Happy Fathers Day

Just a quick post to tell all the wonderful men in our lives how much we love and appreciate them. Todd is the best daddy and an even better husband. I couldn't ask for more. He sure works hard and we just like to tell him Thank You Daddy!!!

To Ally's dad Bob and Todd's dad Ron, thanks for being there for us when we need you and hanging out with the grandkids. They love you tons!

Summer and Tower of Terror

It's raining, it's pouring, the old man is snoring..... This is ridiculous. We get a week of great weather in early May and now we have this. With T minus 4 days of school left, the weather had better shape up quickly or parents all over Spokane will go insane. My kids are so desperate for outdoor activity that they were jumping on the trampoline in the pouring rain today. It's usually a really fun thing to do, but not when it is only 45 degrees. I would have pictures, but I decided that I wasn't going to go stand in the cold rain to get a few pictures. It just wasn't worth it. Play Day is on Wednesday. I am in charge of the water balloon toss. Sure. It better get warmer very quickly.

Preston told me today he was wearing his "I survived the Tower of Terror" T-shirt because he wanted to be back at Disneyland. He said "Hey mom. can't we just go get on the plane and fly there?" I explained that since I don't work for the airline anymore, we can't just go. He then proceeded to tell me that I needed to go back to work "...because Tower of Terror is more fun than riding my bike." Well, I couldn't really argue. ToT really is more fun than riding a bike, although I am not going back to work. I'd really like to go ride Big Thunder, but that's a whole other story!! So this picture is for Preston. We'll go soon buddy!!

Mobius Kids and The Spokane Falls

We recently received a membership to Mobius Kids, which is the Children's museum here in Spokane. My kids have been driving me crazy to go, it's Preston's favorite and we had some time on Saturday. They happened to be having a safety fair that day, with lots of interactive displays' for the kids to play with. When they got there, they received a safety passport which if they got stamped at every booth, they received a prize at the end of the day. Their prize turned out to be a free dinner at Red Robin. I thought that was a great deal, since my kids were so excited to go to the booths'. McGruff the crime dog was there, the EWU police were there and the Spokane Police were there. With that many cops in one place, Preston was in seventh heaven. He Loves the cops. He wants to be one when he grows up so any interaction is "super cool". As you can see from the pictures, he heads straight for the police dress up when he gets there. He then went to visit all the cops, so he could look like them. Riley was having fun on the stage playing in all the costumes. She tried Barney and then Barney with a hat.



The Barney costume was too little so it didn't really fit and it was kind of funny. The hat was cute though. She looked like she should be shopping or something. There are lots of great things for the kids to do like painting, a ball pit, puzzles, dress up and a whole Phillipine village replica. They can buy Phillipine goods with real money and then take it to the Phillipine hut that is there. They can row in the canoe and go "fishing" for fake fish. They love it. There is a little section for Cassie that is all padded and has toys for babies so this was her first experience getting to play there. She was kind of unsure at first but she got into it pretty quickly.

Robbie was at the water table for most of the time. There are plastic pieces that you can change the position of and then send boats and ducks down through the maze you create in the running water. He spent a ton of time figuring out different ways to send the ducks hurling through the endless maze.

Lucky for us, Mobius is downtown. It had been a long time since the kids had been to Riverfront Park and my family decided that we were all going to meet there to look at the record breaking runoff swelling the Spokane Falls. The kids and I packed a lunch and headed over to the Park, stopping to get our picture taken with the Bloomsday Runners Statue.

We wanted to feed the ducks, but the river is so high that they have the stairs by the carousel all taped off and the lower 4 sets of stairs are completely covered in water. We wandered around and then went to the goat. We went to meet the cousins at the blue bridge in between the YMCA and the Pavilion so that we could see the upper falls. The river is moving really fast and they closed down the south suspension bridge because the spray was so strong. These pictures don't do it justice but it's really cool. We then hiked down by the WWP building so that we could really experience the falls. We got the coolest pictures!! I hope my kids will remember this for a long time. When we got down to the bottom, my mom told all the grandkids to get by the wall for a picture. She told us to stand back to take the picture. All of a sudden, this huge wall of water came over the wall and completely drenched the kids. They were so suprised, but they loved it and I don't think the adults have laughed so hard in weeks. It was classic. We did tell my mother that she was an evil grandma because she set her grandkids up. Oh well, they thought it was cool.

The kids on the way down to the falls

These pictures are all of the kids after they were soaked by the giant wave. It was really fun and an amazing display of nature. Sometimes we forget how beautiful Spokane can be. This was a great reminder of our beautiful city and a fun day for the family.

We love the weather and Crazy Hair

We finally got good weather this weekend. It was mid-80's all weekend and it was sooo nice. I went and got the kids a pool on Friday so they would have something to entertain themselves with on Saturday. They invited Ryan and Landon over and spent their time alternating between the pool and the trampoline. The trampoline had the sprinkler under it so it was just like a minature water park (certainly pathetic) and they were having a great time. At least it kept them entertained and out of my hair. Yes, the water is brown, because they had just thrown a handful of the pea gravel in and I made them take a picture before I made them drain it and start over with freezing cold water from the hose!!!

On Sunday we went to Grandma Nowels house to roast marshmallows and hot dogs over the fire pit. It's a family tradition, once it gets warm, and everyone was very excited to start it again. This is Riley and Liam getting their hot dogs ready to roast. It was mass hysteria. I think Preston even had marshmallow in his hair by the time they started roasting the hot dogs. We ate dessert (smores!) first.

After the really long winter, we were all really glad for the gorgeous weather and a chance to hang out and play outside. Cassie and Izzy were headed for the swings. She didn't end up going on the swings, but she was glad to be with Izzy.

We decided to enter Cassie in Family Fun's Baby's Crazy Hair contest. The winner gets a $5000 scholarship. We're not sure we're going to win, but we really like this picture and think she's cute. This is the one we entered.

We're watching the season finale of Dancing with the Stars!! Go Kristi!! Girl Power!!

Sunny Days Grads 2008

Congratulations to Riley!!! She graduated from Teacher Barbara's on Saturday. We were finally at a preschool graduation where we didn't get snowed on, hailed on, or rained on. It was actually hot. I heard one of the mothers' complaining (who apparently had not been to a multiple weather event preschool graduation) that it was too hot. I truly wanted to slap her, but I restrained myself. The theme was pirates, and I thought our pirate was the most adorable, but I am a little biased.

She also got to celebrate her un-birthday this week because she has a summer birthday. I told her I was going to take her picture in her birthday hat. She must have thought I said birthday suit because the first attempt at getting her picture, she was wearing nothing but the crown. Needless to say, she didn't get to say "cheese" until her clothes were back on. Then she wanted to have her picture taken in her swimsuit. It's only 60 degrees here today. They didn't get to have their water party because of the rain, so she was a little upset. This is how the picture ended up.

Mothers Day

I hope everyone out there had a great day. This is one holiday I think was promoted by the Hallmark card and Floral industries. Not that I don't appreciate what my family does on this day, as well as all the adorable cards and gifts they bring from school and church, but... Do you get a break? I certainly feel like I work just as hard on "my holiday" as I do every other day of the week. It's kind of anti-climatic. Oh well. This has been a busy week for us. I celebrated another birthday, hooray!! I'm 29 and holding. My siblings all know how old I am and every single one of them (5 plus significant others) had to remind me numerous times that day. I think they get some kind of sadistic pleasure out of reminding me that I'm the oldest and that gives them the right to rub it in!! I was just glad to talk to everyone. That doesn't happen very often anymore. I do have to thank Manda for the early morning wake up call. She was paying me back for the text last week in the middle of the night. We're even now.

Cassie learned to climb up the stairs this week. She's suprisingly good at it. Not quite as good going down the stairs, but she should get that by the end of this week. Now if we could just get her to stay out of the dog food! The other kids are getting really proficient at dog food patrol though and can stop her before she gets there. Todd just looks at her and says "NO!" She laughs her head off, but doesn't touch the food, so I would say that it works. She doesn't listen to me though. She's learning early. We entered her in familyfun.com's crazy baby hair contest. When you take her hair out of the pigtails it's quite hilarious and it stays that way until we wash it. Hopefully we have a shot. Robbie had a field trip to the IMAX and Riverfront Park on Friday. I couldn't go because I didn't have a babysitter so he decided he would ask his Uncle Joe to go with him. Joe was crazy enough to take him up on the offer, so he got to spend quality time with 3rd graders at the park. He didn't die from kid overdose and said it was actually fun. You never know about those single men. They tend to run for cover when someone says KID. Apparently Joe had never been to the IMAX before. Who knew?

The weather has been much nicer here this week so I've had a chance to get some of the yard work done. The eyesore we call a pond is still in the front yard, but if I have my way it will be gone by next week. Todd and I are battling on this one. It is a long, drawn out battle going on 3 years now. I will win and really deep down he knows it. He just needs to come to the realization that it's ugly and he should just do what I say. I even offered to move the rocks for him. They're big. No dice. Maybe it will just disappear one day while he is at work...HMMM!!!

We got our invitation for Todd's 20 year high school reunion this week. Dang he is old. It's a good thing he married a young thing who stays 29 forever.

TGIF

Well. the kids are really happy that it is Friday, and I actually get to sleep in (until 8:00am) tomorrow so we're celebrating. It's Bloomsday weekend in Spokane and there are a million people everywhere. A trip to Costco that would normally take me 30 minutes, was more like 75 with the amount of people in the store. It was almost as bad as a Saturday. The kids and I decided we'd play outside for a little while today because the weather is gorgeous!! Finally!! I've posted some pictures of our adventures.

Todd is having great success at work bargaining for higher wages. After a powwow with the Sheriff, and a promise to go and dispatch for the City of Spokane, they agreed that Radio wasn't making enough and they were in an emergency situation. Hopefully this will translate into higher paychecks by the end of the month. Who knew he had it in him? He did let his fellow employees know that they could reward his efforts with a present once the raise came through. I think he actually recalled a situation when we were working for Continental Airlines. We got a new CEO and he came in and turned the worst airline for on-time departures into the best airline for on-time departures, which resulted in quarterly bonuses for all emloyees. The employees were so grateful, that we all chipped in $5 each to buy him a Harley. Of course, there were 30,000 employees working for Continental. Radio only has 16. He told them he would be waiting for his Harley. I think they laughed and said he'd still be waiting.

Our Enrichment meeting last night was on gardening. I have to say I am a huge slacker. These sisters were talking about their huge gardens and how much their kids help and that they already have things planted. It was snowing here on Monday. How can you get things to grow? I think we might get the garden planted by June. We're only novice gardeners though so I think our garden will consist of corn, carrots, peas, tomatoes and zuchinni. We do have some sunflowers that the kids planted and one pumpkin. That's the best we can do. Maybe next year will expand, if we do well this year. I did get my Hostas and Daylillies planted though. Even I can't kill those.

I did post a picture of Riley's dance girls waiting for their recital. This is the costume for their dance to "Lollipop". Thank You Katie for this picture. I think they are adorable.