Chris turns 8 '11

Chris' Auntie Valerie asked that I get Chris a big balloon and this is what I selected.  It almost stands as tall as Chris!  He thinks it is pretty cool!

Chris is now 8 years old. After days of deliberation he decided on a bowling party. This close to the end of the school year always causes problems as folks are usually taking off on vacation or have tons of graduation parties to attend but Chris ended up with the perfect mix of kids to have a bowling party.

Due to complete lack of time, Chris graciously let me off the hook of making the cake myself.  Instead he selected this lovely octopus cake ... I think mostly because of the large globs of frosting!

Click here to see all the photos from Chris' bowling birthday party!

Last Day of School '11

At long last ... the last day (half) of school!! This year I knew it was coming but what I kind of forgot about was Chris' b-day. If the final hour it was announced he wanted to provide cookies and ice cream for his class to celebrate his birthday which is Saturday after school lets out. Luckily the ones he wanted where the kind his grandma Karen makes. Peanut butter with a Hersey Kiss melted into the center. So, a couple tubes of peanut butter cookie dough and a bag of kisses and we are on our way! Oh, and ice cream. Adding the ice cream complicated it enough that I now have to drive them to school instead of them riding the bus.

Chris said good-bye to a GREAT teacher who is taking a break from teaching.

Acacia was also able to say good bye to her wonderful teacher who left just about a week ago to have a baby!

We have been soooooo blessed with the teachers and the entire school staff in Oregon! They are all wonderful!!

Since Acacia is "graduating" from elementary school and moving on to an intermediate school (5th and 6th grade) they had a little graduation ceremony. Sadly, neither Randy nor I had any idea this was such a big deal. Neither of us could go. I let Acacia take the camera and asked that her teacher try to snap off a couple shots. So, here they are. She is kind of in the middle with a white head band and a sparkly crop sweater.

Last Soccer Game - tornato '11

Acacia's last soccer game of the season had to be rescheduled to a school night. And not just any school night, but the last day of school night. We drove to a neighboring town and the girls really dominated this other team. We were short a player and a little sister was able to fill in and she even scored!! The game was called about 80% of the way through due to lightning. Afterwards the team went to Culver's for ice cream and various presentation to the coach and back to the players.

 

The girls had fun and outside the weather was getting more and more stormy. Families started to take off. Randy left with Chris and Acacia and one other girl were the last ones. I finally managed to get her way. We stepped outside and took about 3 steps towards the car when I turned and literally shoved Acacia back inside. All the TV's were on watching all the "funnel clouds" all over the area where we were. The rain outside was just blasting sideways as if a fire truck were spraying from a hose. Not much later the manager came out and told us a tornado was sited in the area and we all should move to the cooler. So, off we went.

Needless to say, it was cold in the cooler .... but they dug into the lost and found and managed to get enough sweatshirts and coats that everyone had at least one. 15 or so minutes later standing in the cooler lost it's thrill and luckily the winds started to die down enough they let us out. Maybe another 10 minutes of waiting and we were on the road. Driving home was amazing watching the sun set and the lightning!! Acacia was freaking out as I had to keep the weather on the radio and it was BAD!! Trees down all over, power outages, roads blocked, etc.

We made it home to find two of my potted plants smashed having been blown off the patio wall. But other than that all good!

Midlife crisis much?? '11

Randy and I try to have lunch once every week or so but rarely (never) does he offer to just come pick me up. We usually meet someplace half way. But, today he calls to see if I want to have lunch (mind you we just had lunch the day before) AND he will pick me up. Hmmmm .... something is up. So, OK we have lunch and he will pick me up. Around 11:30a he calls to say he's on his way and I should start heading out front of my building. So, I am standing out there messing with my phone. Cars, buses, scooters all going by. I am watching for our black Avalanche when this show off in a bright green sports car is revving his engine right in front of me. I try to ignore this person as if this car is really not that cool but after a few more revs of the engine I take a closer look through the significantly tinted windows and low and behold it's my lunch date.

Now, I have been climbing up into our truck and the van for 10 years now. Getting into this thing proved to be very entertaining but I managed. Randy took off like he just got out of the pits and we headed clear across town, had lunch and then I got to drive it back. Slightly different power than my van, little bit tighter handling and maybe a little more immediate response when you let the clutch out. But, just a little ....

As it turned out, this women needed our truck to move herself so she had to give up her car in return. I joked with Randy about the fact that it would fit in the garage easier than the truck but he very seriously told me we were NOT putting it in the garage we were leaving it in the drive way ... so all the neighbors could see it! I must admit, driving it around town to pick Acacia up from soccer was much more entertaining than picking her up the van. People just stop what they are doing to look at this thing go by.  And when we got home and she told me she left her back pack on the field, I was not even upset that we had to drive back and get it.

Funny, but the kids could have really cared less.

Memorial Weekend Visitors '11

We could have had a little bit nicer weather but other than that, the week end was great! Everyone arrived in Madison with just slight delays. No lost luggage even!

Saturday was kind of a gloomy day but we still got out. We all went to the farmers market, walked through the Capital and spent some time in the Children's Museum. We had plans to go to some local races but the gang opted for hanging out at the house and chillin' at the fire pit.

Cousins at the Capital

Ahhhhh ... life is good!

We cooked dinner over the pit even. Hot dogs and ham, turkey and cheese moon pies for all!! And of course ... smores.

Moon pies!

Sunday the guys golfed. As they passed by the house the kids also decided they wanted to golf. So, later that day we all went mini golfing (inside) and then the older kids got to do laser tag! The weather was holding off so we decided to try the Brat Fest. This turned out to be pretty nice. Brats and AWESOME corn on the cob!! Dinner for the family was under $15!!! Off to the carny rides and fire works.

The Capital at the mini golf!

Waiting for our brats!

Monday the sun finally came out ... full force. It was 90+!! The guys golfed again and once they returned one of our neighbors VERY graciously invited all 12 of us to their place to swim. They already had 8 guests of their own so all together we were 25!! But, the water felt great and slide got lots of action. We had a killer cook out later that night, played kick ball on the golf course and were entertained by some smooth Faglioni dance moves.

Not sure all the kids will fit on the carts.

Fun in the neighbor's pool!

Some last minute shopping at the airport!! Cheeseheads for everyone!!

Crazy Cheeseheads!!

During this week end of fun and frenzy we managed to not disrupt the robin's nest with the four babies in it! To see the progression of this amazing miracle check out the post a little older than this one! From eggs to flying around the yard!!

To see ALL the photos from this week end of fun galore click the link for a shutterfly slide show or visit to see all the photos from the Faglioni's as well as both Learish families.

Link to slide show from Memorial Day with the Cousins

Link to see ALL photo albums from this any many more family gatherings!