Plumper Pumpkin Patch

After Christopher's Kindermusik class this morning, he, Benno & I joined friends up at our favorite pumpkin patch--The Plumper Pumpkin Patch! We look forward to October every year just because the pumpkin patches are SO fun around here. 

Beautiful day

One of our favorite features of this patch is the slides!

Benno loves the horses.

Cock-a-doodle-doo!

Brand-new baby calves!

Hello roosters!

Sleepy piggies

Uncooperative boys...

Attempt #2 was equally unsuccessful.

That's Christopher's fuzzy blond head in the left eye. (Thanks Megan for taking the pic...)

Pretty pumpkins

"You put these Scouts to shame!"

Those were the words spoken by the Scout Master to Anthony--Anthony was so excited for his first ever Pack Meeting and proudly dressed in all his scout gear from his cub scout hat down to his cub scout socks. With all these boys, we have many years of scouting ahead of us. (I think now this is why I have all these boys...growing up I always wanted to be a boy scout--no desire to be a girl scout at all--but I wanted so badly to be a boy scout since they always did such fun things.)

I didn't know I'd get to receive a pin too!

This was the big Arrow of Light Ceremony.

All of the boys got to sit inside the giant teepee (which you can barely see here...I was not the photographer in any of these shots)...Anthony thought it was way cool.

My proud and cute little Cub Scout!

Art Lit

Here is a glimpse at the project I helped to create (and I did this one as the example) for this month's Art Literacy at the boys' school. The artist is Pierre Auguste Renoir, and the objective in this project is the use of color (receding cools & advancing warms), value (achieving a 3D appearance, particularly by using complementary colors and NOT black) and the technique of cross-hatching. I had to show the steps (though they're not necessarily appearing in order here). What you can't tell from these images either is that the drawing is done on a folded card and each kid will get an envelope with it...they'll have made their very own greeting card!



***Addendum: So, uh, we had the training this morning...and yikes. Our parent volunteers were frightened. I really don't think the kids will have a problem with drawing and coloring a bowl of fruit...but these parents have to teach the project to the kids--fingers crossed that they can pull it off!
(Amy, our school district here does not hire art teachers so instead we have this volunteer-led program called Art Literacy in which we teach 6 lessons a year featuring different artists and one culture (this year's is Oaxacan Carvings...last year was Aborigine...and before we had India & Mexico) and we do our own projects based on those lessons. Pretty fun and a fun way for me to be involved at the school!)

Still here...

...Whoa, just noticed it's been an entire week since I last posted anything...  It's not that there hasn't been anything going on (not by a long shot!) but nothing that is going on is all that noteworthy at the moment. 

For the next month until soccer ends, Mondays the boys have violin lessons & soccer...Tuesdays it's gymnastics & soccer...Wednesdays it's scouts & soccer...Thursdays it's gymnastics & soccer again...Fridays more gymnastics...Saturdays more soccer...Sundays, after church we're just plain wiped out!

I've volunteered to be an Art Literacy Coordinator this year for the boys' school. The last couple years I've been a plain old Art Lit volunteer...so I figured why not take the next step and get a little added involvement (and more responsibility.) I helped to come up with the first project the kids will be doing this year...hopefully it's a big hit! The first official training for that is on Thursday so we'll see what the other volunteers think of it.

On TV with the baby elephant!!!

Friday, Christopher, Benno, Grandma & I went to the zoo to enjoy the gorgeous day. We are lucky here at the Oregon Zoo to have a brand-new baby elephant! So of course, that was our first stop when we arrived. There was a long winding line waiting to get in to get a peek at the baby elephant...it was worth the wait though!

We just happened to visit the zoo on the day that the baby elephant was finally named and so a news crew was there doing a report:

I just found a link to that news report...and guess what??? WE'RE IN IT!!! At the very end, watch for Christopher in his orange shirt and his orange Nemo cap standing right behind where the reporter is speaking. Then you see the stroller & me & Grandma for a moment but then you see Bub again. Not like we're doing anything noteworthy but we were excited to spot ourselves there anyway!

Click here to see us and the baby elephant on the news!

Benno sees the hippo:

And zebras...Christopher's favorite was the giraffe.

Benno willingly wore his hat for only a few minutes on the train:

We took the MAX train to the zoo and back since they let you ride the zoo train for free if you do...not sure it was totally worth it since it took us so long to get there and home again. Nice to save a little $ though on the zoo train.

Weekend news

We are in the midst of soccer season here... Some great shots I caught of Anthony at Saturday's game:



And we were sad Sunday morning to have to say goodbye to Grandma, who's been here all week with us (and with the boys when we were gone). Thank you again, Grandma!!! WE LOVE YOU!!!

Bowling with Bub

Friends of ours take their kids out on "dates" one at a time once a month or so and we decided that was a good idea...so we started by taking Christopher to go bowling on Friday night. He LOVES bowling and once he knew that was what we were doing, he kept checking the clock and running to tell me it was time to go.
And of course the other boys were disappointed that they couldn't come along (thank you again Grandma for watching them yet again!), but they'll have their turns soon enough. As a bonus, a lane wasn't immediately available when we first arrived so Christopher got some good arcade time in too. Fun night with our little Christopher!

Anniversary trip photos...

Here is a sampling of photos from our trip...if you're interested in seeing the entire album, that is located here.

We drove up through Seattle and Vancouver, BC, to Horseshoe Bay, where we caught the ferry that took us across to the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia.

At last we arrived at our Bed & Breakfast--A Place by the Sea--and here is our fabulous room:

And the view from our room:

On Monday we went kayaking in the Sechelt Inlet, an inland sea--so while it's technically ocean water, it's so sheltered that it's very calm.

We also got massages and a wonderful dinner before enjoying gelato at the pier watching the sunset that evening.

Tuesday found us hiking...first to Francis Point and then here to Skookumchuck Narrows where we watched this crazy kayaker braving those intense rapids.

After Skookumchuck, we went horseback riding!

And on the way home on Wednesday, we stopped to check out the Capilano Suspension Bridge in North Vancouver, BC.

There was more to the park than the one bridge...we really liked this Treetops Adventure walk too.

It was a truly memorable and exciting trip...can't think of a better way to have celebrated our 10th anniversary! (As a funny coincidence, we also went kayaking & horseback riding on our honeymoon 10 years ago! Don't know that we'll make a tradition out of that.)

Home after a FANTABULOUS trip!

Here's my little placeholder until we get all our photos downloaded from 3 different cameras...

George & I just spent 3 nights at the beautiful Sunshine Coast of British Columbia, Canada...we stayed at an amazing little bed & breakfast right on the water of the Sechelt Inlet. First day, we went kayaking, had simultaneous massages, "free" dinner out followed by gelato while watching the sun set from a pier...and next day, hiked to Francis Point, then to the Skookumchuck Narrows (AMAZING!), then went horseback riding with a crazy guide named Andy, dinner at a Greek restaurant...and oh yeah, we visited the hot tub a couple times and watched a couple movies and um, anyway....lots of great stuff (not to mention some amazingly delicious breakfasts brought right to our room)! And today on our way home we stopped at the Capilano Suspension Bridge in North Vancouver, BC--WAY WAY WAY COOL.

Lots to tell, but the photos tell the story way better than I can describe so you'll have to wait and see. So great to be home though...we missed our boys! And HUGE THANK YOUs to Grandma X who stayed here with the boys for us!!!

Ball, Baptism, Bluegrass & Birthdays

Could we possibly pack any more into ONE day? (Maybe I shouldn't ask that question...could be jinxing myself.)

Started the day with Anthony's first soccer game of the season (I love the blond boy's expression in this photo...Anthony's off to the right there):

Then to the chapel for the most important event of the day...Anthony's baptism:

Then it was Bluegrass Festival time...check out the sign I made (and the boys helped a tiny bit too):

Then, since today is Papu & Ellen's birthday, we finished the day with cake & ice cream:

Grandma Darlene, Granddaddy & Grandma S.

All the little cousins together: