Family Picnic

Last week was one of the the longest weeks I've had in a while. I was sick and Adam was pretty much gone 16 hours a day at work. He was looking forward to hopefully escaping from having to go to work on Sunday...but, of course, he was wrangled in for the morning. After that, we had planned to go woodcutting with my parents and Henry. Adam made it out of work just in time for us to pack up and make the trek out to the permit site. We packed a little grill, hot dogs, cookies, chips, and grapes and made a fun evening of it.

We didn't make it home till after nine and my parents surprised us by bringing their truckload of wood to our house. One less load Adam has to get later! Thanks Mom and Dad!!

Party, Party, Party!

The weekend started off with a bang when we had Melody and her 3 boys come over to play. It had been a while since the kids had any friends over, and I love visiting with Melody. They came early, had lunch with us, and played in the kiddie pool/sprinkler. They left just in time for nap. When the kids got up, we went to Daniel's high school graduation party. We had a great time visiting with friends and family, and, of course, showering Daniel with lots of $$. Doris (Aunt Alice's mom) made her famous chocolate cake, and we (I) stuffed ourselves with giant strawberries...among other things. The kids had a great time playing with Fi-Fi and we were among the last to leave. I don't think the kids got to bed till after 10:30.

The next morning (Saturday), Adam made a quick run back to Uncle Don's to get a load of wood before we were to head off to Cousin Alice's 3rd birthday party. The party was at Chris' brother's house located out in the middle of nowhere near Battleground, WA. We were welcomed to a lovely home filled with TONS of kids...all of whom I'm pretty sure were related. Everyone was outside enjoying the beautiful 85ish degree weather. There was a large pool located next to a big trampoline, a small kiddie pool, a volleyball net, a large play structure, and lots of room to run. The kids had an immensely good time, as did we.

Faith made strawberry shortcake cake served with chocolate covered strawberries, strawberry cheesecake ice cream and strawberry pop for Alice's Strawberry Shortcake themed party.

Here's a shot of Samantha holding Novie in the pool. Adam got in too and played with the kids.

After cake, swimming, and presents all the kids took turns taking rides on "Oreo." Soren was scared at first, but liked it by the time the ride was over.

I think the kids had the MOST fun on the play structure. 2 slides, 3 swings, a tire swing, and lots of places to climb!

Afterwards, we met up with Patty and her friend Steve for pizza and ice cream in Woodland before heading home. The kids, amazingly, stayed awake during the entire drive home...and were able to be in bed before 10:00.

I couldn't believe it when Synnove chose black licorice ice cream and actually liked it! She ate the entire thing. What a mess!

Soren was not too keen on the licorice, so he chose strawberry...still messy though.

As of now, we just got back from church, the kids are napping, and Adam is off getting some materials from Henry to make a chicken run for our lovely layers. Tomorrow, we'll be going to Fi-Fi's 8th grade promotion! Party #3, here we come!

Making the Most Out of Mother's Day Weekend

We got started early on Saturday. We needed to make the garden more level and the dozer had done all it could do. I got out the roto-tiller to till up stiff soil so it could be easily dug out, while Adam used the tractor to shovel up the soil I tilled. It was a pretty good system! Then, we laid down some of our fancy underlayment (thanks GP!) and started building our walls/raised beds. It's gonna take us a while to get it all done...but it's a start! My mom and dad stopped by to give me a new plant for mother's day and watched us work for a while (both recovering from bad colds). Once we laid an entire pallet of cinder blocks, we headed back to Home Depot for another. While we were there, Adam and the kids let me pick out 3 new plants for the flower beds for Mother's Day! I picked a rose, a gardenia, and a pink flowering shrub (don't know the name).

Since it was nice, we let the bunnies out one at a time to play in the dog kennel. Charlie thought that Bunny-Him's cage looked cozy. He slept like this for quite a while! His neck is pink from Synnove's sidewalk chalk.

On Sunday, we all decided to show up at my parents' church for Mother's day. All of us were there, except dad (sick) so we went out to lunch and made plans for a spontaneously fun day at our house! We went to Chinese and had some really great food! They even gave out little crystal "Happy Mother's Day" figurines that lit up! It was sweet. Anyway, everyone had to go home to change clothes and get a few things and they all met at our house later.

The weather was decent so we set fire to our smaller burn pile. We also took a sledge hammer to the old goat shed (in pieces below).

While waiting for the fire to burn down to a reasonable hot-dog roasting fire, we split some wood. Dad and Adam split, while Mom and I stacked.

This is Synnove "helping"

The kids were good all day, despite a weekend with no naps.

The fire finally burned down enough, but it was still really hot! Mom found a unique way of roasting with out setting her pants on fire.

In the midst of all the fun, Synnove wanted to show off her 4-wheelin' skills...

After hot dogs, we all went up to the house to have ice cream sundaes! We had all kinds of candy toppings, chocolate syrup, caramel syrup, whipped cream, and bananas. We were all watching Bedtime Stories so I let the kids eat in the living room...Soren in his chair, and Novie on a towel. What a treat!

After ice cream, bath, and movie...

Hope your Mother's Day was as awesome as mine!!

Things We Do "In The Sticks"

We check mole traps in the rain while skipping...

We create our own version of Ax Men logging episodes...

Just look at those three Stihls in action (Adam, Uncle Don, and Dad)! Henry's (far right) Husqvarna broke earlier in the day...ha ha ha!
Ax Men groupies playing in the dirt...

And we go trout fishing with Papa...and still have fun even though we didn't catch anything.