Krystle's birthday!

St Paddy's day revisited

We had corned beef and cabbage twice this past week. I made one dinner for Monday night when Jess was here and another on St Patrick's day proper. This year we made sure our meal was "The Real McCoy". I don't think I'll settle for less anymore. The real McCoy was fantastic!

Cabbage Patch Kids

Everybody had fun wearing outer leaves of the cabbage as a hat. Wyatt started it. Danika looked the cutest in it though. It was the perfect size and reminded me of those fairy dolls with flower petals as skirts and hats.

The goofy boys, Garrett playing shy & Wyatt with his new adult teeth coming in. Those teeth look so huge! I hope his little jaw starts growing or he won't have room for many more.

Krystle Kayleen turned Twenty-five!

March 18th was Krystle's 25th birthday. Wasn't it just yesterday that she was turning two and standing in the china cabinet like a little doll? It seems like yesterday but she's all grown up and gorgeous! The flowers Courtney picked out for her are beautiful too.

Nate picked her up in the morning and they hung out and went out for lunch. They kids were so excited to have them come back to the house so we could have a party. Each of the older kids made cards.

Har and I bought her a rotary cutter and mat set so she can quilt and sew. She was pretty happy with it. We also got her an annual zoo membership so she and Nate can frequent the zoo whenever they want to. Free date days!

Traditional birthday breakfast

It is tradition for us to treat the birthday kid to breakfast. But since her birthday fell on a Sunday it wasn't possible for us to get away. So we continued the celebration today and took her out for a Day After Birthday Breakfast at Milo's.

Happy Birthday Krys-dolly!

Abracadabra

Garrett was waving this wand over his breakfast cereal this morning. Maybe he wanted waffles or eggs. Silly boy.

St Pat's and a bit o' history

This was a first

Because of all the fun Garrett and Danika had while these guys were in school, I decided to give them a treat after school. We stopped at Starbucks for a Vanilla Bean blended cream. A small one split in two was more than enough for them.

Picking up pizza

Take 'n' Bake was on the menu for our Friday pizza night. Wyatt was quite the cool guy over by the cold cases with his smoothie.

Party in Aunty Coco's nook

Our kitchen nook is a temporary sleeping nook. I would love bunking in there. It's so cozy. Genevieve and Danika feel the same. I think perhaps there will be a sleep over or two in the works. Complete with a movie and popcorn!

Wearing of the cereal

Lucky Charms apparently make good hearing aids. This little leprechaun is always wanting to stick stuff in his ears! We need to really watch him with that. Maybe they itch. I wish he could tell me.

The wearing of the green!

They remembered it was St Patrick's Day and picked their own outfits. I wanted to take a few pictures for their Granny and Pa.

I don't have a green shirt :0(

This will have to do for my touch o' green. It does prove that green and grey look good together. It's a very NW thing to appreciate all of our evergreen trees standing tall against a grey sky. I do appreciate all of the green.

A little tidbit about St Patrick

A friend posted on facebook this morning the following:

"No wonder he gets his own day. Here's a portion of St. Patrick's Breastplate, an ancient prayer attributed to St. Pat."

"

Christ be with me, Christ within me,
Christ behind me, Christ before me,
Christ beside me, Christ to win me,
Christ to comfort and restore me.
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,
Christ in hearts of all that love me,
Christ in mouth of friend and stranger."

While I do enjoy the fun of the holiday and eating hearty home cooked food, it's good to be reminded of the man and his message.

Happy St Patrick's Day!

First-Second-Third COUSINS!!!

The Tapio Homestead

My cousin Betty's daughter, Janine, lives in Clark County. I haven't seen her in years. She was an infant when Harlan and I met. She emailed me earlier in the week to let me know that her mom was in town and wondered if I'd be able to get together with her.

Traveling outside of my little corner of Portland is pushing my comfort zone. There is a lot of open country out there. It was a beautiful drive though and I managed to find my way there and back.

Fast Friends

Janine's 4 year old, Ryan, and our 4 year old, Danika, hit if off right away. They were playing FBI and even went out on a boat! Notice Ryan in the captain's chair?

I don't know what the two of them were up to in this one but whatever it was Danika seemed to be in charge this time.

The little buddies

These two guys played like most toddlers do. Side by side without a whole lot of interaction. They are so alike though. It was fun to see the similar skills in feeding themselves and drinking from cups. Rumor has it that Nolan is quite the climber and busy boy too.

First cousins and triple third cousins

Betty's dad and my mom were siblings. So Betty and I are first cousins. However we both married Hilmans who happen to be double 1st cousins.

Betty's kids and my gang are triple second cousins, which makes these two grandsons of ours triple third cousins!

Are you confused yet?

Only in the faith community of the Apostolic Church have I come across so many "relations". It's kind of nice to have so many cousins. They are our first friends in many cases and are cherished more because of it. It was great to see Betty and get caught up just a little. We really need to get together next time she and Lyle are in the area. I'll make sure to bring Harlan.

Three generations

A U.S. born Canadian resident, a Canadian born U.S. resident and 4 Washingtonians.

Janine's children, Evan, Alyssa, Ryan and Nolan are the ages of Wyatt, Genevieve, Danika and Garrett so I know she is a busy mom. She also home schools which I know takes up so much time. I appreciate her making room in her day for our visit.

Aren't her kids adorable?

Thank you, thank you

One more look in the rearview and we were on our way back to Portland.

Thank you, Janine for the wonderful lunch and warm welcome!

It was a blessing to spend our day with your branch of this ever growing family tree.

A day or two in the life of us

In my downtime

One day while sitting at the computer I looked over toward my DVD shelf. Did you know that you can play the "Alphabet Game" anywhere? Every letter of the alphabet is represented on these cases except one. Darn "Q". Unless you count a question mark as spoken then perhaps that would count.

Mr Mischief caught in the act

He is indeed and equal opportunity search and destroyer.

Yesterday I found him on the middle of the dining room table taking things out of my purse. When I took that away he went on to try to open Wyatt's pencil case.

Today Harlan had barely put his bike bag down and Garrett was up and checking it out. When the bag was taken away he got into this bin of crayons. Toddlers are so much fun!

Breakfast on the road

Hotcakes are hot! I pulled this one out of the bag and it burned my fingers so I flung it on the steering wheel. It cooled nicely. Garrett ate all three of his hotcakes from McDonald's. He was one hungry boy.

Happy Birthday FRIEND!

I got to have lunch with my friend Kim today! It was her birthday. She is 17 for the third time. She has her actual age posted on facebook. I guess when you look so much younger than your age it's okay to have truth in advertising. But when you get to lookin' your age or older, you do what I did and leave the year blank. Keep 'em guessing.

After school playtime

Wyatt loves this water spot in the nature garden at school. It is not a puddle unless it's been raining, just a low spot. Some kids have taken the logs from various spots around the garden to make a footbridge across the water. Wyatt's rain boots allow him to play in or out of the water and mud without fear of ruining his footwear. Good choice for today, Wy!

Flower shower

I wish my camera was doing a better job of focusing these days. Perhaps I should just bite the bullet and send it out to be replaced or repaired. Most of the photos I took today are out of focus.

The tree on the left is across the street from the school. It seems a pink blossomed tree was grafted into a white blossom tree years ago. The street and sidewalks are littered with tiny petals from all the flowering trees. Definitely a sign of spring.

It would be a perfect time for an outdoor wedding amongst a field full of these blossoms if not for the other showers that come along with this season. I'm often reminded of the old hymn "There shall be Showers of Blessing" during this time of year.

"There shall be showers of blessing, Precious reviving again; Over the hills and the valleys, Sound of abundance of rain.

Showers of blessing, Showers of blessing we need: Mercy drops round us are falling, But for the showers we plead."

Hanging out with handsome guys

Garrett the pasta lover

When a kid has been sick or is getting over being sick you feed them what they will eat. Courtney came home from her boot camp class yesterday morning and made mac and cheese for breakfast. Little Mister wanted that for breakfast too.

He had his early morning yucky nose going there but he really is doing much better each day.

Compensating for his hair cut

Gar, Wyatt, and Rylan all got to experience my new clippers. I gave Wyatt and Garrett pretty much the same hair do. Short all the way around. It's so easy to take care of.

At lunch today, Garrett wanted to wear his ramen. I'm glad he refrained from mashing his egg up there too. Never a boring moment around here.

Ry's new look

As we were leaving for school this morning Rylan was coming home from having gone out for breakfast. I enlisted him to go with me for the ride so I wouldn't have to drag Garrett into the school with me. He was glad to do it.

Isn't his haircut great? He's come a long way since Joel T. thought he was a pirate! Can't say that I miss the days of long hair and scruffy beards.

Everybody is cleaning up nicely. I think Cam is due for a trim next.

Happy 2nd Birthday, Katie Kates!

Katelyn Hanna is the big TWO!

Our grand-dolly, Kate is celebrating the anniversary of her arrival into our lives today. It's been two busy years already. It has been such a blessing to watch her grow and change and learn. She is a great little sister to Rowan and a great big sister to Evie.

A lot of the time she is goofy. Harlan was wondering how our "Kiwi" son-in-law felt about his daughter being a "Limey". Sweet silly girl!

She's getting so big!

She has always been only a step or two behind Rowan in trying to do stuff that he does. She's been trying to ride his bike since she could barely walk in the yard. She now has her own! And a Rapunzle doll with a matching pretty purple riding dress. I think Katie is a cross between Tinker Belle and Rapunzle. She has an adventurous streak for sure. Sweet and a little spunky.

She can practice having tea

Har and I got her this Fisher Price tea set. It teaches manner, shapes, and numbers and sings with a British accent. Katie will be ready to sit and have a cup o' tea with Gremmy and Granmum next time she visits Oregon.

No practice needed in the CUTE department

Happy Birthday Cutie-Katie!

We love you!!!

Look Gram"MA" no cavities!

Six month dental check

Danika got to go to see the dentist today. She was so excited.

She noticed the new coat rack right away.

"Despicable Me" was the movie that was showing.

She set the timer to see if she got called back on time.

She is a model patient

I was so proud of her once again. She cooperated with the hygienist and had a great cleaning and fluoride treatment.

Big kid x-rays

She had to have bite-wing x-rays for the first time. They are a little different and more difficult to take.

Dr Sheena and the prize drawers

Dr Krista finished up the check-up and declared her cavity free! Good job Danika!

For each step in the procedure she got to pick a prize, or two, or three from the colored drawers. The green drawer after the cleaning, the purple drawer after the x-ray and the blue drawer after the doctor finishes. Plus everyone gets a balloon. I have a feeling those top three drawers are harboring goodies for those kids that have to endure more invasive treatments. Thankfully we aren't going there this time.

Headed out into the rain

Danika chose to wear her rain boots. Good call.

Notice the hint of pink on the trees?

Spring's popping out all over.