Pre-K

" I wish when Jesus made us, he'd gave us the force"~Lucas
(think Star Wars).
I thought this was so cute when he said it to me in the car today...

Lucas started Pre-K this year.

It's the same preschool he's been attending for 2.5 years already. And the same one Kilynn went too. But still, he was not so happy when I dropped him off. He gripped my shirt with all he had. Crazy boy! I guess my kids just like spending time with me sooo much. LOL.

really though, I knew he'd be fine.

And he was happy and content when I picked him up.

He also started soccer Monday, and is doing wonderfully. Lucas is shy, super shy around people he doesn't know. So I was very proud to see him get out there and not hide with me. He's having lots of fun with it, and was excited to go again tonight.

Spike

Lucas decided that he needed a new pet with his birthday money.

I was leaning towards a veggie/cricket eating lizard, but my children and husband had something else in mind....

Meet Spike...or Spikey as Lucas named him.

I wanted to name him Fluffy. ;0) Or Tupac.

I was picturing Lucas at school, sharing about his pet snake, Tupac...or Fluffly.

But he was having nothing of that.

Spike is a Ball Python. We researched the best reptile suggestions for beginngers/kids.

This was one of them, though he will get bigger. 3-5 feet long, and quite round.

He could live 20-50 years. To think, Lucas' children may be meeting Spike someday.

So, Lucas is super excited. As is Kilynn and daddy.

Lucas

Lucas is 5 now.

I'm amazed. Has it really been five years since my last baby was born?

It has.

It's funny though, because I think Lucas has always seemed older then he is, maybe because he's always played with older kids. I'm not sure. But he's 5 now, that's a big number. He's a big boy.

He's a crazy crazy boy. He will literally drive you crazy, but then he'll turn around and make you smile. Or give you the best hug ever!

He's funny and sensitive, and obsessive-compulsive. He's my boy!

He had a blast at his party. We ended up with 20 kids, and 14 or so adults. I planned for a *small* party. That was really our closest friends and family. But, alot of of our friends have 2+ kids, some 3 and 4 kids. So the kid count adds up fast. ;0)

A friend commented "you know the kids having a great birthday party when he doesn't even ask to open his presents"..which is soo true. His presents weren't his concern, he was just having a blast with his friends!

He had a Super Mario theme this year. I made his cake to look like a DS game screen. And he also requested a blackberry pie(which are growing wildly here right now). We made salmon (which somehow got over-looked..we ended up with tons left), hamburgers and hotdogs.

He did love his gifts, some highlights were his football, trampoline, new scooter, and wooden train set (which he decided he's into again).

Overall, a great 5th birthday for my lil' man!

here are a some other from the party

beach days...

they are almost over....we will miss em'.

Ohhhh Mandy.....

Look what Ryan brought home tonight....

more salmon......;0)

Road Trip 2009

Sooo..

Our road trip started on June 19th..the last day of school. I picked Kilynn up, headed for the ferry, met my sister and we were on our way.

We'd already decided we'd take the *scenic* route down, take our time. We took the boring ol' I-5 through Washington and Oregon. Then cut over close to the California border. We stopped and checked out some sites along the way. The coastline in Crescent City, the redwoods and Avenue of Giants near Eureka....through a small part of Wine Country, and into San Francisco.

From there, we decided after two days, and lots of gas we'd cut back over to the 5 and be on our way to our final destination, in SoCal. We had a very nice road trip though..the kids loved seeing the new places (I think the favorite was the redwoods trees, and golden gate bridge) and of course, they loved the hotel stays...so all were happy!

Here are some more photos of the road trip...

http://taksonyphotos.shutterfly.com/

Cousins

The kids had so much fun with their cousins in California. We miss them already!

Dinner!

Yum, fresh salmon.

Ryan went fishing and caught one the other night..

I keep thinking I'll sit down and blog about our trip to California. But, I just haven't had the motivation. It'd be long, we were there 6 weeks. I should've blogged while we were there, but we were just so busy.

Anyway. We had a fantastic time, and we're missing the sun. Since it's mostly rained since we got home, go figure.

still here...

We're around.

We've been in California since June 20th..we'll be leaving in less than two weeks..

Time has flown by, and we've had a great time!

friends

Sunday we had a few friends over to go swimming, and have ice cream.

We callled it a "big playdate". So I wouldn't feel obligated to get "party-goods".

We did this, because as Kilynns friends told me "you're leaving at the worse time.....". Because it's prime playdate time of year.

I really didn't have time to have 6 different playdates in a weeks time, especially with school still in session. So, we had a big playdate.

It was fun. I'm glad we did it. It was simple too!

busy week.

Super busy...
It's the last week of school..(serisouly, didn't she just start kindergarten? now she's just about a 2nd grader)....
we leave on the last day of school, for our extended stay in California.

and to top it off, I tried to freshen up my highlights last night with a boxed set, because I just didn't think I had time to go see my sister to get it done...
Well, of course, I turned my hair spotty, orange and super blonde on spots. Ugh!
So now I have to make the time to go get my hair fixed, which I should've just done in the first place.
LOL.

Stressed much?

Warm

We've had record breaking hit around here..high 80s, even 90s someplaces. Yesterday was hotter.

I'm welcoming the beautiful weather. I love summers here, I'm actually going to miss it while we're gone next month....California heat just isn't the same, it's smoggy. and hotter.

Although tomorrow it's going to be 10-15 degrees cooler....and get cooler each day after that....

I like 75-80, it's the perfect weather here.

Will things ever slow down?

Well, things sort of have. Kind-of.

I think we got our house stuff figured out for now. Things will be super tight for a few months. But we won't have to move. So we'll just have to figure it out.

We leave for California in 2.5 weeks. I've been baby-sitting a neighbor/friends kids...and she's paying me. So there's my *get-to-california* fund.

My house is thrashed...when I though we might have to move..I loss any motivation I may have had to clean much, which I rarely have as it is.

It's not dirty per say. It's just cluttered and messy right now.

Kilynn has a few field trips next week, and field day this Friday..Lucas is done with school, and his last speech is next week.

I'm trying to plan an end of the year ice cream party..something simple. But Kilynn and her friends are a little bummed about us leaving as prime playdate time...and there just isn't enough time to have that many playdates before we leave, especially with school still in session. So, I want to try to have several of their friends over for playtime, and ice cream...and do it all at once.

So, this was a total ramble of tidbits......

Sanchin Kata

A month ago at karate, they announced that they'd be holding a tournament.
I asked Kilynn if she'd like to do it (totally expecting her to say No), and she said "yea, of course".
So, we signed her up.

She went to the tournament practice last weekend, and upon seeing what would actually be happening and hearing that she'd need to introduce herself, etc. she left the mat crying.
It was quite overwhelming for her.
She got through it with some tears.
It didn't stop her though, she still wanted to participate today so she practiced all week.
Today was the tournament. We weren't worried about winning any medals, we just really wanted to see her succeed at doing her sanchin kata in front of everyone...and gain some confidence in herself.
and she did!!
She walked up there with confidence, and conquered that fear. I was SOOOO proud of her, I was a little emotional. I know how hard it was for her. And watched her have that confidence made me so proud to be her mom.
She accomplished her sanchin kata as far as she had learned it thus far, and won 1st place.
She's loving her *first ever* trophy (shes already shined it)...and we are super excited for her.
A wonderful confidence boost for my little girl ;0)

Videos of course...

http://vimeo.com/4920446

http://vimeo.com/4920383

and photos

Kilynns 7!

just a quick post, with a sample of kilynns 7 year photo session we had this evening....

tired....

I'm tired.

Lucas is sick. We caught it at the beginning stage of pneumonia. It came on suddenly, and I hope it'll get better and not worse now.

I've been meaning to blog about my Kilynn turning 7! I just have had a chance to sit and give it the time I want.....

because I'm in awe of the little person she's become, and can't believe she's serisously 7!

I'm also been working on scanning in TONS of ol' photos for my grandparents anniversary slideshow I'm working on to play at their party next month...it's consuming tons of my time, and I should have started sooner, that's for sure.

I'm also trying to pin-point our plans for our trip down to California for the party, and the kids and I will be staying for 4 weeks or so after...Ryan will fly home after a week.

So...hopefully I'll be back soon to update! I'll attach a photo of my baby girl a day old...

movie night for us...

We just finished watching Marley and Me...oh my! I knew how it ended, and I planned on it being sad. But wow. It was heart wrenching. And the sad part lasted sooo long it felt like.

By the end, Kilynn was bawling. She said " I never, ever want to watch that movie again".

But it is real life. So, it couldn't have the dog come back to life.

Anyway. Pretty good movie, if you get past the sobbing at the end.

Has anyone ever watched PS I love you. That was is a sob-fest too! goodness!
I haven't got teary-eyed during a movie since that one--until now...
and before that was probaly Stepmom, or Armegeddon that did it to me.

happy easter...

wordle

I saw this on another blog I read.
It looked cool, so I tried it too. I pasted in my blog url, and these are the words it used.