The Hobbit

Our homeschool group got a great discount on the Northwest Children's Theatre production of the Hobbit, and since Ryan has just finished reading The Hobbit, I decided it would be a fun thing to go see.

We weren't allowed to take pictures inside the theater,
so we did our obligatory pose outside before going in.
I wasn't expecting much, but it turned out to be fabulous! They didn't have many props or much room on the small stage, but they did wonders with what they had to work with. It didn't hurt that we had front row center seats (literally) and had to move our feet out of the way for the actors when they came off the stage for parts of the performance. It was great to be so close and feel like we were part of the action! Both kids loved the show, and Mommy was duly impressed.

Life: Imagine the Potential!

Quirky Kids

I don't know if Mother's Day was on their mind or why they decided to bless me, but last Friday, they decided to do some things to "help me." First they cleaned my shoes. Yeah, you read that right...my shoes. Why, you wonder? Yeah, me too. When I asked why they decided to clean my shoes they said it was because they were dirty. Gee thanks, guys. It never occurred to me to clean the bottom of my shoes, but now I can walk knowing they are nice and clean!


Next they dusted and "cleaned" the living room. After they were through with that, they took turns cleaning the stove top. It didn't take them long to realize that was way more work than they wanted to do and not nearly as fun as cleaning shoes. So I spent the next half hour finishing up the stove and having them clean up all the water they spilled and splashed on the laundry room and kitchen floors.


The jobs weren't done very well, but the heart behind them was greatly appreciated!

Mommy/Daughter Weekend

While Ryan and Daddy were off in eastern Oregon camping, Abby and I had some Mommy/Daughter time. We watched movies, played together and did a craft.

Abby made two popsicle boxes: One for Gramie for Mother's Day and one for herself. She did a great job, and couldn't wait for it to be dry enough for her to put all her small rocks into it.


While we were at the grocery store, Abigail saw the corn on the cob and asked if we could have some for dinner. I said sure and asked what else she'd like. She said, "Biscuits!" Okay, I can make biscuits, I said. What else would she like? "Steak!" Hmmm, I'm not sure about that one, I had to answer.




Hubby recently took a 15 percent pay cut and we're trying to keep the grocery bill down, but I told her I'd check and see what I could find. They had some small chuck steaks on special, and I had a $2 off coupon so I managed to buy two small steaks for just $1.39! I didn't know how the chuck steaks would taste since I'd never bought or cooked them before, but Abby and I both agreed they were delicious!

Daddy/Son Campout

The first weekend of the month (sheesh, I've been so busy lately, I just can't seem to keep up on my blog!), Ryan and Ed went camping with Ed's boss and his daughter. Since I wasn't there, I don't have much to say, but I just want to post some pictures for posterity! I was told they had a good time and would like to do it again sometime.


They did some hiking...


...and some geocaching...


...and saw some interesting sights.


They call these the balancing rocks. Pretty cool, huh?

Catching Up

I have finally finished some old posts I've been wanting to get published, but they are kind of old news. I wanted to get them on my blog because it's my online scrapbook and I posted them in date order. If you're still interested in reading about any of these outdated events, here are the links:

Easter at the Zoo
Surprise!
Abby's Sixth Birthday
Children's Museum
Gramie Visits
Baseball Season Again
Fundraising Champion
Sunshine!

Schools on Trains

Amtrak has a program in our area called Schools on Trains, and for a discounted rate school groups can travel between Bellingham, Seattle, Portland, Eugene and all stations in between. Fortunately for us, Amtrak has included homeschool groups in the bargain, and yesterday for the first time we joined our local homeschool group on the trip!


We arrived a little early to the station and spent some time looking around. Little by little our group began arriving until finally the station was packed! We had the more than the maximum 72 people in our group since a half a dozen people had to pay full fare in order to bring their younger children along. For a short time we thought my hubby was going to have to leave us to take care of a crisis at work, but thankfully he got it worked out before the train left and was able to accompany us.


The kids (particularly Abby) were so excited! Our group took up more than two whole passenger cars, and I'm sure the rest of the travelers were glad we had the cars all to ourselves because it was a fairly loud and boisterous group of kids (and parents).


After exploring all the fascinating buttons and the curtains and things on the train, the kids settled down and looked out the window and played some games we brought and drew pictures for a couple of hours. We walked the length of the train so they could see all the different cars, and Ryan and I talked to the conductor for a short time.


About 45 minutes before arriving in Seattle, we got out the lunch we had packed and they kids loved eating in their seats with the tray tables down. It's amazing how just a change in location makes an ordinary PB&J so much more fun!


After almost three hours, we arrived in Seattle, and we were ready to get up and do some walking. In fact, we spent almost all of our four and a half hours there walking. We walked down to the Pike Place Market and went to our favorite places there (including a donut shop and the fish throwing place), then we walked through the hundreds of stalls and enjoyed seeing all the gorgeous flowers and fresh produce they have for sale every day of the year.

If you look closely you can see the Ryan is screaming
his head off because they scared him with the monk fish!
This is a favorite trick that lets bystanders laugh at other
people's expense. It truly is funny to watch though
when you know what's going to happen.
It would be so incredible to have access to that kind of farmer's market and fresh fish year round! I have never been to the market when they didn't have a fabulous selection.



Of course the market has all sorts of wares besides food and flowers. Artisans of all sorts sell their products, and then there's the usual "performance artists" that share their "talents" hoping for some spare change.


In all the times I've visited the Pike Place Market, I've never actually gone into the first Starbucks and bought anything, but today we changed that. It was totally packed, but they managed to get our drinks to us with impressive speed! So now I've been to the very first Starbucks...ah, I feel complete.


We were blessed with an absolutely gorgeous day! It was on the cool side, but the temp ended up being just perfect for walking around with a light jacket. We could see the snow-capped Olympia mountain range across the sound, and there wasn't a cloud in the sky.


After walking through the market, we looped around and walked back along the waterfront. We watched the ferries coming and going, gave the kids a ride on the carousel, and looked through some interesting shops, including the obligatory Ye Olde Curiosity Shop which has genuine shrunken heads and myriad other oddball things to look at.


Lastly, we went to Ivar's for some clam chowder. This is my all-time favorite chowder, and as I was browsing their website when planning our trip, I noticed that they have Happy Hour starting at 3:00pm every day. So we planned to make that our last stop of the day, and it worked out beautifully.


We got some yummy clam strips and chowder half off the regular price, and all of our drinks were free! The bonus was that we got to sit and relax while the kids watched out the windows completely engrossed in watching people feeding the seagulls outside. They were so entertained by this that hubby and I got a good long (fairly uninterrupted) chat in, which was wonderful!


After our early dinner we walked back to the train station just in time to board our train home. We spent the time playing 20 Questions, looking out the windows and chatting with another homeschool mom, so the time went fairly quickly. As we pulled back into Kelso/Longview Station, it was absolutely pouring rain which was a surprising end to a very long but very fun day out.

Sunshine

It's been so nice to finally have some sunshine here in Oregon. The kids are loving being outside, and I'm loving them being outside at last!

Fundraising Champion

Salesmanship is not my thing. I'd rather eat rocks than have to go door to door selling something. When we had the choice to either buy out the fundraising portion of the baseball fees for $30, I wanted to jump at it, but hubby said we should see if Ryan wanted to do fundraising or if he wanted to earn the $30 himself. Ryan chose fundraising.


Of course hubby said he would take him so I wouldn't have to do it, but guess who was conveniently working the weekend we needed to take him door to door? Thankfully I was rescued by poor weather after just a few houses, so Daddy took over the next day.


We discovered that we have an incredibly generous neighborhood! Apparently I'm the only cheapskate on the block. Ryan was told he would probably only sell to about one out of every ten people he asked, but in fact he was only told no by about five people! Though he only needed to sell five items, he wanted to keep selling so he could earn some money. Would you believe the little squirt was the fourth best seller in the whole league!? He didn't even ask around our church either. I was stunned.


We had Ryan do all the selling while we just stood back at the sidewalk. Apparently, he did a good job. It was quite a chore delivering all the items once we picked them up, but we finally got it all done. Ryan is $10 richer and also won a small prize for his all his fundraising.

Baseball Season Again

It's baseball season again and the games have begun. Opening day the schedule was running behind, so Ryan took it upon himself to organize an impromptu game of Duck, Duck, Goose. It was hilarious to watch him getting it going, and I was happy to see Abby was included as well!




He has really improved in the last several months since he last played. He is no longer the novice player on the team and is holding his own quite well. He is really hard on himself though and thinks he should be better than he is for some reaosn.




He wasn't digging on the practices, but now that the games have actually begun, he's having a good time.




It was kind of comical when Ryan realized who one of his coaches was. (Remember this coach and the issue Ryan had with him during the last game of fall ball?) Well, Ryan made a beeline right over to him and asked if he could pitch this season. I don't know if the coach remembered his promise, but Ryan surely did.


However, once again the coach couldn't keep his promise because in this league they use a pitching machine. Ryan seemed okay with it, but I found it amusing that he remembered the whole thing so well.

Gramie Visits

My mom came for a visit, and that is always cause for great excitement for Ryan and Abby. They could hardly contain themselves as we waited at the airport! One time a few years ago we made these cute signs that said "Gramie" on them and the kids held them as we waited for her at the airport. Even though the joke isn't nearly as funny the fifth time around, the kids think we need to do it every time she comes, so here they are holding up the signs for her.


We crammed a lot into the week she was here. We celebrated Abby's birthday, went to the zoo, celebrated Easter, went to the Children's Museum, and Mommy and Daddy got a couple of nights out alone too.




It's been years since we've been to the Children's Museum, but last summer the kids earned free tickets during the summer reading program. I had completely forgotten about them but found them when I was cleaning out my purse last month. I decided to save them and go when my mom was here so she could enjoy it with us.


The kids had so much fun playing in the waterworks, playing shopkeeper and ambulance driver, and even putting on a play for us.


One of the fun things my mom and I did together was make these adorable cupcake bites that I saw on Bakerella a while back. I've been wanting to make them, but it's so much more fun doing things like that with other people. So I gathered the supplies and made them with my mom. I don't think she enjoyed it as much as I did, but she agreed they turned out very cute. We ate some, gave some away, and shared some with Abby's Sunday school class.