school is out!!

the end of the school year was last week, but with the chaos that is the last week of school and then riley's birthday immediately following i just didn't get around to this post until now. plus it continues to rain and it just doesn't feel like summer yet.

so the last week of school was very full, and included field day...i loved field day as a kid, and its so fun to watch riley get to experience this great elementary school tradition. todd was able to be one of the parent volunteers and captured a couple shots of the classic races.

this is riley's last day of school picture. he has grown so much this year in so many ways. he got off the bus that day and said "i'm a first grader now!"

then lucy had her last day of school....

her school had a little graduation cermony which was very sweet...

and just in time for summer we got this great new (new to us, but probably over 10yrs old) play structure for the kids. in the spirit of reduce, reuse, recycle we moved it from some folks down the street (with the help of about 10 guys) whose kids had gotten too big for it.

the laughter from the back yard is so sweet. now if only the weather would start acting a little more like summer and a little less like "june-uary".

happy birthday riley

riley celebrated his 6th birthday yesterday. can you believe it....six years old!! he requested a "dragon" birthday and had a few of his buddies over for a party. the weather was finally gorgeous and they had a grand time doing some dragon crafts, playing "dragon tag" and a little pick-up game of soccer (the world cup started and we are all about soccer at home now).

...the boys making dragon masks

....riley's friend zac all masked out

.....riley and his friend gianluca sporting their soccer game beads






i made him a dragon cake which turned out pretty good (gotta love the internet).

....make a wish!!!

....yeah for cake!!!





and opening his gifts.....he got some fantastic presents.

...a new drum

..... his very own camelback (now maybe he'll let me have mine back)
also some legos, new art supplies, a big squirtgun, new soccer ball, some new tools for building......lots of great new things to keep a six year old busy!

he was smiling all day basking in the joy of being six!!

happy birthday riley....we love you so very much!

family visits to market opener

this post is a little late, but we had a great visit from todd's mom judy at the end of may. it is so great to have her visit and stay awhile so she and the kids get a good chunk of time playing together. and i gotta admit it's nice not to have to schlep the kids to denver. needless to say we love visitors...thanks for visiting judy!

lucy enjoyed an open lap to climb in...

....the kids showed off their scooter skills down at the waterfront park.

.... the grown-up kid hangin out with his mom.

AND in other news the gorge grown farmers market opened last thursday. this is exciting on so many levels (for todd, for our family, for our community)

it was a great season opener depite the rainy day (the weather hasn't keyed into the fact that it is JUNE now!), and folks were really happy to be back at market. the kids helped ring the opening bell which is always a highlight for them.

so i just can't resist a garden shot but seriously look at the garlic....it's taller than lucy!!

hope june is warm where you are!

reach the beach

we just returned from a wonderful weekend at the beach. i participated in a 55 mile bike ride called 'reach the beach' and todd and the kids drove down and met me on the beach. the ride was spectacular! a beautiful ride along back country roads, with perfect weather, ending with my kids running down the beach to give me a hug. what a day!

(i failed to get a picture of the actual ride)

then we stayed in a yurt at one of the state parks at the beach for a couple of days....so fun.

the weather was unbelievable. quite unusually beautiful actually. mid-may on the oregon coast, with 70 degree weather and no wind...who knew? the kids of course had a fantastic time playing in the sand.

...riley is playing a little air guitar (a classic instrument really) in the above picture.

todd and i enjoyed sitting back with a bottle of wine and soaking it all in.

we sat around the camp fire and ate s'mores.

on the way home we stopped at the tillamook cheese factory. it was fasinating really to see the enormous amount of cheese coming out of this building. we sampled all the cheeses, then had grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch....cause what else would you eat at a cheese factory? and then ice cream cones to go.

it was really quite a lovely weekend.

spring days

long time no blog! my intention was to post more frequently but what can i say but life remains full. so this blog entry will be simply a few highlights from the past month.



gardening:

it's spring and that means lots of time in the garden. lucy is always very keen on helping in the garden.




lucy (and the chickens) helping to plant the asparagus.....

...taaadaaa!! she may be the most stylish gardener i know!







earth day:
we celebrated earth day in hood river with a 'procession of animals' which was basically a parade of little kids dressed up. riley was an 'eagle' and lucy was a 'kitty with butterfly wings'.

spring ball:

riley started t-ball and so far the games have been rainy (gotta love spring sports) but he is having so much fun....and he's a good little ball player too!

ballet:

this is actually funny. we were telling people in march that riley was signed up for t-ball and lucy would always pipe in saying she was going to start ballet ...???(no idea where she got this idea as the word ballet was never mentioned in our house). then serindipitously the dance studio in town does this intro ballet for 3 year olds just for the month of april...so she ended up starting ballet, and loved it!

jazz fest:

the last weekend in april was a trip for me. i met up with my college girlfriends for the jazz fest in new orleans (our not quite annual trip). it was so much fun and as my former college roommate lisa said "jazz fest never disappoints".

the girls (lisa, lauren, hava, me and renee) on bourbon st.

so that pretty much sums up the last month for us. hope you are enjoying your spring days as well!

easter bunny fun

my first draft of this blog entry was a little down on easter, but todd said it was too grinchy, or whatever the equivalent of the grinch is for easter, so i have edited a little. and really we did have a good easter, chocolate bunnies and all.

we dyed the eggs a couple nights ahead of time. this may be my favorite part of the holiday.

...and put our eggs in the basket on the night before (don't you love lucy's new 'smile for the camera smile')

on easter morning the easter bunny did come and brought some books, and puzzles, but not alot of candy (way to go easter bunny!).

we had a little egg hunt around the house making sure we counted to ensure ALL the hard boiled eggs were found so no stinky surprises in a couple months.

then we headed down to portland for the campbell family gathering hosted by my aunt and uncle. the kids had a great time with their cousins (evidenced by the sugar induced photo session).

....lucy and makena

...riley (on sugar) and max

all in all it was a fun day....hope your easter was good too!