Super Hero Bash

 About a month ago, the Yakima schools put on a mother/son superhero social for K-8th grade.  I've been known to voice my opinion on occasion about the lack of mother/son events.  In the church at least, there are daddy/daughter, mother/daughter, father/son activities but not really any mother/son.  I ended up being scheduled to work the night of the social, but with persistent calling/nagging on my part and an awesome co-worker willing to switch with me I got off for the night and had a blast with my boys at the party.

 Luke really wanted to go with us, but he didn't quite meet the age limit, and I didn't want to be pulling his hands out of the punch bowl all night.  Ryan said after we left, Luke sat by the door and cried for about 5 minutes.  It's so hard being the little brother!  I'm pretty sure after he cried out all his sorrows, he forgot all about us deserting him and had a great night with Ryan anyway.

 There were tons of fun activities for all the little super heroes and their moms.  The boys loved the bounce houses and this one where you tried to knock the floating balls out of the air with a baseball.

   Probably their favorite activity was the laser tag set up outside, complete with inflatable "boulders" to hide behind.  Unfortunately, it was the favorite event of everyone there and we had to stand in line for about 40 minutes for a turn.  I didn't get any pictures because I was having too much fun trying to take down the older boys we were playing with.  Grant and Tate both ran out of lives before I was done, but I didn't think it would be right to stay in the game as long as I could, taking out little boys just because it's surprisingly fun.  So I gave up my gun early and we went in to get our ice cream.

 There was a DJ playing all sorts of awesome tunes, many of which we have dance parties to at home when we feel the need for a little Pandora.  Needless to say, the boys weren't shy this time about showing off their dance moves and we had fun wompin' Gangnam style.

 My camera was not doing too well in the dark indoor lighting, but the boys had fun playing all the games- like carrying Skittles in a spoon to put them in a cup across the room- and winning cheap prizes...

 such as tiny magnifying glasses to make you have huge red eyes.

I had such a fun time with my boys.  We'll be back every year we're here in Yakima, or at least as long as they still want to be seen out and about with me.

See, I knew Luke had a fun time with daddy.  How could a boy this cute not have fun?!

Gone Fishing

Last month, the Yakima park system hosted a fishing event for the kiddos.  For $10, each kid got a pole, bait, T-shirt and the chance to fish for 30 minutes in a pond completely stocked with fish.  Tate wasn't old enough to register, but he got to hang out and offer moral support. 

 

 It took us about 10 minutes to find the right spot and get set up, and then we weren't having any luck.  The fish would bite the bait, but the boys could never reel them in.  All the while the boy and girl on either side of us kept bringing the fish in without problem.  When the announcer gave the 5 minute warning, I was starting to get a little worried.  If we left without any fish I knew we'd have a day of weeping and wailing, with some gnashing of teeth thrown in for good measure.  Thankfully, Ryan and Grant changed form at the end and Grant caught a fish with about 2 minutes to go.  One of the kids next to us had three fish (each kid was only allowed two), so they had us take the other home.  Success, and a drive home with one less thing for kids to whine about!! 

Buddy was pretty proud of his fish, and I was proud of him too (even if I couldn't look at his catch.  Dead fish eyes--gross!).

Poor Lukey had to spend most of his time strapped into his stroller up on the walking path.  I know he would have been happy to pull a few fish out of the pond with his bare hands, but such is the life of a one year old. He did, however, find the strength to bury his sorrow in a stomach full of granola bars, though, so all's well that ends well.

Seattle trip continued

On our second day in Seattle we went to the Pacific Science Center.  I had previously volunteered at Grant's school for an assembly organized by the science center and so they gave us some free passes.  It definitely doesn't compare with COSI in Columbus, but it was fun and you can't beat free passes!

 The insect exhibit was pretty cool.  Luke was in awe of the statue of a giant praying mantis and stayed put staring at it for about a minute.  It moved its head and body around with pneumatic hisses that he found both mesmerizing and awe-inspiring.

 We also enjoyed checking out the butterfly house.  I couldn't put Luke down for fear he would run over one of the butterflies on the ground, so he squirmed in my arms and eagerly pointed out every butterfly he could see.

My little scientist was pretty good at using the butterfly guide to name the ones he saw.  The kid does enjoy learning and on certain subjects he knows more random facts than I do.

 I'm glad the three of them could be in one car without fighting long enough for a picture. Grant promptly took the wheel and, with singular road rage, began running into imaginary bad guys and cars.  I hope this isn't a sign of things to come.

This last picture is for Cheryl.  The walls of the bathrooms were covered with interesting, weird facts and we had to get a picture of this 4 ft tall bottle of Delicious Pee that reminded us of Granty's iconic words said here.

Seattle Zoo

Yes, our trip to the zoo was in fact that exciting.  Actually, what Luke is really excited about was seeing a huge lioness with her cubs about 10 ft in front of him on the other side of the glass.  He started immediately making his favorite cat sound, "MAAOOWW!!" (it's kind of a mix of a really loud and prolonged cat's meow and a cow's moo).

About a month ago, Ryan had a few days off work, so we decided to take advantage of the time and took a little touristy trip to Seattle.  On my second trip to Seattle, the weather was again, absolutely perfect.  It's starting to make me wonder about the veracity of these claims of "incessant cloudiness and rain".  Planning out our two days in Seattle we knew that one of the days had to be spent at the zoo.  Luke has grown into quite the animal lover so we couldn't let him down.  He is our first boy to be able to make the sounds of most animals before saying many words. Needless to say, he looked like the above picture for most of our trip at the zoo, amazed and excited by all the animals, in real life, all in one place. 

 Riding a komodo dragon (statue).  Those things are actually pretty creepy in real life!

 The boys had crawled into some kind of pretend animal burrow for kids to play in.  I'm not sure what that pile is in the middle but hopefully a real animal hadn't made it his burrow :)

 Of course we had to take a ride on the carousel.  Don't worry mom, I was standing right by Luke to keep him on his horse :)

 Near the end of our trip, we came across a really large indoor play area for the kids.  This was one of the kids' favorite stops and they played for over an hour.  I'm sure the place is packed on rainy days. 
I love how intense Grant was, while going to town on the bongos.  He also made an impromptu dance that featured lots of hopping and hip gyrations, to accompany his intense drum playing.  It was pretty much exactly what I would have done too when faced with a solitary bongo, if I didn't fear being escorted from the play area by security.  Kids get all the breaks!

 This was a rare moment when Luke was sitting still, and I jumped at the chance to sit down myself!

Tate cruising down one of the slides.  Overall, I think the zoo was the highlight of the trip.  The boys had a great time and even spent a few minutes sincerely thanking us for taking them on such a fun trip.  Maybe they have figured out that makes us more likely to take them on another? 

Happy Easter!

For Easter this year we headed down to La Grande to spend time with Christine and the family.  It was just a quick weekend trip but a lot of fun.  The weather was surprisingly beautiful and we all enjoyed feeling like spring had sprung.

The boys and their cousins minus Mason (he was still at church with his dad) in their Easter finest.  We had a nice time at church.  Christine was kept busy teaching Sharing Time and subbing for the primary pianist so I filled in for her filling in for the Sunbeams teacher.  It was fun to be teaching Tate and Jack's class.  It was the Easter lesson so I even got to show them the hand in the glove, spirit/body object lesson- a classic!

 On Saturday, we filled the backyard with candy and plastic eggs and the kids filled their baskets with the goodies. 

 Luke dropped his cute chick basket at the first sight of candy and just shoved it in his mouth.  Who can think of saving candy for later when there is so much to eat right now?!

 Thanks Kimballs for letting us trash your house and have an entertaining weekend!

 

Back at home, on one of the few beautiful weather days we've had, I found Buddy doing his reading under the "shade" of our lone tree.  The small red object is an egg timer, which he sets to do his required 20 minutes of reading each day (which he often reads past if he's reading an interesting chapter book).  It warms my heart to have a child who enjoys reading as much as his parents do.  I hope he keeps it up! 

Happy Birthday Ranny!!

The boys love birthdays.  Really though what kid doesn't, with all the cake, presents and fun they bring.  The boys couldn't wait for Ryan to get home on his birthday to celebrate. When I asked Ryan what he wanted for his birthday dinner, he started thinking about the delicious turkey we had cooked up in our Traegar grill at Christmas, with all the trimmings.  I figured, a turkey dinner really doesn't take much hands-on time, just some planning (especially with the help of things like Stove Top and Pillsbury crescent rolls).  So a delicious downsized Thanksgiving dinner is what he got.  

 

 After dinner we had our usual treasure hunt for the presents.  The clues were especially tricky this year because the boys helped me make some of them.  It's hard to decipher that a four year old's drawing of a blue stick figure with monkey ears is really his stuffed blue bear.  Luckily, Tate couldn't hold in the secrets of his clues for too long without showing Ryan right were he had hidden the next clue.

 I also tried to keep Ryan on his toes with a couple clues outside of the house.  And yes, Ryan is wearing rain boots and basketball shorts, while Grant has on my brown leather flats and PJ pants which have become capris due to a recent growth spurt.  The kid is growing like a weed and our family is a fashion nightmare.

 Ryan received several books and a 5-disk DVD set entitled The Art of the Precision Rifle that he has wanted for some time.  It was a complete surprise! (Okay not really, but at least I made him let me order it online myself and wrap it up as his birthday present.)

Happy Birthday to the best husband and father ever!  We love you!

That 70's Dance

Tate and Luke being sweet and groovy.  Solid!

 Occasionally Grant's school has a Friday night family activity (usually a movie and popcorn in the auditorium).  We had yet to make it to an activity because we have our babysitting swap on Friday nights but a few weeks ago, Grant's school was having a disco dance and Grant really wanted to go.  As in, he reminded me about it at least 15 times in the weeks before!

I decided we better head on over, if only to see the kids dressed up in our afro wigs from an old Halloween costume.  The afternoon before the dance, the boys were getting excited and we had several mini dance parties to some Pandora tunes.  

Grant striking a pose, Foxy Cleopatra style.

Finally it was time for the dance.  We put on the best disco outfits we could find and headed over to the school.  After we walked in the door, the boys proceeded to do the following...

Stand with their hands in their pockets and blank expressions on their faces. I'm not sure if they were self conscious about their outfits (though they never took off the wigs), or maybe there were too many kids running around hitting each other with balloons, but they weren't really in the mood for booty shakin'.  At least we got a sneak preview of what their future church dance experiences might be like.

Eventually, we were able to coax a mild bit of dancing out of Luke, who can always be counted on to please the crowd with a little diaper shuffle.

Luckily the school had different activities planned like a bubble gum blowing contest and pinata busting that helped break the ice for the boys a little.  In the end, Grant and Tate were ready to leave after an hour so we still had time to make it to the end of our babysitting swap and Ryan and I were able to go out for ice cream while the boys played at their friend's house.  Disco dancing and an ice cream date in one night, doesn't get much better than that!