Memorial Weekend

We spent the weekend apart for most of it. What I mean by this is; Oma spent the weekend at home working on house projects, yard work and a little playing time with some co-workers. Mom spent most of the weekend at her folks helping tear up carpet, waxing and polishing the wood floor and then helping dig postholes for the back fence along with Todd, Corri. The twins spent most of their weekend with Rachelle and Connie and came back thinking “the world revolves around Cole & Jo”.

Connie took lots of photos of their weekend activities and here are the photos the kids talked about as we looked though them together.

I’m adding the comments the kids said about the photos so you too may enjoy their point of view.

Wild Life Safari
We milked the cow.
Cole: I was able to get milk out on my first try but Jo had trouble so I told her to squeeze and twist a little.



Cole: This was the beginning.

Jo: I wore Connie’s hat, don’t I look cute?

Both: The middle one stood up and pooped on the one laying down.

Cole: The giraffe tried to
get in our car.

Cole: This is the camel, it had a bare butt.

And see that little thing in the grass? It’s a squirrel.Jo: Hippo’s butts….that’s funny….ha ha ha ha.

First Time Fishing

Jo: This is me fishing, I caught crap.
(thank you Rachelle for the new descriptive)Cole: I fished. We caught crap. (yeah for us)Jo: Janis caught a salamander.

Cole: It was alive, she caught a live salamander.No comment, just a nice shot of three of the four fisherpeople.

(from left: Rachelle, Janis & Jo)And lastly a very short video of the kids fishing.

Jo’s First Tooth + Spring

Well Jo has lost her first tooth and after the first five minutes or so she’s been darn happy about it.

The Story:
Jo and Cole were playing Indiana Jones and for some reason Jo was biting down on an uninflated balloon while laying on the floor. Cole stepped over her, grabbed the balloon and ripped it out of her mouth. She quickly covered her mouth, not moving or saying anything, looking a little shocked. I asked her if she had gotten hurt and still nothing from her. Finally pulling her hands away from her face we saw the blood and knew what had happened right away.
Yippy we said! You have lost your tooth!

Quite a bit of blood because the tooth was not quite ready to come out, but she was excited and happy...UNTILL she went to the bathroom and saw the blood. (da..da…da…..music here) She was horrified and scared! Only about five minutes or so of talking her down and lots of hugs and smiles, she went back to excited and happy.

Mom thinks she looks darn cute with a missing tooth. Makes me laugh and smile inside when she talks or smiles now. Loving it.

SPRING
We managed to get
our flower pots planted
again this year, a little
later than the past
but we again had fun
planting, and the kids
again picked out what
they wanted in each.

Don’t have much to say
here other than the kids
were able to do more
this year than last year.
Not much longer till I
just get to drive them to
the store to pick up the
flowers and watch them
plant them alone.
It’s all good in different ways.

It’s fun to hear them talk about the flowers in the pots, how they are growing and changing. When do they need water and how much?
Each year a little bit more.

Spring has also brought our rhubarb to life and Jo’s LOVING this too. We have picked over 20 cups so far and frozen most of it already and the plants are again ready for harvest. We will be making another crisp or pie soon so if anyone wants a slice
give a holler so we can let you know when to drop by for some warm rhubarb delight.

HAPPY SPRING BS GROUPIES

We are 6!

Happy Birthday to Us, Happy Birthday to Us…

Oma woke the kids before she headed out the door for work she could wish them a Happy Birthday. As soon as their eyes were open enough they opened the gifts from each other.

Good morning Birthday People!

Cole bought Jo some toy animals to play with. She had them outside in the sand box that very day, and in the tub that night to wash them off, only to be taken back out the next day. Jo bought Cole a Pokemon ball which he as been wanting for quite some time. He carried it all day except to school. Happy kids amongst all that sleep.

Dinner
Menu:
Cole: Mac n Cheese
Jo: Blueberry Pancakes
Mmmmmm, good combination!
Mom added some cooked ham and a fruit bowl to the final meal, parent’s choice. Dale & Francis joined us for the evening and we ate and ate and ate. Because of diet restrictions Dale & Francis have not eaten Mac & Cheese or pancakes for a very long time so they really enjoyed dinner.

One small cake and a quick song. Everyone was too full from dinner…anyone want cake? Small was still too big.

Saturday Birthday Bash or rather SPLASH!
It was a family/friend affair for the afternoon and in the #*!HOT weather. Gma Marie and Gpa Norman gave the kids this cool slip n slide and then also brought a bag of squirt guns for more water enjoyment. This kept not only the kids busy, wet and cool but many adults as well. Rachelle and Oma took a turn on the slide but it was more to cool them off rather for the sliding enjoyment. Buckets of water were thrown quite a few times as well, I’m talking about the adults and not the kids. Hot, wet and fun!

Game one:

Eat the foot long fruit roll up without your hands. HURRY! It’s so hot that the rollups are melting off the clips! (note to self: not a good game on a hot day, still funny though.)

Game two:
No hands, pull as many gummy worms as you can out of the jello in one minute. Ok, this one was funny! Jo thought you had to eat the jello so that was how she was playing at first. The rest of the kids just dove right in, up the nose and into the eyes? Derian and Cole pulled out the most. Way fun.

Jo, Nick, Alexis, Cole, cousin Derian & cousin Hannah
The kids gave this game a thumbs up.

The day was a blast and way long. The kids were exhausted along with us but it sure was worth it. Cole had trouble settling down that night, not the typical meltdown from exhaustion but his excitement just made him “HAPPY” and awake. He had his new Pokemon folder in bed and kept playing with it so Mom asked him to put it under the bed so when he woke in the morning he could grab them first off. About ten minutes later he came out to the living room very concerned…
Cole: Mom, I would like my cards where I could get
them in the morning.
Mom: They are under your bed, buddy.
Cole: (huge grin on face) Oh Yeah! I forgot, good night.
Kind of thinking he actually dozed off during that ten minutes or so and woke forgetting what he had done with them. Tired boy.

Jo wanted to read her new book, we sent her to bed to do so and literally she never even opened a page. She was out.

They have both said they had a Good Birthday.

Earth Days

I think spring is finally coming! After another very cold spell we had some great weather where the whole family got some pruning and gardening done around the house. We have our raspberries pruned and ready for the season, and Jo noticed that the rhubarb plants were huge already so we picked around 12 cups of that. Yummy rhubarb crumble on the counter, ok…most of it’s gone already between Jo, Oma and I.

While Cole was at a play date Oma, Jo and I walked down to the kids’ school to help work in the gardens. There was a planned workday but not many folks showed up, I’m sure they were doing the same thing at their own home instead of at the school. We worked about an hour in this flowerbed and had a good time together.

After the work at school we were given some vegetables from the garden to take home. Purple broccoli? I had not seed this before and neither had Jo. So here Jo and Oma were just eating it off the plant on the walk home.

Cascades Raptor Center


We made it out to the Cascades Raptor Center again this year, and
again had a very nice time. With the kids
being a little older this year we managed to stay and enjoy everything
just a little bit longer than last year.

Here the kids had their faces painted up like a bird of their choice. Jo went for purple and pink feathers…you ask what kind of bird that might be? Well a Purpink Fluffyhuf of course. Cole was a little awed by the Bald Eagles we saw so he became one.Lots of activities were available and we participated
in as many as we could.

Owl PelletsHere the kids picked though regurgitated food from Owls
trying to identify what animal that owl had eaten.
They saw lots of fir, small bones and the skulls from mice and there were some fish bones as well.

One of the last things the kids participated in was becoming a bird and hunting food. Jo was a hawk and hunted for mice while Cole was the Bald Eagle and had to hunt mice and fish.


Two thumbs up for the
Raptor Center.
If you have not gone you should soar on in and see all the birds.

Coast and the top of Mount Pisgah

We took a trip to meet up with Oma’s family at Winema Beach (Pacific City) for a weekend. Along the way we stopped at Sea Lion Caves and then Heceta Head Lighthouse for the kids.
(I only have two photos of the whole weekend, batteries were dead but twice I turned it off and on and snapped
a quick photo)

The cave was full of sea lions at this time so the kids
got to experience the cave at it’s best, the sounds,

temperature and smell (yummy) to name a few.

Jo has asked every time we
are on the coast to stop at a lighthouse so this was the day for the stop. The sun was out…mostly, chilly and windy but hey; it’s the Oregon Coast! Does it really get much better?

The rest of the weekend was spent in a pool, we walking
the beach and ate our meals in Nanny and Grandpa’s RV
with the rest of the family. It was also beach clean up weekend
so we signed up, grabbed a bag on Saturday and tried to fill them.
(It wasn’t hard to do, sad really)

The kids wanted to roast marsh mallows over the
fire but the weather just wasn’t the best when we were at
camp so this was our solution, or compromise.
Did it work well? Not really.
Did they taste good? No, not really.
Were the kids happy? Yes, very.
And that’s all that matters.

We have had some wonderful weather lately, high 70’s even hit 80. For those who live here that means shorts, t-shirts and getting outdoors. So we took a hike on Mount Pisgah after school last week, packed some snacks and sandwiches for dinner and had a great time. Not quite a 1-½ mile hike up on the trail, but howdy is it steep! It was the first time for Mom too, so there were lots of sights to see and stops to make on the way up. (stopping had nothing to do with being winded either, so don’t say “Yeah Right, the sights”)

The loving shots seem
to be fewer as the kids grow older but we got one on this day.

Jo and her critters.
We were almost at the top when Jo spotted this snake trying to get away from people. She was fast as lightning. Before she finished yelling at me “Look Mom a snake” she had already jumped to the ground scurrying and grabbing at the snake for control. (We have many bug books but it’s time for a snake book to teach us (Jo) what snakes are ok to grab and those not) She then took off running to the top of the mountain to show Oma and Cole, only scaring one person on the trail with her find. (she was not trying to scare anyone, the person was just on their way down and passed close by Jo until they saw what she had in her hand, a little jump and an “OHHhhhhh” and then
they laughed as they kept moving away)

The kids loved it up on top! So did we.

Panoramic shots

East

West

This one you can also see the kids in many places. I asked them to stand at the beginning photo and then after the first shot I said, “Ok, your done – thanks” Then they took off running as I was snapping the next few pictures. I thought it was fun.