K2

Well this post has been sitting in my "to be edited" folder instead of being posted like a good blogger would do.
I sent my little girl off to Kindergarten on Tuesday, and my boy is now a 2nd grader!
Brady returned to Northern Heights and has Mr. Lingbloom, the only male teacher in the entire school and exactly who I'd hoped B would get.
Natalie didn't get into the full-time Kindergarten program at N.H. (don't get my started on WHY) so she is attending Bridgeway Christian Academy (the same one Christian and Isabella attend) where she is doing great and has been enjoying math and science.

B sat down and got right to work.



Reunited and it feels so good... Aiden, Brady, Cameron, and Cole.

I actually got some sugar from my little fella.

Natalie is very excited to be coloring

Is she not the cutest thing ever?

I almost made it tear free, until Ms. Rose started talking to me about having my baby grow up...

Love you two...

A window in her smile

Natalie lost her very first tooth last night... well technically she lost half a tooth when she was 18 months old (on the exact same day 4 years ago... kinda weird, right? Or is it just weird that I remember that?)

My mom's dear friend Judy Martin (owner of Island Fabrics) heard that Natalie was at the age of losing teeth and made her a custom tooth fairy pillow... Natalie received it yesterday afternoon, just hours before she needed to use it!

Natalie is recounting the tale of how the tooth fell out...

"I was sleeping at nighttime on the floor and I was still awake and I was wiggling it and I feeled something in my mouth and I spit it out and I thought it was my tooth and it was my tooth! I ran to my mom and Boo yelled "Natalie lost her tooth!" and she was right! I put my tooth in my new pillow and put it under my pillow and got extra kisses and hugs from my mommy and she was so happy and proud of me. And I woke up in the morning and my tooth was gone and I had Five dollars! And a pack of bubble gum!"

I love you Little Miss. Love watching you grow up.

E-I-E-I-GO!

Saturday we headed to the Island County Fair, something that I attended religiously every summer as a kid.
We got there in time to watch the parade, with Danny Ward playing the National Anthem on his sax and MC'd by Jim Freeman (some things never change). I think the last time I attended the fair parade, my mom was wearing a spandex leotard dodging horse poop while she Jazzercized with her class. My dad used to load us kids on the hose truck and we'd get to ride through the parade that way, the firefighter kids still get to do that... that was nice to see. (None of those things mean anything in relation to this picture of a pink unicorn, except that it was in the parade and all the girls about jumped out of their skin when they saw it)

They have a passport-stamp program for the kids to fill out to encourage them to visit all the exhibits (it worked). So we made our way into the Fine Arts building. And lo and behold, Uncle Bill has a piece entered. I believe it was titled 'A Medics tortured memory' or something very similar. He is such a talented sketch artist. I really like his cowboy stuff.

The Twizzler was very popular with the girls.
The Twizzler (or anything else) was not on Brady's "things I want to do today", so he ate all the bananas that the big gorilla handed out to us during the parade.

Oh yeah, here's some proof that the grownups attended the fair too...

Sometimes the pictures that capture the best spirit aren't the best quality...

6 of the 7 kids we toted around most of the day (where is Fritter?)


The girls got matching rainbows... Pa (the face between the girls in the background) splurged and let all the girls get their faces painted.
Heading home on the Kittitas...

Radish and Carrot Sittin in a Tree

But First... look what's back, a little different, but still. It's back!
The enemy has infiltrated the lair. She tasted their food, inspected their living quarters. She is the ultimate spy.

First there was Radish. And we love him so... but he was lonely during the day. And night.

So along came Carrot.

And Radish loves Carrot. I mean it. He L-O-V-E-S her. I think we will have little veggie-hybrids soon. Because Carrot is a lady guinea.

And believe it or not, she came to us already named Carrot. It was meant to be. It's giving the kids a good lesson in the birds and the bees at the very least.

On the way home from purchasing a(nother) cage:

B: This 2nd cage will be good to separate Radish from Carrot when they fight.

Me: Well that's not why we're buying another cage. And they aren't fighting.

B: Well why does he pick on her?

Me: Well... he's showing her who the boss. And I think he likes her.

B: Then WHAT is he doing to her?

Me: I think he wants to make a baby with her.

B:

View from the Top

This crane broke down Friday night...
So Brady got to ride around in this truck (complete with flashing lights).

Then he got to stay to help repair it (well, not so much help, but watch).

On the catwalk (? I don't know all the names for stuff yet...)

Nature calls...

And Nature delivers...

Anyone that knows Brady knows that this was like one of the coolest things ever to happen to him. This boy has had a serious passion for heavy equipment since, well, since forever. And apparently had 101 questions and asked them at 101 miles an hour. Thank you Mike for giving him this opportunity. I know it's something he will remember and cherish forever.

Sleeping In

Brady has a doctor appointment this morning so I got to take the morning off of work which means... I got to sleep in. Waking up on my own accord is one of my favorite things. Of course sleeping in these days means waking at 6:32 (over an hour extra!) and actually rousing out of bed at 7:00.



When I came downstairs I was greeted by this little moment of beauty:

Makes me miss my stay-at-home-mom lazy mornings when I could just read the paper while I snuggled the kids good morning. Our days started out so leisurely...

Now? We're up and out the door at 6:10. Not quite leisurely, and not quite in the mood to stop and enjoy the sun shining through my windows, but I wouldn't change the path my life has taken for a second.

Mossyrock

My fella and I took our respective girls on a little camping trip south of Mt. St. Helens. It ended up being a super fun weekend, minus the driving and setting camp up in the dark with tired girls.

Figuring out the food situation needs to be worked on. I'm all for living on beer and peanuts (and beer and rainier cherries. and beer and crab. and beer and homemade beef jerky/pepperoni) but I'm used to planning camp food. As in that's pretty much what camping is: preparing food and cleaning up and preparing to make more food. But the girls didn't seem to mind eating mac and cheese for dinner and powdered sugar donuts for breakfast... I did sneak a banana or two into the weekend, but aside from the cherries (and beer) that's about as nutritious as the weekend got.

I have another, much funnier photo of someone else on the see-saw, but I'll play nice. For now.
I didn't see any Partridges. Weird.

Mount Saint Helens

We spent at least half the weekend here:

At Northwest Trek:

River Otter

Beaver

Eating cherries while waiting for beef (see the sign behind Natalie?)

How I spent my evenings

You don't have to be pretty when your camping, right?

heh-heh. Not exactly a "full moon" rising...

Strawberry waffles and a game of Go-Fish on our last morning.

Home again, home again...