Miss Grace

Grace decided to unpack all the cat food out of the box...then she proceeded to stack them in large towers - each flavor in its own stack.
As she finishes she informs me, "Mama...I missing a cat food." I told her that we'd opened it to feed Shadow.  That answer did not make her happy. She told me that she neeeeeeeded it to finish her bulding.
She didn't get it...it was in the 'frig and would have made the house smell fishy :)

Sunday Grace discovered jewelry. I can't remember how it began, but I'd had my jewelry box down and she asked me something and the next thing I know, we're searching through my jewelry box for something special for her. I told her I've been saving all my little girl jewelry for years in hopes I'd have a girl some day.
The first thing she saw that she "neeeeeeeded" was a Blueberry Muffin (as in Strawberry Shortcake's best friend...the original early 80s version...I remember getting it when I was in third grade (1981) and I believe I'm wearing it in my school picture that year)
Then she told me she "neeeeeeded" a necklace...and I found a Tinkerbell necklace that my mom gave to me when I was a little girl (but older than grace) that was hers...and it's on a long chain so we could just slip it over Grace's head...she was ecstatic.
Her next request surprised me, because I didn't know she knew what they were but she "neeeeeded" a bracelet...and I found one that is a blue heart with a rose in the center (there is a necklace somewhere in that box...this was more jewelry that my mom had give me that had been hers first...I'm just continuing the passing down tradition).  Then she "neeeeeeeded" one for her other wrist. So I found a gold teddy bear charm type bracelet.
Life was wonderful. She hurried off to show Daddy and her boys.
They were properly impressed with her finery and riches.
Then I found a gold (of course none of this is real gold) teddy bear ring that I gave her...she hadn't realized it, but she "neeeeeeded" it to complete her ensemble.
She was quite happy to pose for me and show off all her "pretties"...yep, she'll be 3 in 8 days...she's growing up fast.

Happy Sixth Birthday!!!

On Monday, Nathaniel turned the big 0-6! He had his first party on Saturday - pirate themed (thank you pinterest!!). Sadly, only one of the 4 friends he invited came (one was on vacation and another was sick). But he loves Lucy and was happy and told us it was the best birthday ever! We played Pin the Patch on the Pirate (Orangebeard the Fierce), Pirate, Pirate, Matey (aka Duck, Duck, Goose), Red Light, Green Light and Dad was pretty darn cool and made balloon swords (and some animals...one of Lucy's older sisters loved that and took home a balloon zoo!) They had Pirate Punch, Buried Treasure Cakes and Cannonball Cream.

The cake isn't quite in proportion...the pirates are bigger than the ship (funny since they are all part of the same set) and it wasn't the greatest decoration job, but since we spent most of that day unpacking and moving stuff around, I'm just happy I got it done!

Our birthday boy!!

His backpack & lunchbox didn't survive kindergarten intact (well, he'd used them in preschool too, so I guess they lasted for two years). We went with a little higher quality this year (Target as opposed to Walmart) and Cars instead of Superheroes.  He loves that the lunch box clips on to the front of the back.

Grace had a hard time with the fact that she couldn't open the presents...we told her she's just got about 3 weeks to wait...then it will be her turn.

First Day(s) of School

It's that time of year again...back to the ol' grind! We have a fifth grader and a first grader this year. Both boys have teachers that one or more of their aunts had at some point.
We moved to Fort Jones a couple of weeks ago, but are continuing to have the boys go to school in Etna. It's only a fifteen minute drive, which isn't bad.  However, they can also ride the bus from the junior high (which is half a block from our new house) to the elementary school and back each day. We are trying that out today so I can focus on unpacking and organizing today. They were thrilled to ride the bus (we'll see how long the excitement lasts...when I was in junior high and the junior high began (yes, the one down the street), I was so excited to finally be a bus rider after years of being a "walker." After a few weeks or so, I remember the newness and excitement wearing off and after two years, gladly went back to being a "walker" when I went to high school.

Anyway, here are a few pictures of our first day/s of school. Grace was fine yesterday with leaving the boys at school...probably because we went to grandma & grandpa's afterwards to water their garden. Today, she was whimpery as we walked back to our house from watching the boys get on the bus...and when we came inside cried a little bit because her boys had left her...she's over it now. Amazing how a new Elmo's World video (yep, going old school...found some VHS's in storage) changed her outlook on things.

He was so excited to have a desk this year (Mom, it opens up!!)

 

No, it's not foggy or overcast...it's all smoke from a forest fire in Seiad Valley.

Croquet Golf

I wanted this Croquet Golf set as a wedding gift...we even had it on our registry. No one got it for us (maybe they thought getting married in December, we wouldn't have a use for it). Well, we ended up buying it with a gift card we got. That was back in Dec. 1999. The years pass by and it's June 2012 and FINALLY it gets opened!!!  The first summer we were married, I was recovering from a miscarriage and just never got it out...then we moved. The next summer, we just didn't think about it. The next summer we had little Joshua...it got moved around in the garage over the years, then put in storage when we moved up here. When we moved into our trailer a few months ago, and redid our storage unit, we put it to the front thinking it would be fun to do for family home eveing some week. A few weeks later, Joshua had his friend Calvin over to spend the night, and knowing that Calvin probably wasn't going to want to sit in our hot trailer and watch a movie or something, I grabbed it from storage. The kids loved it!! My kids hadn't really played croquet before, but Cal had. My boys have both minature golfed, plus Joshua likes regular golf. It was fun. Now that we're getting ready to move again, we'll still have a big back yard and they will enjoy it there as well.

Pouting for some reason...she's perfected that look.

Go nathaniel!! 
(see all the blackberry bushes in the back behind Joshua...they're getting ripe now...picked 8 pounds yesterday)

the back of our trailer...flag from the museum (still want to call it the library...that's where it was when I was a kid)

Bubbles, bubbles, bubbles

I totally forgot that I hadn't downloaded these pictures until I was downloading the pictures from Joshua's camera that he'd taken on our adventure the other day (another post) and found these. I will sometimes grab Joshua's camera and use it if 1) my battery is dead (happens often), 2) I don't feel like lugging the bigger camera around, and 3) if it is handier to grab.

This was a pinterest idea...cut the toe portion of an old sock and cut the bottom off an empty water bottle.  Unite the two, dip them in bubble solution and BLOW!!  And then you get Bubble Snakes. We had fun with these for half an hour or so one day at the end of June. My plan had been for me to get them started, and then I could go back inside and do the dishes or something (read). But it never happened. But we had FUN!

Grace did quite well...after we got her to understand that you exhaled not inhaled...and once the bubbles stopped coming out of her mouth :)

And as sometimes (but not often enough) happens, Grace was worn out and collapsed in the chair while I was getting things cleaned up and lunch ready.

Staying Cool

It has been hot lately. And since our trailer isn't exactly a nice cool place, we needed to go cool off somewhere. Wednesday we went to the city pool because it was free swim day...at $3 a person, it's best to go on those free days :) The boys just finished swimming lessons today, but they still wanted to go back. Besides the cost, my sunburned back still hasn't recovered from the pool. We'd had other plans for the afternoon (they weren't keeping cool plans), but they'd fallen through. So I told them to go to the bathroom, put on tennis shoes that could get wet, swim trunks if they wanted to and I had a surprise for them. Joshua figured it out before we got half way up Main Street because I'd said it involved water, but wasn't swimming. And we drove up Old Etna to Grease Flats and headed down to Etna Creek and had fun wading, splashing and throwing rocks for about an hour. Nathaniel told me it was "The Best Day Ever" (I love that kid...any day we do something fun is "The Best Day Ever"...makes me want to come up with something almost every day to hear him say that)  We will be going back (the kids hope Monday) with Brian so that we can explore upstream and downstream...I told the boys that carrying Grace and trying not to slip wasn't the best with me being the only adult. I could just see myself slipping and falling and Joshua trying to figure out how to get me back to the car :)

Heading down the forest service road to the ford in the creek...they were pretty excited.

I think he'd just been splashed in the face by a falling rock (courtesy of one of his younger siblings). After he slipped, fell and banged his knee on a rock within the first 5 minutes we were there, I realized that I hadn't had him put on his old taped together glasses. Not wanting him to do something to the two week old new glasses, I had him take them off. He could see well enough to get around, but was happy to see details again when he put them back on.

 I took this picture with my cell phone to send to Brian.  We'd gotten treats at the store on our way and Nathaniel was still finishing his.

She wasn't too sure at first about her crazy mom making her walk in cold water on slippery rocks...in fact, she kept asking for Daddy. (I don't think she thought I knew what I was doing). But once she discovered that I'd told her the truth about us going to a place with a lot of rocks, well, then she was happy. She threw lots and lots of rocks into the creek.
The obsession this girl has with rocks - I think she'll be a geologist someday.

Must always have big walking stick. I told him to smile for me, and he had to get posed first. Can't believe how big this kid is...the first time we took him here to wade...he was barely walking...time sure flies.

This was taken almost 9 years ago...July 26, 2003

Not his usual cheesy smile, but almost :) He was thrilled to get to stomp around in the creek, throw rocks and he even had a smaller version of Joshua's walking stick until I got tired of him trying to use it and almost knocking himself or someone else over, so I took it and chucked it downstream. Joshua was going to rescue it...I finally got him convinced to let it go!

As you can see, this tired her out pretty good (sadly this was about 4 pm she finally went to sleep around 10 tonight). I looked at the blog post I did in 2010 when we took the kids there the last time (why we don't go up there more often to cool off, I don't know. It's five minutes from the house and as Joshua said, "It's better than the pool 'cause it doesn't cost us a penny!")

Here is a flashback to August 2010...the kids sure have grown and changed...and in some ways, haven't changed a bit.

http://leehappenings.blogspot.com/2010/08/this-and-that.html