He Likes It!!!

This is Owen on his first day of the Summer Learning Program. He was all smiles and ready to go. 

I drive him to the bus stop in the morning because the other 3 or 2 kiddos stay at home...asleep and I want to get back to them as fast as I can. Sometimes Ella or Zeke will wake up and come with us.

Owen loves that he gets to sit in the front seat. He's so chill! 

On the first morning the kids got to mess around with the sunroof. They thought that was pretty cool! 

The first letter that came home from school with the bus schedule on it said his bus would pick him up at 6:59. Well we waited and waited and waited and I finally remembered that they also sent me an email. In the email it said the bus would pick him up at 7:24. Yeah...a bit of a difference. The first week the bus was late pretty much everyday both for pick up and drop off. Now that we are in the second week things are getting figured out. 

Owen is really enjoying the Summer Program. I think it's so great for him. Even if he didn't really need it I would love to sign him up for this every summer. He needs structure and this provides it! He loves that there are no behavior clips that can move up and down, no homework and they get 3 recesses! Plus he gets breakfast and lunch and according to him he gets to eat cake! What more could you ask for?  

Ella's Traumatic Tooth Experience!

On June 20th Ella was out playing in the pool and I asked to wiggle her tooth. It had been loose for some time and she had started to complain that it was hurting her. Over the course of a few hours she kept complaining about it, but she really wouldn't let me do anything about it. I tried having the boys explain to her that it doesn't really hurt that bad and it actually hurts more if you leave it in. She finally let me try and I gave it a good push and I heard a little bit of her gums make that cracking sound so I knew it had loosed up a bit. It had just been hanging on by the front a little. She of course started crying and was freaking out and would not open her mouth at all. 

 Later on after complaining and complaining about it we were sitting in bed together and Daddy finally convinced her to let him "clean up" the blood with a tissue and after two tries of cleaning up her tooth was out. 

She was totally shocked it was out!

 Of course it bled at bit and we did have to use a wet tea bag to stop the bleeding, but she was completely fine after that.

 Talk about night and day difference from boys and girls. She is a hysterical mess when it comes to this stuff.  

Bleeding stopped and everything was all right! 

Ella is keeping up with the tradition of being the earliest to do stuff...she was the earliest walker at 10 1/2 months and now she's the earliest one to lose a tooth at 5 years 4 months. She beat Owen by 7 whole months and Jack by more than a year! 

Of course her tooth went right into a cup so it could start "growing" money and we all celebrated with ice cream! 

"New" Furniture!

Over 5 years over Ga-Ga and Pa gave us their old furniture...it was the same week Michael ended up getting laid off from the painting company he worked for. It's amazing the changes that can happen in just 5 short years!!! 

We've really enjoyed this furniture and it's stood up really to 4 rowdy kiddos. 

There really wasn't anything wrong with it except a couple of faded spots up where your head rests on the left side of both the love seat and the couch. 

There are two recliners and they are basically brand new since we mainly sat on the couch and love seat. 

Well Pa decided last week that it was time to get new furniture again so in turn we get "new" furniture. This time around it's only 5 years old so it really is pretty new! My Dad rented a U-Haul truck so we could get the furniture up to our house. A family friend Bill came down to parents since my Dad was working and helped Michael load the furniture into the truck. Then I helped Michael get it out of the truck and into our garage. There was NO WAY I was going to be able to move our old furniture out and the new in...they are seriously heavy since they are all recliners! 

Michael asked a co-worker if he'd come help and in turn we make him and his girls dinner. In preparation for the move I decided to clean a bit. I did not want them to move the furniture and see all the crumbs and mess under our couch so I decided to do that first. OH MY WORD...talk about disgusting!!! I try to move the furniture a few times a year and I guess it had been a while...seriously gross! So glad I did that when they weren't here. After moving the furniture I was able to lift up the area rug and sweep underneath it. Then I thought if I'm going to clean I might as well go all out. So I got out my Kirby vacuum and vaccumed and then I used the carpet cleaner attachments and really got to work. If you've been to our house recently you know how icky that rug was. Who knows what was living in it! It was just plain gross. In fact I've been pricing rugs lately because I just thought it was beyond repair. Area rugs are super expensive so that just wasn't going to happen anytime soon though. 

I wish I had taken a before picture, but honestly I didn't think it would come this clean. It was not easy that's for sure. First I sprayed it with my Norwex carpet cleaner and then scrubbed it with my Enviro cloth by hand. Then I used the vacuum with the carpet cleaning solution...twice. Then I found this Kirby high traffic carpet spray and I used that and let it sit for about 10 minutes and then I cleaned it again with the carpet cleaner. The water was SO dirty when I dumped it out. I'm just amazed at how nice it turned out. 

After dinner Andre and Michael worked so hard to get the old furniture out to the garage and then new furniture in. It is not an easy tasks that's for sure!!! 

We decided to try a different layout by having the love seat next to the window instead of up against the wall. The room feels so new and it smells so good! I've already told the kids that they are not allowed to eat in the living room....I'd like to keep nice for a while thank you very much!!! 

So Many LEGO Sets!!!

Jackson and Zeke totally scored at their birthday parties. I mean if you want LEGO's for your kids have a LEGO party. The amazing thing was they didn't get any duplicate sets! Crazy!!! We had lots of fun putting together one set a night and it was almost a weeks worth of fun! 

Here was Zeke's set from Andrew and Josiah. Of course I did this for him...he didn't help at all, but he's had fun playing with it.

Here is Jack's Ninjago set with Jay from the neighbor boys. This one has moving parts and shoots LEGO's out. Jack built this almost all by himself! I do still have to sit with him and walk him through the instructions. I love this time with him though and he gets very possessive of his time with me. If one of the other kids come in the dining room while we are working he tells them to leave because it's Mommy/Jack time!

Jack wanted a picture taken with the set, but for some reason every smile he gave me he looked like he was in pain! Cute kid!

The next night we put together his other Ninjago set with Kai from us. It came with the car and the bad guy riding on the saw blade.

This car is awesome! The hood lifts up and Kai's motorcycle can shoot out. It's alot like the new Batmobile from the Dark Knight movies. Jack helped build the bad guy and Kai's motorcycle, but then I got to build the car since he was tired.

The next day Jack let me build his train set for Zeke. Zeke had really wanted to play with it. It's such a cool set!

This Star Wars set is amazing. I have never seen a LEGO set so interesting. The whole wheel thing was quite cool. The things they can come up with in regards to how to use LEGO's is crazy!

The next set we built was his Green Lantern set and I think hands down this is the coolest spaceship ever! First off it's just so cool looking and second the shooter things are so rad. They really shoot out of the ship pretty hard too. No wonder whenever you are putting the shooting parts together they have a picture of someone being shot in the eye with a line crossed through it. You'll poke your eye out kid!!!!

The last set was his Captain America set with a tank for the bad guy. Captain America has a motorcycle of course.

Since putting all these new sets together we've been slowly trying to find all the pieces for other sets we have that have since been taken apart. So far we've put together Owen's Creator set that can make a race car, jet or a robot....we built it into the jet. I've also put together some of the Harry Potter Lego set we got at a garage sale years ago. It's so much fun finding the pieces and building them, however, I think that when you put your hands in a bucket of Lego's time fast forwards! Seriously what feels like minutes turns into hours!!! It's the craziest thing!

Jack also got some money for his birthday so he pooled that and his gift cards together and bought himself a Mega Blok set. I tried to convince him to buy an actual LEGO set, but he was so sure on this Mega Blok set.

I've thoroughly had so much fun putting these together with Jack and Zeke. There is a new LEGO store opening at the Southcenter Mall in July and I can't wait to go down there and check it out. I'm thinking we might have to get each of the kids a little something to celebrate. 

Happy Birthday Pa!

HAPPY 65TH BIRTHDAY PA!!! 

Owen - My favorite thing about Pa is he likes to play with me and be funny. Also when I ask for a cookie I just have to say the password, Pa gives me the cookie and it's easy peasy lemon squeezy!  - Pa has a 1957 Chevy cookie jar in his office that the kids have to say the name to of the car in order to get a cookie from it. 

Owen and Pa at Medieval Times - September 2014 

Getting pushed around in the ball...sadly the ball meet it's demise! 

Jack - My favorite thing about Pa is that he loves cars. 

Pa and Jack in Cars Land at California Adventure- September 2014

Ella - My favorite thing about Pa is...when he plays with me. 

Pa and Ella on the Astro Orbitor at Disneyland - September 2014.

Zeke - My favorite thing about Pa is...getting 'Queen' out on the garage.

Pa carrying Zeke around the Challenge Trail at California Adventure - September 2014

My favorite thing about Pa is...that he is would do anything for his kids and his grandkids because he loves us so very much! 

Love you Pa!!! 

Let's Try This Again!

In 2013 when Ella was 3 years old we got her ears pierced...for the first time! Then last September...a year and and 4 months later she said her earrings were bothering her so Michael took them out. We were so busy getting ready for our Disneyland trip that we completely forgot to put them back in. About 2 weeks later we were actually in Disneyland when I noticed that she didn't have any earrings in and they had already closed up! 

Ever since then I had been asking Ella if she wanted to get them pierced again and she would always grab her ears and say, "NO! It's going to hurt!" I wasn't going to push her I figured when she's ready she'll let me know. Then Logan came to play and she had recently gotten her ears pierced!!! That changed everything!!! Ella has been asking now for over a month. I kept telling her we needed to wait and go with Ga-Ga since she wasn't with us the first time and it was important for Ga-Ga to be there since Ella is the only grand-daughter. Last Friday Ga-Ga came up and we went to the mall....let me just say I'm loving that she's retired!!!! 

We had a little mishap because I had went jogging that morning and took my ID out of my wallet and then forgot to put it back in so while I drove home really quick Ga-Ga took the kids to the playarea. Oops! Ella did tell us she was scared and I told her that sometimes when it feels like were scared it's really more like we are anxious and excited. 

The only thing she insisted on was sitting on my lap...just like she did last time. She honestly remembered that on her own. I had completely forgotten! 

Here's right after they pierced them....the only thing she said was, "Oww"! She's one tough cookie!

Afterwards Ga-Ga treated us to ice cream from Baskin Robbins. 

The first time she got her ears pierced we chose her birthstone this time Ga-Ga noticed these pretty pink butterflies and so that's what Ella chose. They also had a huge clearance section where everything was $1 so I got Ella 2 new pairs of earrings. She's already excited to get to change them out, but she has to wait for 2 months and then I told her she has to always have earrings in. The lady at Claire's was super amazed that they had closed up after her having them for over a year. I guess she's just an overachiever when it comes to healing up! 

McKinley Park

For the first day of summer vacation I decided that we needed a stay home and stay inside day. The weather had actually been so nice the kids had been enjoying the pool for over a week and the house had turned into a pit. I told the kids that the best way to start summer was with a clean slate. I also explained the saying "many hands make light work". We all worked together and cleaned and organized every room in the house. They were champs!!! 

So for the second day of summer vacation I thought we should get out and do something. I needed to go to Sears down in Tacoma because I ordered something online and needed to pick it up. I thought it might be nice to find a new park to go to in Tacoma. The boys and I looked online before we left home and decided on McKinley park because it said it had two playgrounds and walking trails. 

It was a little odd driving there...literally a residential street comes to and end and there's the park. No parking lot...not even enough room to turn around. We could see the playarea at the bottom of the hill so we headed that way. On our walk down there we passed a lady who I'm pretty sure was carrying a beer can. I was saying some prayers right about then. 

There was a mom and her son playing and then a professional looking woman sitting at a picnic table. Later the mom was joined by her boyfriend/husband. After a while the professional lady got up and they all started talking. They didn't really seem like they would normally be people that hung out together. They all left and about 5 minutes later the mom and dad came walking back down, but the professional lady was gone and so was the son. I noticed the mom crying and that's when it hit me....it was a supervised visitation! Broke my heart! 

The hill that came down towards the playarea was the perfect grade so the kids kept going up and coming down. 

Zeke didn't really enjoy the toys all that much...he mainly rode the scooter around and around the playarea. I love that it was paved the whole way around! 

The park had two sets of toys...ones for smaller kids and then this challenging area for bigger kids. The thing Owen was on would spin and spin with his weight. 

Jack did not like it at all! 

There was a neighborhood cat that was hanging out at the playground so the kids got to sit and pet him for a little while. 

Here's a picture of the whole playground with the hill that they rode down. It really was an awesome park! 

Halfway up the hill is another playarea for skateboarders. Since there weren't any skateboards I like the kids use it with their bikes and scooters. 

I had never seen one of these at a park before. They were skateboard riding toys...they were fun and a little freaky! 

Jack was really brave and rode his scooter down the ramp. It doesn't look like it's steep, but it was a pretty good slant! 

I told took Ella's bike down and it was fun and I said so. Then she went down and almost fell off her bike and she was so mad at me. She kept saying things like...."That was not fun mommy....you lied!" 

Owen got really good at going down one ramp and then pedaling up the other one. 

Ella wanted to try the skateboard toy one more time.

We walked further up the hill and right next to our van was this other skateboard ramp so over course the kids wanted to try it out as well. 

Owen would ride his bike over the bumps and then halfway up the steep incline and then go backwards. 

Jackson did really good with his scooter. 

I climbed to the top and that's when Jack came up and decided to just run down. 

He amazed me...I would have fallen flat on my face! 

He did so well though!

Of course Owen had to try as well! 

Easy peasy as he would say! 

Then they started running all the way up and then climbing to the top! 

Happy boy! 

Ella ran and ran and finally was able to grab on and pull herself up! 

Verdict....the park was AMAZING! I loved every bit of it the incline and the different options. The location was freaky! As I was backing out there was a car that pulled in beside me and I think they were smoking pot. I know that's legal and all, but not something I want my kids around. Later that night when I was telling Michael about the park he said, "Please don't go to that park again!" I'm super bummed that it wasn't in a better neighborhood, but we will keep trying to find another park that's just as awesome!