Fun at Grandma's!

The kids came over a couple weeks ago and we had some outside fun!

He wasn't doing anything wrong! :)  Aiden got a bucket of water to give the spiders a shower...

Here are the spiders getting their shower!  I think Aiden had more fun than the spiders.

Ryan loves to Hula Hoop!  He kept swinging it around saying "hoop, hoop..."

He loves airplanes!  

Bye Bye Airplane!

Aiden loved to jump off the slide!  I loved taking his picture! :)

The sprinkle is always fun!  Especially when you are in charge of the hose! :)

And Miss Elizabeth slept through most of it! :)

Happy Memorial Day!!

Thank you to all that have served, are serving or will be serving our country!  THANK YOU!!!

This week has been busy!  I have so many pictures to go through, upload, delete, and share...it is CrAzY!!

McKenzie and her class went on a field trip Thurs/Fri.  We went to Washington Park in Anacortes.  It is beautiful there!  There were supposed to be rain and thunder and terrible weather, but it was Beautiful!!  We had a little wind and a couple of sprinkles, but mostly it was overcast or sunny and it hovered around 60 all day.    

I had the kids on Saturday while Alyssa and Richard worked on the big home.  They have drywall inside and they painted the outside this weekend!!!  Yippeeee!!!  So exciting!  They are looking to be in around August.  Aiden really wanted to go camping and since McKenzie just went camping they decided to camp in our front yard.  (All the pictures are on my computer, but I can't get to them yet.)  I have a small play tent they set up and Aiden found some sticks and built a campfire in my driveway so they could roast smores. They had so much fun!!  It was kinda warm and not rainy so they filled up the pool a bit and played in it while Ryan and Elizabeth took their naps.  After nap time, Teresa and I took 12 children to 7-11 for $.49 slurpees.  We walked there and back.  Alex decided to go a different way so as not to be seen with us...crazy teenager!  We are sooo cool! :)  

Aiden and Ryan still wanted to play in the water when we got back.  With all their clothes on.  They are still drying out!  :)  If you look close, you can see their shoes and the bottom of their pants are wet.  About 5 min after this photo, the rest of them were wet!  Except for Aiden's new shirt.  He kept that up out of the water.  :)

Elizabeth was very happy!  She got to ride all the way to 7-11 in the stroller!  

 This is the back of my van before the camping trip.  I volunteered to do the Costco shopping...for 28 kids and 14 adults!!!  My backseat was just as full!  I barely had room for our sleeping bags and clothes!  Good thing it was just one night!

This is all the kids (except for two kids that didn't go because they were sick and one went home sick :( )  

sitting on the beach listening to their lesson.  They are studying tidal creatures and this was a fun way to get some hands on learning!

On this trip, Thursday morning to Friday night, I took 1109 pictures!!!  So crazy!  I went through them and deleted a bunch of blurry and duplicated ones and narrowed it down to 700.  Then I went through them again and got it down to 556.  I could probably narrow it down some more, but I am uploading them to Shutterfly right now so I can share with the parents.  Of those 556, I won't be sharing them all.  I have a ton of McKenzie and her friends that I won't be sharing all of them with the class.  

My fun weekend is now over and it is back to work for me!  The girls start soccer tomorrow!  The start of another year of Ranger's times two!!  Fun times!  :)

Soccer Sunday...

Today was a soccer Sunday.  McKenzie had her end-of-season party with her Navy WDL team.  They had it at one of the coaches houses.  Lots of fun!  I am uploading pictures right now, so there are none to share except for the cake, which I took with my phone camera.  They had swimming, volleyball/soccer, hot tubing, BBQ/potluck and lots of fun!  

After that soccer party, we went over to the Bellingham United Soccer game.  McKenzie's new Ranger coach plays on the team.  Teresa and Emily also went to the game, so we sat with them. Actually, McKenzie and I sat with them, Alex found Jordan (who is on her new team) and sat with her and some other Ranger players she knew.
The Bellingham United played a tough game, but lost 3-0.  The first goal scored was an own goal. :(  Not a very happy team.  They just went down from there.  They played hard, but could not score a goal!!  (in the right net)  ...and they did try....and try....and try!
Maybe next time!

After the game was over, we ran (ok...we drove!)  quickly to Ferndale where McKenzie's meet the new team party was going on.  The party didn't really start until the coach got there and since he was at the game, we were in plenty of time!  :)  We met everybody, filled out a ton of paper work, paid a lot of money, tried on uniforms, the girls played together and got to know each other, and the parents listened to what we signed up for! :)

I think it will be a good group of girls and they will have a great year.

This week I should hear from Alexandra's new coach about her new season.

I now have two Ranger players.  McKenzie U12 Gold and Alexandra U14 Blue!!  Very exciting and crazy and super busy! :)   We shall see what this year holds!

Happy Mother's Day!!!

Yes!  To you!!  ...and I mean it!!!  :)

These are some fun pictures of me and my girls over the last few years...

I love them!!!

This is me and my three grandchildren!  I love them too!!

It's a little hard to see Elizabeth, but she is there!

Have a great Mother's Day!!!

Happy Weekend!!

Gorgeous day for soccer!  McKenzie had her last WDL game ever! 

They played the red team in the consolation game.  They tried hard, but lost 4-2!  Sad way to end their season, but McKenzie has learned a lot and improved so much!

 They have changed the name to RDL, so instead of Whatcom Development League it is now Ranger Development League.  The biggest difference is that it is more closely tied with the Ranger League now.  McKenzie tried out for Ranger's U12 this week and found out that she made it!  :)  She is so super excited!  They only have one team, so she made the Gold team!  She wasn't sure that she would make it, but she did.  There were about 30 girls trying out and about 1/2 made it.  It will be an interesting year!  Alex had her first tryout today and her second one will be next Tuesday.  Then we will find out where she placed.  

After soccer I had a couple of little visitors for a bit while mom & dad worked on the "big home".  This is Iron Man!  Alyssa said they each have a licorice bucket (empty!) and they wear it on their head and call themselves Iron Man!  :)

Aiden can even put his own buckle on!  When he wants to...sometimes it is "too hard!"  Iron Man doesn't have a problem putting on his buckle though! :)

They had fun playing outside in the water and the pool and the puddles and the squirt guns and the brooms and the.......

They worked up an appetite so they were eating some veggie chips.  They are pretty good!  Ryan had his hands full, so he just carried them around in his mouth and ate them.

I can't believe this little munchkin is almost 3 months old!!  She is getting so big, so fast!  She was laughing at her brothers here...She just loves them so much!  Aiden and Ryan are so protective of her.  They just love her to pieces also!  It will be interesting to see what happens when she can move and starts "playing" with them!  I can see some TROUBLE happening in Alyssa's future!  :)

After a couple of very nice weeks of sunshine and warm weather, I can hear the rain falling now.  Lots of rain.  I was going to work in the yard tomorrow, but I guess it will have to wait!  I will get to work in my Stampin / Crafting area tomorrow!  Yeah!!  I have a couple of cubes to put together and then I can get everything in a home and finish my area!  I am soooooo excited!!!!!!!!!

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!!!!! to you!!  :)

Fabulous Friday!

How beautiful are these flowers?!?  Such fun bright colors.  They just make me happy!  

My mom was decorating a "Fiesta" theme party for a friend and these are some of the decorations.

Close up of the fun colors.  I love that they are in a jar with refried beans (uncooked!).  

Yesterday, mom and I did our walk.  It was pretty hot out and both of us worked all day.  Neither one of us was dressed for serious walking.  McKenzie was practicing at WCC, which is right next to the Woods...so....we walked to the Woods and got a treat!  We still did about 40 min walk, but it was more of a leisurely pace and not very quick.  

This is one of the cards we made at Stampin' Up! club last night.  We held a "retirement" party for all the stamps and accessories that are retiring.  My phone didn't take a very clear picture of this card and it didn't upload the picture of the other two cards, but they are really cute!  :)

HAVE A GREAT MOTHER'S DAY WEEKEND!!  

Enjoy what sunshine we have out there!  It may be gone pretty quick! 

Wednesday

I had the kids last weekend for a couple hours and we all went for a walk.  This is Elizabeth in the stroller.  I put a couple of hangy down toys for her to look at because it was so warm and sunny out, I had to cover her stroller up with a blanket.  She is now starting to grab and reach for things!  Most of the time she gets it by accident and then she looks so proud!  :)  She will be 3 months old next week.  I can not believe how fast the time has gone!

Track & Soccer

Right now...those two sports take up our life!!

Alex is still doing track...she had a meet today at Mt. Baker HS.  She competed in the hurdles, 1600 and 4x200 relay.

Her lucky track number 13.

These two boys and their sister came to the track meet with me.  Their mom and dad were working on the "big home" to get things ready for sheet rock tomorrow!  :)

Can you say "Double Trouble"!!  These two cause so much mischief together!  I am not sure which is the leader or the follower.  Right now, I think they take turns!

Alex is on the right hand side, in the pink shorts.  They had the boys and girls run the 1600 at the same time.  Even though there were 4 girls running it today.  That is the most there has been all season!  Usually Alex has been the only girl running it.  The one time she ran the 800 instead, there was just one girl running it.

The home stretch....She ended up with her best mile time EVER!!!  She ran it in 6.13!!!  The pressure from the girls behind her helped!  She did a super great job!

Last event...the 4x200 relay.  Her team continues to come in first!  They got 2.07 again today.  Very close to their goal, but not quite there yet.  They beat the other teams by about 10-15 seconds each time.  They are amazing to watch.  Soo fast around the track.

These two found spiders, bugs, dirt, sticks....  Here they are feeding a spider some popcorn! :)

Last night was McKenzie's second night of tryouts for Rangers U12.  She is #17, in the middle back with the red shirt.  They broke up into teams to play a couple of short games.  They would mix them up and change jersey colors and rotate to see how they played.

I know the sun is shining in the background and you can't see very clearly, but I love this picture of all the girls trying to move the goal.

McKenzie had soccer practice tonight.  This is her last week of WDL soccer!  Thursday is her last practice, and Saturday is her last game! :(  Then this season is over!  It has gone so super quick!

Some weekend fun

The weather has been so beautiful out!  Almost too hot, but I am not complaining!!

Yesterday, (Sunday) we went to the Bellingham United Soccer game.  It was fun.

As we got out of our car, the guy parked next to us asked us if we needed tickets.  His work had given him four tickets and he only needed two for him and his grandson.  I said absolutely!  He apologized for not having three extra tickets, but said to stick close to him in case his grandson was free.  As we walked up to the gate, a lady came up to us and offered us a free kids ticket!  Just as we took the free kids ticket from her, the guy came back over and said his grandson was free and we could have his ticket!  Crazy!!  He ended up giving it to another guy right behind us.

We got in to the game and found our seats.  The game didn't start off very well.  We got the first goal, but it was in our own goal. :(   Then we scored another goal in the right goal and tied it up.  In the last couple minutes of the game the other team scored and won it. :(  Very sad, but the weather was sunny and warm and we had a good time!

This is our group shot at the game...the best one of the three that we took.  The sun was very bright out :)

This is what my car said when we got in it after the game was over (at 5:30pm)  Crazy hot!!

After we got home, mom came over for our walk.  I told the girls they could wash my car while we did our walk.  Yes, that is a big squirt gun behind McKenzie's back!  No, I do not know why Alex is standing on my car, eating pizza.  When we came back, my car was super shiny clean.

We had a great fun weekend.  Today was just as hot out, but I was at work and the girls were at school.  McKenzie had her second tryouts tonight and we should know by Thursday if she made it or not...  She played well tonight.  Better than some and not quite as good as others.  She DID use her voice tonight!  I even heard it from the other side of the field! :)  That is one thing that she needs to work on, using her voice to help her team know she is open.

Happy Star Wars Day!!

May the 4th be with you! :)

This is such a fun day!  ...and tomorrow is Cinco de Mayo!  Two holidays back to back! :)  OK...not really holidays, but they are fun days. :)

This has been a pretty busy week...but I think they are all pretty busy!

Alex had another track meet yesterday.  She did the hurdles, 1600 & 4x200 relay.  I had to work, so I wasn't able to go and watch, but she told me all about it!   She beat her time on the 1600m race.  She was the only girls again racing with 7 boys.  She came in third!  (First for girls! :) )  Her time was 6.33 for the mile.  She was pretty happy!  Right after that they did the 4x200 relay and they came in first!!  They even had competition!  They got 2.7 this time.  One second better than Tuesday and one second slower than last week.  They are an amazing fast team!  It is so fun to watch them.  They just FLY around the track!  I will try to video it next week.

Yesterday, McKenzie tried out for Rangers U12.  She has the second tryouts on Monday.  There are not very many girls trying out.  I think about 30 girls for about 14 spots.  We shall see what happens with that!  There are some very good players trying out and some not so good players trying out.  I think McKenzie falls in the middle.  If she doesn't make Rangers this year, she has RDL tryouts soon.  (the new name for WDL)

McKenzie had Whatcom Cup playoff game this morning.  We played the Royal WDL team.  (This is the team she practiced with in the fall and played indoor with this winter)  They royal was ahead 2-0, but we caught up and tied the game 2-2!!  This would be good, except in the playoffs, there can be no ties!  :(  ....so off to penalty kicks!  These are so stressful for the girls!  Each team has a goalie (the goalie that just played) and gets to pick 5 girls (that were just on the field, not on the bench) and each team gets 5 shots.  The best of 5 wins the game!  We didn't...   It was a sad loss, but we have a game next week and then this season is over....and on to tryouts and summer soccer!  :)  It is a good thing we are a soccer loving family!

I am off to load all my pictures on my computer now, so that the next post I write will have some cute pictures to go with it!  :)

Enjoy this absolutely beautiful sunshine!!!   It makes me want to go outside, lay on a hammock, and take a nap or read a good book!  However, I don't have a hammock, and my yard needs mowing, and flower beds need weeding, and kids need playing with! :)

Track meet Tuesday

Yesterday, Alex had another track meet.  They held it at Ferndale High School and Vista, Lynden Christian, and Nooksack participated.  

Alex participated in the hurdles, the 800 meter, and the 4x200 relay.  She had fun in the hurdles :)  

Her and Carmelita did the 800 together.  Carmel hadn't done the 800 before so Alex was helping her.  Alex came in second, right behind Carmel!  :)  Such a good coach!

The girls came in first again in their relay!  They even beat their time by 2 seconds!  They had some competition this time and they still came in first! :)

Alyssa and crew came to watch for a bit.  The boys love to take pictures with my camera!  I let them use my little "purse camera" instead of my big good camera!  When it was Ryan's turn, I snapped a picture of him taking a picture. :)  Yes, the camera is off and upside down, but he went around saying "cheese, cheese, cheese" !