Happy to You!

Kristin had her birthday party today at Out of This World. The party went very well. Kristin was in her glory as the center of attention and we even made it through the whole party without any tears. We did a book exchange instead of gifts so all of the kids got to go home with a new book. That turned out very well for everyone, except for the parents of a prococious 6 year old that went home with a book called Seventeen Things I'm Not Allowed to Do Anymore. Great stuff.

We had swim lessons for both kids in the morning, so it was a big day for both of them. Kellen is big enough for many of the activites at Out of This World, he just needs direct supervision. So he got as much excercise as Kristin and her friends did.

This evening Kellen started saying 'Happy to you, happy to you Kitten' in a sing-song voice. He was trying to sing Kristin Happy Birthday. It was very cute. He sure loves his big sister.

Happy Birthday Kristin!

A very Happy Birthday to Kristin today! Kristin had a great birthday. She got to wake up to Aaron singing "Happy Birthday" to her. At 10am we headed to Chuck E Cheese's for some fun and lunch. Aaron met us there. Kristin had a blast! She won a lot of tickets (with some help from mom and dad). She was able to turn her tickets in for 4 different prizes. She was excited. After lunch and a stop at home we took Kristin to daycare. She wanted to spend some time with her friends on her birthday. At 3pm they had a little party for her. We took in popsicles and her friends sang to her. A few of her friends even made her a happy birthday Kristin sign.

Tonight after dinner and cake Kristin got to open her presents. Kellen wasn't too thrilled that the gifts were not for him. Kristin had fun and really liked all her presents. Thank you all!

Step in the Right Direction

Kellen had some success on the potty today at daycare. Hopefully that will start a trend for him. He's had a spurt in development lately. He is stringing more and more words together and his anunciation is getting much better too. He's able to say the 'K' in Kristin now, so that has evolved to 'KIT-TEN!' He likes to say 'where'd mommy go?' and 'where'd Kitten go? He should have a good day tomorrow at daycare. They will be talking about elephants and he'll get to go on Tumble Bus. Both his favorites. He has two stuffed elephants that go to bed with him every night.

Kristin is super excited for her birthday. Danelle and I will told her we'd take her to Chuck E Cheese for lunch. Then she'll head in to daycare to celebrate her birthday with her friends there. She's going to bring Scooby Doo push-up pops. Saturday will be her big party at Out of This World.

Took a walk up to the park this evening. They've been sprucing up the school for the school year. Looks like mostly some new siding and paint. New bark chips for the playground too. On the way back we even managed to find a baseball in the ditch behind the backstop. I imagine they'll be mowing that soon - maybe we'll find a couple more that escape the blades of the lawnmower.

Zebras and Berries?

Kellen is learning about zoo animals this week, which is always a fun topic. Today they talked about zebras and also did a group lion painting (they painted the lion's mane with handprints). Kellen also took in a CD with zoo songs we have to share with his friends.

Kristin got to go to a farm today to go berry picking. It sounds like they had a lot of fun and that all the kids had berry smiles! I want to see pictures of that. They picked raspberries, blueberries, marionberries, blackberries and loganberries. Then they made jam with the berries when they got back. Kristin brought some home but we have not tried it yet. Kristin got to try it when they made it and she says it is good and sweet. :)

Kristin is super excited for her upcoming birthday. She has been counting down to it all week.

A Break in the Weather

No blog post last night. Had a minor computer issue to deal with. I managed to delete every photo we've ever taken with the new camera, and then some. Over 4000 photos. Don't ask me how, cause I have no idea. So we've been scrambling with some file recovery software. Looks like we might get most of the files back. Fingers crossed!

We've finally got a much needed break in the weather. Today was very nice - back to our normal Oregon summer. The kids were pretty good this evening. Kellen and I read another book from the Oh, David! series. It's about a mischevious little boy. Kellen really likes these books. I guess he can relate. :-) Kristin read to me tonight from a Scooby Doo book. There were some pretty advanced words in the book, and she did pretty good with it. We're so happy that she is excited about reading.

A couple more photos from our trip to the baseball game. In the photo of Danelle and the kids in front of the stadium, we couldn't get Kellen to look at the camera. There was a MAX train in the direction he was looking. I particularly like the photo of the kids enjoying the water fountain at the train stop. We got to take the train - Kellen was super excited about that and even got the driver to wave at him.

Record Heat

Today the Portland area broken a record for consecutive days above 90 degrees. The old record was ten days in a row. Today was number 11. Tomorrow looks to be number 12. After that, we'll get a welcomed break from the heat.

It was a fairly typical Sunday for us. Church in the morning, followed by donuts in the basement of the church. We met a family from Hawaii that didn't seem too bothered by the heat. :-)

Kellen took a short nap after lunch, and then we headed to the library. It was busy there since apparently it was the start and finish line for a community bike ride this afternoon. In addition, there was a free theater of some kind going on in the basement of the library. After we got the kids set up with some new books, we went to Dairy Queen. Kristin had a Dilly Bar and Kellen had a fudgecicle as you can see.

Later on, Danelle took the kids to get their hair cuts. Sounds like they did pretty well.

Towards bedtime, Kellen usually watches a few short clips of Thomas the Tank Engine, followed by bedtime reading. Well tonight he wasn't happy about Thomas being over so he pitched a minor tantrum on the couch. I gave him the choice of sitting up and reading stories or going to bed. He chose going to bed! I guess the short nap finally caught up with him.

Baseball and Swimming

Still hot here! Last night we headed into Portland for Aaron's company picnic. This year the picnic was held at PGE Park for a Portland Beavers baseball game. Portland Beavers are a AAA team. They even have an old time score board with a person or two behind it changing the numbers. Fun to watch! We all got to have hot dogs for dinner. The kids had fun playing and watching some of the game (more fun watching the entertaining mascots and such between innings).

Aaron's company rented out the family deck for 1 hour before the game which has a few games and bounce houses. Just as Kristin was getting out of the bounce house for the last time before the game she scraped her toe on the turf around the bounce house. This tore off some skin, so Aaron rushed her to the first aid station. The EMT there took good care of her and she even got a stuffed animal. After that we sat down to enjoy the game. We lasted until the end of the 5th inning, which is pretty good. The kids got to bed way late. Kristin slept in good. Kellen still got up pretty early.

This morning we had swim lessons. Both kids did great. The rest of the day was low key as it is once again too hot to be outside much. Kristin and I watched Shrek the Third during Kellen's nap time. This evening we went next door to our new neighbor's house warming party.