My Masterpiece Art Studio

For Hannah's birthday this year I took the girls down to a local art studio to make some masterpieces. I discovered this place a few summers ago and the girls are always asking to go back. I always put them off because really we can do art at home just as easily. But there is something about being in their studio and having all their materials to work with. They can and have spent hours here. And I can't argue that it is nice to leave the mess behind for someone else to clean up.
We bought the mixed medial package and for $10 they had paper for painting, tracing, and enough clay for them to each make something.
Hannah used the light table to trace some cats.

She also used the oil pastel crayons on this piece of black paper.

Tyler wanted to paint and made this beach scene. They also have canvases that you can buy to paint on which would actually be really cool to hang their art work up somewhere. Next time.

Their favorite is really the clay. They rolled it, cut it, shaped it, molded it and...

came up with a birthday cake

and a turtle.

Here they are ready to be fired.

It takes a few weeks to get fired and ready to glaze. When they were ready we went back to glaze them.

This week they were finally ready to take home.

Ta Da! A masterpiece is born.

Toothless

I love a toothless grin. At about 6 or 7 years old when those front teeth start to fall out there is a short window before the permanent ones start to grow in when each of my kids in turn have sported this toothless smile. Hannah is there now. It doesn't last long and once it is gone you forget they ever looked like that.

Case in point: I barely recognize the girl in this picture. Is it really Tyler? She looks so different and all the more so because she is not only missing the top two teeth but one on the bottom as well. How did she even eat?

It was harder to find pictures of the boys with missing teeth. They were generally only missing one at a time and the new ones grew in so fast. Cole was only 5 in this picture.

Luke was 7.

It's a turning point. One minute they are little and toothless and the next minute the permanent teeth are in and they are suddenly older and it doesn't help that they are in first grade, and it's all day, and they are suddenly reading and writing and then tomorrow ... college!

Ok, that's getting a little carried away. Luckily I have a few more years yet.

The Last Hoorah, or Out Flying Kites

Summer is officially over and I am sad to see it end. I love summertime. I love it when everyone sleeps in until 9:00am, including me. I love not having to be anywhere much in particular. We can head out to the beach for the day if we want, go to the movies in the middle of the day, go to the museums or out to lunch. I love having help cleaning the house. This was a good summer in that the kids got along well, did not complain about being bored, and were helpful when I needed the house cleaned fast or my truck vacumed out.

I am actually dreading the first day of school. It brings back memories of the anxious, tearfull first days of my childhood. My kids are actually all excited about going back to school (except for possibly Hannah). I will be the only one with the stomach ache tomorrow.

And so here we are making the most of our last few days of freedom out on the Oregon Coast.

We mostly flew kites. This is the biggest one we have and Danford has finally learned how to use it without being dragged down the beach.

Luke learned to kiteboard.

Everyone flew a kite...

Even Hannah.

We also did a little exploring.

And so, so long to summertime...

at least until next year.

Friends with boats

Last week our neighbors took us out on their boat.

It's nice to have friends with fun toys. Cole tried his hand at driving.

Luke is pretty good on the wakeboard.

I gave it a try too.

And it seems Danford can still waterski.

The tubing was the most popular with the kids.

Tyler kept giving the thumbs up sign to go faster.

Love the look on Hannah's face here.

Two Hannah's.

A swim in the lake.

Thank you Francis Family!

While the boys are away...

We had some good girl time last week while the boys were gone at scout camp. It is shocking how quiet the house can be with the male half of the family gone all week. We took our time getting up in the morning, ate pancakes for dinner, the house stayed mostly clean and we planned our activities around what the girls wanted to do.

We went to the Zoo. The boys have no interest in the zoo anymore, so it was a good time to go. Turns out the zoo is a good place to go letterboxing. We found 4 letterboxes there. It was fun to have something to look for while we walked and walked.

We also did a little craft project. We covered these composition books with scrapbook paper and decorated them. They kept the girls busy for a while.

We also did a little school shopping, hit the free movies and saw The Tale of Despereaux and went out to lunch.

Of course they were just waiting all week for their cousins to get here. They had fun watching movies, doing fashion shows, going roller skating. Saturday morning we headed down to the Beaverton Farmer's Market.

As for the boys, they had a great week at scout camp.

They worked hard, played hard, showered seldom and generally had a great time. Cole and Sam got 7 merit badges each. Luke got 3 merit badges, did the mile swim and got a climbing award. A very productive week!

Luke & William

Last week Luke had his friend William in town for a visit. William was Luke's best friend in Texas. They lived in our neighborhood, were in the same primary class and in the same grade at school. Their birthday's were even within two weeks of eachother. This is a rare thing, and I think Luke has missed having a friend like this. He has plenty of friends at school but they are not members of the church and all his church friends are a year ahead of him in school. He doesn't hang out with any of these friends much outside of school or church. This could be my fault because I am not good at making plans to have my kid's friends over unless they are asking. And honestly, Luke is getting a little old to be having his mother make play dates for him.

At any rate, it was really nice for him to have a friend around. We had talked about doing this before and now that they are old enough to get on a plane alone we jumped at the chance to have him. Luke was excited to see him again and I think they had fun gossiping about all their old friends. I hope William had fun. When you ask a couple of teenagers "what do you want to do today?" You don't get much response. I took them to the OMSI and to the beach. The weather report was not good for the coast last week but I decided if we showed William anything in Oregon he must see Cannon Beach. We got about 2/3 of the way there and it was pouring rain. The kids all said I should just turn around and go home, but I was determined to go to the beach. It turned out to be a pretty nice day. The sun peeked out and it was about 68 degrees, which by my standards ain't too shaby for the Oregon coast. The water was even pretty warm and the kids all got wet. It was a good day.

Here they are 5 years ago at cub scout camp. They look so little.

And here they are now, almost 14 years old. Funny how William is almost the same amount taller than Luke as what he was 5 years ago.

I'm glad these two have stayed in touch. Now Luke wants to go to Texas next summer.

Sunriver, Part III

Part III - Swimming

Although the hiking and biking portion of our vacation may sound like we spent our whole week busy with physical exercise (and we did do quite a bit of that), do not be fooled - we had our fair share of lying around and relaxing too. We spent several days lounging on the beach at Elk Lake and Twin Lakes in the Cascade Lakes area. We liked Elk Lake much better, the beach was nicer and you can't beat this view.


The kids enjoyed floating around on some rafts and paddling around in these boats.

The water was actually quite warm but the air was not quite warm enough to entice me to get in. Don't worry, I amused myself just fine reading on the beach and watching everyone splashing around.

The chipmonks were out in full force everywhere we turned. They were not shy either and we no sooner turned our back and they were all over the picinic table where we left our lunch. One actually ran across Danford's chest as he was lying down with his eye closed. Hannah decided to try and get one to come take a chip off her tummy. She lay really still and waited. One came close but did not take the bait.

And all too quickly the week flew by and it was time to come home. I think we were all ready to get home and rest off the week. We all needed a good long nap. In our own beds!