Exciting season!

I asked Kayliana the other day what she was going to ask Santa to bring for Christmas.  Her response was a very detailed description that went something like this, “A life size kangaroo that you can ride and it has two buttons one that says start and one that says jump and one that says stop.”

So, this doesn’t actually exist.  I told her that, seeing as this is Santa’s busiest season, she might not be able to expect him to invent a brand new toy right now; maybe she could come up with a back-up option.  She sighed and said, “Fine. Playdoh.”

Definitely thinks outside the box, this one.

Mike and I won’t be asking for much, if anything.  We just spent October-November having a huge backyard project done.  We had to have two fifty feet long, four feet high, railroad tie walls removed and rebuilt.  The whole yard was excavated – drainage added, terraced, sod installed, a tree removed, a pad for a shed put in, new flower bed put in, new walls, gravel patio area for an outdoor kitchen installed and a lower one for fire pit area, and a couple of staircases added (including one that goes down into the ravine). The two guys that were here every day were SO incredibly nice and did an incredible job.  It’s so amazing and so exciting and the photos really truly don’t do it justice! We feel so incredibly blessed that we were able (after 4 years of waiting and saving!) to have this project done.  Such an amazing gift.

Here's some old/random before photos:

And after!!! 

Fence gone, new walls, stairs. 

We may eventually add a gate where the brick fireplace is.

Back beyond the BBQ, we're going to add an outdoor bar/counter/kitchen and seating area.

This used to be "grass" that was really just a sloping swamp for 9 months out of the year.

This flat black area is where a shed will go. Flat backyard!!

This area will have a fire pit and more seating.

The yard used to be at the height of the wall and then slope to this level. (The wall is almost 4 feet high, so that's how much they excavated).

My mom gave me the big vase/pot to paint as I pleased. 

Already got a huge hydrangea (my favorite) from my friend's yard. And in the lower right corner of the new flowerbed, there's a "beautyberry." It has amazing bright purple berries and will grow 6 feet x 6 feet.

 Future site of s'mores central!

Stairs up from the ravine.

All of the big rocks/boulders - the guys dug up when excavating the yard. Then they used it in landscaping.

The kids have already loved kicking the soccer ball against the flower bed wall.  

A groundcover/trailing geranium will (hopefully) be growing/spilling out of the tipped pot.

 

Halloween 2016

I better get this up before it’s THANKSGIVING (a week away)! 

Halloween was fun, fun, fun. I love that we have at least two – usually three – events each year, so we get a lot of wear out of our costumes.  I dusted off my prom dress to be a queen, Zachary was the Court Jester, Mike was a knight, Kayliana – a dragon, and Matthew…an army man.  (Yeah, it’s been a few years since he participated in our family theme). 

We stopped by to see my mom (Charlotte with her web and babies) and the library was all decked out – perfect for a photo shoot!

August and half of September - done!

All of August, half of September – done and done.  And thus ended the busiest (but possibly most fun!) summer we’ve ever had followed by our craziest (and eventful!) back-to-school time ever.  Phew!

We started August with Kayliana mastering two-wheels!  (And Mike and I both got about 59 more gray hairs…each).

August 11^th, 2016 was our 15^th Anniversary. (FIFTEEN?!!).  We celebrated with a family camping trip to Lake Wenatchee State Park.  It was a lovely, laidback, long weekend.

Happy Campers!

Less than two weeks later, Mike and I abandoned (lovingly) our children in the caring hands of our besties – Jason and Rebecca.  The next morning Mike and I left on a jet plane for NEW ORLEANS – a combo Anniversary and National Engaged Encounter Convention trip.  I’ve ALWAYS, ALWAYS wanted to go to New Orleans .  With my French major and History and Music Minors…it’s like New Orleans was MADE for me.  Bucket list, baby. 

A SeaTac selfie - SO excited to say the least!

We landed at 10:30pm (only 8:30pm our time) and immediately went with some of our great EE friends down Bourbon Street to experience all the Bourbon Crazy…and the grown-up slushies! 

The next morning, we walked back down Bourbon to Café Beignet in Musical Legends Park.  As we arrived the rain storm ceased, the steamy humidity kicked back in, the sun broke through and - to the sounds of a live jazz band - we had our first beignets.  I teared up.  Totally, totally cried.  It was a dream come true.

Later that morning, we went with our friends to the Bayou for an airboat swamp tour.  Holy stinkin’ Moly it was SO MUCH fun.  The captain would slow the boat down, then kill the fan and then feed the alligators marshmallows (probably not the healthiest thing, but it brings ‘em to the boat).   We saw tons of alligators including one that was 12 feet long and a nest of two day old baby gators.  Super fun!

Albino alligator!

While seeing alligators, tons of fantastic live bands and street musicians, the incredible architecture and historical sites of New Orleans (not all at the same time) we also managed to drink and eat our way through the place.  We did it all – we ate alligator, gumbo, jumbalaya, red beans and rice, muffaletta sandwiches, po’boys and, of course, plenty of beignets. 

The Engaged Encounter Conventions are like a big family reunion and wonderful.  We even had a marriage vow reaffirmation ceremony at the Convention Saturday night before a bunch of us went out and found yet another fantastic band.  Sigh.  I miss NOLA already and missed it the moment we left, but…

We missed the kiddos more and couldn’t wait to see them.  They’d been handed off to my mom for the last part of our trip and were home, all set for the beginning of school.  The kids and I had one last  Summer hurrah and spent an afternoon at the zoo, and then...

Monkeys at the zoo

The boys started September 1^st (Matthew 7^th grade and Zachary 5^th grade).   Kayliana had to wait (oh, the torture!) for September 7^th for her first day of FULL DAY KINDERGARTEN!  She is SO happy and SO loving school.  She still claims that her favorite part of each day is riding the bus.  She was SO freakishly excited to FINALLY step foot on that bus (after years of watching the boys get to ride).  One of the best things is that Zach’s class is the 5^th grade buddy class to Kayli’s class, so they have two (out of three) recesses and lunch together.   

Needless to say, Kayliana handled going to Kindergarten like a champ and I managed to just get slightly-teary seeing her off on the first day.

In addition to school starting, we had a couple of wonderful staycations with Jason & Rebecca including a Labor Day weekend extravaganza with a birthday party to celebrate Matthew turning 13.  THIRTEEN.  

Now, we have a teenager (who finally got a cell phone –yikes!) 

AND three kids in school all day every day.  CRAZY TIMES.

Summer’s come and gone, back-to-school madness is simmering down…and now we’re already in the thick of it!  Here we go again!

 

July?! Check!

Happy August – ahh! It’s the last month of summer vacation already!  Good thing we have plans to make it a ridiculously fun (although busy) finale to this season.

July was over in a blink.  We had a wonderful time though.  We celebrated the 4^th of July (slash a VERY belated birthday for Zachary) at Great Wolf Lodge water park. We had looked up height regulations before we left and saw that Kayliana was about .25-.5 inches shy of the required 48 inches for the biggest slides, so…we brought her ‘fake ID.’  I put a very festive like-fireworks-exploding-out-of-her-head ponytail at the top of her noggin and it did the trick.  The girl measuring her immediately put the coveted green bracelet on Kayli’s arm and off we went to the very biggest, freakiest, fastest waterslide of them all: The Howling Tornado.

Somehow, it was determined that Mike would take Kayli in a tube and I would take the boys.  Well, according to Mike, due to the huge imbalance in their weights, as soon as they hit the big dip/waterfall, Mike was tipped over backwards so much and Kayli was up so high, he was sure they were going to flip over.  Then, upon entering the huge funnel, where you go UP-and-down, UP-and-down  three times through the rapids, on the last UP, Kayli yelled, “I CAN’T HOLD ON MUCH LONGER!”  Of course, they come out and Mike was a little traumatized.  He at Kayli to see if she’s OK, and nano-seconds later, she has a huge grin on her face and announced, “THAT WAS AWESOME!”  She ended up doing the Howling Tornado about 9 times throughout our 2 days in the park.

In addition to the waterslides, Zach got a ‘magic’ wand that could interact with ‘magic quest’ screens throughout the hotel.  He loved it.  Kayli and I joined a lobby dance party in the evening.  And we all watched in pseudo-fear as the lobby-display of freaky, creepy animatronics came to life and repeatedly sang, “There’s nothing to be scared of…here.”  (Matthew leaned over and said, “Uh, yeah, except to be scared of you guys.”)  The people-watching and the constant tattoos-on-parade were an equally fascinating and entertaining visual.  We all had a great time and even managed to watch some fireworks out of our hotel room window before collapsing in bed.

A couple of weeks later, the boys left for a week of sleep-away camp.  My calendar reads that the week they were gone, I was going to declutter and organize and catch up on a year’s worth of music class lesson planning.  I did get some lesson plans done, but that was about it. 

Kayli learned to ride her bike without training wheels – gasp! – the day before the boys left for camp, so that’s all she wanted to do.  Seeing as we live on the side of a pretty steep hill, the only safe(ish) place for her to ride is the bottom of our street.  I managed to take her out every day that the boys were away.  (So, yay mom-choice, boo-lack of visible ‘to-do’s’ accomplished.)  

We also had a few (smallish) trees taken down in our ravine and all of them trimmed up.  It looks so much better and thanks to the tree chips left behind from the work, we even have a level, cleared out play-space at the bottom now.  The kids have been having a great time playing down there and working on building a lean-to fort.  I’ve also been having landscape companies come in to give us bids on the huge project we need to do in the backyard.  (Excavate, level, terrace, put in drainage, remove railroad tie retaining walls, build garden brick walls, put in gravel for an outdoor kitchen and firepit spot, etc.  A HUGE project – and pricey-pricey – to say the least)!  We’re pretty sure we’ve decided which company will do the work and now it’s just a matter of saving up money for a couple more months before pulling the trigger.  (Ideally the work needs to get done before the super rainy late fall-early winter arrives).

I took both boys in for orthodontic consultation.  Zachary will be having oral surgery on 8/22.  He has to have a baby tooth extracted, a cyst removed and biopsied, and a gold chain attached to his permanent canine for pulling down in the future.  (Hopefully it will move in on its own but that’s doubtful and orthodontia will likely be required).   I think the gold gear in his mouth will really boost his hip-hop/rapping career.

And Matthew won the orthodontic lottery and will require everyone’s favorite: braces AND headgear.  (“At home-head gear” – cuz, you know, it’s all PC now, and they wouldn’t dream of subjecting a kid to wearing headgear out in public).   There’s no way we can afford to have both boys in fancy mouth-metal at the same time, so, we may just flip a coin or choose our favorite kid and that one gets the nice set ‘o teeth.

On the books, for this last month: a staycation with our besties (aka a “clancation”), our 15^th wedding anniversary and family camping trip, and then Mike and I head to New Orleans for the National Engaged Encounter convention AND our anniversary get-away.  (Kids are ecstatic as they’ll be staying with the besties and then grandma too).   WHEW!

June Overview/Review

School

This picture right here, pretty much demonstrates how our big push to the end of the school year felt.  Matthew literally fell asleep moments after walking in the door post-bus drop-off, backpack still on.  He worked his tail off to get through his first year of middle school and did awesome – straight A’s!  We’re all happy the school year is done.

Kayliana graduated from pre-Kindergarten.  She’s very excited to be joining the boys in full-day, 

bus-taking school livin’.

Business Venture

Kayliana started a rock-painting business.  We’ve named it “Rockin’ Art.”  She made this “creepy clown” and announced that Uncle Timothy should buy it for either “$50 or $10,000.”  He has yet to complete the transaction.  She started taking her rocks door-to-door and made over $3 in her first day.  The boys quickly realized she was on to something with this plan and immediately joined the family business.  Matthew announced that Kayli should be the main salesperson though seeing as “she’s cute and can sell more.”  He thought a 60-40 split seemed fair.  (Sales-lady would earn a 40% commission).  So far, their primary focus has been on production and they’ve spent several afternoons painting. 

The Creepy Clown rock

 Some of Kayli's creations

 The Rockin' Artists at work

Brief Pet

I discovered this little guy hanging out on our hose wheel.  Matthew immediately ran inside grabbed a vase (of all things!) and built “Winston” a little habitat.  For 24 hours this poor little creature lived in confusion in a vase (with a poked-holy syran-wrap roof) on our kitchen table.  On the 2^nd day, he was looking awfully sad.  Winston had lost his bright green glow and was looking a bit blah-green.  We discussed how he needed food.  For some reason, the boys went in search of bugs and managed not to find a-one.  Really?!  Even with the woods behind us and the bug-eaten leaves in my pathetic attempt at a garden?  After doing some Google-research, the next thing I know, the boys are sprinkling bacon bits into the vase.

“Um, what are you doing?” I ask.

“Well, it said that frogs like meat.  We thought we’d give him some bacon,” Zach logically explained.

“Riiiight, so guys, I think we need to set Winston free….” I start.

The confused and terrified frog, was now crouched in the vase wondering what the heck kind of strange land he’d found himself in.  A place where it rains bacon.

The kids agreed and we put the vase on its side in the yard.  Winston VERY quickly hopped out and scurried away from the bacon-captivity madness.

Yesterday, when I went to water my straggly vegetables, I was startled to discover Winston, happily bright-green again and clinging to his favorite spot on our hose.

Excitement

June brought some exciting events.  Zach was in another Youth Theater play – this time James and the Giant Peach.  He was one of the narrators.

I was blessed with the chance to experience a miracle - the birth of my best friend Rebecca’s 3^rd daughter (and 5^th child) Maria Grace on June 13^th.  She’s perfect.

On June 16^th, I was in charge of the Kindergarten graduation at my big school.  They boomwhacked Ode to Joy (beginner and advanced version), Star Wars and Pomp and Circumstance.  They did AMAZING! They also sang An Irish Blessing which – I’m sad to say, after tons of practicing and fabulous run-throughs – somehow turned out to be a major train wreck.  Oh well.  It’s done!  First crazy school year teaching at 4 different preschools – DONE!  Their practice can be watched here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkaKkCMDyT0.  They did even WAY better at the actual graduation!

We spent a weekend at Lake Cavanagh with our Engaged Encounter family/friends.  We rented a big house and had a BLAST.  Mike gave the kids rock-skipping lessons.  Matthew (aka Mini-Mike) has gotten quite good!

Zachary and I got sassy short summer haircuts.

We’re spending the 4^th of July celebrating Zach’s 10^th birthday (back on April 28^th) with a trip to Great Wolf Lodge water park.  Since we’ll be inside and will miss the fireworks, we took the boys to the Mariner’s game on Friday night, July 1^st.  They won – woohoo!  It was a GREAT game.  And afterwards they had a patriotic fireworks show.  Zach and I were FREAKING out with how amazing it was!  (Mike and Matthew were also there but – as usual – quite more subdued in their reaction).

Happy 4^th of July!  God Bless America!