Ladies Tea Party at Ruthie B's

All of my pictures are getting very out of order here, but I figure that I can fix that when I put all of these posts into a book . . .someday. . .maybe years from now . . . when I have time . . . Eeek!

Anyhoo!  While the guys were all skiing last Saturday, Kathy, Francine, Annie, Lucy and I went to Ruthie B's for a tea party!  What a fun way to spend time with just the girls!  Lucy and Annie were so excited, they got really into it!  I have to admit, I think I loved it more than they did.  Warm tea, beautiful antiques, yummy "fresh out of the oven" scones with butter and jam, live Christmas Music being played on the piano.  It was just one of those special moments!

Lucy and Annie picked out their outfits and hats/crowns for the occasion.  They both wanted to wear their sparkly shoes too!  They were so excited to go to tea with the Mommies!

Lucy took this picture of us before we left. 

Good job Lulu!

There are many different themed sections at Ruthie B's.  Lucy LOVES the "pink room".  She brought their "class pet" Franklin along too.  Our family got to host Franklin this weekend and document Franklins experiences with the Fulton Family.  Lucy took a bunch of pictures to school on Monday of Frankin at Tea, Franklin with the Oregon Duck and even Franklin in our Professional family pictures!

My adorable niece Annie and with her adorable Mommy Francine!

Annie was having so much fun wearing her crown and drinking tea (strawberry milk)!

We like to call this "pinkies out"!

a group photo

The cousins having a "cheers" during the tea party!

I got them each a little purse. 

They played with them all weekend!

I just LOVE the girly-girl stuff so much!

We Love Aunt Kathy!

Pancho's sister Kathy came to visit and stay with us over the Thanksgiving Break!

I miss her so much already.  We had so much fun with her and she was such a huge help to me while she was here.  I always tell Pancho that I need a wife, so Kathy and I joked the whole time that I finally got my wife, and it was heaven!  She had most of those annoying little jobs done before I even thought about them.  Of course the kids LOVE having her here. . . lavishing them with attention. 

Thank You for coming Kathy, you are welcome back any time!!!

We Love You!

Max wins the BIG GAME!!!! Take 2

This post is probably full of more pee wee football pictures than you ever cared to look at, but it was a really big deal for Max (and Pancho) so I want to document it well!

Max's football team, The Marist Dolphins, got to play for the district championships at Autzen Stadium.  They missed out on the chance to play for State by one loss. . .the only loss that they had all season.  Luckily they won this game and were crowned 2nd place in the district!

 (I think, I dont really understand this stuff).

Max, just before running out on the field at Autzen

The game was actually announced on the loudspeakers, and broadcast on the jumbotron screen!

This picture is of Max running out after they announced his name!

Max and his team during the National Anthem

Ummmmm . . . not sure what to say about this picture.

I guess this was Pancho's attempt to get in good with the refs before the game.

24 to 12 at the beginning of the 4th quarter!!!

It was so fun to watch Max on the big screen!

We Are The Champions!!!

Our MVP . . .Lucas is in my 5th grade class this year. 

It was fun to be able to go watch my son and some of my students.

Max, after he got his medal.

Proud Dad and Coach with his champion son!

Max and Dawson celebrating after the Big Win.

Max's team wins the Big Game!

My life has been so busy lately that I havent Blogged for about 2 weeks!!!  My 5th graders had HUGE reports due right before Thanksgiving Break, so work has been busy AND any Mom who has ever had to get ready for Thanksgiving and the arrival of company knows what the word "Busy" really means.  Whew!  This is literally the first time in 2 weeks that I have sat down with a tiny bit of peace and quiet.

OK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I just went to upload some pictures of Max's Big Win at Autzen Stadium and I realized that the Memory Stick with those pictures on it was left at work.  Our class is also doing a Global Awareness project where we are teaming up with a school in India.  We are going to talk to them on Skype and I had my class make a DVD of a "day in the life" for a 5th grader at O'Hara.  We sent it over to India with one of my students who was traveling over there. Hence, I needed the bigger memory stick for that, and I have a smaller one in my camera right now.

(Isn't 5th grade fun? Seriously, I am having a Blast with all of the cool projects and things they we can do together!)

So as you can see, my life is beyond busy right now, which is why I give myself a break when I cant keep track of the small stuff, like memory sticks.  I will do a better post, including pictures, of Max's Big Game soon!

Skiing at Willamette Pass . . .

My Brothers, Sean and Kevin, along with Pancho, are taking the boys up to the mountain for a day of skiing today.

The boys were so excited to have a "guys day" together.

My boys LOVE skiing and Will was pretty excited to go with his Big Cousins!

Sam and Max all ready to go.

We only have one camera and I wasn't sure that I trusted them to keep track of it at the mountain all day, so I took these pictures before they left.

Max (10)

Sam (9)

Pancho and Sean

I guess this leaves all of us girls to have a "girls day" together.  I think that it is going to include shopping, naps, reading books and possibly a tea party!  All I know is that it is REALLY quiet right now, and I am loving it.  I will keep you posted on the "girls adventures" today.

Black Friday!!!!!

Oh Yes!  I am one of those crazy people who gets to Wal-Mart by 4:50 am on the day after Thanksgiving to go SHOPPING!!!!!  I LOVE it!  My sister-in-law Kate and I got up at 4:00am so we had time to go to Starbucks and make it to Wal-Mart by 5:00am.

Here we are at the beginning of out shoppping adventure!

Kate looks pretty happy for 5:00am!  Who wouldn't be?  We had a whole day of shopping ahead of us!

We started at Wal-Mart, then went to Target, then Kate had to go home (baby Finn is only 5 months old).  I, on the other hand, was very motivated to get as much Christmas shopping finished as possible.  I went on to go to Toys R Us, Valley River and Kohls!!!

I got about 90% of my shopping finished.  It feels so good to have much of it done, because I know that with my job, both boys in Basketball, Christmas Programs, homework, etc. etc. the next few weeks are going to fly by!

Murray Family Thanksgiving!

Another fun Thanksgiving at Mom and Dad's House!  I helped Mom set up this gorgeous table for 32 people.  Our family always has so much fun together at Thanksgiving.  It is always a house full of kids, football, good food, laughter and fun!

Pancho and I went over to my parents house last Sunday and spent about 4 hours getting it all ready for the Big Day!  I am so mad at myself for not taking the greatest pictures this year (I was having too much fun!).  I didn't get a picture of the kids room!  Pancho and my Dad always turn my parents car port into a tarped in room with astro turf on the floor.  Then they fill it up with balls, balloons, a movie corner, basketball hoop, games, a karaoke machine and more!  It is a kids dream!  My parents like it because the kids aren't running through the house the whole time, and the kids like it for a lot of reasons!  Speaking of my parents, I also didnt get a good picture of them this year and they deserve all of the credit for this fun day!

My Dad and Mom are at the head of the table.  Every year, my family has a tradition . . . my Dad hands out a question to each person at the table.  Most of them are questions like "What was the best thing that happened to you this year?" or "What are you thankful for?"  He always gives Pancho a really funny one!  It is a great tradition, because with a table this big, you don't even get to talk to the people at the other end of the table!  It forces us to all take time to hear from eachother and let everyone share something.  The kids even answer a question too!  They usually have the best answers.

The kids table!

We spend a lot of time watching football and eating appetizers!

We even watched the Oregon/Arizona game AND the Oregon/USC game over again!

My poor sister-in-laws put up with a lot of our Oregon Duck fanaticism!

Speaking of Sister in laws, this is a picture of me and my sister in law Francine . . .

Speaking of Oregon Duck fanatics . . . we even had the Oregon Duck at Thanksgiving with us!

That poor Duck went through a LOT!

The kids LOVED him!

My aunt works for the Uof O and she brought him to Thanksgiving with her.

He is actually a maniquin inside an old costume.  She said that we could put the costume on, but no one was brave enough!

Annie and Lucy jumping on Grammy's couches!

. . . another Christmas card contender. 

What is it with our family and posing with costumed creatures this year. 

First Chucky and now the Duck!

No that is not Pancho inside the Duck.

I was having a little too much fun at this point!

Julie's Team Wins the Big Game too! Ha Ha

On the day before Thanksgiving, our school has a long standing tradition.  We always celebrate a beautiful Thaksgiving Mass together (we have Mass as a school together about once or twice a month and they are really amazing , I love hearing all of those adorable voices singing together).

 Then we have a baskeball game!!!  Teachers against the 8th graders!  It is always so much fun, the kids REALLY get into it.  They make signs to root for either the 8th graders or the teachers and they LOVE to cheer on their team!  Anyone who knows me well knows that I have absolutely NO athletic ability, but somehow I got talked into being on the "teacher team".  My students were soooo excited that I was playing.  My whole goal was to try and NOT embarrass my own children and my students.

Believe it or not, I scored 3 baskets!!!  Whooo Hooo!  It was so much fun!

Some of my fellow teachers and staff waiting to go into the game.

I work with the most awesome and fun people EVER!

What?  You are rooting for the wrong team!!!!

I am giving you both "F's"

The crowd!

Some of my students rooting for the "right" team!

Their sign says "Go Teachers" and I thing they also wrote "Go Fultonator" on there, which is what they call me sometimes.

The teachers were the "Home Team"

No mercy for those 8th graders!

What a fun school and super fun job I have!  I feel very blessed!

Happy 9th Birthday Sammy!

Do all moms say this on every one of their kids birthdays? 

"Where has the time gone?"

I still can't believe that my "Sam Sam" is 9 years old today!

My baby has grown up to be such a fun, funny, bright light in our family.  Life is NEVER boring when Sammy is around.  This Birthday was all about Bionicles and Lego Space Police!  He only wanted to have his party at Chuck E. Cheese Who Hoo! So off we all went to Chuck E. Cheese at 10:00am this morning! . . .Good Times!

Sam and Lucy waking up this morning

to the annual "birthday decorated bedroom" and present!

at Chucky's with his hat and Medal on!

Lucy, Sam and Max

Sam surrounded by his Best Buddies!

Chucky came out and did a little show for us,

We all got really into it!  I was crying laughing at one point watching all of our awesome friends screaming and cheering for Chucky right along with Sam. . . so funny!

Lucy and Papa

Once again, Grammy and Papa came to the rescue with Grammy's homemade (from scratch) cupcakes.  Thank You Grammy and Papa!

The whole gang with Chucky!!!!

I got a picture of all of us crazy adults totally getting into the Chucky show!  We were screaming and chanting like he was a rock star!  Chucky was eating it up!

Christmas Card Picture?

. . . with Chucky?

Mmmmmmm . . . .

The best part about havng a party at Chuck E Cheese at 10:00am on a Sunday morning is that you get the whole place to yourself!  You may be asking yourself why we chose 10:00am?  Well, Lucy got invited to another birthday party at 1:00 and Max's playoff football game got scheduled for 1:00 too!  Our family schedule is so busy, we have trouble finding a time to have a birthday party!

It actually ended up being a really fun and easy party!  Thank you so much to all of our friends who made it out to celebrate Sam's Birthday with us!

PS Max's football team, who have won all of thier games this whole season, got beat handily in their first playoff game today.  It was such a bummer to see them lose.  The good news is that they still get to play at Autzen Stadium next Saturday, its just not for the State Championship now.  Max seems Ok with this and I am just happy that there is an end to football in sight!

Halloween Tailgater!

Those of us hardcore Duck Fans with children who are trick-or-treating age had a tough decision to make this weekend.  Duck game or Trick-or-treat with your children.  Our solution?  Bring the kids to the Duck game and let them trick-or-treat there!  Thank goodness the Franssens had a fabulous Tailgate/Halloween Party . . .

What a fun way to celebrate Halloween together!

Kelli, Brenda and Me

My friend Kelli came dressed as a witch! 

Everyone was asking me where the "Statue of Liberty" costume was!

All of the kids as they were heading out to trick-or-treat

The Oregon Cheerleaders and Basketball players were there giving out HUGE Duck bags full of candy.  Two of my students were showing me their loot and asking if they could bring it to school on Monday! . . .Uhhh NO!

My adorable Kitty!

Michael and I (5th grade teachers) drinking our "Diet Pepsi"

. . .we both had many students and parents watching our every move! Ha ha!

Pancho and Sam

Pancho took the kids trick-or-treating,

then he and Max went to the game together. 

Sam stabbing the USC Trojan!

Oh No!  What would our Fulton Relatives think of this!

Uncle Phil, Pancho, Bernie and Dad

After Panch and Max went into the game . . .

I took Sam and Lucy over to the McCarthy's to trick-or-treat with Brendan and Colin. Kevin, Amy and I watched the game on TV together. The Ducks, Beavs and Fighting Irish all won, so we were all HAPPY!

Sam, Colin, Lucy and Brendan

Even though it rained on us pretty much the whole time we were tick-or-treating, the kids had a Blast!  Here they are doing the big candy trade when we got back home.

Costume Strut and Pumpkin Carnival & Pumpkin Carving

Every Year, O'Hara has a Costume Strut on the last day of school before Halloween.  The kids all wear their costumes to school and we have a parade around the gym.  It is really cute and a lot of fun.  Sam got to wear his pajamas to his school and have a pajama party (no costumes allowed at his school ?!).  I had him dress up in his costume for a quick picture before school though.

"Bad Guy", "Kitty with a Dress On" and "Oregon Football Player"

Sam looks a little "Village People" to me in this picture . . .

This was the easiest costume ever!

Thank You cousin Will for letting us borrow your REAL Oregon Helmet!

"Bad Guy" 

. . .unfortunately this costume is way too fitting!

As much as I begged her to wear the $75 Belle costume that I paid way too much money for in Disneyland, she only wanted to wear this $1.99 dress that she found at Goodwill.  Why don't Mom's get to choose?  She added the kitty ears and tail when she found out that her best friend Lauren was going to be a Kitty for Halloween . . . Hence "Kitty with a Dress On".  Do friends really have more influence than Mom already?

Yes - That is me

5th grade teacher / Statue of Liberty

Proudly "strutting" in the Costume Strut at our school.

Lucy won a goldfish at the Pumpkin Carnival last night!

(It should be dead in the next 24 hours-happens every year)

Lucas, Lauren Sam and Lucy

The Meters and the Fultons

Best friends!

Carving Pumpkins!

The finished product!

I love this time of year!

The Pumpkin Patch

OK I guess that we are officially the last ones to post our Pumpkin Patch pictures.  It has been fun to see all of my blogger friends' pictures from the various pumpkin patches around the country.  They all have such different things to do at them! 

Going to the Pumpkin Patch is a "must-do" every year!  We took a family trip to Lone Pine Farms today before Pancho flew out for California (he was only home for 36 hours this time)!  It was fun to spend some time with just our little family!

So happy to pose for a picture for Mom . . .Not!

Max took one of us!

They all three went on the Cow Train together.

You could tell that this guys really enjoyed driving the Cow Train (and scaring kids).  My kids loved it!

We rode out to the Pumpkin Patch on this horsedrawn carriage.

Lucy and I found the perfect pumpkin.

Does Sam look happy or what?

We get our picture taken in this thing every year!

Lucy the ghost!

Its not that we like Lucy the most, its just that she is the only one that will pose for pictures right now.  It is like pulling teeth to get the boys to smile for a picture!  Well OK maybe we like her the most too . . . just kidding boys!

So you can imagine my happiness when we came away with this half way decent picture of all five of us!  It was a Super Fun Day at the pumpkin patch!

Max's Team Just Won a Nail Biter!

We just got home from Max's last regular season game!  So far this season, its been pretty smooth sailing for his team.  In fact we have not had one game that was even close.  So, it was so much fun tonight to watch a close game.  The final score was 14 to 13.  Our team stopped them from getting the extra point and then held on until the end of the game.  Max played so well, and the boys were soooo excited when they won!

Max and his buddy John

Max's head got kind of hidden in the background from this angle, but it was so cute to watch the boys celebrate together after the game.

Lucy's 6th Birthday Party

Yes!  I made it through my first birthday party as a working Mom! (Everything is a milestone for me this year).  Lucy wanted to have her party at Build-a-Bear, and it turned out to be a really easy place to have a party.  She invited 8 friends and her brothers.  Max was way too cool to make a Build a Bear but Sam joined right in and made himself a turkey with a leather jacket (random). 
Did it cross my mind that it seemed a little white trash to be singing Happy Birthday to my daughter in the middle of the Valley River food court with a bunch of strangers all around? . . . Yes! 
Did I care at this point? . . .No! 
Lucy loved her party and it was really easy for me, so everyone was happy!

Lucy and her best friends . . . notice Ethan is still at the top of the list!

Lucy with her Birthday Bear! 

I still can't believe that my baby just turned six (tear!)

All of the "partiers" in the doorway of Build-a-Bear at the mall.

The theme was (of course) Princesses, and Grammy made her delicious cupcakes from scratch!

Lucy, blowing out the candles on her cake surrounded by loving family, friends, and other random people eating at the food court that day!

The Fulton Girls

Lucy with her "boys". 

Max and Sam were so happy to be a part of the Build-a-Bear fun!

Grammy and Papa were there of course, and once again they were such a HUGE help throughout the whole party.  They got everything set up in the food court for us while we were building our Bears (and other random animals).  Everyone LOVED Grammy's homemade cupcakes!  Thank You Mom!

opening presents . . .Lucy got tons of fun toys!

On the way home, Lucy said "Thank you for the fun party, I love you Mom"

I LOVE that little girl so much . . .please stop growing up!

St. Paul Auction

Chad and Teesh invited us to be guests at their table at the Auction.  It was a safari theme.  We had a blast.  It is always so much fun to hang out with all of our good "St. Paul" friends.

We all went in together to buy a "wine night" again. 

Quite a few crazy stories have come ot of our St. Paul wine nights in the past, so I anticipate another hilarious and fun time with this group!

I got my new iphone on that day.  Can you tell that I was proud of it?  I bought it with my own money from my own first paycheck! 

O'Hara Jog-a-thon

Every year our school has a Jog-a-thon, to raise money for our school.  When it is all over, they give out awards to the students who ran the most laps in each class.  Max won for his class!  He ran 39 laps (thats almost 6 miles) in an hour and a half!  He is very determined and competitive, and I could tell that he wanted to win very badly.  The student who ran the most laps in the whole school, ran 41 laps.  Max already has his eyes set on the BIG prize for next year.

. . .4th grade (most laps) winner!

Our school raised over $65,000.

. . . getting his medal in front of the whole school at the assembly.

By the way it was Free Dress Day, very exciting!

Note to my fellow bloggers...

First of all thank you for all of the great advice you gave me about my posting problems.  In doing my research on how to fix it, I came across a new posting feature.  I have been playing around with it and I think it makes posting MUCH easier once you play around with it and understand it.  Go to "settings" then click on "basic" then scroll down to the bottom and look for "updated editing options" (I think thats what its called).  Click on it and "save" it and give it a try.  (If all of you already new about this and have been using it for a year, just disregard this note and chalk it up to me being way out of the loop due to overscheduling in my life!!!)  I just thought it was cool.

The Corn Maze at Night! Scary!!!!

I left my purse at home so that it wouldn't get stolen out of the car and my camera was in it! . . .darnit!

I forgot my camera!!!! So this picture was taken on Leslie's cell phone and emailed to me. I am just glad that I have at least one picture to document this hilarious and fun evening. Some of the O'Hara teachers planned a girls night, including dinner and drinks at Cornocopia and a visit to the Cornmaze. I LOVE the people that I work with, they are so much fun! We were laughing so hard that we almost peed our pants at the restaurant, and then half of us really DID pee our pants at the cornmaze! Ha ha! It was so scary, and funny at the same time. I got chased by a man with a chain saw and only fell in the mud once! My voice is gone today from screaming and laughing. I feel so lucky and blessed to be working at a job that I really truly have a Blast at, I'm already excited to go into work on Monday and relive this fun evening with the girls.

Happy 6th Birthday Lucy!

Can my baby really be 6 years old? Seriously where does time go???!!!!

Lucy has been so excited about her birthday this year. She is all into Princesses and Barbies, a true girly girl! My mom had a family birthday party at her house for Lucy last night. Panch and Max had to leave early for Max's football game, but Mom, Sam, Lucy and I kept the party alive and Lucy was so happy to have Grammy's special homemade cupcakes.

Happy Birthday to my sweet adorable 6 year old!

Grammy got her this Disney Princess Pillow, she LOVES it!!!

Mom and I both love our little Lulu so much!

Go girl power!

Ever since my kids were little, I have been decorating their rooms while they are asleep the night before their birthday. Then when they wake up on the day of their actual birthday, their room is full of streamers and balloons and they have one gift waiting for them.



Sam and Lucy are Best Friends and always sleep in the same room every night. They decide each night whether it will be Sam's bunk beds or Lucy's bed. Last night they slept in Lucy's bed in anticipation of the Big Decoration Tradition! I took this picture while I was decorating!

There is usually a little more in the way of decorations, but the full time working mom did the best she could this year! Lucy was thrilled with the outcome and that's all that matters!

Here is the new 6 year old with her new "Barbie and the Three Musketeers" movie!

This picture was taken at 6:00am this morning before school!

I think that she had a great start to her birthday, now we have her Build a Bear Party to look forward to this Sunday. 10 little girls, 24 of Grammy's cupcakes and a Build a Bear for everyone . . .Wooo Hooo!

All Play and No Work!

When I took my new job teaching at O'Hara, the one thing I requested from my principal, was that I could still do some things with Sam at his school too. Luckily my principal said "absolutely"! Sam's third grade class has an annual field trip that the 3rd graders all look forward to. It's a trip to our local farm/pumpkin patch, but his teacher also reserves a class set of digital cameras from the school district, and they take a photography course while they are there! So . . . I took a personal day today and went on Sam's awesome field trip with him! It was so much fun, and I even learned a few things about MY digital camera!

Sam and I at Lone Pine Farms

The kids had so much fun taking pictures with their cameras!

Sam's fabulous teacher, teaching them about the "Macro Setting" on their cameras.

Look at these cool pictures that Sam took!

I think that he shows a lot of talent!

Isn't this pretty?

Sam, with his 3rd grade class!

Sam, some of his buddies and one of the Dad chaperones.

He even got to pick out a pumpkin!

My life has been a whirlwind lately, with adjusting to working full time. It was so nice to take a day to play! I even got to go to coffee with the girls at Brendas house after dropping off the kids at school this morning, before the field trip! What a fun day!

Max is still all about Football!

Just in case you are wondering what Max is up to, Football is still dominating all of our lives, Max has practice 3 - 4 nights a week for 2 1/2 hours. Then he always has a game on Sunday that goes for 2 hours plus he has to be there an hour early (so make that 3 hours). Its a really good thing that he loves it!

Standing with his team before the game.

Max is number 39 on the left side of this picture . . .

I keep threatening to tie a pink bow around his helmet, because I can never tell which one he is out there!

Brenda and I watching the game.

Thank God for nice weather last weekend!

Brenda's son Brennan is also in this picture, he is one of my 5th graders this year!

Max was team captain for this game.

I think it is so cute when they walk out to the middle holding hands!

Max is on a 4th and 5th grade team. He is a 4th grader this year, but has a summer birthday, so he could actually be a young 5th grader. His team has absolutely dominated EVERY team that they have played. In fact, Pop Warner has a rule that they can never out score the other team by more than 28 points or they forfeit. We spend most of our games trying to find ways not to score more than 28 points. Max always starts off playing on the offensive line, but after they get up by a few points, they start moving the kids around to all different positions. He is getting to try a lot of different things. Like I said, he is having a Blast and so is Coach Pancho!

Whats wrong with me?

Anyone know why My pictures show up looking normal when I am creating my Blog post, then when they are posted they are about 3 feet apart!!!!????? Call me, I need Help! It took me about an hour to post this and I still couldn't get it fixed. It makes me not want to Blog and I am already falling off the face of the "blogging world" as it is! FRUSTRATED!!!!

Kelli's 40th Birthday!

My friend Kelli turned 40, so her wonderful husband Dan threw her a Birthday Party at Ring of Fire on Friday night. It was so much fun to have a night out with friends! It felt good to kick back, have a drink (mostly Diet Pepsi) & relax now that I have a few weeks of work behind me. The only problem? I was hanging out with the parents of many of the kids many class! Is that Bad? The partying teacher!

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The O'Hara Cougars!

Amy, Kelli and I


Me and P-Man!

Mini Murray Family Reunion!

Will, Sam, Max (holding Finn), Annie and Lucy

It was so much fun to have my two brothers, two of my cousins, an aunt & uncle and all of their families come to Eugene for our annual Duck Game reunion. The cousins had a Blast together, and I always love spending time with my "sistas" and my brothers too of course. We got the added bonus of my cousin Scott and his wife KayCee and new baby son Colin staying with us too!

Francine holding Colin and Julie (me) holding Finn

Will and Max at the Duck Game!

KayCee and Scott (my cousin) holding Colin

The cousins having an Oregon Duck Parade

Brenda painted Sam's Hair Green and Yellow! Max wanted nothing to do with this!










You know its a party when you have have cheerleaders and wine!











Max and the Cal cheerleaders! The only thing that would have made this picture better would have been if they were the Oregon cheerleaders.

The Oregon Duck came by and visited our tailgater!

Kate and KayCee the new mommies with their babies only about 2 weeks apart!
A view of out tailgate party!















"The Boys" playing their own game of football.

Me, Pancho, Francine, Sean, KayCee and Scott















Max, Annie, Lucy, Will and Sam on their Way to the Duck vs, Cal football game.














Pancho holding Colin. The youngest Duck fan in Eastern Washington

Football, Football and more Football!!!

The last two weekends have been mostly centered around one thing . . . FOOTBALL! We have gone to both home Duck games on each of the past two Saturdays, and spent both of the past two Sundays at Max's football jamboree and games. The next two weekends coming up are more of the same. It's a good thing that I like to watch football, of course I am not sure if I will still be saying that after a few more weeks of this! Luckily the Ducks won both of their home games and Max's team won all 3 of their Jamboree games last Sunday and came away with a 26 to 13 win last night (his team is really good!). Rain or shine, its all about football right now.

First Day of School (for all of us!)

The first day of school was a BIG day for all of us this year! Pancho took Sam to Spring Creek to meet his teacher Ms. Chang and to start his first day of 3rd grade. Luckily Pancho remembered to snap a few pictures on his phone! Sam loved his first day, and he thinks his teacher is really cool!

Ms. Chang and Sam

Sam in front of his school!

. . . at his desk on his first day of 3rd grade!


Grammy and Papa took Max and Lucy to their first day of school at O'Hara because it was also my first day as the 5th grade teacher there! We all had a great first day of school. Lucy was so excited to see all of her friends from last year and to be a Kindergartner this year. Max was pretty calm and unemotional about the whole thing, but he really likes his teacher and I can't believe he is in 4th grade already! Grammy and Papa had a great time going to coffee with the other parents in the cafeteria after drop off, I was so glad that they were there (I'll have to get some of my Dad's pictures to add to this post).

Lucy, Ady & Emma

Me (a little nervous on my first day)

standing with a few students in my class

Mrs. Mussio and Lucy

Sam had Mrs. Mussio too (and LOVED her!)

she is also our neighbor and her daughters babysit for us all of the time!

Lucy was so excited to get her as her teacher.

Mrs. Mahalak and Max

Angela (Mrs. Mahalak) lived in our old neighborhood

and we have been in a BUNCO group together for years!

Max was really happy to be in her class!



I had a GREAT first week of work! I have the best class EVER! All of my students are so sweet and so much fun. They are also really excited to learn and do cool projects. We have already made electric circuits and they have also used their individual clickers to do activities on the computer that I can project up on the screen for us all to do together. There are so many fun technology things that you can do with kids in the classroom now, and I am so excited to try all of them. The kids love it too. Pancho did all of the driving for our kids this week as well as laundry and grocery shopping (he gets and A+ this week). However, he will be out of town on business Monday - Thursday for the next 4 weeks in a row! I will be a working single Mom! So we will see if I am as excited about all of this next weekend at this time! I am just so relieved that the first week is behind us all and everything went pretty well. I'll keep you updated on next week though . . . if I have time!

Papa's Birthday & Marist Game

We went to Grammy and Papa's for Papas Birthday last Sunday. Mom made chocolate cupcakes for all of us and cooked the best dinner ever YUM!. The kids had so much fun playing at Grammy and Papa's (as usual) and we all watched the movie "The Cat in the Hat" together. It's actually a really cute movie, I had never seen it. So glad that we got to celebrate Papa's birthday with him!

Papa and Lucy

Sam was showing Papa the card that he made for him.

Happy Birthday Papa!

Blowing out his candles

(with help from his grand kids)

We also went to the Marist Football game last weekend.

We all had so much fun. Max's football team met there to play football and watch the High School Boys play. Sam found his best buddy Colin to play with and Lucy found Chelsea and Madeline. We couldn't drag the kids out of there when it was over, they were so entertained.

Marist won by like 40 points!

Chelsea, Madeline and Lucy

How Cool is THIS !?!

Our principal surprised us today with an all staff outing for lunch. She didn't tell any of us where we were going (we thought we were probably having a picnic at the park). We all loaded on a bus and to our surprise, we were taken to Autzen Stadium, where we were treated to a tour of the locker room and training room as well as lunch in Phil Nights skybox!!! Is my job cool or what?

Here I am looking like a dork, all excited to be in Phil Night's Skybox!

Here we are unknowingly heading to Autzen on a school bus.

The training room

The locker room was absolutely unbelievable

There were Big Screen TV's everywhere, pools that players can run on treadmills in, a waterfall, a snack bar, glass walls that cloud over at the push of a button, a dentists office, a pharmacy, and an x-ray room as well as all of the latest state of the art workout equipment!

a whole room dedicated to showcasing the plans for the new basketball arena

it is going to be soooo cool!

then we went up to Phil Knights skybox for lunch!

We watched the players practicing on the field!

some of my teacher friends making themselves comfortable in Phil's Box

the Oregon Ducks running off the field to go catch a plane to Boise

their first game of the season is tomorrow night!!!

a group photo of our whole staff

notice we are making the "O" sign for O'Hara!





After we ate lunch, we went down on the field and played a game of staff Kickball!

Mrs. Bert (our principal) kicking the ball for our team!

What a fun Day!

Suzanne, Ramona, Angela & Melissa

Angela and I

So I guess that if you aren't a Duck fan, this probably doesn't seem that cool, but to me it was an amazing day!

Duane and Mary's Wedding!

It all started when my friend Leticia's little brother Duane was planning his wedding to his beautiful fiance Mary. Duane and Mary needed someone to videotape their wedding. Teesh remembered that Pancho had videotaped her sister Amber's wedding to Tony, so she persuaded them to let Pancho have another chance at it. So, in exchange for an invite to their beautiful wedding and nights stay at the Embassy suites, we were the official video tapers!

We had a blast staying at the hotel, dancing, partying (and videotaping of course!) with the whole Konyn clan!

Duane and Mary

the adorable couple

Sam, Lucy and Max
looking out the glass elevator at the Embassy Suites




Lucy has become such a great swimmer this summer
I took her to some lessons and now she is swimming across the pool with her head under the water and even diving for toys with her brothers. She has no fear now!




Pancho swimming with Lulu

All of my "kids"in the pool

The site of the gorgeous wedding

The Forestry Center in Portland

A Konyn Family Picture

(Pancho and I wanted to jump in it so bad!)

Genevieve and Teesh

What a cute picture!

The cake

I thought it was so simple and beautiful

Me, Pancho, Chad and Teesh

longtime friends!

I LOVED their program.

They put it on a paint stick that they had painted to match the program.

It could also be used as a fan during the wedding!

Leticia's brother David doing a reading during the wedding

The ice sculpture.

They actually served drinks off of this thing!

Those are cherries and plums frozen in the bottom.

This is a terrible picture . . .

but they had an Aeriel acrobat come and do a show for us while we were eating dinner.

I had never seen this at a wedding before, it was really cool!

Teesh and I on the dance floor

I wanted to be a Konyn sister!

Leticia, Marilyn, Me and Amber (holding Jacoby)

So later in the evening, after the ice sculpture had melted a little bit, it was used for something else . . . shooters!

This is the hilarious maid of honor taking a shot!

Now its the Brides turn . . . Go Mary!!!

Here is her reaction after a successful shot!

So funny!

Once again, the cute couple.

Thank You Duane and Mary for including us in your perfect day!

Grammy and Papa took the kids to the Zoo!

While we were at the wedding, my Mom and Dad took our kids to the Zoo!

My Dad gave me these great pictures that he took while they were there.

The kids haven't stopped talking about how much fun they had there since we got home. They all had stories to tell us!

Sam's favorite animal in the whole world is Bears! In fact he tells us all of the time that when he grows up he is going to wrestle bears.

It looks like they had a LOT of fun!

My kids are so lucky to have such a great Grammy and Papa!!!!

Tailgating!!! . . . at Pop Warner practice

Ok . . . So Max's football practices are EVERY night from 5:30 - 8:00. That's 2 and a half hours!!!! Anyone who knows me well, knows that I was b**ching and complaining about it UNTIL . . . my good friends Brenda and Darbi came up with this excellent idea! Tonight we all brought drinks and they brought delicious appetizers and we had a party! It was so much fun to sit in the shade on a gorgeous summer night with good friends and watch a little 4th grade football! The only problem was that I was only drinking Diet Pepsi in my margarita glass because I start work tomorrow! I still can't believe that I am officially a working woman. This sure was a good way to end a really fun summer though. I'm ready for Fall!

The Tailgating Mom's

delicious appetizers

Brenda and Me

watching a little 4th grade football

By the way, Max is doing great at Football, he is absolutely loving it!

Summer Fun!

This week has been a little slow for Blog opportunities. For one, I have started going into O'Hara off and on to get ready for work to officially start next Friday (only one more week of summer . . . eeek!). I have also been working very hard to turn my Blog into a beautiful photo album using Blurb.com, which means that I have been spending hours in front of the computer trying to figure it all out. I have finally made it over the learning curve hump and I am cruising along now. I have more than half of my 107 blog posts put into the album already!

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My kids have been having a blast playing at home with each other, riding bikes and jumping on the trampoline. They really get a long well when it is just the three of them. I did have a free day today though, so we went on a little summer adventure.

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Tennis, skateboarding, Slurpee's and the park!

Max is getting really good at skateboarding!

We really think that tennis is Sam's sport!

I am always amazed at how good he is at it!

Max doing "tricks"

Lucy "oops, I missed that one too!" Fulton

I love how she always has a smile on her face though.

Lucy with Sam and Max in the background.



I used to play tennis in High School (sort of).

I think I was
Julie "oops I missed that one too" Murray

Look at Sam's backhand!

What a stud!

My kids favorite treat . . . Slurpee's!



at the park



these two are Best Buddies!

Max getting everyone to help him build his engineering masterpiece.

Max turned the whole sand area into a well thought out river, island, mountain, lake masterpiece! What an engineer!

Liz is a Blogger Now!

I've recruited another member to the Blogging club (cult)! Liz came down to visit today and I helped her set up her Blog! Check it out! www.thedacars.blogspot.com

Keith and Sheri's Anniversary Party

Our friends Keith and Sheri had a big party at their house for their anniversary, so after the garage sale we all got cleaned up and headed out to their house to celebrate!

Natalie and Jessica were servers at the party!

They even made some tip money!

Christy and I sitting by the pool in Sheri's beautiful backyard

The Fultons, The Hakalas and the Lynch's
enjoying a glass of wine at sunset




They even had a live band!



Me, Sandy and Christy

I wish I would have gotten a picture of Keith and Sheri!
Its the least I could have done after enjoying thier awesome party!

Garage Sale 2009!

Natalie and Lucy working their shift at the lemonade and cookie stand

Me, Mom, Sandy and Christy waiting for some customers

Oh Yeah! . . . look at all of that junk!

It was actually a really successful day, we had tons of people come through and I made more money than I thought I would. It was also fun to hang out with the girls for the day. The kids made a killing at their stand too!

Making Cookies for Our Garage Sale

I love having a garage sale every summer!

I know it sounds crazy but something about getting rid of all of the extra junk, making a bunch of cash, people watching, and seeing my kids pitch in and have fun . . . I get a little thrill out of it!

The kids always have a lemonade/cookie stand to make some extra money for themselves.

getting ready to put a batch in the oven!

. . . gotta love the mess!

Max was so excited to make some $$$ selling his cookies!

Max got so good at making cookies, that he made the second batch himself!

Camp Harlow & Football Camp!

The day is finally here for Lucy! She has watched her brothers go off to Camp Harlow since she was a baby, but you have to be 5 years old to go, so it is finally her turn! She and Sam were both excited to go to a week long day camp with swimming, canoeing (sp?), bumper boats, playground, horseback riding, huge tire swing, crafts, face painting and much more!!! Camp Harlow is the best and it is right here in Eugene.

Sam and Lulu on the first day of camp!

Lucy, Brendan, Sam, Ethan & Colin
The Campers




Sam giving himself "bunny ears" since I wouldn't let him do it for his sister in her picture.

Lucy "posing" as usual

Lucy and her "best buddy" Ethan

They are in the same group!

Sam and Colin got in a group with about four other 7 & 8 year olds!

Wow I hope their counselors have a lot of energy!

Lucy with her camp counselor "Mocha"

Her other counselor is a H.S. boy named "Hurricane"

Sam and Colin have "Turbo"

Max isn't going to Camp Harlow because he is going to the Marist Football Camp this week.

I haven't taken any pictures of him at camp yet . . . mostly because I am discovering that Max is at the age where he doesn't want his Mom following him around to every event in his life and making him pose for pictures (imagine that)! Max will be playing tackle football for the first time this fall. He is really liking football camp so far. This is a picture that I took of him the day he got his practice gear :)

Hayride at the Konyn Dairy!!!

Our very good friends Leticia and Chad invited us to their house/dairy for Will & Cade's Birthday Party and Hayride. It was so much fun to hang out with good friends, eat some burgers, visit the cows and go for a Real Hayride!!!

The Konyn Dairy at Sunset

It was a perfect night for a Hayride!

The kids all getting loaded onto the back of the trailer . . .

Sydney and Lucy

Sam and Ethan on the Hayride.

Mooooo!

Max and Sam checking out the baby cows.

Lucy LOVES animals (she didn't get that from me)

so she was so excited to pet a real calf!

Leticia (holding her friend Kendals son),

Christy and

me . . . sitting on a much higher hay bale and closer to the camera

(I am not a giant! . . . I like to call it curvy!)

Lulu picked her own piece of corn

Sam and Ethan having a "Star Wars worthy" battle with their corn

The Girls

Sheri, Sandy, Christy, Me and Leticia

The Guys

Donnie, Pancho and Chad (enjoying some corn!)

Thank You Ficek Family

for a really fun night

and the very cool experience of going on a Hayride!

All dressed up . . .

Pancho and I got all dressed up for a night out without the kids.

Well, I guess we are in jeans so we are not THAT dressed up, but after cleaning the garage all day, I thought we both cleaned up pretty good.

Golfing with the Hakalas!!!

Pancho and I both love golfing. Neither of us is very good at it, but we both love it anyway! In fact, back when we were 2 income . . . no kids, we lived about 2 blocks from a golf course and we would walk down there and golf almost every evening in the summer. Now don't get me wrong, kids are a lot of fun, but not very conducive to golfing, so Pancho and I have not had the opportunity to golf together as much in the past 10 years. We were so happy when Christy and Donnie called us and asked us to golf 9 holes with them. Of course we had a blast with them (as we always do) but it also made us realize how much we love golfing on a summer evening and that we are excited to have such a fun activity that we will be able to do together for many years to come! We have made it a goal to go golfing more often . . . anyone want to come with us?

We started the evening off with a delicious dinner at three forks. . .YUM!

Donnie and Christy

I have known Christy since High school and we were college roommates.

We met Donnie in College, and I have been cursed with him ever since . . .just kidding!

Me and Pancho!

. . . 14 1/2 years of wedded Bliss!!!

Christy and I are such good friends that we even dress alike

No . . . we didn't call each other.

Donnie is doing something inappropriate behind us as usual.

Pancho and Christy watching Donnie take a swing.
What a beautiful summer evening!

Look at my awesome form . . .

did I mention that we all pretty much suck at golfing? Well, actually Donnie, Christy and Pancho always have some really great shots and parr on a few holes. I am out there purely for fun and to laugh as much as I can!

Donnie's showing off his swing

Pancho recreating his ESPN slow motion wave as he takes the ball out of the hole after his pretend hole in one!

Group Shot!

Going Back to Work

Excited and Nervous!

I still can't believe that I am going back to work!

I have been going into my classroom this summer and slowly figuring out curriculum, setting up my desk etc. These are some "before" pictures of my classroom. Now that it is August, I am really starting to feel like this is for real. My life is about ready to change, but I am excited and nervous for this new turn in my path.

. . . just be understanding if there are a lot fewer Blog posts this fall!

My name is officially on the sign outside my classroom!

5th grade . . . Here I come!

I Love Not Camping!

Ok. . .so I am not much of a camper. In fact I really really dislike camping, but I do LOVE the great memories and pictures that I have when I get home. It makes it almost worth it to do it all again next year.

Every year we go camping with 4 or 5 families. We usually go to Detroit Lake, but every few years we switch it up a little bit and go to the Beach. This year we were at Beachside near Yachats and Waldport. I dislike camping so much that we only go once a year, and I refuse to sleep in a tent (primadonna . . .I know). My kids love camping so much that I always feel guilty and vow to go more often when we get home. The weather wasn't great, a little bit cold and windy as well as overcast, but that didn't slow the kids down at all. In fact I don't even think they noticed.

Brendan, Lucy, Ellie, Max, Ben, Jack, Ethan and Sam

(Colin was not in this picture)

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A few years ago, my good friend Steph gave me this picture on a postcard and I had it hanging on my fridge for a long time. It still makes me laugh whenever I look at it because it is so me!



I asked Pancho to buy a pump to pump up the air mattress in the tent. When we got there, he unpacked a hand pump. I asked him in a slightly annoyed voice why he didn't spend 10 more dollars and get one of those "new fandagled" electric pumps. He immediately answered "because we already have free labor . . . kids get over here" (we are so classy). Lucy and Ethan pumped up the air mattress all by themselves and they were so proud! Pancho gave them this big speech about working hard and finishing a job and having a feeling of accomplishment when you are finished. It was actually really cute to see their proud faces! OK Pancho maybe you are right . . . sometimes.


The proud cuties playing on their newly pumped up air mattress.

See the van to the left? That is where I sleep!

The rest of the family sleeps in a tent.

Lets just say that I am not a tent person.

OR public toilet/public shower/being cold/being dirty.

I could give you more, but I don't want to sound like a complainer (too late)!

I can't believe that we get invited back every year!

Max, Brendan and Ben

Amy, Liz, Christy and Me

things I LOVE about camping . . .

spending time with these wonderful friends,

laughing, telling stories around the campfire, eating junk food

I could give you more but it might sound like I am trying to kiss up after being such a complainer!

The kids finding their first jelly fish.

They ended up finding hundreds more!

Sam thought this seaweed looked like the palm trees in Hawaii.

Don't I look happy?

The guys - Doug, Pancho and Donnie

(Kevin missed this pic)

The kids played in the forest around our campground for hours.

They all got along so great and had so much fun!

. . . I am not sure what is going on in this picture, it looks like Sam is being rescued!

Ethan and Lucy

oblivious to the cold and playing on the Beach

a shot of our Beach hangout and view

Lucy

she didn't get those legs from me

. . . or Pancho for that matter hmmm!

The Moms all bundled up.

Yes, we were feeling the cold and wind.

Max, our little engineer, worked all day on this with Ben, Brendan and Donnie.

Lucy and Jack roasting marshmallows for smores.

Ellie and Sam

Sitting around the campfire making smores

. . .these are some good memories!

Max and Jack perfecting their marshmallow roasting technique.

group shot around the fire

Lulu playing in the sand

Oh Yes . . . those crazy kids were playing in the waves the whole time

brrrr! I remember doing this when I was a little kid, but now it seems crazy!

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All in all it was such a fun trip. When I get home and I look at the pictures, I am always so happy that we went. We always have so much fun with the Hakalas, Dacars and McCarthys. When I asked the kids in the car on the way home "Did you guys like camping this year" the response was a resounding "YES! we can't wait for next year". Hopefully by next year the memories will have faded of the 8 loads of laundry that I have to go fold and put away right now, and we will happily head off to the campground to make more fun memories!

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I Love Not Camping!

Happy Birthday Leticia!

I got to go out for a Girls Night for Leticia's Birthday last night. Teesh had just finished playing in a soccer game (stud!). We met at the North Bank for a nice dinner. The plan was to sit out on the deck by the water, but it was too hot (106 degrees here yesterday)! The restaurant wasn't much cooler, but it was still so much fun to catch up with the girls.

Front row: Christy, Brandy and Leticia

Back row: Sheri and me

What a beautiful and fun group of friends!

Happy Birthday Teesh!

(You, Me, Christy and Liz better start planning something BIG

for the big 4 - Oh! next year)

An Evening Out With Max!

Sam and Lucy both got invited over to friends houses for sleepovers. That left Panch, Max and I at home. This rarely happens, where we have an evening with just one of our kids. We decided to all go to a movie together. Pancho and I were reminded how much fun it is to spend time with our kids one on one. We are going to make an effort to do this more often.

Max is growing up so fast.

We had such great conversations with him after the movie without any little brother/sister distractions. I am just glad that we still have a little time left with him where he still WANTS to go on a date night with his parents. He told us that he would have made a great "only child" ha ha.

In my effort to do more one on one's, Lucy and I hit Target together the next day for a little "girls shopping".

Love the purse and glasses . . . So fun!

She picked out these glasses for me to wear and took this picture of me!

Poser!


I LOVE my little girl, and shopping!
I hope that this is an indication of many more mommy/daughter shopping trips to come

Note to tightwad husband: (Pancho, just don't read this part, you don't want to know!)



PS Don't feel too bad for Sam, he has been invited to so many play dates and sleepovers I can't keep up . . . Mr. Social. Maybe he can fit mom and dad into his schedule soon!

Kevin's 10 year reunion

Finn came down for a visit last weekend and he brought his parents Kevin and Kate with him. We had so much fun with them. Kevin was actually here for his reunion. My camera was running out of batteries so I took some really blurry pictures. Finn is getting so big and we all loved holding him and seeing how much he has changed since the 4th of July already. The best part of the weekend was when I got to go shopping with Kate for the afternoon, but of course I forgot to take pictures of that. What were we thinking Kate? We should be thinking "Blog opportunity" at all times!

Mom holding Finn!

Kev with some of his Marist friends.

Alf (Sam) and Lulu.
Can you believe that there is still an ALF costume out there?
Amazing what you can find in Grammy and Papas attic!



The cousins . . . my kids just LOVE their new baby cousin Finn!

Lone Pine with Brenda and the kids!

Lone Pine Farm is right down the road from our house, and they sell the BEST fresh fruits and vegetables as well as some delicious ice cream. It is a fun place to take the kids on a lazy day, so even though we had just been there on Sunday with Sean and Francine, I jumped at the chance to go with Brenda two days later. Sam had invited Lucas over to play and Lucy had invited Lauren. We called Connor to see if he wanted to come play with Max and Brenda suggested that we take all of the kids to Lone Pine. So Brenda and I ended up there with 8 kids between us!

My friend Brenda with her son Lucas

Lucas is in Lucy's class at school.

Lucy and Lauren

Lucy looks like Lauren's mom in this picture!

Lucy is one of the tallest in her class and Lauren is one of the smallest . . .

The Franssen Bros and Max goofing off!


Max with Connor strangling his brother Brennan.

Lucas and Sam . . . best of buds!

Slip-n-Slide!!!

Max got this cool 3D slip-n-slide for his birthday from his Aunt Becky! The kids got it out tonight and played on it for about 2 hours (which gave me the time to finally catch up on my Blog!). Thank You Aunt Becky!

Max taking the "maiden voyage" on the slip-n-slide, with Lucy asking "why do I always have to be last?" Poor youngest child!

The goggles are blue and red so that the shark supposedly looks 3D! They thought this was so cool!

more fun . . .

They all wanted a picture of themselves getting eaten by the shark, so I had them all pose together for the Blog picture. . .

Sean, Francine, Will and Annie!

My brother Sean and his family came down to Eugene from Seattle to go to Seans 20 year class reunion. According to Sean, the Marist High School Class of 89 had a fun time together (maybe too much fun, Sean had a bit of a "recovery" day on Saturday). Our family always has so much fun when they are here. The cousins have a ball playing together, and Sean, Francine, Pancho and I are perfectly content to relax, chat and laugh a lot (thanks mostly to Pancho's inappropriateness).

Hanging out on our back porch

what a perfect weekend!

We all went out to Lone Pine Farm . . .

Sam holding his cousin Annies hand . . .

(she was having a bit of a wardrobe malfunction)

with Lucy trailing behind.

Annie and Francine

Max feeding the goats. . .

me and my awesome husband

Lucy and "Florrie" the goat



Sammy hoping the goats won't eat his shirt since he was out of goat food.

Uncle Sean pushing the cousins on the swing!

They always have so much fun together.

It's fun to watch!

Will and Lucy will both be starting Kindergarten in the Fall!



Max looks like a teenager to me in this picture.

My baby is growing up!

Pancho had lots of "goat comments" for us. . .don't ask!

mmmmmm. . . icecream!

Lucy was crying after she fell off the merry-go-round

Pancho tried to cheer her up by swinging with her.

She told him that he was too big for that swing and started laughing.

I guess it worked!

Girls Trip to Nordstroms!

Ok, so out here in the Boonies (Eugene), we don't have a Nordstroms. Therefore it is considered a "girls trip" when we actually take a day to go up to Portland and do some shopping! It doesn't hurt that Nordies is having their big anniversary sale right now. . . add in the fact that it was my good friend Stephanies Birthday this week and we had reason to celebrate!!! It was so much fun to head up to Portland with Steph, Brenda and Darbi (we even got a bonus friend, Melanie, on the way home)! I was on a mission for this trip, to get myself some decent "teacher clothes" since I live in sweats and jeans right now. As you can see from the pictures of our bags in the back of Brenda's car, my mission was accomplished and then some! I came home with lots of clothes and fun goodies from Sephora too, as well as great memories and a lot of laughs with good friends.

We had dinner at Bennihana's. . .YUM!!!

The waiters sang Happy Birthday to Steph!

Brenda, Me, Steph, Darbi and Melanie

OH YES!
Our shopping bags from a VERY successful day of shopping!




The girls in front of the restaurant.



Part of the reason that I look so forward to this trip every year is that we are treated like royalty at Nordstoms. Our friend Amy has a connection with Nordies, so she can get us a special room upstairs with our own personal attendant who helps us with whatever we need. We also get lunch served to us in the room. We have turned this trip into a tradition because we always have so much fun. I can't wait for next year!

Camp Harlow Pool

OK, I was even getting bored with my Blog (I needed a new post!), so even though we haven't done anything very "Blogworthy" this week, I am just going to Blog about an average day. . .

I have been getting up everyday this summer at about 6:45. By 7:00 I am out on my run/walk to Starbucks (about 2 miles). Then I sit there and read the paper and have an iced tea. Then I run/walk back home. I usually get home at about 8:30 which is right about when the kids are waking up. After I make them some breakfast, we usually do a little bit of summer school. I have workbooks and 2 of the kids are working on pages in their books while I am reading with the other one. It takes about an hour to rotate everyone through. Today we just hung around the house for the early afternoon, the kids jumped on the trampoline and made a pillow fort while I did laundry. At 3:00 we all went to Lucy's swimming lesson, then we met Stephanie and Spencer at the Camp Harlow pool for a swim. Finally, I got to drop the kids off at Mom and Dad's house (thanks Mom and Dad!) and Pancho and I went to dinner at Chili's and the movie "The Hangover" with Kevin and Amy. The movie was hilarious by the way, and we had a great time with our good friends!

I LOVE summer!!!

Lucy, Sam and Max

at the Camp Harlow Pool!

Playing!

. . .taking a snack break to watch the swimmers.

Ice Cream . . . Yummy!!!!

We Love Summer too!