Big Trucks and Smelly Ear

This morning Kellen and I went to Big Truck Day. It's held in the parking lot of the rec center that the kids have their swimming lessons at this summer. Lot's of DOT trucks, utility trucks, emergency response vehicles, buses, semi trucks, and even a helicopter this year.


Kellen didn't know what to think at first, but he was plenty warmed up to the conept by the time we left. His favorite seems to have been the city bus, because the layout is similar to the MAX train that he likes to ride on. He kept calling it a train when we were inside it.

The helicopter was an emergency response unit called Life Flight. There was a huge long line, but that didn't seem to phase Kellen. He just ignored it. He ran ahead of me right past the front of the line. I snapped this picture as I was chasing him. He was trying to climb up on the running board by the time I caught him. Shortly after, the crew said they got a call and shoed everybod away so they could take off. They got the props started but never did take off. Perhaps their call was cancelled.

Kristin went to a birthday party for one of her friends from daycare while Kellen and I were at the truck event. She got to do some pretty outragous art projects, including 'flinging' paint on a T shirt and a canvass, and dip her paint in feet and jump on a mattress. Wild stuff.

After the birthday party and a quick lunch, the girls where able to head to the rec center for the end of big truck day. Kristin got to see a couple of her friends there it sounds like.

So, now for the smelly ear story... The last few days, Kellen's right ear has had an odor associated with it that I would have never associated with an ear. Let's just leave it at that. We had our own theory about how it was getting that way, but Danelle decided to go online and see if there might be anything that we needed to get him to the doctor for. Turns out, he has a form of 'swimmers ear' that is a fungal infection of the outer ear. The doctor gave us some drops and hopefully we'll be able to get rid of the fungus and the smell in a few days. Gross.

Fir Grove x2

Kristin had here park field trip today, but instead of going to Fir Grove park they ended up at Fir Grove Elementary (the school 2 blocks from our house). The teacher evidently didn't know where Fir Grove park was. They had fun though. Kristin said there was a soccer practice going on while they were there. There was a girl named Emily that wore the #4 and a boy that wore #8.

Kellen had a good day and got to go on Tumble Bus. This is always a hit with the kids and Kellen is always excited for Tumble Bus on Friday mornings. :)

Tonight we headed outside and up to Fir Grove Elementary (hence the title...thank you Aaron for the idea). The kids played for a little bit and then we continued our walk. Aaron found a baseball. I don't know how he sees them in all the foliage! We are looking forward to tomorrow, which will be busy in the morning. Fun activities though as Aaron mentioned yesterday. It will be good for the kids to be separated for awhile too.

August Rain

More rain today. We decided to go run an errand as a family after dinner rather than stay couped up inside.

Kristin had a tough day at daycare, kicking 4 different kids in 4 different incidents. Sounds like 2 of the kids had it coming, and the other two she could have handled a lot better. So hard to teach a six year old where that line is.

Kellen's annunciation continues to improve, though he still has his cute way of saying things. He has been asking for lolly pops for dessert lately. He calls them 'Daddy Pops'.

We're looking forward to the weekend. Kristin will attend a birthday party for one of her friends (one of the 4 mentioned above, ironically) and Kellen and I will go to Big Truck Day together while Kristin and Danelle are at the birthday party.

Here's Kellen enjoying some cake at Kristin's party.

Rocks and Minerals

Kristin had a field trip today to a museum of rocks and minerals. Sounds like they had a lot of fun. She got to pick a rock from this rock pile to keep. She also got a polished rock. Kristin bought a magnetic ring at the gift shop, but later dropped it and it broke in two. Not sure that I will be able to glue a magnet back together. She liked looking at all the displays and they even got to watch a video.

Kellen had a good day. He is working on his 1, 2, 3s. He was actually counting 1 2 3 in the car yesterday on the way to the store. Nice things to listen to while driving. :)

Tonight it was raining again so we stayed inside. Kristin did some emailing (thank yous) with the help of dad and Kellen helped me dust the floors. Oh, and Kellen did some playing with trains and hockey sticks.

Soccer Night!

Kristin started Fall Soccer tonight with her first practice. Kind of ironic that we made it through the entire spring season without getting wet and then it rains during her first summer practice. Not typical Oregon weather in either case. Anyway, they'll practice on Tuesday evenings and games will start on Saturday mornings in September. Kristin did awesome. She scored a goal in a one-on-one drill and was just beaming. She also did very well at playing the defender in the one-on-one drill. Her team will wear black jerseys this year. She's wearing number 4. 'Dad, just like Bobby Orr!'

The kids have been much happier and better behaved yesterday and today than they were on Sunday. We had a pleasant evening inside yesterday evening after dinner and we didn't have to separate them once! What a deal.

Kristin had her 6 year old check up at the doctor on Monday. We had measured her height over the weekend and noted that she had grown an inch since the first week of May. While we thought that was impressive, we didn't know the half of it. The doctor's office had record of her height from early July when she went in to get a cough checked out, and she actually grew that inch since the beginning of July! No wonder she had been complaining of being sore and achy! She'd also had a stretch of clumsiness too that is much easier to understand now.

Our last recovery effort with photos was moderately successful. It turned up photos from dates that we thought had been total losses. Not 100% recovery by any means, but we'll take it! Here's one of the photos:

Pardon the Interuption

No blog last night. Decided to make one last attempt to recover the deleted photos we lost last week. The scan/recover process took more than 24hrs!

Hope to resume our 'normally scheduled programming' this evening.

Thanks for checking in!

Too Much Cake or Sugar?

Today was a trying day for us all. The kids both had a hard time listening today. They also had a hard time keeping their hands to themselves and not picking on one another. Maybe we all had a hard time coming down from the cake and sugar high of the past couple days. A bit of a bummer after the birthday days on Friday and Saturday. Not to help matters I haven't felt good today. Hopefully I am not getting sick.

One cute thing this morning was that Kellen wanted to shave like daddy. He watched Aaron shave this morning and he wanted to join in, so he got some shaving cream from Aaron. He came out in the hallway looking like he was ready to shave! A little too early Kellen, but very cute.