We Should Be in a Marching Band

This has become the summer of parades.  As it turns out, we've been in three and watched one this summer -- all for different causes.

My dad suggested we register to walk the parade route for the Grand Floral Parade during the Rose Festival.  If we paid the entry fee (which benefited a center for grieving children), then walked the 4-mile parade route just ahead of the actual parade, we got reserved seats to watch the parade when we finished.  It was a great suggestion and we had a lot of fun doing it with my parents and my brother and his family.  I hope we do it again!

Darling cousins before our walk started.  

 Getting ready to walk the parade route.

 Here we are walking the parade route.  People line the streets early to stake out good spots for the parade so we had "spectators" the whole way.

 Watching the Grand Floral Parade after our walk.

Then in July Sambo's birthmother's mom invited us to walk with her in our town's parade.  She is the Oregon Mother of the Year, so she has been spending the year speaking to groups and making appearances to spread the word about the honor and dignity of motherhood.  G and Buddy sat in the crowd and waved as we walked by.  I walked with Sambo's birthmom and he got to ride in the car and wave at the crowd.  As you can imagine, I got lots of questions about our association with the Mother of the Year, but as you now, I'm always happy to talk adoption!

 Here Sambo is with his birth grandma, Oregon's 2011 mother of the year!

 Buddy and James after the parade holding their haul.  Buddy opted to "watch" the parade rather than participate so he could collect candy.  Smart kid!

This past week we joined a parade to kick off the county fair.  We walked with a few members of our adoption support group.  It's a fun tradition we started a few years ago and I hope we keep it up.  The parade route is short and it's fun to wear our adoption shirts and throw candy.  And then for participating, we get into the fair for free.  My mom joined us and we spent the entire day at the fair.  The weather was perfect, so we took our time wandering around, hanging out listening to music, looking at the animals, eating popcorn and snowcones, and getting free stickers and flyers from the various booths.  The ladies at the "right to life" booth got a HUGE kick out of our adoption shirts, to say the least.  I think we made those women's day/life.

 Me and the boys before the parade.  Notice the boys' sweet new adoption shirts.  Too bad you can't see mine.

 Here is our little group, minus my mom and the girl taking the picture. 

We also watched the 4th of July parade in my parents town.  I LOVE this parade, since I grew up going every year.  And we've gone every year that we've lived her since finishing at BYU (bless G's heart for being a good sport.)  However, after having watched the Grand Floral Parade a few weeks prior, my kids weren't as thrilled as me by the one-float-parade.  When the motorcycle cop finished the parade, Buddy shouted, "Yay!  The parade is about to start!"  We felt bad telling him, sorry, that was actually the end.

Here we are enjoying the parade.  My parents ward was the only "float" in the whole parade. 

G wanted me to point out that they always play "Louis, Louis" at parades.  Anyone know why that is?  Since we are now parade experts, we should know!

Catch Up

I'm bound and determined to get caught up on the ol' blog about the fun we've had this summer.  We have had a great summer although we've definitely had some low points.  Although it's winding down, I'm in denial and refuse to talk about school in a few weeks.  We're still going strong and trying to enjoy every day.  We haven't done anything extravagant and haven't done any big vacations.  But you know how you can tell we've been having fun?  My house is a mess, I haven't been to the gym as much as I'd like, and the blog is neglected.  Something's got to give, right?

However, my yard and garden are in good shape, we've been to the zoo three times, we go to the pool once a week, we've been to the park too many times to count, Sam learned to ride a bike, we've picked berries lots of times, we read constantly, we've played with lots of friends, we go to the library once a week, we've been to Bend, we've been to parades, our friend Ben put a beehive in our backyard, we got a visit from G's sister and family, I went to an adoption conference and the boys held down the fort at home, we've been sad with friends who have been having a hard time, we've reviewed our parenting and learned yesterday our kids are poorly behaved and it's all our fault (long story and I'm only slightly being facetious), we've been to the beach with another trip planned tomorrow, today we went boating, and next week I'm going to start canning. Phew!

A few of our events deserve a separate post, but here are a few recent pictures.

At the zoo with Sambo's birthmom.  She is SO good to both boys.  I love her for that (among lots of other obvious reasons).

Ben put a beehive in our backyard.  He's showing us one of the frames.  We have all been fascinated by our new little pets.  I think he said there are 50,000 bees in the hive. 

4th of July.  Yes, Buddy's head is sweaty from riding his bike for hours.

Eating ice cream at the Tillamook Cheese Factory.  One of our favorite places.

This child loves to climb.  (Loves is an understatement.)

I love this boy.  My love was tested (so to speak) yesterday and I shocked myself with how defensive I became of him.  Love, love, love him.

Jumping off the sand dunes at the beach.

Have I mentioned this child is part monkey?  My littler son is there in the pic too, but not quite as adventurous.  Buddy at the top, Sambo at the bottom, and some other kid in the middle.

Riding the zoo train.  Poor Sambo gets strangled by his brother every time they pose for a picture together.

At the children's museum with our best friends. 

This is Sambo's best friend in the whole world.  They are playing "vet" at the children's museum.  I almost died of cute overload.

Eating a treat in Bend. 

Who Am I Now?

Do you remember my Trump or Monkey post concerning Sambo's hair?  Well, we finally found a hairstyle that is super cute and he's been sporting that for a few months now.  It started to get really long in the bangs, although it had grown out to a good length everywhere else.  G took him to get his bangs trimmed today and he came home looking suspiciously like Jim Carrey.  This poor kid can't win!





And for comparison's sake, here's what he looked like before the bangs got trimmed: Oh well, he's still the most adorable brown-eyed boy I've ever seen.

Beans Beans the Magical Fruit

I haven't blogged lately because nothing really funny has been going on.  Alas, we had a memorable comment from Buddy tonight at dinner.  I made white bean and chicken chili for dinner. (I know, not very summer-y, but it sounded good -- and it was.)  After placing Buddy's bowl in front of him he said, "Oh good!  Looks like we'll all have the farts tonight!"  Then he proceeded to tell me that white beans are the second most "farty" bean, right behind (my pun, not his) red beans.  Apparently he read this in a book.  And in case you were curious, we had broccoli as a side dish. 

Did you miss me and my fascinating blog posts? 

Blessed

We are so blessed.  

We hope you had a great 4th of July like we did. 

Many of our friends and family members are having a rough year and their day wasn't quite as joyous.

We thought of you today.  

And are counting our many blessings tonight.

Summer Schedule

During this past school year I learned a few things about myself.  Apparently I do not like having a rigid schedule:  Be to bed by 8:00 or else, wake up at the crack of dawn, get homework turned in on Thursdays, books due back to the library Wednesday this week, Friday next week, track Tuesday and Thursdays, be home every day for the bus by 2:30, etc -- you get the idea.  I'm a very rigid person anyway, so apparently having a rigid schedule puts me over the edge.  And to think this is only with ONE school-aged kid.  I honestly have no idea how people with lots of kids do the school/activity rat race.  It drives me insane.  It puts me in a foul mood. 

However, I'm a very organized and involved parent, so I love having a plan for my kids.  Just a flexible plan, apparently.

So I made a flexible plan for our summer.  I made a list of fun things we should do, and I'm happy to report we've accomplished a fair amount already.

We made a goal as a family (well, those of us that can read) to read a combined 10,000 pages from chapter books during the months of June, July, and August.  With one month down, I'm very pleased to report we are right on track to accomplishing that goal.  (Luckily we have G on our team, who is a bona fide speed reader.  Thank you BYU Law School for requiring him to read hundreds of pages a night.  That degree has come in handy over and over again!)

And last, we are having another contest each month.  Every day we try to complete six different tasks:  Exercise, Service, Read Scriptures (Buddy's goal is to work on Articles of Faith AND scriptures both), Learn something, Read, and Work.  We each have our own chart and put a sticker on the chart for each time we complete the task.  If we are highly motivated and get our rear in gear, we could potentially get six stickers each day.  Whoever gets the most stickers each month wins.  The prize is $20 and G won for the month of June with 108 stickers.  Buddy came in second, me third, and Sambo fourth.  I've decided G has an un-fair advantage since I have the responsibility of doing my tasks PLUS helping the boys complete theirs.  But whatever, life isn't fair I guess.  There is no penalty for not doing the tasks and I don't beg the kids to do them.

If I do say so myself, this has been one of the smartest things I've ever come up with.  I don't have to hassle my kids (or myself) to get things done, AND we've been accomplishing a ton all at our own pace and according to whatever schedule we want.  All with a healthy dose of competition/money, which is a great motivator for my kids.  

Are you getting tired of my "I love summer vacation" posts yet?  Too bad because I have a few more in the works.  Including a pros and cons list of homeschool.  Feel free to start drafting your opinions because I want to hear them.

Another Perfect Week/Day

I was extremely excited for summer vacation to begin.  And it's actually turning out better than I thought it would, which is saying a lot -- considering I was imaging perfection.

This week:
Zoo with Sam's birthmom
Visit from my mom
Weed 3/4 of our backyard
Stare at amazingly awesome veggie garden
Library trip
Temple trip and food with G
Bake cookies with friends and deliver to fireman and police in our community.  Christy's brilliant idea.
Eat lunch and talk to friends at the gym
Put kids to bed ridiculously late every night

Today:
Kids sleep in til 9:00
Learn Myndi is going camping this weekend
Strawberry picking.  Plants full of berries.  Best picking I've ever done.
Gym
BBQ at park to celebrate Nicki's birth
80-degree weather
Kids jump and roll in mud at park and experience pure joy
Lady gets snippy with me concerning someone else's kid.  In so many words, tell her to CHILL OUT.
Eat amazing salted caramel cupcake 
Come home to different friend's amazing peanut butter cup cupcakes
Buddy washes himself and his brother in the bath without being asked to help me out
Kids' friends sleep over
Kids fall asleep easily (thankyouverymuch Melatonin)
Look at totally cool beehive Ben put in our backyard

And this, my friends, is why I love summer vacation.