A Visit from Grandma and Grandpa!!

Our summer started off with a visit from Grandma and Grandpa Christensen. (June 25-30) We had fun showing them all of our favorite spots around here! We love the northwest!!!

First we went to Multnomah Falls.......
Just hanging around with Grandpa on the trail!

We made it all the way to the top this time! The kids were troopers! Everything is easier with Grandma and Grandpa....and of course the fanny packs full of treats from Grandma and Grandpa!!!
The second day......Mt. St Helens
and Ape Caves.....

Jared and Kayleigh made it ALL THE WAY to the end....the rest of us made it most of the way, but we were too tall to get all the way to the end!

On Saturday, we went to see the movie WALL E (not the best, but Jared loved the robot!....and that is why we went!).....then, that night we lit off fireworks (a lot of fireworks!) that Michael Pollard gave us.....via Mom and Dad. Thanks Michael!!!! It was a huge hit! We invited our friends, the Gallups to join us, then a couple of families from the neighborhood also came over to join us. It was a fun night!!!

We sure do miss you, Grandma and Grandpa!

Movie Night/ Pizza Night

One of my favorite things to do is have a family pizza/movie night! I just love all of us cozy on the couch (after eating pizza) and watching a movie together!!!

End of the School Year

The kids got out of school just over a week ago....the last week of school was full of events....field day (no pictures).....Jessica and Jared both had field trips in the last couple of weeks of school, and Jared had a first grade music concert. It was soooo cute....he was feeling a little nervous when we left for the school, but he was so cute, and he ACTUALLY SANG!!!! He loves music class!--Now, it is summertime.....we have some fun things planned, including a visit from my parents, a visit to Matthew's brother in the San Fransisco area......Jessica has YW camp, as well as her own trip to Grandma's and Grandpa's house.....plus we are planning to do some camping in August....oh, and a Red Sox game in July. Should be a fun summer....hopefully I will have a lot of fun pictures to post over the next several weeks!

A visit from Uncle Eric

My brother, Eric, came to visit us at the beginning of June. It was a quick visit, but fun. His flight was a couple hours delayed, so it made it even shorter, but that is ok! We still managed to get all of our fun in!......I brought dinner for him to eat in the car when we picked him up from the airport....then we stopped at SHERIDANS on the way home!!! Of course, we had to do that! Then we got home and played a couple of games with the kids! Then after getting kids to bed we had time for another game---not Hungry Hippo :) And we visited a little bit. The next morning I brought him to meet up with the other guys he was here with to do some work with a few hours away from us. Like I said, it was short, but we still got in all the fun stuff! Wish it could have been longer....but we will take short visits, too!

It Is HOTTTTTTT!!!!!!

It has been 90 degrees the past couple of days.....so, the sprinklers got turned on....the kids had fun running through them!!!

HAPPY 7TH BIRTHDAY, JARED!!!

Jared's 7th birthday was last Friday, May 9....sorry it has taken me a while to post this....anyway, he had a great day! He opened presents before going to school (sorry, the pics are a little backwards)....he got to bring a b-day treat into school, and we went to Burger King for dinner! He was pretty excited to get 4 new Webkinz from Grandma and Grandpa!!!!! He was also happy about his new K'nex. He got new clothes, too....at the time the toys are what he was excited about, but I have noticed any time his new shirts from Grandma and Grandpa are clean, that is what he wears!

The following day, May 10, we had his birthday party! He wanted a "Daxter" party. Daxter is a PSP game where an exterminator is trying to kill bugs....so basically I turned it into a bug party, with a twist of Daxter....I think he was happy about the outcome!

Upon the kids arrival, we had a sign up on the front door....you can't read it in the picture above, but it told the parents that we were having bug problems, and our exterminator "Daxter" needed their childs help killing all the bugs so we could enjoy Jareds party. Each child was given a cute sticker with a picture of Daxter, that Matthew had made on the computer. They then got to go to Daxters Lab where they first had to work at identifying bugs.....(the kitchen table, where they colored pictures of bugs).....(yes, Jared has goggles on his head....they came off eventually, but Daxter wears goggles in the game while hunting for bugs, so Jared wanted to get into that mode!!!)

At Jared's request, I made a beehive cake....you cant really tell, but i bought the bee graham crackers to put on and around the hive.

After the kids had colored for a while, we gave them each a bug catcher and let them look for plastic bugs around the house.....this became their party favor, and the carried with them to the other party games, where they were given little prizes....gummie bugs, bee crackers, bug sidewalk chalk.

They had to swat away bugs (balloons) with fly swatters....they had a blast with that!!!....they got to take their fly swatter home, too!!!
Of course, Jared got to open presents!
Finally, cake time!!! (in the background, you can see the green pin the spider on the web game, and our blue bug toss....instead of a bean bag toss, i got some big bug toys that they got to toss into a couple of holes in the box.....we called it the Daxters bug drop!!!)
It was a fun party....Jared has a great group of friends!!!!

"My Logan!!"

Kayleigh was so happy to have "her Logan" over to play a few weeks ago!! You see, Jared has a friend named Logan, and Kayleigh has a friend named Logan, so whenever this Logan comes over to play, Kayleigh walks around the house saying, "MY Logan" came to play with me!! This time, her Logan was here while his mom was in the hospital having his new baby sister....so, this post is mostly for his mom, so she can see what they did....ok, a couple of things, anyway! It was an early morning (actually middle of the night) call that I got....I went over and slept the rest of the night at their house until Logan woke up, then brought him to our house for the day! It was a fun day....I took Logan on a walk to see the ducks while Kayleigh was at school, then Kayleigh and Logan ate lunch....after lunch it was supposed to be Logan's nap time, but that didn't really happen....he and Kayleigh were more interested in playing!!! It was a fun day!