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

Summer is here!

Summer is officially here!  and it's hot :(  the boys don't seem to mind since we have A/C in the house and a kiddy pool and spinkler in the backyard.  Lucky boys. 

 

Ronins family picture of us- we have lightbulbs above our heads because we all have an idea.

 

We went to the river on Saturday to cool off and enjoy the sand and water.  Ronin loves the wave runner and Quinn just loves playing in the sand and running into the water - he's very brave because the river water is still super cold.  He doesn't seem to notice.  My little Tonka boy.

 

Ronin on the wave runner with daddy

Ronin and mommy

Self Photo :)

Our garden is doing well, it's hard to keep up with how much water it needs, but we have some veggies growing!  :)  Rory even has an apple growing on one of his new apple trees.

The boys and the garden :)

Quinny in the fort

Ronin has a bigger gap- he lost tooth #2 Sunday night!

He loves the castle in the backyard

Addicted to coffee cups...

We don't let him drink coffee, but for some reason he loves to ask for coffee and drink out of them. 

Cutie

Kiddy pool

Moments before he threw the hat in the lawn

 

Rory and I have been addicted to the HBO show called "Game of Thrones" lately.  A friend gave us the DVD's for season 1 and 2.  Awesome show!  We are almost done and Season 3 doesn't come out until next year!  So while we were watching more of our show I premade some decorations for a "Hello Kitty" cake I'm making this weekend for a little girls birthday.  :)

 

 

I have the 4th of July off and we are having friends over that evening to eat pizza and play some lawn games, should be a fun night :)  Our neighbors have been shooting off fireworks since they started selling them in the tents...  the dogs hate it.  Poor dogs.

 

Ronin's been playing Plants Vs. Zombies a lot lately, he calls it "Lance versus Zombies" though and says that Lance is the name of the guy who lives in the house, and who the zombies eat if the plants don't protect him. 

 

Quinny picked up the words "dang it" and I can hear him sometimes in his room saying "dang it!" while playing... I'm not sure if he knows what it means or not...  but it's pretty funny to hear.   He was also given a "treasure box" by daddy with some things in it like rocks and a watch and mardi gras beads.  Every night before bed he likes to sit down and look in his treasure box, he says "treasures?! treasures?"  it's so cute!  But now he ripped the lid off the box so it's just an open box...   He's too strong!  He's still pinching and scratching.  When Ronin is in trouble and I'm raising my voice to him Quinn likes to try to protect him by coming over to me to scratch or pinch me!  I think they'll be good buddies...  they play a lot together already, unless one of them takes something the other one wants. haha

 

More adventures to come...

 

Happy Fourth of July!

C

 

Ronin's got new wheels

A few weeks since my last blog entry...  Seems like time has slowed down a bit for us, thank goodness!  Our 6th anniversary was in June and we were able to take the day off from the kids to see a movie, have some food, and shop without little hands grabbing things and big mouths whining about other things.  It was nice :)

 

Rory is injured with his right foot, the doctors have been going between telling him it's gout and it's tendonitis... Either way he's been pretty crippled with pain so we've been playing a lot outside instead of going places lately.  One day Ronin decided to be a dog, so he got out his paper supplies, tape and scissors and made a clever dog disguise...

 

Ronin as a dog, he even had a tail and a collar :)

 

For fathers day we made daddy a nice big pancake and egg breakfast and baked yummy banana bread to celebrate.  Ronin wanted to make him something so I told him to make him a tie- the clever guy made one, and then made each of us pose with it on for a picture, he took all the pictures, except for his own.

Daddy and his tie

Ronin with the tie

Mommy with the tie

Quinny in the tie

The boys have been good.  Quinn got out of his crib once this week, Cheyla said he cried when he fell, but didn't hurt himelf too much.   Now it's all downhill... we'll have to get a bed for him which means he'll be coming into our bedroom asking for "cookies, cake, chocolate, milk" at all hours of the night... haha

Brothers :)

Axl shading instead of sunning...

Ronin got a bigger bike this last week.  We got it for $20 off of craigslist and fits him soo much better than his last one.  He can keep up with us with no problem now, and it even has spiderman on it.  He is one very happy kid :)

Riding around our street

 

We've been trying to pick a good color to repaint the house, the color I chose was called "Fishermans Wharf" and is similar to our current color but maybe 3 shades darker, you can't tell in the picture, but it's more green and less yellow than our current color.  We started with the shed and haven't started on the house yet.  It will probably take us all summer to get it done, but the house will look so much better once we do!

 

That's about it for now!

 

 

Lots of love,

C