Last Weekend

Greg and Joel went camping last Friday and Saturday nights, so it was just us girls and Grant at home. We went to the farmers' market on Saturday morning, went to couple garage sales (had to show Ane what a garage sale was), and relaxed for a while before Jen came over with Abby and Leyre, their Basque student, for the evening. Here they are making chocolate chip cookies for the first time. The cookies turned out great! We played some Yahtzee and some Nertz. Poor Ane never won, but we had fun.



Greg and Joel came home rather soggy from a rainy weekend on the mountain (more on that later), and Greg showed Ane how to fly his helicopter. She's a pretty good pilot.

Sunday afternoon we all went bowling, another first for Ane.

all but one!

First strike!

Toothless

Many thanks to Aunt Leah for the kleenex tip that helped Joel yank the tooth that has been hanging sideways for the last week! Way to go, Joel!

She's here!

It's been a whirlwind of a week, but it's been good! 

This was taken this morning just before Ane went out for the day with the other students to explore/tour downtown Portland.

We kept the kids up, and we all went to the airport to greet her Tuesday night. It was a late night for the kids, but we were glad our whole family was there when she arrived.

waiting for her to get off the plane

We spent the last few days getting to know each other, showing Ane around, taking her to stores and exciting places like the library. :) We all went to a BBQ with the other host families and their students, which was fun, but other than that we've tried to ease her into life here and just let her get acclimated. I asked Ane the second day what most surprised her so far or what was different, and her answer was, "Everything!" And I thought we were being so "normal," too.

The kids think Ane is great, and yesterday she kindly spent a long time jumping with them. They all wanted their turn to jump with Ane.

We did some baking and made some strawberry jam with berries we bought at a fruit stand. She'd never made jam before.

Greg is teaching her how to play guitar. He found out she has one at home but doesn't know how to play. His goal is to have her playing at least one song by the time she leaves.

Grant has been his usual self these last few days, a little more tired than usual, but pretty much how he always is--really, really happy or really, really mad. He's quite the charmer when he's not throwing a fit or wetting his pants, and he's been busy charming Ane these last few days.

We're looking forward to all the exciting things we get to do with Ane this next month. I have a feeling the weeks are going to fly by. This is such a wonderful opportunity for our family. We're glad she's here. We're hoping we won't drive her crazy. :) Our house isn't exactly peaceful, but I CAN say it's almost never boring!

Big arrival day

Our Basque student is almost here! We have been busy preparing for Ane's arrival for weeks now, and this last weekend was filled with final preparations. The kids finished up her "welcome" poster this morning, complete with lots of glitter glue, and we head to the airport in half an hour. The last two hours have dragged by
S-L-O-W-L-Y for the kids. They are so excited, and so are we!

Summer Reading

We're finally getting in the groove of summer and figuring out new routines and what to do with all this free time we've got together. Chore charts are up (and working!), and I signed up all four kids for the summer reading program at the library. Now they have some incentive (other than that their mother just expects them to be reading every day), and I caught them all doing it at the same time in the same place. I believe Kari instigated this reading session.



Aubs is reading Purplicious, Joel's reading a Magic Tree House, Kari's reading Trixie Belden (passed down from my mom to me!), and Grant's reading an animal book of some kind from the library.

Flips, Slides, & Rolls (of dice)

Aubrey asks for a "flip" as soon as Greg walks in the door, something she started several weeks ago. Pardon the pants-less toddler. That's his look these days with potty-training and all. Although, I have to admit, he ran around like that a lot before we started potty-training, too. He'll wear pants more regularly sometime in the future. 

The day after school got out was a warm day, and we were all a little out of sorts. The van was out of commission so we were stuck at home. The little pool and slide helped until the kids decided to dump the water out and down the hill for no good reason. Glad that day is over and the transition to summer is going more smoothly this week.

Eating a snack in the only shade our backyard has right now--the umbrella. Grow, little trees we planted, grow!

Thursday evening Christine helped me host a bunco night/diaper shower at our house for four pregnant ladies from church who are all expecting summer babies (two of them also happen to be family--Emily and Stephanie). It was a fun night! Good food, good company, and just a good time together! Greg and the kids hung out upstairs while we made a ruckus downstairs. We sent some treats up with them, and he had a basketball game to watch, so he didn't mind too much.

Cat nap

 He's doing what I wish I could be doing right now. Stupid allergies and sinuses! Grrrr. At least it's a rainy, gloomy, cozy day--the best kind for feeling crummy.

Potty-training must have worn him out (either that or he's getting sick). I started in on it last Wednesday, and only half-heartedly trained over the weekend. I am doing some extra laundry and keeping the carpet cleaner handy, but overall, he's doing well! We potty-trained the other three around this age (he's 22 months), and he seems ready, so we'll go with it. M&M's and Starburst jelly beans are his treats, and he likes treats! Aren't we nice parents for offering a chocolate or fruity option? :)

So true

I've been cleaning and getting ready for a bunch of people to be at our house tonight, and I keep thinking of this:

It's been popping up all over Facebook and Pinterest, and I decided it needs to go on my blog, too. That's exactly how it is!

Last Day of School

Two kids ready for their last day before summer break, and two kids not quite ready for the day--one still in pjs and one with a mop of un-done hair. Vacation begins in just a few hours!













Kari got her hair cut yesterday. They cut three inches and added some layers in front. She looks so grown up.

One warm day

The temperature got above 70 degrees, and the kids thought it was time to slip 'n slide and have a water fight. Have to take advantage of every warm day we get until summer truly arrives!

The Littles

I finished our 2011 blog book a couple weeks ago and got inspired to take some pictures. Grant and Aubrey were having fun together on this particular morning while the big kids were at school.

Good weekend with the fam

Last weekend was an extended one because of Memorial Day but also because the kids didn't have school Friday either. We did some fun stuff and just really enjoyed our time together. We went to the zoo Saturday morning right when they opened, and it was pretty empty, which is how we like it!









We hadn't been through Lorikeet Landing in a while, so we bought the cup of nectar and fed the birds. Kari's face was so funny. She wasn't sure whether she was enjoying the bird on her hand or not. Joel definitely did not enjoy it, so he gave up his nectar and let Daddy hold it for him. :) Joel expertly dodged a stream of you-know-what from
 the bird, which was pretty funny.

















Enjoying the sea lions swimming right up next to the glass.









Saturday evening we got a babysitter and went and played games with some friends. We're getting better at Dominion and Puerto Rico--both new games for us--and I even won a game of Settlers, a rare occurrence. It was a fun night!

Sunday was church, a nap (Greg and I both fell asleep in the afternoon--can't remember the last time we did that--and it sure was nice.), and dinner with Eric and Leah at our house. We played a round of Puerto Rico while the kids played and then watched a movie.
Aubrey fell asleep that afternoon, too.

The cleaning elves (K&J) tidied the playroom, and Aubrey slept through it all. 

Monday Joel got to go shooting (.22) with Grandpa A. and cousin Sam. Loved it! In the afternoon we took a bike ride on the Springwater trail. It was quite a production loading and unloading all the bikes, but it was worth the effort. We need to practice for Sunriver.

The other thing we did this weekend was prepare for the Basque student (as in, from the Basque Country, an independent region in Spain/France--still learning about it) we will be hosting for a month this summer. It will be quite an experience for our family, I think, and one we're really looking forward to. 

We bought a bed frame on Craigslist (the pick-up on Saturday was part of the zoo plan since the bed was way out in Hillsboro) and bought a new mattress and bedding, so now our student will have a place to sleep! Our plan to is to take the crib down and have Grant sleep in our walk-in closet in the portacrib for that month. We're not sure if we will transition him to a bed afterwards or whether it'll be back to the crib for another little while. Our goal is to get Joel into this room by the fall and have Grant and Aubrey share for a couple years.

We get to meet (over email) our student soon. The kids are anxious to know who's going to be living with us. It's going to be an exciting summer!

One last Disney post

Dad A. put this video together for us. He said he didn't do anything "fancy...just stuck it together," but it's a whole lot fancier than what we had (hours of raw footage)! Thanks, Dad! We've already watched it a couple times.

https://vimeo.com/42736157

Body art

This morning I was just thinking about how I felt like I didn't have much to blog this week. Good thing I have a 21-month-old who likes to do blog-worthy things! It's also a good thing we have red pillows and an old, ripped-up couch up in the playroom. It could have been a much bigger mess. He could have painted the bottoms of his feet and walked all over our almost-white carpet...but he didn't. :)

















This is what happens when you have older children who don't always put things away where they belong and when you don't follow your toddler around every second of the day. The paints usually live in a bin on the very top shelf; obviously, this red paint made its way into a lower one. Joel and Aubrey were in the playroom, too, playing on the floor when I heard Joel holler, "Mommy, Grant is painting his feet!" Amazingly enough, it only took about 30 minutes, along with some soap, water, towels, and Folex to eliminate all signs of artwork from his body, clothes, and the couch.

*When I ran downstairs to get some clean-up rags, I grabbed the camera, too. I had to capture the moment.

Mother's Day