Farewell February

Febru-any FIVE dollar foot long

We got in under the wire. With the economy what it is it's hard to find "participating restaurants" to national promotions. I noticed that the Subway just north of Fremont on MLK was celebrating the month of Februany.

So it was $5 footlongs for five today in honor of leap day.

Food fun in February

We tried the new featured Take-n-Bake pizza from Papa Murphy's this month.

It smelled and tasted just like a cheeseburger! If you are expecting pizza when you eat this you'll be disappointed. But if you are a fan of cheeseburgers... this is your pie!

March is supposed to come in like a lion

Maybe Mother Nature didn't get the whole leap year memo. Today would have qualified as a March 1st kind of day. Cold, rain, sleet, snow, hail and lots of wind. It's a mixed bag of weather.

Happy Birthday to all of the Leap Babies!

Must be exciting to finally have a birthday after waiting four years.

My great-uncle is 21 today though technically he's a hip 84 year old.

Happy Birthday Uncle Eddie, from your Queenie!

Busy boys must get out

Caught red handed

Sticky fingers on Aunty Coco and Uncle Charlie's laptop. Why is it that everything fun is a no no! This busy boy must get outside to run off his mischief energy.

40 degrees and light rain?

Sounds like a park play day to me

Courtney was a dear and volunteered to take the little guy to the park. It was chilly out there but he bundled up and carried a blanket for the stroller just in case. Looks like it didn't take him long to start exploring.

Slide down and climb back up

Isn't it crazy how kids love climbing up the slide instead of going around and climbing the ladder or platforms in this case? He has had sufficient climbing experience to master any mode of getting to the top.

Farewell park

I'm sure Gar-bear had a good time on his outing. It would have been great if he had cousins to play with. Or siblings to run with. That will have to wait until summer. I do hope Courtney tired him out. I would appreciate him taking an afternoon nap today instead of wanting to go to bed at 5:30. We kept him up until 8 last night and he still got up at 6:15 this morning.

Show and tell

When they got back, Garrett came over to me to proudly show me his stick. He held the tip right in front of the flash as I was taking a picture. Looks like he's got a flame on the end. That would be a big no no!

Finishing up and starting out

Gramma blankies for my WW grands

I posted pictures of the fabrics... here are the finished quilts.

Anabelle's is almost as pretty as she is.

Henry's is definitely as fun as he is. Spots-dots. Dogs-frogs. Lots of bugs and made for hugs.

Genevieve or Danika?

These girls look so much alike. It's hard to tell them apart in certain situations.

Especially from behind. Is this Danika or Genevieve with Garrett?

Dawn of a new chapter

This isn't exactly a picture of dawn today but it is a picture showing that the sun was shining on Hayden's PCC orientation and testing day. We were impressed with the faculty and support staff at PCC fourteen years ago when Rylan first started his college career at the Sylvania campus. It is such an ideal place to have as a spring board to university.

I'm sure that Hayden would have managed just fine getting to the classroom he needed to be in but his "big" sister wanted to go with him.

Har and I are in such an unbelievable strange stage of life. We have 3 PCC students and three kids in elementary/pre school in the same house. An independent adult male and a toddler boy. Then there's Cam who is somewhere between middle and high school, taking classes at both levels.

This is going to be visited pretty often in the months to come.

I think Garrett is good with all of the running around as long as we can stop for a "naa-naa" every now and then.

Celebrate good times come on!

Payday Lunch ~ Sushi Land

This was Garrett's first introduction to sushi. He played with the edamame and looked at the other offerings and stuck to plain rice. Or in this case sticky sushi rice.

Krystle, Garrett and I had a booth in the corner of the restaurant and the other seven people in our party sat at the next booth over.

Henry likes his sushi... Anabelle is not so sure she is going to like it when she gets to try it. Doesn't it look like she's sincerely questioning her mother's choice of food.

While Momma's away we party!

Cherise had an appointment to get her hair cut and styled. The hairstylist was a friend from elementary school that is working at a new shop in SE Portland. While she was gone we played and ate and played some more. Anabelle was the DJ playing tunes on the Dora guitar.

Henry had lots of moves. He danced for the entire length of every song.

Once again, Anabelle questions the enthusiastic renditions of his dances.

Pretty lady

Leila did a great job! Reesie's hair looks beautiful!!!

OAKS testing 2012

We had to be on the road bright and early this morning as both of our guys had their year end testing for school. Hayden entered Clackamas Community College's building for his final testing as a Connection Academy student. Cam has a few years to go. Garrett was just along for the ride to drop them off.

After they finished I had to take them out for a celebratory lunch. Hayden exceeded the requirements on Reading with almost a perfect score, more than met, and was one point away from exceeding, the benchmark in Science and handily met the requirements in Math. Cameron aced his Math and Science and did well on his Reading too. Great job guys! You deserved your Olive Garden outing.

Tea and craft time

Belle-belle was wanting to help finish off her mom's tea. It must be good to the last drop.

I'm glad Cherise was here since I never let the kids do crafts. I am reluctant to let them make big messes, yes. But I like for them to create. I guess I need to come to a happy medium.

They had a great time.

Henry got to be a Pizza Baker

Mini Murphs were on the menu again tonight. Henry has had mini pizzas from their Papa Murphys but they haven't been the build your own kind. We had 5 kids patting dough, spreading sauce and flinging cheese. Nice!

Congratulations Genevieve

I got an email from Genevieve's teacher telling us that she was going to be getting an award at today's assembly. Unfortunately we had the boys testing. But we made sure we made a big deal of it at supper time. Her teacher reported that "...she had a breakthrough and is now much more independent and confident."

Way to go Vivi!!! We are so proud of you! You are a SUPER STAR!

Best Brothers

Henry loves his sister!

Hens and Anabelle were trading smooches the other day. Even though it doesn't appear that she was enjoying the affection she returned it.

It's going to be great seeing them interact more when she gets more mobile.

Rowan adores both of his sisters!

Rowan said, "Mom! Take a picture and send it to Gramma so it can be on her blog every single day!"

So here's the picture that arrived on my cell phone.

Thank you Rowan, for having your mom send me this picture. You sure are a great big brother to both Katie and Evie. I hope you are enjoying your new house and yard. They look awesome!

Sunshine + Anabelle

Cool dude enjoying the rays

Cherise had to do some shopping at Toys R Us. We drove out and found what she wanted. As we were waiting for the package to be brought to the front of the store we took the kids out to the van. Henry modeled his new shades while Cherise and I both took his picture. She showed him how cool he looked.

Garrett was distracted by the airplane flying overhead.

Today's cute picture of Anabelle features her big eyes and long eyelashes.

Lucky lad gets to go

in Aunty Coco's car

I'm glad that Courtney showed up while we were at her store, as the carton with the purchased item inside was large enough to take up the entire back end of my van and then some. Courts grabbed a car seat, took Henry by the hand and headed home.

Cherise and I MacGuivered the box into the van and pseudo-tied the back hatch down and drove the back roads home.

Hayden = Joe College

He hasn't officially started but will on April 2nd. Today was the day to fill out admission forms and get an official student ID number.

He's on his way to being the 7th of our kids to start out their college studies at PCC.