Happy 4th of July!

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Mommy/son date!

Jon took the girls to a Daddy-daughter campout with friends from our church today, and the boys and I took full advantage of the cats being away...

The afternoon began with Max and I playing "Guess Who," "Sorry," and "War," while Ian napped. Then, we headed out for sandwiches at Bigtown Hero:

And a picnic at the park of their choosing:


Then, Kung Fu Panda 2! We ate lots of treats and laughed our heads off!


Aren't my boys darling!!?


We ended the night by cuddling up with a good ole Star Wars book. I love times like this when I get time to slow down and enjoy my children. I think I had more fun than them tonight! I am really grateful for my sweet little guys!

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Koalas

Olivia chose to do her ISP project on Koalas this year. She worked very hard. Her project included a research paper, including bibliography, a story, with illustrations, a poem, with illustrations, and this tri-fold board, which was a labor of love for sure! The board consisted of a 3D tree with eucalyptus leaves on it, and a hand drawn Koala eating said leaves up in the tree! It also had lots of eye-catching photos and facts, ad well as her poem. We were so proud of how hard Olivia worked on this project, for nearly two months. She learned so much about research, organization time management, and ultimately presentation, when they presented them at an open house.

Here she is at the open house, dressed as a "safari girl" (she gave me explicit instructions, "Mom, I need you to go to Goodwill and get me safari girl clothes."). She is holding her Koala Webkinz.

Here she is explaining something fascinating to her teacher's husband.


Way to go, Olivia! You really knocked it out if the park in this one! Whew! Is it summer vacation yet?!

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Max and Molly put preschool behind them!

Last week ended our awesome year of preschool for Max and Molly. We have loved the preschool, the teachers, and the philosophy and over all feeling of this awesome Christian preschool. On the last day, they had a luau and ice cream sundaes to celebrate summer birthdays. It was super fun for them to get dressed all Hawaiian-like when it was 50 degrees and pouring buckets!

Here is Max with Teacher Nancy. She is such a loving teacher, and every day would comment on how much she loved Max's smile!

Here is Molly with Teacher Becky, the one who coined the phrase "complete doll," which Molly now believes is her nickname. Becky took a special liking to our little Molly-heart (her actual nickname), and spent extra time with her each day encouraging Molly's love of reading! We will really miss Teacher Becky!


And here is Teacher Janie. Molly was always quoting gems from Janie, who is obviously very wise!


We loved all of their teachers so much, and were so sad to see the short year come to a close! Not pictured is Max's Teacher Kathy, who had a back injury and was out for the last few weeks of school. We loved her, too! Max told me on the last day, "Mom, I don't want it to be the last day of school. I don't want to stop learning!" Up until then, I had no clue that he was learning, because he would never tell me a thing! Luckily, Molly filled in all the blanks!

So, soon I will have two big Kindergarteners (sniff, sniff). In the mean time, we will be living up our summer!

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She reads

Molly is a reader! She whips through these books quicker than I can buy them. I love seeing this process unfold. I hope she always loves books as much as I do!

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Reach the Beach

Jon rode 104 miles yesterday for Reach the Beach. He did an awesome job, arriving at the beach in under seven hours. Thank you to all who contributed to The American Lung Association in his name. He exceeded his monetary goal, and rode in memory of my dad, who suffered from lung disease.

The whole family met him and his friend Taylor at the finish for a feast, and then we stayed the night at the coast and swam and played on the beach.

We are super proud of our hubby/daddy for training for and completing such a big event! We think he is awesome and are so grateful for his desire to stay strong and healthy for his family!

Peter Pan

Olivia was an Indian Princess in her school's performance of Peter Pan. She has been so excited about the play for months now, and it was fun to finally see it on stage. She was, in fact, so excited about the play that she hand wrote about 20 invitations which she handed out to her friends who don't go to her school. Too bad there was no charge for the play, because Olivia would have generated some serious revenue for her school (which could really use the cash right now, as they just announced they will be closing after next year)!

Lots of friends came, as well as Abby, our sweet cousin and only family near us! I wish I had taken more photos! Here is Olivia with one of her favorite primary teachers!

Molly gave her big sis flowers after her final performance on Friday night.


Olivia with Smee (her friend Henry) and a lost kid (her friend Malaika).


And, here she is with her teacher for the past two years. She, along with two other teachers for these classes, makes these plays happen each year. They are all incredible! She has been an amazing blessing to Olivia and to our family. We will miss her so much!


Thank you to all of those who came and supported Olivia. It meant so much to her to see so many smiling, supportive people out in the audience. Without a lot of family near, our friends are so great to pick up the slack and support my kids.

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Molly's dance...

Mother's Day

My kids were adorable on Mother's Day. They made me a great french toast breakfast. My favorite, yum! They also made me a yummy picnic lunch, which we shared on the floor of our living room, because it was raining cats and dogs, and Molly was sick, so we couldn't make it to the Rose Garden (which is our traditional Mother's day outing). I had to share some of the amazing things they made me. I am a sucker for anything they make. It feels so good to receive a gift that they made while thinking of me!

Olivia made me this awesome bowl. She made it from clay. Patterned it. Fired it. Painted it. Fired it again. So cool. I am using it for a jewelry dish. It makes me so happy!

Max and Molly did an awesome program/Mother's day tea at their preschool. They performed darling little skits and sang songs that they have been working on all year. This is the adorable card they made me: (and having twins is so fun, because I got TWO!)

Then, their teacher had them draw a picture especially for me, and they had notecards made with their darling art work! How fun is that? I will smile each time I write a note on one of these little babies, and I hope anyone who receives one will smile, as well!

I asked Max about his art work, and he said it is a mean guy in a space ship. Fun.

And, here is Molly's:

I love my children, and am so happy that I am their mother. They are sweet, adorable, and challenge me every day. Which I am mostly grateful for.

I also happen to have the best mother in the whole world.

Lake Run

So, my running buddy, and just all around buddy, Brittany, and I decided to run the Lake Run 12k last Saturday. We renegade (aka didn't pay) ran it, so we have no official number. It's always fun to run with Brittany, although as of late, she may not say the same about me. I have been a sick, slow friend for a while now. But, I am coming back. So....

Here we are before the run! So excited!

And after, with our awesome friends who actually paid to do the run!

This was my first time doing this exact route, although I run around "my" lake all the time, and let me tell you: It was a butt-kicker. Only 7.5 miles, but uphill all the way (I know that sounds impossible, when you start and end at the same place, but trust me, it was uphill the whole way. Try it. I dare you!). Of course, my two month hiatus from running and severe respiratory issues may have contributed to my struggle a tad bit. Brittany is the best running buddy/true friend ever, because she stuck with me the whole way, and let me slow her down, and then pretended to be just as tired as me. I love that girl!

And, we still ended up with a respectable 1:08, which is just over a nine minute mile. So, we didn't suck that bad. I am just super excited to be back on the road. I know I am a weirdie, but it's my sanity.

My kids have got talent...

Our Ward's Primary put on the most amazing talent show! They went all out with a big theme, fun judges, awesome snacks, and red carpet. It was super fun to watch all of our talented friends strut their stuff. Of course, my kiddos were excited to be involved. I am so proud of their confidence in their unique talents and wanted to share what they felt their talents are:

Olivia loves to do art. She has been working on a project for a while that she calls "Squiggles." It is a story with illustrations. She won "Illustrator of the Month" and "Author of the Month" in her fourth grade class for her efforts. She displayed her art work art work, story and awards.

Max is a builder. He loves it. He eats up anything involving Legos, Trios, gears or magnets. He is really creative in how he builds. Sometimes he sticks with the step by step instructions, which he can do with no help at all, and other times he creates as he goes. Once he gets things built, he spends hours playing creatively with them. It is one of the things that makes me happiest in the whole world: listening to Max play pretend. For the talent show, he painstakingly decided what he would take to show his friends. He got really into it. Here he is with his display:

I will try to upload a video of Molly's dance performance later, if I can figure it out. She did a darling job! I love my kids, they are the best.

P.S. Ian's talent is being dang cute!

The Tulip Festival

We ventured south to the Tulip Festival this past weekend. It was a lovely day, and the tulips were breathtaking! Somehow, in almost nine years of living here, I have never gone to this festival, and now I don't think I will ever miss a year again! Tulips are my absolute favorite flower, and the kids really loved seeing all of the different colors. Now, everywhere we go, they are pointing out tulips!

Here is Molly (front) and Olivia (behind) by a really fun star-shaped grow box of tulips!

Molly loved these red ones! Look how hearty they are!

Fields and fields as far as you could see of every color tulip!

Ian posing (no, he's not cold. This is his "cheese" stance).

I could not convince Olivia that they don't smell good! She smelled every color!

If the shoe fits...

Everyone got to hold this parrot. It was the highlight of the day!

It was a great outing. A perfect way to enjoy the last day of April in the SUN! I am glad I braved it (Jon was out of town). We are dragging Daddy with us next year, for sure!

Easter Dress

**as promised, the kids in their Easter best (recreated yesterday!)

Remembering

One year ago today, my sweet dad left me here on this earth alone. This year has been, without question, the most difficult, depressing one of my life. It is indescribable, to someone who hasn't lost a parent, the pain that ensues. Does it ever lessen? There are so many times when I kind of forget, and I think of something I want to share with my dad, and then it hits me all over again. As if it were that day, April 28th, 2010. My emotions have run the gamut this year, from sadness, to anger, to real depression, which is an emotion that I have never struggled with before. I have been struck by the injustice of the fact that my kids will not grow up with their grandfather. That is so unfair to them. They deserve him. I have felt a constant pain in my heart for my mom, who lost her best friend, her companion of 40 years. How can I ever comfort that? How does she go on? She has been an amazing strength to me through this past year, but what about her? It is heart wrenching. As this date approached, I could feel my heart constricting. I felt a palpable sickness in my gut this morning when I woke. I want this day to go away. I might just remove it from my calendar. An image has popped into my head this week, over and over, so I thought I'd put it out there. Solidify it. It is this picture of my dad kissing me before my wedding. I truly adore this man. I am so blessed that I even had him for a day, and I am trying to count it as a gift that I had him for 34 years. I am comforted, a bit, to know that he is with God, but selfishly want him with me. With us. Taking my kids on tractor rides. Riding his mule. Sitting in his chair. Anything, really. Just him. The good and the bad. I sometimes look forward ten, twenty, thirty years, and hate the thought of my future without him. I pray that I can be strengthened in that, by knowing that I will be with him someday.

So, I write this post, not to be a downer, but just to get my feelings out there. And, to share this song, which has always had such great meaning to me, and even more so now. I know this somehow gets easier, many days it is, but for today, I am thinking of my dad non-stop, and hope that he is somehow close enough to feel how much I love and miss him.

Easter morn...

Easter morning felt a little Christmas-like. The kids were up at 6 AM, excited for their Easter baskets and egg hunt. Here they are on the stairs doing bunny impressions:

Fun baskets :









They looked adorable in their Easter best, but we will have to recreate that next week because we didn't get any photos! Ugh! I think it had something to do with non-stop pouring rain! We had a lovely day at church and our cousins Abby and Alec came over for dinner. It was a great day!!!


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The egg hunt

An awesome lady from our church put together the most awesome egg hunt on Saturday morning. She (and her family) hid 1200 eggs at a local, wooded park. Luckily it was the prettiest day of the Spring so far. There were lots of kids and excitement. She also made adorable paper nests for each child with their names on them, and filled them with candy, and hid them in the woods, too. The kids had a blast!

Ian ate as he hunted (you've got to keep your strength up!)!

Cute, Molly. She had so much fun!


Max with his basket. His shirt says it all!


A really fun Easter event, that almost never happened for us, because we ran out of gas on the way there when someone forgot to get gas that morning like his wife asked. Luckily, we have great friends, one of whom came and got me and the kids and took us to the hunt, while Jon took care of his little mess. In the spirit of Easter I forgave him by that evening.

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Easter fun

We had a little Easter party on Good Friday. We had some friends over, colored a ton of eggs, and ate some yummy treats! Here are our eggs:

Ian thought this was a pretty cool activity! His hands were more colorful than the eggs!


We made bunny rice krispy treats (sugar with more sugar on top! That was the theme of the weekend!)


Here's the whole hardworking group!


Then, we colored some really fun, intricate egg coloring sheets. The kids got super into these (it even held Max's attention)!


This was the beginning of a super fun, eventful Easter weekend. More to come...

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Reach the Beach!

On May 21st, Jonny is going to bike, along with lots of other cyclists, from Portland to Pacific City on the Oregon Coast, as part of the annual "Reach The Beach" ride which supports The American Lung Association.

Jon is dedicating this ride to my father. As many of you know, my dad had (and beat) lung cancer, COPD, emphysema, and asthma, along with constant bronchitis and plenty of bouts with pneumonia, and Jon has decided to ride this ride in his honor. Although my dad preferred to ride mules, Jon is more comfortable on a bike.

Jon has made a goal to raise at least $100 for The American Lung Association by way of pledges from you, our lovely friends and family. If you would like to donate to this very worthy cause, you can go to the web page http://www.ReachTheBeach.org and look him up under "riders." You can pay by credit card on that secure site. Or, you can just mail a check for any amount, to our home address, and he will submit it. If you need our address, email Jen at jensgottarun@gmail.com.

He would appreciate any donation. If a lot of people donate a little, he can reach, or maybe exceed, his goal with no problem. And, we will keep you updated as to whether or not he actually "reaches the beach!"

The bunny!

We tracked down the Easter Bunny yesterday! Ian is infatuated with any large character, so when we spotted the giant bunny from the window of the second floor of Borders, we hurried out to hunt him down. we are getting excited for Easter!

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Molly sings!

This is a song that Molly learned at her cute preschool!

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