LeGrand is now 5.

Crazy, but true.

This boy would rather run around in his swim suit without his shirt on... he regularly tells me, "no shirt, no service?" Yep. Better get it on. And his swim trunks have pictures of Legos on them. Lego Batman, no less.

 It was a fantastic day. We started with a trip to WalMart where LeGrand informed me that he wanted barbecued chips and Beer of the ROOT kind to go with his hotdogs at lunch. We obliged.

Then, three of LeGrand's friends from church came to play. They really just wanted to play with Legos, but were satisfied with running through the Mom Sprayer. Well... most of them were. One friend didn't want to get wet. He ran through the mist. Andrew was barbecue chef, cooking up some tasty hot dogs. Real Chicken Hot Dogs, not the delicious kind we normally have, but the kids ate all but 4 of them. 20 hot dogs. I should have had more buns. The cats were thrilled.

After lunch, we didn't wait three hours and went swimming with some friends. The water was fabulous. LeGrand was thrilled. Bailey was not. She got used to it, and then was thrilled.

Finally, home to get ready for a family barbecue with Grandma and Grandpa Stahr, Aunt Rachel and Jamie, and our adopted Grandparents, The Grays.

Dinner was lovely, the sun was shining, and it was hot... much different than I remember it being for LeGrand's day of birth. It was glorious. And then... the gifts.

"WOAH! Just what I always wanted! A FIRE TRUCK AND A MOTORCYCLE!" (yes, he did yell that...) He would sleep with them if I let him.

Legos. Swim Goggles. A cool shirt that Bailey immediately claimed as her own. A WADING Pool. More Legos. Every little boy's dream.

LeGrand is a pretty cool kid. He loves to give and receive hugs. He loves to play outside - and sometimes goes to visit the neighbor to tell the neighbor about all the cool things the neighbor has. He loves his primary class, (Sue Gray is his teacher) and his teacher told me that he knows all the right answers - not just the primary answers. He is a hoot to listen to in sharing time - where he comes up with all those one liners I may never know. But - he is a sweet little boy, and I'm glad he's part of our family.

Grandma Ruth

I just love this picture. And my Grandma. She's a wonderful lady.

The Sunroom... An update.

 

This isn't part of the sunroom. I just think it's cute that Bailey was obsessed with playing in this grocery bag for 20 - 30 minutes. She's hilarious.

Now. The sunroom.

It has electricity. It has walls. It has a FLOOR! It's a LOT warmer than it used to be. And, we're in the process of picking paint.

Andrew. Caulking the walls. Already it's warmer.

The floor. I'm in love with it. Andrew finished sanding it today, he puts the finishing touches on it tomorrow! 

Andrew is taking the remainder of the month off so that he can finish this room completely. I'm looking forward to having my kitchen put back together, and being able to eat in the sunroom again. It has stairs leading up to the door now. Savannah helped Andrew with them.

We haven't picked paint colors yet, but we have lots of sample colors on the walls! The positive is that we know what color the laundry room is going to be...

More updates later!

Easter Events with "Gram"

Easter events with Gram (Margaret has decided that "Grandma" is too long a word, so shortened it...) are anticipated for the entire month before Easter. The children like looking for eggs, but more than that, they LOVE decorating eggs with Gram. So... here's the photo essay (with some narration) of this year's events.

Aunt Rachel and her boyfriend, Jamie, scattered all the eggs. Some of them were well hidden so that the older children would have a harder time finding them, but all in all, it looked like the Easter Bunny exploded all over the yard.

All the colored dots are eggs. There were A LOT. and ever so fun to pick up!

Bailey. Intent on gathering eggs. Nothing was breaking her focus.

Not to be outdone, Caroline is seen here taking a break from her hunting.

That basket of LeGrand's was filled to the top!

Still more, but there's time to cheese it.

Here. I'll give you this one, and I'll have the next one. Or two. Or three...

Savannah's eggs were a little harder for her to find, but she found them all!

Margaret was a fast gatherer. She had a well laden basket.

Checking out the loot...

Savannah found the Golden Egg! And Jamie switched  the contents so it was $10!!!

Mom, this is too hot. It's WAY too warm. Can I be done?

A successful hunt! (L-R: Bailey, Caroline, Kyle, LeGrand, Margaret, Kennedy, Savannah)

And then, after all the other festivities, it was time to decorate eggs. Each child has their own dozen to decorate. Some are a little faster than others. (One year, LeGrand took maybe 2 minutes to dye all of his eggs... and they were all the same color.)

  

Waiting for the egg to turn just the right shade of purple...

Really learning from Grandma.

See! They're turning blue!

Some are faster dunkers than others - LeGrand has his two colors, Caroline her little rainbow, Savannah her creative eggs, and Margaret - still waiting for that perfect purple! They ended up making a different purple dye - the other didn't work.

Grandma. Helping with the egg dying process.

Gram did a fantastic job teaching Caroline the finer arts of getting the PERFECT color!

And here's the speed dunking champion! This year, he was still intent on one color... thankfully, Gram sits by him and switches colors.

Bailey didn't participate in the egg dying this year. She was taking a nap. Much love and thanks to Grandma Stahr for putting on a fantastic egg hunt and some wonderful egg dying! The egg salad leftovers are fantastic!

A Quick Trip to... ALASKA! week one.

O.K., So I'm really behind in posting, and it wasn't a "quick trip", it lasted an entire MONTH! But, it was fantastic. So... I'll take a few days at a time, and hopefully, get everyone caught up on our summer vacation.

At the beginning of July, I took the children to Alaska. On an airplane. By myself. It was a great flight with no hitches or bumps or glitches. All the children in their Sunday best, acted their Sunday best, and it was rewarding to see the looks and hear the compliments of other passengers as our children exceeded expectations.

My favorite part of the flight? Listening to the children laugh hysterically when we landed because it was such a new experience for them. I also really liked landing in Alaska on a non-rainy day and feeling the land of my birth under my feet again.

The next day the adventures began! We started by spending the morning with Charity and her crew, then spent the afternoon on a drive to Hatcher Pass - a gorgeous drive, and obviously exhausting for the littles... they ALL slept on the way up the pass - except Margaret, who was my little photo buddy. She took pictures all the way. Including out the window at the mountains that LeGrand kept insisting we were going to fall off of. "Is this the mountain we're going to fall off of, Mom?" I have no idea where he got that idea... no mention of falling was ever made, and we were on the highway when he made those remarks. Funny kid.

When everyone woke up, we got out and stretched our legs a little...

This picture of me was taken after the children finally went to sleep at 11:30ish PM. no flash. Getting used to daylight well into the wee hours of the morning took a lot of getting used to. Turns out, I really love the stars in the summer time, and I'm not as used to daylight 22-7 anymore. I will readily admit to staying up until the sky got dark reading more than one book. More than one night in a row.

Other highlights of our first week include spending the July 4th with Family - something I haven't done in MANY years. We went hiking at Hatcher Pass... IN THE SNOW! Not typical Alaska, by the way. It was an unusually chilly July.

The children (those who didn't spend the time shivering) enjoyed playing in the snow in July, and eating donuts and drinking hot chocolate with cousins to start our holiday; but I'm sure they were thrilled to get out of the mountains and into a little warmer weather to watch the parade! (Funny how warm 65 can be when you've been in snow in the morning!) LeGrand loved watching the tractors in the down home parade; all of the children were a little mystified that people would actually give them candy... (we don't get to may parades here in Oregon.)

Thanks, Uncle Ethan, for helping these two cuties figure out how to get the most candy! Our Independence Celebration ended with a wonderful barbecue and tons of fun with cousins.

And on... to the Reindeer Farm! In 1990, the Williams family in Palmer, Alaska, started a reindeer farm. I went to school and seminary with the Williams kids, but had only been to the farm one other time - with Andrew. Unfortunately, he wasn't with us when we went this time, but we took a tour so that we could feed the reindeer. After all, Santa might not stop if we didn't take time to feed his reindeer! LeGrand liked feeding the 4 year old moose... Boy am I glad my 4 year old isn't this tall!

Caroline wasn't as thrilled about the reindeer as LeGrand was - and I nearly was bowled over by her lack of enthusiasm more than one time. Sure was grateful for some good balance skills! LeGrand just couldn't get enough of feeding that moose!

The end of week one brought a family birthday party for my youngest Sis - Brittany. Haven't had a chance to celebrate with that many of my family for a long time, and it was super fun! From the white elephant to the Carrot Cake (YUMMMMM!!!) to the cousins playing with the Magnavox to the food, it was all fantastic.

And thus we finish week one in grand style. Week two on another day. This should be a good start to the trip!