Church Picnic

At this year’s church picnic we celebrated Zack’s graduation. God blessed us with another year of no rain, good times, good food and wonderful friends!

And thankfully, Walt had his camera… :o)

Tank

Our kitty disappeared about 7 weeks ago. My friend’s cat had kittens just two days later. Sunday we brought home a new kitten.

Our friends named him Tank. The boys like the name, but I really prefer people names for my pets. I think it stems from my baby need. I give them all the names I love. I really want to call him Phineas (or Finn for short) but the boys are stuck on Tank. They think it’s a “cooler” name than Finn. Maybe I’ll just call him Finn anyway… ;o)

He is a pretty cute and playful kitty. In fact, he’s a VERY playful kitty! He plays hard and sleeps hard. He loves climbing, chasing toys and pouncing! I love his pretty pale apricot color!

doing homework with Zack

 

the chair at my desk is his very favorite place to nap

Introducing him to Max has been interesting. Tank is unafraid of Max and Max has NO ability to play nice!

Tank prefers to play with Max through the gate across the door…

Hey! They’re watching us…

   

All that wrestling wears Tank (Finn) out!

I’m such a sucker for a baby!

Mother’s Day on the River

The weather was just too gorgeous this year to not spend Mother’s Day on the river! So we did…

the island changed quite a bit from last year!

The water was quite calm and there wasn’t much breeze but the water was FREEZING! But it didn’t stop the boys from going in… But then, they are CRAZY! LOL

    

passing ships provide great waves for the tube!

Chris made himself a bit of shade and Will just did what Will loves to do best…

To add a bit of excitement to the day, Zack went tubing and Will stepped on a very sharp and very rusty piece of wire in his bare feet. Thankfully, he is up to date on his tetanus shot!

It was a very happy and sunny Mother’s Day! 

Elsie Turns 1

We celebrated Elsie’s first birthday on Saturday. And what a glorious day to celebrate! We couldn’t have asked for nicer weather to enjoy a party in the sun!

Amy did the whole party in a ladybug theme. Her decorations were so sweet!

a bunting of pictures from every month since she was born

We opened presents out on the grass… I think Ada liked it as much as her little sister.

  I love this look on her face!

 

Then the kids played in their “tent”. Ada wore it around her head and said she was “Mary”. I think she meant she was getting married… ;o)

Time for cake!

The weather was gorgeous and Andy had a biology project to do at the creek, so we all headed down to play and eat supper.

Ah, creek… How I have missed you!

  

the last of the trees from the landslide

 

Now it really is a “root” cellar

throwing rocks was everybody’s favorite activity

 Stella loved her rock so much!

 

Elsie isn’t quite ready to throw rocks yet…

What a wonderful day! Thanks for letting us come and help you celebrate, Elsie! We love you!

Zack is 19

This post is only 2 weeks late but we did kind of spread out his birthday celebrations this year.

We spent his actual birthday doing gifts and spending the day down in Portland with friends: Powell’s Books, Voodoo Donuts, Guitar Center, the mall and Olive Garden for dinner.

    Apparently I didn’t do a very good job of wrapping because he knew what all of his gifts were before he opened them. But in my defense they were very hard to wrap…

The day after his birthday we celebrated Zack, Stella and my birthdays at a big family party! Lots of fun as always!

Then the following weekend was his joint friend party with Hobo. He now plans all his parties himself. I just give permission and cook. And this year I didn’t even have to do all the cooking… :o)

    Zack thought it would be more fun to blow out Hobo’s candles instead of his own… LOL

It’s  hard to believe that next year we will have a son that is no longer a teenager! Zack you are becoming quite an amazing young man and we love you and are so proud of you!