The Big Shindig!

Grandma Joan and the birthday boy Ray

Late June 2008- We had such a great time at the big 75th birthday party for Ben's dad. We had it at the Portland Children's Museum and it was catered so there was very little for us to do. We had the whole museum to our selves so the kids could do whatever they wanted to do. Auntie Dottie and her brilliant girls wrote a play that was like "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs", and all the grand kids performed it for the man of the hour. The kids did great even the Dwarfs that cryed, refused to wear the hats, ran around on the stage, or just sat out in the audience. Then Ben surprised Ray with a slide show with music and pictures, those pictures were so fun to see. It was such a great party everything seemed to be perfect. We all had such a great time.

Nature Sale

Late June 2008- My sweet children love lots of things, one of those things is making money. So when we had lots of family in town someone came up with the idea of drawing on natural things (like rocks and leaves) and selling them to our visitors. They had no over head and made out well.
The shrewd negotiators at work

They were right!!!!!

Mid June 2008- When we moved here and it was still rainy in May people sayed, "you are going to love the summer, well first they would apologize for all the rain then they'd say how much they lived for the summer. Being from SoCal I under stood summer but, when the summer finally came it was amazing all day long. The worst part was that you had to water the lawn 3xs a week and mow, it doesn't rain much in the summer here. Our summer was packed we were having lots of family coming into town starting with Ben's sister Becky and her family. We had a great time with them, they have 3 kids twin girls that were 1yr. and a 2 yr old boy.
They all fit in nicely with our crazy clan!

This is how it looked every morning,

the sun came out at 5am and so

did the babies.

Since the days were so long and warm we ingeniously
gave the kids Popsicles and put them under
the wisteria. They enjoyed it but I soon realized
the dye stained there skin. Tye dyed children, how
Oregon is that?

Cute dyed naked baby

The Kitchen Remodel

June 2008- When Ben and I were talking about things we wanted in a house we knew that since I spend 110% of my day in the kitchen it might be important to get a house that was redone or would be an easy redo. So 6 months later we found the right company, counter material, and pack splash. It was tough to do the demo ourselves but it was worth it. The end result was great. Thanks Ben!

Avery the Preschool Grad.

June 2008- It was a fun time in preschool for Avery, she did really well. We all celebrated with a fun graduation at her school. The graduates all sang lots of nice songs and when it was time for Avery to walk down that path she was happy and sad, but mostly happy.

Hannah's Pic.

June 2008- Hannah is one great artist and a great writer to go with it. One of her art pieces was chosen to be hung in a big event called Fun in The Park. The other was hung in the Library for a time. Great job Hannah!

Go Speed Joshua!

June 2008- Josh turned six! He took a few friends (including his best friend Matthew) to the movies to see Speed Racer. They stopped at McDonalds first and each got a happy meal that had a Speed Racer toy, then headed to the movie. They had a great time. The next day we had a cake and a family party at home.