First day of 4's Preschool

At last, it was Kaia & Ashlyn's turn to head off to preschool. After seeing their older brother "get" to go to school for an entire week, they were so happy that it was finally their turn. These two love school & wish there was no summer break. It makes absolutely no sense to them why they can't just go to school all year. Such a weird thing. 

 

I'm over-publishing these pictures because their attempts at smiles are just so so funny. Smiling is hard. Please be kind.

 Their preschool is mostly free-play based with a few arts, crafts, & songs thrown in. This year Ashlyn's favorite job is the bell ringer because "she likes to ring that bell REALLY loud!" Kaia prefers the job of line leader. Connor constantly tells them how lucky they are to go to such an "easy" school. He wishes 2nd grade was 100% free-play based too where you only do the things you actually WANT to do. (Touche, my dear.) 

Ballet!

You can not imagine how excited these two were for their very first (real) ballet class!!!

Kaia is on the left & Ashlyn is on the right. Please note that the strict dress code and hair requirement is not very conducive for telling apart identical twins. I asked their teacher if tying a different colored ribbon in each of their buns was allowed, and she replied "Oh YES PLEASE, could you do that every day??!!"

One Last Road Trip!

Right before all the kids headed back to school & I headed back to work, we squeezed in One. Last. Road. Trip. Ya know...a 1 hour away day trip. When you are 4 & 7 this still counts as one of those exciting adventures.

 We toured what the kids decided was "The Biggest Waterfall in the Entire World." Bless. To them the world is still so small.

 We had a picnic lunch on the trail & did a little off-trail exploring.

 Then we had some ice cream. Which is obviously required on the VERY LAST TRIP OF THE SUMMER. It's basically an autumn trip if you don't. Just saying.

2nd Grade!!!

Since Connor gets a little nervous about the first day of school (who doesn't?) he picked out a nice calm neutral outfit, so he would really blend into the woodwork. 

 The girls and I just HAD to walk him inside and snap a few photos of his new class:)

 This year, he was ready and got right to work. He really likes his new teacher and says she is the "nicest teacher he has ever had" (which he says every year so far...I guess they keep getting better!!??)

 Even though we are still displaced from our home, Connor insists on riding the bus. So, we drive him to our regular bus stop (even on the first day) and meet him there after school. Basically school wouldn't be fun if there was no bus involved and he missed out on hanging with all his bus-friends!

Cheers to a good year in the 2nd Grade, Connor Ray!

Good Bye Summer

Its hard to say good bye to summer, my favorite season. Here are some of our highlights!

Late spring Beaver Baseball:

 Alice & Wonderland Ballet:

 Picking Peaches. (Which is way more my style than blueberry picking. This took us 5 minutes.)

 Holding newborn babies - Ashlyn especially loves this job!

Visiting a cheese factory...

 And enjoying an epic ice cream cone experience (aka a giant mess that involved a smidge of crying because someone was not too happy about wearing a "chocolate dress.")

 Rode an open air historic train...

Visited a real farm, with a couple of farm kids...

 Goofed off with old friends:

 Went to the fair:

 Enjoyed an outdoor concert in the Park!

 Took a jet boat ride on the Willamette. (We made this look like so much fun Grandpa & Grandma had to try & they took Connor, AGAIN!)

 Enjoyed *just a few* popsicles with "Daddy Bibs" on...

 Watched a fire in our neighborhood :(

 Taught our seven year old how to cook 5 essential meals like pancakes, macaroni & cheese, and oatmeal (so he can basically run the household on his own for a couple of days if we decide to go on a "parenting-vacation").

 "Helped" Janeen open gifts for Baby Rainey (aka "fetus")!

 And of course, we made some time for a bit of good ole fashion Lego building. (Approximately EVERY. DAY. THIS. WHOLE. SUMMER. Connor even built Legos at a few parks, at the pool-side, at Grandma's, etc. I mean its just not summer if he can't be building. Am I right?)

Good Bye Summer of 2015. You were good to us!

A Seven Year Old & A Septuagenerian Go Backpacking

This summer, Connor & Grandpa set out on their first backpacking trip together. Connor had an 8lb. pack, I had a 20 lb pack, and Grandpa thought his was "at least 30 lbs." (but we can provide no confirmation of that.) 

Spoiler alert: Everyone made it back alive. The survivors that we are. 

 

Grandpa planned a nice 2 mile hike up steep terrain. We weren't sure how long it would take us to hike up, so we planned for 2-3 hours. 

Here's Connor at the top!

 

This was really one of those good news/bad news situations. 

Good News: we made it to camp in 1 hour and 15 minutes.  

Bad News: We then had 4+ hours until bedtime.

Soooooo......we made a fire & set up camp. That took a solid 20 minutes.

 We played solitaire for another 20...

 

Then we explored a little here and there:

And lastly, watched the sunset over the Pacific...

 

We slept in the wilderness for 1 night, then headed home. 

Connor said he enjoyed it & wants to go again next year!