Dance!

The first week of the summer is the most stressful for me. It is the girls annual dance recital, and it is four days of activity and busy rehearsal schedules and hair and makeup and driving back and forth and ... well you get the picture.
Three days of rehearsals. Three performances. Three hours long. Yes, it is a 3 hour dance recital!
I am so busy for those 4 days I don't even get a chance to take some good pictures.

The girls love every minute of it. They love the flurry of activity. They love being backstage with their friends. They love the hair and makeup, and of course the dancing





It is fun but I am always glad when it is over!

Going, going, gone...

Baseball season is finally over, and what a long, strange trip it was. First Cole was out for two weeks with a sprained ankle. No sooner did he come back and it started to rain. And it rained... and it rained... and it rained. Three weeks of rain outs. That's nine straight games rained out. That has to be some kind of record. It was a very frustrating three weeks to say the least.

All bad things do come to an end and when it was finally over we did have some good days for baseball. And Cole's last place team came out in 3rd place after the championship tournament. Not a bad way to end the season all things considering.

Also, I got to play with my new zoom lens.

Day at the Coast

Do they call it the coast because they do not think it is a "real beach.?" It is certainly not Hawaii, it is true but I am kind of partial to the Oregon Coast. I love a good hot sunny day as much as the next person but there is also something very relaxing about sitting in the sand in my sweatshirt reading a book and watching my kids play in the sand. You can't beat the scenery and when you have a beach a little over an hours drive from home why not take advantage of it as often as you can?

We have been taking advantage of it over the Memorial Day weekend for the last few years. Even though the weather has not been that great around here lately, I was anxious to get out to the coast for a day. It was a little cool at a mere 60 degrees and partly cloudy, but it was not raining and that is good enough for me. Besides, my kids do not seem to notice the cold and they can find plenty to do without getting in the water.

Such as...

Playing football.

Although I think these two need a few lessons. Maybe if they would stop laughing someone could catch the ball.

Just hanging out with Dad is fine for this Daddy's girl.

My personal favorite (besides the reading of course), looking for shells.

Tyler and I found these lovelies.

Flying kites.

Chasing kites.

Flying a kite while riding this contraption.

Of course, you can always dig a hole.

This activity alone could kill hours.

And when you are done with it, build a fire in it.

It's too bad we didn't bring any marshmallows.

If you are feeling crazy, you can get your feet wet.

I think we may have to amputate her feet now.

Heck, she doesn't care she's at the beach.

I mean the Coast.

Pack Rat

This is my picture of the week. It is the pile of stuff I found under Hannah's pillow.

Hannah is my pack rat. I don't know what to do with that girl. She saves everything! She comes home from school all the time with stuff that she has found on the ground walking home; rocks, broken things, junk that other people have dropped on the way home. She will not let me get rid of any of it.
Today I was taking the sheets off the beds to wash them and I found this pile under her pillow. Don't get me wrong, I knew she had stuff under her pillow. I try to convince her every night to put some of this stuff away, but she is having none of it. It's all special, and she needs it close. Today when I moved the pillow and really looked at the pile in it's entirety I could not believe how much stuff she had under there.

Here is the itemized list (because I know you are interested.)
2 scarfs (one of them is mine by the way)
1 flashlight (incase she gets scared in the night)
2 bottles of lotion
1 hackey sac
1 St. Patrick's Day headband
2 notebooks
1 lid
2 hair accessories
1 piece of leather
2 pencils and a pen
1 pipe cleaner bracelet
a rock
2 small erasers
a bouncy ball
a compass
a necklace
a paper clip
a sticky pad
a piece of felt
some artwork
a box of Kleenex
and a few things I could not identify

How can she even sleep with all that stuff under her pillow?
She is obviously not a princess.

Two Poems for Mother's Day

Look at my pretty Mother's Day flowers from mom and dad!
And for your reading enjoyment, some Mother's day poetry by Tyler.

Mother's Day Limerick Poem, by Tyler

My mom's a good cook,
She's usually reading a book,
I have lots of fun
She is number 1.
My mom has a good look!

Mother's Day Color Poem, by Tyler

My mom is the color of green.
Green is the color of the vegies that my mom loves to make.

My mom is the color of blue.
Blue is the color of the ocean which my mom loves to go to.

My mom is the color of purple.
Purple is the color of butterflies which are part of nature, my mom loves nature.

My mom is the color of red.
Red is the color of love thats in every hug.

My mom is the color of pink.
Pink is the color of the sunset that makes me feel warm.

My girl knows me well.
Happy Mother's Day!

In Which I Spend my Saturday Afternoon in the ER

We had an eventful day on Saturday. Cole sprained his ankle playing baseball, which is really a shame because he was having a great game. In the last inning of the game he was running to third and landed with his foot funny on the bag, twisting it and leaving him on the ground in pain. His coach got him a courtesy runner and sat him down with an ice pack. Five minutes later the game was over, his ankle was the size of a baseball, and his coach was recommending I take him to the ER.
Luckily it was not a busy day in the ER and we got right in and were there for about an hour and a half. After some Xrays they determined that it is a bad sprain and he has to stay off it for a few days and certainly can't play baseball for probably a week.
I must say I find it funny that out of all my children Cole is the most cautious and level headed and yet he is the one with the most trips to the ER. Luke was counting up the number of times Cole has had to go to the ER and came up with 5. One scorpion sting, one asthma attack that resulted in a few days in the hospital, one scary allergic reaction to nuts, two staples to the back of the head, and now a sprained ankle. What gives Cole?

Stalking Meeting the Pioneer Woman

I do not remember how I first discovered the Pioneer Woman. I think I just randomly stumbled across her one day out in the blogosphere and have since been regularly laughing at her confessions, trying her recipes and sighing over her photography. When she published a cookbook I ran out and bought it. When she announced a book tour I waited for her to come to Portland. She did not. Then about a month ago she announced Spring mini book tour and this time Portland was on the itinerary!

Monday night I grabbed my friend Karla and we headed over to Powell's book store, cookbooks in hand ready to meet the ranch wife turned biggest blogger on the block. It started at 6:00 and we figured in about 30 minutes to spare in case it was crowded. Alas, we underestimated PW. There were easily 400 people there. The front entrance to Powell's was packed, people spilling out into the mall entrance. Which was exactly where we ended up. On the steps in the mall looking out over this scene.

Not only that but there were tickets. Tickets! I obviously have not attended enough book signings. They started handing out tickets at 4:30 and stopped at 300. Clearly I was not going to get my book signed, but it was still fun to be there. She was running a little late and I was bemoaning the fact that I was not going to get any closer to her than this when she entered through the mall and walked right by us. My camera was not out of course. I got a picture of the back of her head as she walked by. She did a quick little Q&A session. She is very funny and down to earth and feels just like she could be your next door neighbor.

At about 6:45 they started lining people up to get their books signed. 10 tickets at a time. We had no tickets. But how long could it possibly take? We wandered out into the mall. We got a coke. We visited the apple store. We went home. Karla had a baby to feed. I was feeling conflicted about being with the rest of my family at Cole's baseball game on Danford's last night in town. Not to mention I had to get up at 4:00am to take Danford to the airport. But I wanted my book signed.

Heck, we decided to go back an hour later. The crowds must have thinned out by now, right? Not. They were only half way through the tickets. But there were now empty chairs. So we settled in for the wait. As I was sitting there I realized the extent of this woman's popularity. There were people there from miles around. People who drove hours to see her. With small children. And very supportive husbands. People who still had long drives ahead of them to get back home. And here I was 10 minutes from home. What was I complaining about, I could wait. And wait we did.

11:00pm - I got my book signed!