Parade, Cake and River!

And diving right into summer, the boys have been busy making messes, getting dirty, and bossing us around.  Quinn now demands music to be played when he wants to hear it, and if he doesn't like the song being played he'll yell "New song!".  Most often he says "Banana Boat?" requesting the Banana Boat song... you know the one that goes "Day-O, Dayyyy-O, Daylight come and me wanna go home..."  I remember it from the movie Beatle Juice.  Well it's Quinn's favorite song.  Sometimes he'll even dance to commercials on TV or random music playing in stores and restaurants - he's definitely got an ear for music.

One day Quinn ran into the living room with this in his mouth, it's a lip-shaped whistle.

At the "Concert in the Park" -

Apparently he preferred his "Banana Boat" song over the live music the rest of us were listening to...

 

And our sweet Ronin is the artistic brother - he makes all kinds of projects that are pretty cool.  I told him that it was Crazy Hat Day at preschool and so he made this hat out of tinfoil, taped random things to it (crayon, pirate coin, cassette tape..) and wore it all day long at school.  The teachers were pretty impressed and said if they had an originality award he would get it.  ha ha!

His "crazy hat"

 

Saturday Ronin and I went to the Camas Days Parade so we could sit in the float for my work.  It was a LONG wait, but he was patient and had fun waving at people the float passed by and he even got some cool glasses and bubbles out of it. 

His funny glasses

 

The kids on the PUD float...

 

Friday night I was helping my friend, Byrekka, make a wedding cake for a friends wedding.  We didn't realize how much work it would be until we got into the decorative half-circles...  I came home at 11:30 that night, and we only had the very small top cake decorated...  She stayed up until 3 AM making more arches.  After the parade on Saturday I helped her finish the cake - we finished at 4PM, 1 hour before the wedding...   It doesn't LOOK that intricate, but each half-circle consisted of overlapping tiny fondant tear-drop shapes that we had to cut out and stick together... It was a miserable cake.  But it turned out pretty cool looking!

The miserable cake.

The bride with the cake.

 

The boys painting together :)

 

Sunday we wanted to have some fun so after nap we went to the river and the boys got to play in the water and sand.  Quinn LOVED the new floaty and cried when he had to give brother a turn.  But that was quickly resolved with cookies.

Holding a cone full of sand...

Practicing...

Yay cold river water!

Ronins turn!

He's good at balancing...

Pretty happy with himself

Smiles :)

 

Water boy

 

Pretty brave 

THE parents

Nobody was ready exept Rory... haha

Ahhh... one of his least demanding times...

 

 This next week the Clark County Fair begins, we are hoping to go on Friday night.  The boys are going to be a handful but they'll have fun I'm sure :)  Ronin told me he just wants cotton candy.  haha

And I had my last gum paste flower class on Monday, it was a lot of fun, but there is no way I'd make most of these flowers again - I'd just buy silk ones if someone needed some of these - they are a lot of work!  but I was pretty proud of my stargazer lilly and apple blossoms :)  Here they are:

 

Lots of love,
C

Cow Bell & Camping

More CowBell!

 

At work my new boss asked my coworkers and I to play some instruments while she played the guitar to sing happy birthday to some of the ladies at work.  I told her I'd only play the cowbell, which she didn't have.  But luckily one of my friends at work had a cowbell at his desk!  So I got to play the cowbell for the happy birthday song and I'm waiting for my super-star-dom to begin once the video hits the internet... ;)

 

My first try at growing dahlia's seems to be successful!  Look how pretty she is!

 

 

And here's Quinny being silly in the fort...

Smiles :)

 

This last weekend we got to go camping for the first time this summer :)  We went all the way to Swift Reservoir by Mt. St. Helens.  It was so nice!  The weather was perfectly warm all day and night, and no mosquitos!  The boys had a blast.  Quinn latched on to Ally, one of the girls camping with us, she's 8 years old and Quinn stuck by her like glue most of the time. 

 

On the way back from the bathrooms.  Holding Madeline and Ally's hands.  Happy guy!

 

Colby stuck a peanut up his nose - Quinn is not impressed...

Aw, cute guy!

Attitude boy

He went to a tree to eat his Cheetoh (notice it on the ground) and play with a barbie (notice he's holding her by her hair)

He kept stealing one of my shoes to go walk in the water...

With Mandy, picking mommy flowers :)

Here Mom I brought you this!

Ronin got to Kayak with Ally's boat and her dad while we were there - he did great!

Dirty faced boy

Ronin and Ally roasting/eating marshmallows

Us ladies - Laura, me and Mandy

The kiddos

When Quinny got tired he'd find Ally and ask her to pick him up.  I told her he probably weighs as much as she does and she said "Yeah, he's kind of chubby and fat"  haha!

In my cake class we made Gerber Daisy's, Sweet Peas, and Stephan*&^  I don't know that name of that last flower.... and we are working on Star Gazer Lillies... Next week is my last class so I'll have them all done... but here is a sweet pea!

 

Funny kids- I wish I could remember everything funny they tell me...  Quinny with his "hugga me!" and "hugga YOU!" when he wants to be held.  He likes to yell "SHUT IT!" whenever he hears a dog bark, not just our dogs, but any dog.  While we were camping he was in the tent trying to go to sleep and one of our friends, Colby, was talking and we heard Quinny yell "Shut it!".  Funny boy.  He started saying "I love you too" a few weeks ago when we say I Love You.  It's so sweet :)  and he gives the slobbery-est kisses.  :)

 

Ronin, every morning, makes me wake him up (if it's not pre-school day) when I leave to go to work- just so he can open the window in the living room and blow me kisses and tell me he loves me.  He gets really upset if I don't wake him before I leave, he will call me and tell me to come home at lunch so he can say goodbye out the window.  Funny boy.

 

What else is new....  Oh, Rory and I got new phones!  His broke after about the 7th time Quinn threw it on the tile floor and pieces went everywhere...  Mr. Destructo!  Mine worked okay but all the software was so outdated I couldn't use it for anything fun anymore.  New toys are fun!  This weekend is the Camas Days Parade - Ronin and I are going to be in a "float" for my work with other families handing out candy.  It should be lots of fun for Ronin, and I get credit for the hours I put in.  The Clark County Fair starts up the following weekend!  Summer will be over before we know it.

 

Everyone at home is healthy, safe and happy, it's a good time :)  

 

We hope Nana feels better soon though!

 

Lots of Love,

C

The Fourth, the beach and a new camera!

For Independence Day we had some friends over to eat pizza and play croquet.  It was nice and relaxing - except for all the fireworks in our neighborhood that went off until Midnight... The kids didn't seem to let it bother them as they snoozed.

 

Madeline and Quinn playing croquet

Us ladies with our croquet mallets

 

Quinny moving our croquet balls :(

 

The very next day I had to make the Hello Kitty cake for a lady that always asks me to make her kids birthday cakes.  I think it turned out pretty well :)  and it gave me a little extra money to spend!

 

 

The free concerts in the park started last Thursday. We went to enjoy the blues band and visit with our friends. It was a nice time. :) I'm not sure that we'll make it to every concert this summer, but it is really nice having something free to go to for entertainment :)

Quinny and Ronin with their cupcakes

 

Somehow Quinny got Sean and Ronin to play Ring-around-the-rosie with him that day.

 

This last weekend we got to go to Lincoln City Friday night.  We all had a blast!  Grandpa Rod had a meeting down there on Saturday so Grandma Jan and us got to hang out and play.  The boys got to play on the beach, fly their kite, eat seafood, go shopping, go to the Hatfield Science Museum to watch an octopus eat her food... it was all very exciting, and exhausting - we had to use Sunday to recover :)

 

Driving to the beach :)

Coloring at the hotel room

 

Funny story -- Saturday morning at about 6 am Quinny peaked his head over his pack-n-play where he was sleeping and said "Breakfast?! Hmmm?!"   It was so comical because it sounded like he thought breakfast was a good idea and he was getting our opinion...  I told him to go back to sleep and he said "kay" but then just mumbled to himself until I pulled him out of bed at 6:30...  funny boy!

Flying our kite :)

Playing in the sand :)

Having a good time in the sand :)

Brothers walking toward the waves

 

We discovered the Hatfield Museum at Newport last time we were at the beach, they take donations instead of charging $20 a person like the actual "Aquarium" does... and they still get to pet the starfish and see fish and an octopus.  We had perfect timing because we got to watch the Octopus eat while we were there, they only feed her about 4 times a week.  Ronin even raised his hand and asked "where is the mouth at?" when she asked if anyone had questions :)

 

At the museum

 

Just incase you wanted to see the octopus too ;)

At the outlet stores - riding a ride

 

He found spiderman!

I wish this wasn't blurry because he was so cute in this cowboy hat!

 

While we were at the outlet mall I bought a new camera!  It's made for underwater and it's sand resistant as well.  I keep ruining all of our cameras because of the amount of sand we encounter every summer - this one doesn't have an external shutter so it's made a little tougher!  It's a Nikon and it was on sale for $99 so I got it!  It takes decent pictures and has some cool special effects.  I tried it in the bathtub but the hot water made everything steam up so it wasn't the best test...  I think it will work great on the river though :)

New Camera color option -- it highlighted his blue eyes :)

New camera "bubble" option - kind of funny to use!

 

My friend Byrekka and I are taking a Monday "Gum Paste" class together. It's basically making flowers out of gum-paste for cakes. I haven't tasted it and I've been told it doesn't taste good anyway...  haha  So far I'm not noticing too much of a difference between that and fondant, except that it dries way faster... We made daisies and ivy leaves last week. Tonight I think we are making apple blossoms and lillies... It's nice to get away and do something like that :)

 

This coming weekend we are going camping with a couple of other families at Yale Lake, should be fun for the boys!  Nana is coming up in a couple of weekends!  and Ronin and I are going to be in the Camas Parade soon for my work :)  Summer is flying by already! 

 

Lots of love,

C