School n Stuff

The kids are doing well in school and seem to really enjoy it, which is great. Reading, writing, math and music are things they talk about, ok…that’s a lie. They tell us each day what they did on the playground and that recess was their favorite part of the day.

Here is a writing Cole did at school that I wanted to share.“What makes me laugh?
My sister she makes a funny voice.”

I had writing that Jo did for Oma, I was going to scan it as well but I procrastinated and now it’s hung up at Oma’s work.
Where it should be.

The kids had their first awards assembly on Friday, to which all parents were invited. The kids did not know who was receiving awards or for that matter what an “assembly” even was.

Jo received: a Pencil for Perfect Attendance and a Teacher Recognition Certificate which reads: “Jo is always on task! She is a great model for room 1 students.”

Here Jo is receiving her certificate from the principle.

Cole received: a Pencil for Perfect Attendance and a Citizenship Award which only one student from each class receives. His reads: “Cole is an excellent example of a good citizen! He is kind and respectful. He always follows directions too!” A medal also came with this award.

Cole receiving his medal and certificate from the principle.

Jo’s teacher came up to us after school and informed us that he was flip flopping on who to give his Citizenship award to and decided that another child needed a little boost. And unless Jo just falls apart this next month his plan is to honor her with the same award. He said she is just a wonderful student. (hey, I can keep going on here Groupies…or are you telling me enough already?)

BS Honorees

The Stuff
We just have not taken many photos or been doing much to speak of. We have gotten into the swing of work and school again, watching football and just being, I guess. So just a couple shots of us doing our Stuff.

Here Jo came up to Oma’s chair and jumped on the back to give her an over the back hug. Well the chair tipped all the way to the ground, Cole and are started to laugh as Oma said “help, I can’t get back up” but then Cole said, “WAIT, I want to take a picture”. So Oma indulged his moment as he snapped some shots.Cole has been practicing his “Oli.” A neighbor kid showed him how to do this on the grass to the skateboard does not roll on him. He figured out quickly he could do the same thing on the carpet and had to show us how well he is doing with this trick.

I know, some of you are probably saying “Why are you letting him do this in the house?!” Hey, we DO think of safety…he’s wearing his helmet. And it seems no matter how hard we try to keep things “adult” nice in and around the house it just doesn’t work while having kids. (Mom, Dad…sure sorry about those dents in the walls and the hole in the door…and….and……..)

Cole still moves from one activity to the next. In this photo he is skateboarding but wearing football pants, he had just moved from full football gear to his skating and I could almost bet moved from skateboarding to baseball after this photo.

Fall…doesn’t it feel wet and wonderful? Oma says “NO!” She wants 90-100 and to be able to ride her bike in the hot sun!!

School – South – Parade

First Grade BS Groupies!
Some say, “I can’t believe it” but I can and I love it. Not how you might think, I’m loving watching them learn, grow and just experience the new. It makes my heart smile.They have different teachers this year and though they say they miss each other a little they are enjoying being separated. They see each other during lunch and recess but from what I have gathered so far they only say “hi” in passing.

Knew it would be a difficult task getting Jo to talk about her days this year because the past few years Cole has always done the talking about what they did in class and recesses. We have always tried to gently pull information from her but she would get lost in her imagination and turn some basic story into a grand one and then her brother would say “that didn’t happen”. She did however come home this past week and was very excited about what they did in class that day.
Her words.
My teacher, he pulled this white thing down from the ceiling.
Then he went over and turned on this light and it shown up on the white thing.
Then he drew on it and it drew on the white thing he pulled down.
He let us draw on it too.
Who would have thought an overhead projector could be so exciting?

Recess seems to be the high light of Cole’s day so far. He plays soccer every day, twice a day with all the boys. He is also becoming quite independent. For example this morning he took off jogging half way to school and was in the door and gone with out even saying good by to me. No kiss or anything. And yes…Mom is whining…just a little.

Hung out for a night with Rachelle and Connie so the kids could meet their new dog and also feed a calf that was being bottle-fed.

After this bottle was empty they picked prunes from a tree and, if they didn’t eat them, fed them to the cows. They have gotten quite comfortable with cows now, to the point that Cole had to be told NOT to put his hand all the way in the cow’s mouth when feeding them.

We then headed down to the creek to pick some blackberries. Creek, cow pies and sunshine make a good combo for blackberries!It took us longer than last year to get our bags full but we managed to pick enough to make a cobbler when we got home. Cole is not much into pies and was not sure about eating this but one bite and he didn’t want to stop until it was all gone.Does it make you hungry?
Might make another trip out hunting berries. Tasted like summer!

Eugene Celebration Parade
We staked out a spot close to coffee again this year and though it was a little cool it wasn’t as chilly as last year. We met up with Martha, Tracy and a couple of their friends for our annual sit and laugh.The kids each got a $1000 bill, some candy, cocoa, Frisbee and a necklace. We watched storm troupers, dancers of all kind, marching bands, the red hat ladies and much more.

Even Obama and McCain showed up.Some of the issues they were wrestling with were, boxers vs briefs and ballet vs hip-hop. You know, issues that keep us focused on America and don’t distract us from the real issues.
Just keeping it real.

Good times and Great friends!

White River Camping

We wanted to camp more this year but it just didn’t work out. The kids and I did manage one trip with Gma Marie to Mount Hood again along with the cousins and a ton more of the GmaM side of the family. The kids were excited to go and could hardly wait for the vehicles to stop moving before they jumped out and headed into the woods.Sounded like we might not have gotten “our” camping spot if it was not for the rest of the families help again this year. Another small group had set up camp in this one spot but after chatting with our family they decided to move to another area on the mountain.
I think it went something like this.
Other Family: We have three or four more people coming tonight for the weekend.
My Family: Great, we have another thirty to forty people coming tonight for the weekend too.
(An hour or so later)
Other Family: (driving out with all their stuff) You might want to pull a vehicle into the spot to save it. We’re going to find a little quieter spot for the weekend. Have fun.
My Family: Ok, thanks, we’ll do that.
Thanks to our family for parking the truck to save us a great camp sight! Like they do for us every year. And to the “Other Family” I hope you had a quiet weekend and a good time.Gma was the first up every morning and started a fire. Cole found the fire building quite interesting and was the second one out of the tent to join her. (Cole is the last one up at home, every day…and I mean every day) Gma was great, fire going and water on the stove for hot cocoa every morning for anyone who wanted it!

Jo was one of the last ones out of bed each morning. See these cloths? The only thing that was changed during four days of camping was underwear. I believe that goes for all of us really, not just the kids. Oh well. Hey, we did brush our teeth and run a brush through our hair too.

As you may have noticed, we were bundled up most of the time. It was down right cold up there this year. Sunny on Friday and warm enough for the kids to play in the water and swim a bit but then the wind blew in from the mountain top and chilled us all to the bone. I didn’t take many photos, about the only thing I thought of was “what else can I do to warm up?”

We did make the trip up to see my Grandparents at the old family campsite; the kids get to ride in the back of the pick up bed for this and they like that a lot. It’s a bumpy ride up and down hills and through some tight spots. They took Crater Lake rocks to leave at their head stones; I think my Grandma & Grandpa would like that.

We also took part in Geocaching with the family. It was our first time treasure hunting and we had a blast. Oh, it was cold and that part was not fun but hunting for a little box in the woods was really fun! We might do this in the future for ourselves. Neat!

Last photo and end of this post because I still need to clean the van, do more wash and clean up the camping gear.This is what the kids looked like sleeping the last night. Blankets, sleeping bags, blanket on top, warm pj’s with heavy socks and snow hats to top off the bedtime gear! Did I say it was cold this year?

Family Visiting

The Ruiz family came to visit for a few days. We did some chillin’ around the house and let the kids play hard in the yard. We also packed in a few busy days of things we enjoy doing and were able to share with them.

Back to the lake!
Connie was great to take the boat out for all of us to play with. She skied and played too but it was mostly for our enjoyment. Another awesome day of being the only boat on the lake and the sun was shining bright!Cole was sick this day so could not make the trip along with Oma but the girls did not hesitate to get into the water.

It was Maggie and Lanna’s first time in a ski boat and we not only pulled them on the tube but they looked like experts on the knee board. Lanna actually knee boarded twice and on the second trip she was going across the wake like she had done it many times.Carol and Dan…Oh, what can I say here…Mom had some new blood out on the water wanting a tube ride! (devilish grin here and laugh) Ok, I even had that look while they told me they wanted a tube ride. And yes, I even laughed out loud as I wipped them to the right, left and over the largest waves I could make. Carol got a little beat up but they both laughed and had a good time.

Wild Life
Oma and Cole met us the next morning to head to Wild Life Safari. We made the trip early enough that most of the animals were out and about which was nice. Even seeing the bears playing in the water. (they are usually sleeping when we drive through)

The kids got up close and personal to a few animals and they all thought this was fun. The way the kids went from one side of the van to the other was funny. If we were a boat we probably would have took on some water.

East Coast Visit – Crater Lake
Trish, Andrew, Mandy and Paul came for a visit. We managed a few days together which was awesome! We had a one-day trip with Crater Lake and it could not have been a better day for it! It started out over cast and cool…ok…it was damn cold actually! But then the sun came out and it was very beautiful and comfortable!
We made the hike to the bottom of the lake to touch the water, float some rocks (pumice) and just “be”. A feeling like no other really.

Just to update some of you. Andrew will be 18 in a few weeks and a senior in high school. Mandy is 16 and a junior. Both are turning out beautiful and are wonderful young people. Like they could be anything but.

I will end this post with my panoramic photo of the lake!

Just busy

We have stayed busy busy for the past couple weeks, mostly with a house project that I started and needed to finish. BUT, we also managed to play here and there to keep us all a little happy.

First Ski Trip

Cole and Derian had a ball on the water. Jo ended up having a fever during the day so she didn’t knee board but did play in the water a bit and take a boat ride or two.






I also got my turn on the lake.

Jo LOVES being on the boat or in the water. And heck, it doesn’t hurt much that Michael was taking this photo.

Laughing, we get to do a lot of laughing while at the lake.

The kids wanted to throw the javelin in the yard so we brought in a
national champion for some one on one lessons. Nothing but the best for the kids don’tcha know!

Each time our collegiate stops buy to teach,
the kids get a little bit better.

FAIR
We met up with Gpa Norman, Gma Marie, Derian and Hannah for the fair. The kids were spoiled by the grandparents, nothing but smiles all day and then a little pouting when a “no” was actually heard, though that just didn’t happen much. No ashtrays or shot glasses were brought home on this trip, only blow up hammers and a few stuffed animals and four tired kids. Ok, four tired adults too!

Derian, Jo and Hannah all jumped on the swings for the first time ever! Jo was so excited to actually be tall enough for a “big” ride she could hardly contain herself. All three came off bouncing and talking over one another.

HOME PROJECT…again…
I had a vision of the kid’s room and so we gutted their room and started in. The kids picked the colors and Mom picked the design. With the help of the kids and our friend Sheila we managed to make this vision become reality.

Jo picked Hannah Montana colors and wanted them to sparkle.
They do!Cole wanted Mariner colors. Living and loving baseball.