First Day of School

Wildfires made for a smokey first day of school, but we took pictures outside anyway. I HAD to!

1st, 4th, 6th, and 8th. Kari's first day was the next day, but she was at school as a leader, helping the 6th graders (her brother and his friends) on their first day. No tears from me (first time ever!) or any of them this year. Happy first day!

Last bits of summer

I drove a van full of 6th grade boys to the zoo for the jr high "retreatish" weekend. That was a loud experience!

The kids all took inventory of their closets. Joel had outgrown all his pants. Kari needed all clothes, and 3 of the 4 needed new shoes. We got some shopping in and got them outfitted for at least the first couple months of the school year. 

We helped the Wilsons move into their new house the week before school started. It's beautiful, and we look forward to many fun times at their place. I took the girls to Wendy's that evening and scored some mom points. :) 

The kids and I worked on memorizing Philippians 4:4-9 this summer. Grant finished just in time. :) We celebrated with Hawaiian shave ice again.  Kari was out with friends all afternoon, and we'd already promised the others we could go that evening when we found out she and her friends had had shave ice AND frozen yogurt that day. Middle schoolers! We went anyway.

Solar Eclipse

Excitement ran high the morning of the eclipse. The kids were outside at 9am, ready to watch every second. It really was a pretty cool experience. It got significantly cooler and darker at the height of the eclipse. It would have been amazing to see it 100% covered (we got about 99% I think?), but it wasn't worth the effort to make that happen. We had fun where we were, in the comfort of our front yard, with friends.

Lost a Tooth

Littlest man's smile looks a little different now. (My baby is getting so old. Time, slow down a little!) The tooth fairy did indeed remember to come, even though most-reliable-tooth-fairy was gone, rafting with the eldest child. Back-up tooth fairy is proud. 😊 Now to get Grant to pull out the other tooth, so he can have both gone for his school picture. That's my favorite school smile.

Sickness and Mayhem

The day we got back from the Arnold beach trip, I came down with a horrible cold that turned into a sinus infection and took me out of commission for almost two weeks, the first of which I spent almost entirely in bed. Thankfully, the kids are pretty self-sufficient these days and let me rest, checking in and asking for things when they needed them. I was pretty pathetic. The kitties to keep me company. The kids played with their friends and had free-reign of the house for a bit. They had loads of fun, running back and forth from house to the Wilson's rental and around the neighborhood with other friends. They always checked in, but it was a little Lord-of-the-Flies around here. I took a few photos when I was up and out of bed the second week. My house was a mess, but the kids were happy, and we all survived.

Rockaway Beach

We went to the beach every day, even when it was socked in and foggy.  With very little wind, it wasn't even cold, at least out of the water, it wasn't cold. It is the Oregon coast, after all. :) The water is never warm, but that doesn't stop the kids from jumping right in every time. They had a lot of fun body boarding this year. We played a lot of paddle ball on the beach, too.  We played board games and card games back at the house and ate ice cream and yummy food. The last day the sun came out, which made for a great last beach play time. 

Grant's 7th Birthday

Grant's family party was on his actual birthday this year. It was hot, hot that week and perfect for a pool party.

birthday breakfast

Grant's 7th Birthday--Friend Party

Pokemon was this year's party theme. I don't know much about Pokemon, but I can "pinterest" well, so I was able to make Grant happy. We had Pin-the-tail-on-Pikachu, "Squirtle Punch," Pokemon ice balls, Pokemon bags and table, a Pokeball hunt, Pokeball water balloon toss, a Pokemon catapult craft, and Pokemon bingo. We kept those boys busy with activities the entire 2 hours. I enlisted Kari and Joel's help and recruited Kylee to help, too. It was all hands on deck!

Russell, Carson, Bennet, Caleb, Grant, Ethan

Trout Creek

This year was Aubrey's first time at camp. She was so excited and not the least bit scared. I had some moments of panic, thinking she was too young to go away for 5 nights, but she was all set and ready to go, so she went! It was Joel's third year. He's an old pro at camp now and had a whole bunch of friends going, too.

We saw quite a few picture of the kids on the TCBC Facebook page. I just love that they take pictures and share them with us throughout the week.

It was strange having only our oldest and youngest kids at home all week. I don't even remember what we did all week! I do know they convinced me to take them to Ikea for lunch after we dropped Joel and Aubrey off. :) Oh, Ryan and Michelle were in town for a few days, so we saw them and Kari and Ashlynn were able to spend some time together, which was what they'd asked for this summer.

 Both Aubrey and Joel had a blast at camp. All was right with my world once again, though, having them all together and home that Saturday night. Sure felt good to have them all back!