Another Slide Show

Look.......

Pink Pasta!!!! OK, well I guess 'pasta' implies Italian when I actually purchased these 'noodles' at Uwajimaya the other day. I couldn't resist buying the noodles and I honestly have no idea what I am going to use them for yet. But I will come up with something.... ;) (feel free to suggest!!)

They are only four now....

but I see chaos in the future, do you??

Thank goodness it's only a playhouse they are trying to destroy, but if I think too long about what this could look like when they are oh say 12(!) I become a little afraid. Talk about grey hair inducing..... :)

Weather

Rain, rain, go away!! Actually, after the weekend of 100 degree temps, I am not entirely upset to see the rain. But I would be a lot happier if it was only a one day event! Anyhow, tonight has been quite rainy and apparently the weather will be quite stormy tonight into tomorrow. So what's my point? I ran up to Fred Meyers tonight to just pick up a few groceries and my particular Fred Meyers is going to undergo a remodel very soon. But before that remodel starts, they decided to repave the upstairs parking lot. Well, after today's rain it will be interesting to see what they do because all over the grocery section of the store were buckets and buckets and buckets....catching the raindrops coming from the cracks in the ceiling. The ceiling were the parking lot is right above it. I suspect Fred Meyers ran out of their own buckets because they were using merchandise plastic tubs and styrofoam coolers to catch the perpetual drops! It's a good thing the store wasn't particularly crowded since maneuvering a shopping cart around all of the buckets/coolers was challenging! (thank goodness my kids were at home with daddy!!) After awhile, I felt slightly uneasy and decided to end my grocery trip... I'm sure the ceiling was fine but I sure wasn't about to find out the hard way!! ;)

In Olympic Spirit...

The summer is almost over and we only have one more session of swimming lessons over here! Today was the last day of the current session or "card day" as it's often called in this (and other) household. The boys got their cards but what was way more exciting, (especially for Mason!) was their "medals". I was busy talking to a friend and didn't realize the boys had already gotten out of the pool when Mason came running over to me yelling "I got first place! I got a MEDAL!". What they did at the pool was hand out little gold medals that looked very Olympic like to every child. Most the kids that I noticed seemed to be pleasantly surprised but I swear the whole pool could probably hear Mason in his exuberance!! His teacher had to come chase him down to give him his card because that was long forgotten in all the excitement. Basically the "card" sums up the session and progress and lets you know if your child can move up or needs to stay in the same class. Mason moved up and Matthew didn't so there was a little irritation on Matthew's part but oh well. They were both in quite a good mood for the rest of the evening and were even willing to stand somewhat patiently, in the late afternoon heat, for a few pictures!

So I will let them watch some more Olympic swimming, diving, and whatever else catches their eye....and they will probably wear the medals as they watch.
Off to the family picnic tomorrow and hopefully I won't melt from the heat!! ;)

Just Because....

Just because it's summer.....must mean that I am lacking in inspiration! I have neglected the blog lately. Not on purpose but I haven't really found anything terribly inspiring and now that "birthday season" is over (oh thank god!!) it's time to actually get a few things done around the house. Like paint that damn cabinet in my bathroom that I have meant to paint for almost a year now! I started sanding it this week and now it's officially sanded and primed but not painted yet. ::sigh:: Oh and Andy has been working on the deck(s) which desperately have needed a good cleaning and staining. He spent 6 hours on Saturday doing the cleaning part... and hopefully after today the rain won't come back for awhile so he can do the staining part! (I will help if I have to....not that I am jumping for joy at that chore!) Real exciting stuff over here! That along with swimming lessons daily, making sure we go to the library so that Matthew has plenty to read (a major chore! he fights having to read!) for the summer reading program, gymnastics classes, and probably other things that I am too tired to remember right now. In fact this week, a friend of mine pointed out that I had said at the beginning of summer how I looked forward to the end of the school year just so that we wouldn't have so much daily running around. Yeah....that worked out well, huh?!

So just for fun....a few more "diva" pictures of Mason's friend Clara from a couple of weeks ago at a BBQ at her house. Of course, when you put Mason in the pictures, the dynamic changes a bit! ;)

Goodby Six and Hello Seven!

oh not the cat! It's Matthew's birthday today! ;) But in searching for some old pictures of Matthew, I came across this pic of Guesseppe testing out Matthew's highchair. I'd forgotten how it rather amused me and felt the need to post it. (especially since it prominently featured the 'beer farts' jar, which the same cat actually broke later!)

I still can't get over how quickly seven years have gone. Andy and I were just discussing this morning how we remembered when our nephew Jayden turned seven and how we thought wow...it will be forever before Matthew is that old or that big. Yeah...that forever lasted real long, huh? Pretty amazing how that chunky little baby managed to grow up and become the smart (and sometimes sneaky!), resourceful, and loving kid that he is.


Matthew's first birthday and Gymbo the clown who he adored!


Second birthday and the kitchen he got, which we still have and it still gets played with!Third birthday and Matthew had a new brother at this point!
Fourth birthday at Oaks Park! Lots of fun but it's a hot and crowded time of year!

Fifth birthday and for some reason I have like zero good pictures of this particular birthday year!
Sixth birthday and he is wearing his birthday crown that he made when he was still going to occupational therapy.
And last night...Happy 7th birthday Matthew. xoxo, mwhah!

I don't Understand!

Around SE Portland, I see plenty of people getting into the "reduce and reuse" mode of things, particularly with grocery shopping and the popularity of reusable grocery bags. As I understood things, wasn't the point to cut down on the useage of those plastic bags that are going to be in our landfills forever? I thought a lot of people got that point, but apparently not our local newspaper! Why oh why does the Oregonian insist on delivering its paper in a plastic bag? On a perfectly good July sunny day? I just don't get it.....do the people in charge over there not get the message about our environmental problems? Or maybe it's just because I am a mom and occasionally notice the ridiculousness of of some things and look towards the future for my children. I am just vastly confused!