Wine, Leprechauns and a Narwhal

The boys have been busy, especially since the weather has been so nice lately.  Bella is over almost every evening to play with the boys.  Quinn cries when Bella and Ronin play in the cul-de-sac without him, so I walk him out there and sit on the bench so he can play too.  But when I'm ready to come in, he cries again because he wants to stay outside with his brother and the neighbor kids.  I caught him trying to climb the fence after I turned my back, sneaky little nugget!

Quinn riding his bike in the cul-de-sac -- he's probably ready for a bigger one already!

The boys and Bella getting crafty- and messy.

They made a puppet show!  With no pre-written or thought out script their play was a little hard to follow, but the plot twist involving a song about poop was amazing.

Bedtime selfie

I brought the boys back fire hats from a sandwich place I went to at lunch.  That scratch on Ronin's face is from his loving brother.  :/

Quinn loved the hat- not the picture taking...

A couple of weekends ago the ladies and I wanted to do something fun since I didn't have the kids... again. :(   I found out there are four wineries in Ridgefield - so we all went wine tasting!  It was a lot of fun, the day was beautiful, I kept giving my wine to Julie because I didn't like most of it, and I learned the sweeter the wine the more sulfates - which are the wonderful things that give you headaches.  I guess I can never be a serious wine drinker. *sigh*

The first winery had a man-made lake, Bethanies.  It was so pretty!

Julie, Brandee, Byrekka and me

We found this sign so we had to get our picture!

Brandee, Me, Byrekka and Julie

This place had Alpacas!

Here's our picture from the Joe Rogan show we went to a couple weeks ago - they posted it on their website (along with everyone else's).

Robert got a new bbq -- it's a pellet grill!  Everything that comes out of it is sooooo good tasting!  Even hamburgers are like 10 times better on this thing... yumm....

The weather is just so nice- we even let bunny out to eat our garden... he dug a hole and rolled in it trying to take a nap, until the kids saw him looking oh-so-cute and crowded around him. 

Bunny in the garden

We decorated for Saint Patricks day and put on little green hats :)

I  was hoping this last divorce "settlement hearing" last week was the last of it... It wasn't...  and this last weekend was the third weekend in a row I didn't get to sleep in with and spend whole days with my boys.  So after the hearing I picked Ronin up and we went to Big Als for just mommy and Ronin time. He was pretty happy :)  I don't get to do that nearly enough - he's such a good boy and so smart.  He's at the perfect age where he has developed patience, some reasoning skills and I can actually have a conversation with him.  We played some games and sat for our lunch and played more!  We made sure to bring Quinn a prize back too.  Ronin told me later that it was "the best day ever! Can we do it again tomorrow?"  haha  The next day I got off work a little early to spend time with just Quinn too.  :)

 

Some of our prize tickets at Big Als

Ronin had to make a "leprechaun trap" for school last week.  I gave him the supplies and helped cover it in green and he took off with it.  He painted some stones gold and glitter and made a bed and a fake computer to make it feel at home.  

Ronin's Leprechaun Trap

Quinn wanted to make a leprechaun trap too!

He found a mustache sticker.

Last weekend I didn't have the boys again so Julie and I made lunch plans to go to Kells Irish Pub in Portland.  I didn't think it would be too busy Saturday at noon before Saint Patricks Day- but they were hopping!  Irish music and dancing, a whole tent set up outside...  Luckily I brought my unicorn mask-- just in case!  Although it seemed to attract some weirdos...  ha ha!

Very Irish

Julie and me :)

This is Jay- he zeroed in on the unicorn in a matter of seconds - he was also highly intoxicated.

Creepy Irish Elvis...

And Tuesday was Saint Patricks day.  When the boys woke up I had little gifts for them: place mats, new dishes and gold coins.  The night before we had all made shamrock necklaces so I set those out for them too.  And a note from me in green glitter :)  They were all excited for new stuff- Quinn was in a hurry to use the divider dishes.  haha

Yay stuff!

My boys :)

We made corned beef, cabbage, vegetables, and Irish soda bread.  

Ronin told me "this chicken is too salty!"  haha  But Little Red ate almost all of his and wanted more.

After dinner the boys wanted to do something crafty - so they made paper mache masks.  I dried them in the oven and they got to paint them before bed.  They aren't finished yet since they were still wet last night, so I'll post pictures when they are :)

Paper Mache!

I wanted to make something too... so I made a paper mache Narwhal.

 

Head Lice, Jumping and Parties!

Ronin turns 7 years old tomorrow!  It's crazy how fast time goes by and he's such a big boy - sometimes I forget just how smart he is and he's always surprising me!  

The last weekend Rory had the boys, they wound up with headlice.  Who knows when or how they got it, but the poor boys!  I got their hair cut really short, which seemed to help a lot since the little creatures didn't have a lot to hang on to or lay eggs after that.  I think they are mostly clean if they don't get reinfected again :)

Quinny wanted his stuffed animals tucked in with him, and for me to kiss them all goodnight. :)

Last weekend Quinn demanded to wear a crown while eating his french toast breakfast.

Quinn and I met up with Byrekka for dinner at Red Robin one night while Ronin played at Bellas.  

We brought the unicorn and Quinn wanted to wear it.  

The lady who cuts my hair, Shelley, was having a birthday party for her son last weekend and invited all of us to come too.  So we did- and it was lots of fun!  The G6 Airpark is just a warehouse full of trampolines.  I jumped for an hour and the boys jumped for another 45 minutes after I was done.  It was a lot of exercise and everyone had fun :)  I had to carry Quinn out because he was overly-tired from not napping earlier in the day.  But the next day he woke up and asked if we could go to "that jumping place" again. hehe

Trampoline place

I got them matching bulldog shirts :)  Bella came with us to the birthday party.

This is Shelley and Quinn - he followed her around like a puppy.

Ronin and me taking a break for a selfie ;)

Both of the boys got new shirts, this is my favorite on Quinn!  He's so damn cute!

Irish ham!

Ronin's 1st grade class had a Green Eggs and Ham breakfast with the parents.

Toothless boy

Alesha was bored so she came over to help me decorate.  

I gave her her birthday gift early- the cat tshirt.

Monday after school we celebrated Ronin's 7th birthday.  The neighbor kids came over and so did Sean and William with their parents.  It was SUCH a nice day outside, they got to play out back while the rest of us were inside chatting.  The kids played pin the tail on the minecraft pig, and they had a scavenger hunt to find the eggs with the tools to make a "torch" before we could light the cake and sing.

Ronin's "Creeper" cake!  -- The green frosting made Quinny poop green for a couple of days. haha

Madison with her creeper shirt!

The kids picking out a mask on a stick...

Singing happy birthday

Blowing out his candles before Quinn does

Little monsters

Opening his gifts :)

Shilo wore the unicorn

Ronin got Minecraft Lego's, - they were all pretty excited about those.

Posing

Creeper mask

Since last night was the last night I had with the birthday boy and his brother before they go away for the weekend, I took them and Cheyla to dinner at McGraths so Ronin could have crab.  He loved crab a year ago, and now he thinks it smells and looks gross.  :(  So Cheyla and I ate some of his crab for him.  Maybe he should stick with breaded shrimp next time.  And Quinn tore apart his burger in a million pieces instead of eating it.  This is why we can't go nice places! haha He did eat all the sour dough bread though, so he was probably pretty full.  

Waiting for our food

Playing with the crab arm

I'm fairly sure Quinn is flipping me off here... or eating ice cream, or both.

And the wait staff sang Happy Birthday to him and took his picture with the hat on :)

Robert and I got to see Joe Rogan at the Helium comedy club last weekend - it was sooo funny and I had a good "adulty" night out.  Much needed and appreciated :)  We had a good week and weekend.   They are a handful but also a heartful :)  I love being with them so much!   Ronin is reading sooo well I'm amazed by the things he picks up on.  His regular school teacher is out for the rest of the year with complications to her pregnancy, so now he has a new teacher that I just met on Monday.  She's very young, but I'm sure she'll be just fine.  I get frustrated not getting feedback on Ronin through all these substitutes he's been having.  Now maybe they can focus on getting the kids on track again.  I bought Ronin books that are beyond his level of reading at school, and he seems to do just fine with them.   He told me that he hates school.  Especially math.  And I told him how much I LOVE Math, especially when he gets to algebra because it's like a little puzzle and it's so much fun -- he told me to stop talking to him about math being fun. haha

Quinn is in a weird kissing butt's phase right now...  he likes to come up behind me and kiss my butt.  I tell him he can kiss my face instead, but he thinks it's funny to kiss my butt.  weirdo.  Yesterday I gave him some goldfish crackers in a bowl and he spun around in a circle making half of them spill onto the floor in the kitchen.  I told him the pick them up.  I came back in and he was picking them up and eating them, there were some tongue licks on the floor where he apparently tried licking them off the floor... so gross!

That's about it for now!   I think we'll go visit Nana and Papa on our next weekend :)

Lots of love,

C