Summer camps

We had a packed summer with lots of fun camps: Marin (fishing, ballet, sports. swimming, VBS), Madeline (ballet, sports, swimming, VBS), Max (soccer, sports, swimming, VBS), Marcus (cheering-squad-of-one for abovementioned classes)... :) SOOOOOO much fun!

You know you have a smart phone when...

... your entire photo stream is filled with mother-child selfies :) Oh my word.

Go Timbers!

We won four tickets to see our favorite soccer team, the Portland Timbers, and took our college buddies, the Schmierers along with us to the game. And what do you know, the team mascot (is that what we call him, a mascot?), Timber Joey found us and posed for a pic! Fun times :)

School year wrap

Another year has come and gone, and my big girls officially completed 1st & 2nd grade. A few special memories included "Donuts with Dad" on an early Friday morning at school, and a presentation by Marin's class to our retiring principal Mrs Hill. The kids make a hand-crafted clay butterfly as well as a book outlining all the kids' ideas of what Mrs. Hill should do with all her free time during retirement (my personal favorite was "take a nap", ha!). Also it's hard to read that white board, but here is the story with that - this white board is positioned at the entrance of the school and it asks various questions, the kids are welcome to take a pen & write responses. This day, the topic was "last day of school for the kindergarteners" - and i just so happened to walk by and notice Marin had signed it. It reads "Dear kinders, I am so proud of you! Thank you for working hard. Love, Marin"  - i am dying laughing!! She is such a BIG KID now, i remember when she was a teeny little kinder.

Spendin' our time with family

It is a gift to have family nearby. Even though we don't have regular gatherings, we sure do have fun together when we make the time! Here are a few snapshots of recent shenanigans. Cousins at the park, and grandparents feeding the ducks (ps. that is Madeline singing a little song to the duck, she later told me she could see a tear forming in the duck's eye, the duck was very touched by her sweetness. You cannot make this stuff up! ha ha ha)

Max's preschool graduation

I'm just going to say it, I don't care if it's cliche. The time is going by too fast! I felt like my girls had a long and rich two years of preschool (each), and we savored and enjoyed so much of their preschool years. Now I blink and Max's one year of preschool is just OVER already. Waaaaaaah!!! I just don't understand why it goes by fast with each younger child. But it does, and I am going to cry myself a river about it right now. And then I shall post all the cute pictures of Max's preschool graduation. Ready for kindergarten in the fall! :)

Snapshots of life

Eating apples, eating worms, sleeping at the lunch table, being cute, being gross, being snickery, scratched noses, driving mom's van, yelling "I see it" every.single.time mom whips out the camera, and other delights :) Marcus is hogging this post for pictures. We shall forgive him :)