Playtime

The past week or so, the boys seem to be playing together really well....all three of them! Usually it is just two playing together and then fighting with the third. I have found these playful moments so wonderful and found myself snapping pictures of them all week.

I love the fact that our boys play with imagination! They don't "NEED" tv or video games, they just come up with creative and fun things to do.
Here are just a few of the things I caught them doing......


Playing U.S. Coastguard rescue swimmers. They saved MANY people from stormy waters on this afternoon!



The three head chefs from Ankeny Cafe. They cook some mean "doughnut, peanutbutter pie" at that restaurant! They look so cute! I love the hat Braden is wearing.



Dress up! I only got Jacob dressed as a (to put it nicely) "large man". I just thought he looked so funny! Braden pretty much stayed in the fireman costume the entire time, and Samuel...well....in his underwear. (big surprise!)


This isn't really play time. Jacob was having quiet time and wanted to color with the scented markers. He came down with socks over his hands and went right to the bathroom. When he came out a few minutes later, the socks were off and he showed me a purple hand (that smelled like grape) and said "Somehow marker got all over my hand when I was coloring"......REALLY??? Somehow??? It didn't come off when he washed at the sink so we thought he would have to go to school the next day with a purple hand. Fortunately it came of in the bath that night.



And again, not a play time picture, but worth posting I think. Samuel came and got me from folding laundry and said "Braden is eating butter". Of course I grabbed the camera on my way past the office. And, there he was in the middle of the kitchen with the stick of butter I had taken out for making potluck brownies! GROSS!! It's unsalted butter too, so I would imagine that it tastes even worse. He seemed to like it.
Why do kids do that? I remember seeing a picture of my youth pastors daughter eating a stick of butter, so I guess it is a common thing. Kids are weird!

Lots going on!

There have been several times in the past two weeks that I have said to myself..."I need to put that on the blog", and suddenly it is 11:00 and I am exhausted!
I seem to be busier lately, but a little out of sorts as well. I am trying to get myself used to new home school material for Samuel's reading comprehension and writing. Between his program, home school and shuttling them (walking) both to and from school, I don't have time for much else.
Tonight I am not feeling very well. I guess I'm coming down with a cold, or at least it feels like it. Luke says that maybe I am just run down.
Anyway, I thought I would put something up here, just to get me going again.

On Sunday after church we drove to Leavenworth (VERY cool town, a must see if you come to visit us!). The fish hatchery up there was having their annual Salmon Festival. Unfortunately in our rush to get out the door after worship, I forgot the camera....sorry!

We had a lot of fun though. We ate lunch, played Fish Ladder mini-golf, walked through a salmon maze, got to see some cool birds of prey including a Bald Eagle (would have been a great picture!).
The best part was kayaking! They had one of their old fish ponds filled with water and a local company brought out a bunch of kayaks, children and adult sizes.
Jacob was terrified as soon as he put his foot in one, so he didn't go.
Samuel on the other hand, climbed right in and went for it. It took him a while to get the hang of paddling, and he crashed into the cement wall many times, but he never gave up. He was having a blast out there and we were so proud of him!
Luke was going to take Braden, but they just don't make kayaks big enough for him. He managed to wedge himself into one, but as soon as he started to paddle away, he started tipping! It was actually pretty funny to see. A guy from church works at the hatchery there and happened to be close by when Luke was climbing in, so he came over to laugh!
Luke ended up pulling back off to the side and getting out (with some help...he was kinda stuck).

So, I got in and took Braden for a lap around the pond. It was fun and definitely something I would enjoy doing more of (too bad Luke can't enjoy it with me!).

I really wish I had pictures!

I do have some other shots I've taken from the past couple of days and I'll work on getting those up tomorrow (no promises though).

Budding Artist

I think maybe Jacob will grow up to love art as much as Uncle Jim did. He will take advantage of any opportunity to do something artsy or crafty. Especially drawing!

He has his very own journal that NO ONE can touch. He will carry it with him in his back pack on trips, hikes or other outings because he will draw pictures of things he sees along the way....to document the outing.

Today he brought home a paper from school that he was especially proud of. I was also quite impressed with this drawing and he agreed that we needed to show it to all of you.

So, here is Jacob's elephant!



(this one is a little blurry. Rather than take a picture of this, I scanned it, but blogger wouldn't let me upload it for some reason....I'll have to keep working on that)
Isn't it the cutest elephant you've ever seen a 5 year old draw?!

Fun Run

Yesterday, the Chamber of Commerce held their first ever fun run (I think it will be annual now). There was a 10k run, a 5k run/walk, and a kids 1k run/walk. Samuel and Jacob really wanted to compete and we thought it would be a good way for Samuel to show off his running skills (since he has to do it for his program). Of course, it was also a great way to be out in the community and getting to know people.

Luke volunteered to hand out water at one of the water stops, so Rachelle (who was here on a Yearly Meeting visit/Luke and Heidi visit), Braden and I walked as the boys ran, to cheer and take pictures.

The boys waiting as the other races got started. They are standing with a couple from our church and their two boys. (She was on the XC team at Fox a few years before I got there....very gung-ho distance runner!)


Samuel at the start.... I don't think the starting block position helped him out at all, but he's got a pretty good stance anyway! There were quite a few boys from school that ran, several of them from Samuel's 2nd grade class.


Jacob, on his way back up the hill to the finish line. He was behind these boys most of the way. He would run right up behind them and then slow down because they were not going fast enough. We told him to pass them, but I guess he is too good of a sport and couldn't bring himself to go around.


Here comes Samuel, being cheered on by a classmates mom. He didn't do as well as he had wanted too. Learning that you don't win every time is a hard lesson to learn. He struggled with his place when he crossed the finish line, but by the time we were headed home he was saying, "All the runners got t-shirts because we were all winners." He did his best and we were very proud of him!



And then I will add this photo on, just for you too see....his newest addition to his program. The last visit we had at REACH, Charlie gave us instructions on how to build this set of monkey bars.

Amazingly, monkey bars help kids develop in a lot of ways. It develops eye/hand coordination, convergence, chest capacity (more oxygen to the brain), vestibular system (balance), and hand strength. I have to hold him because I am swinging him as he moves his hands from rung to rung. This teaches his body the movement that he needs for that momentum that will propel him to the next rung...rather than doing a "dead mans hang" and moving slowly across. He is getting the hang of it and will be buzzing across there on his own in no time.
So, we have a huge set of monkey bars in the basement garage if you ever want to come over and swing!

Chelan County Fair

Last Saturday we went to the County Fair for the afternoon with one of the families from church. This is not just a typical family (mom, dad and a few kids). We went with the Petersons....Grandpa, Grandma, Debbie, her husband and two boys, Diane, her husband and two boys and a cousin. They are a family that LOVES to talk too, so needless to say I didn't take many pictures. I was too busy enjoying the conversation.
One highlight that I wished I had pics of was the pig races....very funny!
Anyway, here are a couple shots.

This was the largest "beef" entry this year. All 3 of the boys were very interested in the animals and why kids raise them and show them at the fair. It might be something they get into soon....smaller animals though, like sheep or goats.





Samuel on one of the tractors on display. Since our group had 6 boys under the age of 7 (and another 2 who were older) we spent a LONG time in the tractor area. They just ran from one to another, driving, plowing, whatever they thought their specific tractor was built for.


This one was Braden favorite. I'm afraid he killed the battery because he had the hazards on the entire time he was up there (maybe as long as 30 minutes!)


Jacob was beginning to look tired at this point. School everyday has wiped him out and when he isn't at school he is still going a million miles a minute. Poor kid is exhausted!



After we had seen everything, of course we had to get some ice cream!

Samuel chose a frozen, chocolate covered banana (see it in the corner?). The picture didn't turn out, so that's all you get to see of his treat.
Luke got an elephant ear. I am not kidding you when I say it was the size of an actual elephant ear (African elephant even!) He had to carry it with two hands and it was still falling over the edges of his paper. It was yummy!

As a side note, starting tomorrow Samuel will be home in the mornings until about 10:30, then he will join his class at school. This will give us enough time in the morning to get his sessions done and I will be homeschooling to cover the things he is missing in class (mainly reading comprehension). His teacher is very supportive and helpful. She is even going to "train" me on Thursday so that I will know exactly how she is going to be using their reading curriculum and book.
This will be an adjustment for us (another one), but I am hopeful that after the first week we will be in a good rhythm and our days will run smoothly.

Bike Sledding

On the side of the house, we have a hill that is pretty steep. Today I went down to tell the boys to come in for dinner, and here's what they had been doing.

They named it "Bike Sledding".












It's fun to be a boy!
(or a girl for that matter....I'll admit, I raced down in the wagon and it was fun!)

Kindergarten Look Out!

After much anticipation on Jacob's part, he finally had his first day of kindergarten! He was up at 6:30 this morning, dressed and ready to go...practically bouncing off the walls until we walked out the door!

Luke told him to hold up a "k" with his fingers....is this the sign language symbol? We don't even know, but if not, though he was pretty creative.



Pay no attention to the piles of laundry in the background...just look at that beautiful blonde boy on the steps.

He had a great day. He wasn't afraid to run off at the playground when we got there and he was very excited to see a boy from VBS in his class (also named Jacob). He thought it was great that the other two boys at his desk group were named Jacob and Braden, so they were easy for him to remember.
He gets a locker to put his things in, just like the big kids and he can't wait to start math (he didn't get that from me! YUCK!).

It was strange to have Braden home alone for the morning. We had fun playing with his tractors and farms, then we made some Amish Friendship Bread and he took a trip into Wenatchee with Daddy. I think he will enjoy having a little bit of time to himself (at least until we get Samuel's schedule figured out...he is still going full day, for several reasons but that will change next week I think).

Hiking

We have been trying to spend our days off exploring our new environment. Luke and I have always liked going for hikes and we want the boys to enjoy it as well. There are more trailheads and hikes around here than you can count, so this was the activity for Saturday. We packed a lunch and drove about 25 miles up river (right up OUR road) and hiked around Silver Falls.

The boys at the trail head.



Jacob leading the pack. He and Samuel are tough! There were some pretty steep climbs and narrow trails and Luke and I had a hard time keeping up with them!



The falls just before they reach the trail head.



And the falls quite a bit higher. After you cross over the top of the falls, you head down the other side and can walk almost underneath. I guess you used to be able to hike under them, but they have blocked it off now...too bad, that would have been fun.



We love the fact that we can drive a few miles up our road and be surrounded by trees again! Whenever we miss Oregon and get a little tired of the high dessert look, we can come here.



Jacob thought it would be fun to ride down this part of the falls on an inner tube. Luke said, "yeah if you want to die!"


We stopped for lunch just above the top of the biggest fall. There was a perfect place to sit and enjoy the water, tucked in off the main trail.



Braden wanted to cross the stream and eat lunch on the rocks with Samuel and Jacob, but the boy can not sit still for 2 seconds! There is no way we were about to let him go over there. We know for a fact that he would have ended up in the water!



When we reached our lunch stop, there was a nice little pool in the stream. Zoe jumped in and just laid down in it. It was VERY cold water but she didn't seem to mind after the long climb up.

When we were done with our hike we drove the rest of the way up Entiat River Road to where it dead ends (about 38 miles from our house). There are some great, remote campsites up there and we are really looking forward to doing some camping and more hiking! We have made a family decision that we are going to save up some money to buy some good overnight packs so that we can hike in to a site and spend a night or two. Can't wait!