Fall is here!

The school year has gotten off to a crazy busy start.  I thought with Cash being gone full days for the first time that I would have free time on my hands.  So far that has NOT been the case.  I've been volunteering at his school a lot,  taking family and senior portraits, and refinishing our kitchen cupboards myself.  We've also had quite a few big school projects to work on.  It's taken some adjustment for Cash to transition from half day kindergarten to full day first grade.  His teacher this year has a different teaching style than his kindergarten teacher and Cash has a hard time sitting in his desk focusing for long periods of time.  He gets bored and wants to visit with the person next to him or he wants to move on to the next task.  Academically he's doing great though and I get positive reports from his teacher that she's amazed at how kindhearted Cash is.  Cash's school had a Grandparents' Day concert and strangely the only grandparents who could make it were the ones who live 2500 miles away.  Grandpa Eddy and Grandma Kathy flew in from Michigan.  We only get to see them about once a year so we tried to make the most of their time here.

While Grandpa and Grandma were visiting we went to a pumpkin patch.

Cash's school had some fun dress up days during homecoming week including superhero day, pajama day, and crazy hair day.

And, finally here is a recent picture of Cash at his horse riding lessons.

I have a bunch more pictures to post from Cash's first grade field trip and of Millie's birthday party.  Hopefully I'll get another blog post done later this week with all of that!

My sweet boy

When most people look at my boy, they see a rowdy kid.  I see so much more though.  I see the softest heart of anyone I know.  Cash is always the first to comfort someone who is upset.  He drops what he is doing and offers a friend a pat on the back or offers his sister her stuffed animal.  "It's okay", he tells them.  Cash loves people, any people, all people.  He counts pretty much everyone he's ever met as his friends.  I just pray that the world is as kind to him in return.  Lord protect his gentle heart.

Nothing stays the same for too long.

So many things seem to be changing lately.  This month I had a going away party for my closest friend Tara as she got ready to start a new adventure in Hawaii.  She is working for an amazing organization on the island of Oahu that in part helps disabled people learn life and work skills.  I think the toughest thing about loving someone is when what you want conflicts with their happiness.  I sort of wanted to tie her up and make her stay. 

 About a week after her party, Tara and I went out to dinner for some girl time.  We laughed together almost all the way through it and I realized just how much I'm going to miss this girl.  I see a Hawaiian vacation in our future.

  Since I trust almost no one with my kiddos, it was always a huge blessing that Tara was always willing to watch them when Josh and I had a date night.  They will miss her too.

Cash's school had an outdoor movie night.  Families came to school for a barbeque dinner followed by an outdoor screening of the Lego movie.

Right before school started we went to Sunriver for a few days.  It was so relaxing.  Possibly our best family vacation ever, or so Cash told us.  We biked every day and enjoyed being schedule free.  We just did what we wanted when we felt like it.

 We played at the SHARC water park in Sunriver.  Cash played so hard and Josh and I had a water fight.  The kids thought it was hilarious.

 

 This is just a cute picture of Millie while we were waiting to eat dinner one night in Sunriver.

Lastly, here are some pictures of Cash's first day of first grade.  Mommy had a tough time with him going off to school.  Last year he attended half day Kindergarten so it will be an adjustment having him gone full days.

When I picked Cash up and asked how his day was Cash said, "Well, I farted in the tire on the playground. It's a good thing no girls were in there because they would've said 'peuwie'." I wasn't really sure how to respond to that.  This boy sure makes me laugh. 

August Post

I have a ton of pictures to share from the second half of summer.  I can't believe that Cash will start 1st grade in 10 days.  Aside from staying in the hospital when I gave birth to Millie, I've never been away from him for 8 hours.  Like, never.  It's strange that he'll soon be away from me 8 hours, 5 days a week.  Sad.  Also excited to have one on one time with Millie, but still sad.  Anyhoo, here are some pictures of how we spent our summer days.

Osborne Aquatic Center.  A regular activity for us.  Cash has swim lessons Saturday mornings, after which we go outside to the outdoor pool and play area.  Millie learned a song, Who Let the Dogs Out, while visiting Nana in June and every time we would go down the slide she would sing it all the way down.  It was hilarious.  There was no singing all day but the moment we started sliding she started shouting that song then she'd stop at the bottom.  Silly girl.

 A visit to Enchanted Forest with my friend Mandy and her girls Addison and Alexis.  Addison and Cash were attempting to make a scary witch face at the mouth of the witch slide.  They get along so well and loved playing together all day.

The Benton County Fair.  Cash and Millie both tried out this rocket ship ride and although it went very slow, once it started it was VERY loud and it scared Millie so she started crying.  I had to ask them to stop the ride so I could get her off.  Josh wanted me to make her tough it out but I just couldn't do it, the poor small fry. :(

 I take Cash to horse riding lessons every 5-6 weeks and Millie ALWAYS begs me to go. She has to wait until she's 5 years old though for liability and safety reasons.  I saw the opportunity to make it up to her by letting her ride a pony at the fair. 

 My brave boy jumping.

 Millie's first haircut.  She doesn't have enough hair to give her a full haircut but her bangs were always in her eyes so we trimmed them up.  I think it made her feel special to sit in the chair and to have someone do her hair.  She was all smiles.

 Back to school haircut!

.

Summer

Boy it was HOT outside yesterday!  I love the heat but this weather is a bit much for even me.  So the kids and I (and the dogs) took refuge inside with the air conditioning for the better part of yesterday.  That gave me a little extra time to blog while the kids rearranged our living room furniture to make forts.  I'm not kidding, that actually happened. 

Since my last post Cash has finished up his tee ball season.  That boy is totally in his element when he's outside.  The activity doesn't matter much, he's just a happy kid when he's outside.  Cash is left handed so he throws and bats left handed. 

Cash went to Vacation Bible School at our church again this year.  He had a lot of fun and met a lot of new friends.  There were 162 kids in VBS at our church this year! That's Cash's little face in the very middle of the front row.  Silly goose.

The last weekend of June we went to Klamath to visit Nana and Papa.  We hadn't visited since Thanksgiving because I'm not big on taking the kids on road trips.  They're getting older now though and both of them behaved so well for the 4 hour drive.  While we were there we played at my old elementary school and relaxed in Nana and Papa's backyard oasis.  Their yard will make any other gardeners look like slackers.  It's amazing.

4th of July is always pretty low key for us since Josh is in the middle of harvesting.  We made s'mores at home using these cool fishing pole marshmallow roasters that I got Josh for Father's Day.  Then we set off some fireworks in the driveway.  We also took the kids to see the Corvallis fireworks for the first time.  I'm a stickler about bedtime and hadn't been willing to take them in previous years.  There are perks with being past the baby stage though.  We have a little more freedom to do things like this.