2nd grade, but he was always so kind to Sage and they became buddies.
At the end of the season we had a little ice cream party and the kids all got trophies-cute bobble head ones. The coaches said a little about each kid as they handed them out. When they got to Hayden, Coach Mike said, "if I had a golden glove award to give out, this kid would definetly get it!" Hayden didn't really know what that meant, but was pretty proud anyway.

Birthday in Boise

OK, as the final few hours of May wind down, I must confess that it is sort of a relief to turn the page on the calendar. Its been a whirlwind month. My picture file for May says 598 pictures taken, but I have a few more to download! Whoa. I'm tired.
Anyhow, the tons of pictures just means that we had a ton of fun. Last weekend especially! We met up with Grandma and Grandpa, Gretchen and all the boys in Boise for Hayden's birthday blow out! Good times!
First stop was Boondocks, if you've ever driven through Boise, you for sure have passed it and said, "wow, that looks like fun!" You would not be wrong. Even on Memorial day weekend, it was really fun. Bumper boats, Go Karts, mini golf, the arcade, prizes and snacks. What more could a kid ask for? Well, maybe a water slide or two, but they weren't open yet and we gotta save something for later in the summer, right?
Hayden and Sage rode the bumper boats with Daddy and soaked Grandpa, Uncle Will and Gabe, Dalton and Grayson. They got a bit back in return too.
Then, we rode the go karts. Hayden was a little nervous about them, so he rode with me because I am a chicken too. We pretty much got lapped by everyone.
Marlee slept through putt putt golf, but everyone else seemed to have a good time. The arcade was last. Think Chuck E Cheese. Actually they had some really fun games. The motorcycles were really fun. Aunt Gretchen figured out which games score the most tickets so Sage cleaned up on the prizes. If only we had gotten 360,000 tickets, we could have won a Wii...


Family Favs:
Heath-playing baseball at the park, Playing guitar hero at the hotel (he rocked out on Welcome to the Jungle, pretty good for a beginner!)

Lori-minigolf with everyone
Hayden-Every part of Boondocks!
Sage-Staying the night in Aunt Gretchen's room
Marlee-Getting her own cupcake in the bathtub

Stephenie Meyer!

Have you ever done anything that you look back on and say, "wow, that was fun, silly, but really fun!"? Well, I just did. Stacy and me went to Portland yesterday to go to the Stephenie Meyer book signing for The Host. Its a 3 1/2 hour drive, but seemed so much shorter, chatting the whole way. While in Oregon, who can resist a little tax free shopping? Not us. We did some damage, but, I like to think mostly about all the money I saved. haha
Stacy and I were really not excited to drive in the city. She got the honors and did fabulous I must say, despite my constant efforts to get her lost. We really wanted to eat at the downtown Spaghetti Factory, but the silly place closes in the afternoon for a few hours, of course, right when we needed to be there. No worries, we had a yummy dinner at the Macaroni Grill.
Then off to the book signing...
We got there about 5:30, doors opened at 6, show at 7. The line was already wrapped around the building. Tons of teenage girls and their moms. Lots of Twilight bags, tees and such. We stood in line behind a cute girl who was quite knowledgable about how the whole thing would go down, and in front of a mom and her girls who were clueless. It was fun to chat with people who shared our obsession.
When we got in the doors, we got our pre-signed copy of the host and a ticket to get it personalized.
The theater was so dark we couldn't even see if seats were empty or not. It was really kind of scary. We got frusterated but ended up on the end of an aisle, pretty close to the front. not bad. Stacy wanted to read but it was too dark to see anything. I had questions to submit, so I got up to figure out how that was going down. I was walking around in the lobby when some kid bumped into me. I saw him coming and my first thought was, "a boy, at Stephenie Meyer? brave" Then I was irritated with him for bumping into me! But then I noticed that he looked a lot like the guy who is playing Sam Uley in the Twilight movie. I practically ran back to Stacy to tell her about my encounter. As I was telling her this, I noticed him walk into the theater and as he walked, he was attracting a crowd. The two sweet girls sitting next to us asked us what was going on and I told them that I was pretty sure the guy was Solomon Trimble. They jumped up and went over in line and ended up getting a great picture of him. They said he was really nice too. He posed for lots of pictures. Stacy couldn't talk me into going over though!

My pictures didn't come out good at all in that horrible, dark theater!At 7, the crowd screamed and screamed when Stephenie came out. It was really exciting. She seemed sorta nervous to be in front of a crowd; she talked really fast. I was sorta sad that I never figured out how to submit questions; mine were really good, much better than what she answered (really nothing new that hadn't been asked at other signings-come on people do your homework before you get there!)
She was done talking before 7:30. She walked right by us on her way out. I could have touched her, but settled for a wave, and she smiled back. Tried to get a picture as she approached, but mostly just got her torso. hahaha The girls next to us got about the same thing.
The signing was a bit of a disappointment. I think we talked ourselves into believing that we would go to ice cream with her or something afterwards. I don't know, we were crazy. With that many people to sign books for, she has to move fast, and boy, we got to the table and she was done with our books before we really knew what happened. It was way too fast. No pictures were allowed. So, we headed back to the hotel after a brief stop at Safeway for some Ben and Jerrys. Stephenie didn't join us. But, no regrets, we had a great time. Maybe she will be in Seattle for the Breaking Dawn tour...
I totally ripped this off from the twilightmoms website! The whole front row was a group of twilightmoms, it was pretty cool to see them too! We were surprised to see that the sign was changed during the show.
Stacy reading Twilight while we wait for our turn to get our books signed. I got my Host and my Twilight signed! woo hoo.
BTW: LOVE the Host, its amazing, on my second read right now :)

SIX!!!

Happy Birthday Hayden! He has turned the big oh-six. He is quite pleased to be six because now he gets to move up in the age bracket for pretty much all sports-out of the 4-5's and into the 6-8's. That's big! It also means a later bed time. Yeah! Its good to be six, it's much more independent than 5. Six year olds don't have to ask for a glass of water; they just climb the counters, get their own cup and get the pitcher of water out of the fridge all on their own. Six year olds can make their own peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Really kind six year olds think of their little sisters and make extras! Thank goodness Hayden is one of the kind 6 year olds. Six year olds prefer showers to baths. He is a shower singer too. His favorite shower song cracks me up; its the water cycle song he learned at school.
"Evaporation, condensation, precipitation, on my head" sung to clementine.
Six year olds are responsible enough to have gadgets. Hayden got a Nintendo DS for his birthday. He played all weekend long. We have been talking about the DS since Grandpa brought his here at Easter. Hayden didn't really want much else. So to throw him off, I wrapped it and then put it in a big box and wrapped that. When he saw the big box, he was excited, but you could see the concern in his eyes-the box was way to big to be a DS! It was fun, he opened the big box and joy just spread over his whole face; the little boxes inside were just the right size.

At 6:
*Hayden is a great reader, he has moved into beginner chapter books like Flat Stanley, The Magic Treehouse, and Cam Jansen mysteries. I must say, watching my boy learn to read is one of the greatest accomplishments yet.
*Hayden is addicted to all things sports: T-ball is in season right now. He can't wait to do coach pitch though. He swings the bat around before his turn to hit just like Ichiro does. Its hilarious. He plays catch with the boys in the neighborhood everyday after they get off the bus. And nothing makes him happier than a game of backyard baseball with the whole family.
*Hayden refuses to wear sandals, and shorts are only OK if they are athletic shorts. If I veto athletic shorts, he opts for jeans and sneakers, even if its 98 degrees. Maybe the 100s will sway him.
*Hayden has not lost a single tooth. All the kids in his class have lost at least 1 or two, some have more holes than teeth. Not Hayden.
His favorite foods are blueberries and stawberries. Honorable mention goes to apples, grapes, and German Pancakes.
*Hayden has taken on the job of secretary. If you have called our house, you know this. It can be difficult to get him to give the phone up. He has also learned to make calls too, mostly to his friend Emma. (she sends him notes with her phone number, so cute!)
*Hayden's taste in TV is maturing, he would prefer to watch the Mariners, but will settle for whats on Nick or Toon Disney. He is bored with the shows on Playhouse Disney. This is sad for me...we did the Wiggles concert a few years ago and now, he says he doesn't like that show.
*Hayden plays hard. His little friends come over and they play hide and seek in the back yard and make obstacle courses and ride scooters and stuff. He plays amazingly well with Sage and has really tried hard to include Marlee too. He will entertain himself or help out me and Heath with chores. If he can find someone willing, he will play till they give up. He never does. He comes in at night coated in sweat and dirt, exhausted. All boy!
Six is a funny age, trying so hard to be grown up, but still trying to enjoy all the parts of being a kid. I love to watch him work through his decisions. He is so expressive. A big Hayden grin can brighten even the most gloomy of days. He is gentle and loving to his sisters and a friend to all he meets. I am so proud of my little man who is growing up sooooo fast. Happy birthday buddy!!!