Click on any picture to enlarge it

Sunday, July 31, 2011

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Day 208: What Happens When You Turn a 5-Year-Old Loose at YoCream?

July 27
Nerds, M&Ms and sprinkles, oh, my.
(I'm pretty sure there's frozen yogurt in there somewhere.)

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Day 207: Tiger Fight

July 26
Today at the zoo we watched this brother and sister pair work through some sibling rivalry. *No tigers were harmed in the taking of this picture.  The sister won the fight and the brother sulked off to his bedroom.  Or so the friendly zookeper lady told us.

Day 206: Enchanted Forest

July 25
Ellie and her BFF Katie are both experiencing a jump this week from youngest child to only child while their big sisters are at camp, so Katie's mom and I helped them make the most of it by taking them to the Enchanted Forest.  We couldn't have asked for a more perfect day for these two five-year-olds.  From Storybook Lane to the kiddie rides to the roller coasters to Little Red Riding Hood comedy theatre, all four of us had a blast!

Sunday, July 24, 2011

Day 205: Happy Campers

July 24
We dropped them off this afternoon for a week of hiking, canoeing, swimming, climbing, and just plain old having fun in the great outdoors!  It's going to be really quiet around here, but Ellie already has big plans for her week as an only child.  Case in point: not posted is the picture of all three of them where she said, "Let's pretend like we miss each other!"

Day 204: Lakalaka

July 23
We had a big BBQ/Luau at our church, complete with a children's parade and several songs and dances, including this lakalaka by members of the Tongan congregation.  Watching things like this makes me wish I belonged to a culture that has a traditional dress and dance.

Day 203: Peek-a-Boo!

July 22
Ellie didn't want her picture taken, but I managed to snap this one before she ran away.

Day 202: Lost in North Portland

July 21
I was taking Vicki and her friend Kate to Kate's grandma's house for a sleepover, but I'm not familiar with this part of town at all.  I decided to rely on the GPS instead of looking at a map and got a little jumpy and took the wrong freeway exit.  We were forced to cross this bridge (which, thanks for Vicki's 3rd grade teacher, I know is the St. John's bridge) (ETA: No, it's not.  It's the Fremont Bridge.  Which I knew.  I swear.) twice and then drove past it several more times because the GPS kept telling me, in her oh-so-friendly way, to make a U-turn where U-turns weren't possible.  We finally found the grandma's house, though, and made it home completely uneventfully.  Whew.

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Day 201: Matchy-Matchy

July 20
Vicki and her friend Shelbie earned these towels by selling over 500 boxes of Girl Scout Cookies (Shelbie actually sold over 1000.)  Nice job, ladies!

Day 200: I Come By it Honestly

July 19
These are just some of the photo albums my mom kept for me over the years.  Each of my siblings has a similar number of albums.  We like taking pictures in my family.

Day 199: Cooking Lunch

July 18
She prides herself on the fact that she can cook Ramen with very little help.

Day 198: Mimes

July 17
They put on a show for us, entirely in mime.  I have no idea why, but honestly, they're quite good.

Day 197: Haircut

July 16
It's so relaxing to have someone else wash your hair.

Friday, July 15, 2011

Day 196: The Wait is Over!!!

July 15
12:20am
I loved the movie!  The last half of the 7th book is my favorite part of the whole series, and they managed to do really well adapting it to film.  It was a little bittersweet, though, because this is the last Harry Potter release to look forward to.  I've been reading the books since 1999, around the time Prisoner of Azkaban was published, so I've had to wait for releases since Goblet of Fire came out.  And now...the wait is over.

Day 195: The Wait is Almost Over!

July 14
It's 11pm...only one hour to go!

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Day 194: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

July 13
I have been telling Chris for weeks now that I needed a book that left me feeling like a better person for having read it.  Thanks to an impromptu trip to Powell's last week, I think I've found a winner.  I'm only about 3/4 of the way through, but it's amazing.  Thank you Emily and Mel for recommending it!

Day 193: Riding the Bus

July 12
I took the car into the shop today (hooray for working A/C!), and Ellie and I rode the bus to pick it up.  She insisted on dressing up for the occassion: purple velvet sweatpants, her purse, and a floppy, fluffy purple hat, and her ensemble wasn't the strangest one I saw today.  Public transportation is awesome.

Day 192: 7-11

July 11
In honor of the date, 7-11 was giving out free (tiny) Slurpees!

Day 191: One in a Million

July 10
We recently had a change in the leadership at our church.  Today we had a little thank-you party for our outgoing Bishop, and the children sang a song for him called "One in a Million".

Day 190: Almost Forgot!

July 9
But didn't!

Friday, July 8, 2011

Day 189: Monkeys

July 8
We discovered the perfect climbing tree today at a local park.  Lexi's in the red near the bottom of the picture, and Vicki is the bright blue spot about 2/3 of the way up.  To give you an idea of just how perfect this tree is (at least in a kid's eyes), Lexi was about 10 feet up.

Day 188: Step by Step

July 7
Lately Ellie has been writing directions for herself (and everyone else.)  This one says, "Step 1, go into the kitchen. Step 2, ask Mom if I can have a snack [can you tell which one is me?]. Step 3, dance around all excited when she says yes."

Day 187: Swimmer

July 6
(With sunburned shoulders - ouch!  She and Lexi learned a valuable sunscreen lesson yesterday.)  All this girl needs to do is master the butterfly and she moves up to Level 10, the highest level at their swimming lessons.  Definitely her father's daughter.

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Day 186: Grocery Shopping

July 5
Boring, but necessary.

Day 185: Happy Fourth!

July 4
I hope it was safe and fun for everyone!

Day 184: Round and Round She Goes

July 3
Despite the fact that she gets sick easily, Vicki spent at least a half hour on the merry-go-round at the park this evening, and lived to tell the tale.

Day 183: YoCream!

July 2
Lexi and I had a date at our favorite frozen yogurt place this afternoon.  In her words: "Best. Day. Ever!"

Day 182: Bracelets for Sale

July 1
Vicki and her friends are making and selling these bracelets to help finance their Outdoor School adventure next year.