A week Off in the Sun! (Spring Break)

We had a great time at Nana and Papa's during Spring Break this year. They were wonderful hosts and went out of their way to find new and fun things to do with the kids. Mom loved having an extra hand or two and some quiet moments to read a book or two. Here are some highlights.
We spent Easter Sunday at Barbara and Jared's for Easter dinner and fun with cousins. As if the great egg hunt at Nana's wasn't enough the cousins had another one after dinner.

Family night was spent at the park. We picked up Chinese food and headed over for dinner, park fun, and ducks! The kids had a blast and the adults laughed as the 4 kids decided to become their own flock of ducks and chased each other around hollering quack all the while. It was hilarious to say the least.We spent one day at the miniature golf course and arcade and another day shopping. Papa also volunteered to help with bedtime stories and flashcards! (Charley helped by correcting Papa when he mispronounced the names of the dinosaurs and forgot a few multiplication facts.)

On Thursday Papa declared he was going to teach the kids how to tie dye. Stephanie and I volunteered to hold down the fort inside the house while Papa took the kids to the shop to get to work. After about 20 minutes Sam was sent back inside much to the pleasure of all parties! Charley and Joseph had a great time and the shirts turned out really cute. Papa decided the kids should all wear them to Friday Night Date Night.

We were actually supposed to travel home on Friday but the Northwest got hit with a snowstorm that day so we opted to stay one extra day. The kids and the grandparents were both very happy. Mom was too, however she knew she would miss her day to get things back together at home before school started again. Besides, who would want to pass up a day spent playing in the mud! Friday Night date night started with dinner at Home Town Buffet and another night playing at the park and chasing the ducks. We all had a lot of fun!

The trip home went as well as could be hoped for and I thank the Lord he blessed us with good weather and much patience!

Easter 2008!

Easter this year was spent in Turlock, CA. I took the kids to see Nana and Papa for spring break in hopes of having Ronny get some work done on his last preliminary paper. (We are searching for the light at the end of the tunnel, we know its there somewhere!) We arrived late Friday night after having a great drive down. In the anticipation of our arrival Nana and Papa prepared eggs for dying on Saturday afternoon (timed around Ben's nap time!). Much to the kids delight they had prepared 2 flats of eggs for the kids to dye. They were delighted! They thought wearing Papa's medical gloves was pretty neat, however in the end the gloves became more of a hassle. Sam loved dying the eggs but once they were all done with the first color he decided playing with the new dog was more entertaining. More on that later.

Nana and Papa's church is bright and early at 8:30 a.m. Sunday morning so we waited to have the great hunt until after church. However the Easter Bunny (Nana) left a few surprises in their baskets when they woke up, including new sandals for each of them. Have I ever mentioned how much I love Saltwater Sandals? In my humble opinion they are the only sandals worth buying for 4 very active children! Here are a few pictures of the Easter festivities. I do hope to put a slide show together soon.

Joseph's New Do

Joseph was in need of a haircut and decided he wanted to be different than his brothers this time. He also promised to sit still. (He didn't do too bad.) He said he wanted to be able to spike his hair on some days or have it flat on some days. This is what we came up with. He's such a ham when it comes to taking pictures!

Ben's 2nd Birthday Pics

Here is a sample of the activities on Ben's Birthday. On Saturday we took the kids to McDonald's for lunch for his birthday as well. We sang to him there and then an older couple decided they also wanted to sing to him so they came over to the table and sang to him as well. Ben didn't quite know what to do with that and just looked at them really confused. It was pretty funny!




Ben watching "Signing Time" before getting ready for church.











We had a ward activity directly after church so Ben wasn't able to take a nap until almost 4:00. When he woke up he came downstairs and decided he wasn't done sleeping yet so he went back to sleep on the couch. What were his two brothers doing while he was sleeping, having an exhibition wrestling match right next to him. Apparently this didn't bother Ben.







Ben waiting to blow out the candles. (Mom trying to keep the fingers out of the cake!)


Mom gets distracted and the fingers go in the cake!



Time for presents!

Ben's Elmo Cake

This is Ben's Birthday Cake. Today he is 2. While I was making this Ben did everything he could to get his hands on the cake and the frosting. At one point I had moved the cooling cake over to one of the counters. Not remembering Ben had a growth spurt this week, I turned my back on him and the cake. When I turned back around Elmo was missing the hand that was holding the present. I looked at Ben, he had crumbs all over his face, then he sweetly looked up at me and asked for "more cake Mom?". Its a good thing this was his cake and not one of his brother's! So I did the best I could to fix the cake but Elmo did loose a limb. I'll post more pictures of him blowing out the candles tonight when we dig in.

February in Review!

February has come and gone without one blog from us. So much for the New Year's Resolution. Here are a couple of highlights from our month.
1. Valentine's Day - Charley, Joseph, and Sam all had Valentine's parties at school. For family night that week they all worked hard in writing out their valentines. Sam did an especially great job and worked for about 30 minutes straight which is saying something! Ben had a great time eating the candy that came home!

2. Girl Scout Cookie Season. This week brings to a close the long month of selling Girl Scout cookies. I volunteered to be the cookie coordinator for Charley's troop, not realizing everything that was involved. Charley did an amazing job this year and has sold 185 boxes. Way to go girl! She also volunteered to help out at booth sales when she wasn't even signed up. (There is a story behind that which we will save for another day.)

3. The stomach bug strikes again! I'm pretty sure this was not a highlight but everyone came down with a nasty stomach bug last week which put our schedules out of whack for a time. As you can see by this picture of Ben falling asleep in the middle of the floor (note the peanut butter jar!). We are happy to report it didn't last more than a day and everyone is feeling much better!

4. Ronny had the first of what we hope to be many phone interviews for an internship this summer. This one happens to be with Bosche and if he gets the job he will be in Pittsburgh for the summer. We should find out in a week or two. We are hoping for a few more interview dates with other companies soon.

March is now here and we are looking forward to Spring Break in a few weeks.

Snow Days!

So we again ask ourselves, "How much snow does it take for the schools to close in Corvallis?" This answer, about 1/2 and inch. Crazy! Last Friday and Last Monday the schools closed here. Charley's class has a calling tree that notifies the students in her class. If her teacher calls me again at 5:30 am one more time, I think I will lose it! Can't we all promise to look at the news to see the school closures before we send our kids out to the bus? Seems pretty simple to me, then maybe I won't get woken up at the crack of dawn anymore!

The kids had a great time playing in the snow however. Their cousins in Utah have about 4 feet of snow outside. They have not yet had a snow day.

Ben's letters

Santa brought Ben the Leap Pad magnet letter set for Christmas. Ben loves them! He will bring us a letter and want us to ask him what it is. He doesn't tell you what the letter is, he tells you the sound it makes and sometimes will tell you a word that starts with that letter. He also loves to sit at the table with Mom or Dad and have us write letters that he wants over and over again. Ronny and I laugh about this most of the time and think to ourselves, Charley didn't do this this early did she? At night if he wakes up crying from a nightmare the way we calm him down is by asking him what each letter sound is. Did I mention he turns two in March? Crazy kid!

New Threads

Its been a while since I posted anything but I am repenting now and have a few things to publish today. We will see how far I get before one of the kids tries to kick me off the computer.

Earlier this month Ron and I testified in front of the Senate Education Committee about the kindergarten issue here in Oregon. Ronny's parents were very generous and bought him a new suit over the holidays to wear to our meeting. Doesn't he look great! The meeting went great and the senators thanked us for bringing the situation to their attention and asked us if we would be willing to testify in front of the entire legislature in February. We will see if that invitation really gets extended in the next couple of weeks.

We survived!

The first week of this month Ronny attended a Computer Science conference in Alberta, British Columbia, Canada. He was gone for week and had lots of fun networking with fellow students, professors, and hopefully potential employers. During his time away Ron's sister Anjanette came for a few days to help out. And oh let me tell you, did she help out. She's awesome and wonderful for just being willing to come. Our kids adore her and were so excited she could make it. We are also appreciative to James for being such a supportive husband in our time of need! You rock too!

We had great fun that week and I was able to get the great majority of our Christmas cards and packages mailed off. The week went by smoothly and without any great emergencies! We could definitely tell the Lord was watching out for us. That same week was the week of the great floods here in the Northwest. We didn't pay much attention to them until the announcement came that I-5 was closed indefinitely. This is the highway Ronny would be coming home on. Thankfully the waters receded and the road crews were able to get the road back up and running in time for Ronny's homecoming!

Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures of the time with Anjanette, however she did so you'll have to check out her blog.

Victory!

Its been a while since we have blogged but for good reason I think. Directly following Charley's baptism and Thanksgiving we finally received word from our school district regarding our kindergarten complaint. They have decided to comply with our three complaints and reverse and rewrite their kindergarten procedures. We informed the reporter who originally wrote a story about our process last June and she decided to write a follow-up story. This started the media frenzy we have had at our home the last two weeks. Ronny was interviewed for the News and to date we have had at least 6-7 articles written in various newspapers through-out the state and country about our story.

The State Attorney General's office has finally issued their opinion that no parents should have to pay for kindergarten (which was our hope from the beginning) and the State Board of Education Superintendent has told all districts in the state that they should no longer charge for full-day kindergarten and that they should consult their own attorney's regarding this practice.

This has all somewhat snowballed and escalated much faster than we had imagined. Yesterday we received an email from the office of our state representative who we asked for assistance earlier in our process. In the email we were informed the Senate Education Committee is convening a special hearing on our topic and has asked us if we would be willing to testify. We don't as yet have a definite time or place (although we assume it will be at the capital in Salem) so we will keep you posted on these events. If you are interested in our story you can Google Bjarnason Refund and find all kinds of articles. We have been doing this ourselves and keep finding new stories (some of which have quotes from us yet we never spoke with the reporter writing the story). You can find the complete story at our blog corvalliskindergarten.blogspot.com

Charley's Baptism

Charley Ann Bjarnason was baptized and confirmed by her father yesterday (November 17, 2007). It was a beautiful ceremony and both Ron and Charley did a great job. Charley's two Primary teachers spoke on baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost. They also did a wonderful job. Nana, Grammy Terri, Aunt Michelle, and cousin Anna all flew in for the occasion and many friends from here attended as well. We had a full house! A group of Charley's friends sang a song with her just before she was baptized and they brought many tears to our eyes. Charley was asked to give a talk and share her testimony in our Primary Sacrament Meeting Program this morning about her experience. She did a wonderful job! We are so proud of her! Her brothers were very excited to watch Charley make this step in her life and are eager to follow in her footsteps!

As a side note: Our Primary Program was this morning. All the kids were given speaking parts. They all did a great job. It was especially comical to watch Sam try to climb over the stand, lay on the stand, and do everything he possibly could while singing each song and avoiding eye contact with Mom. He however dutifully announced to me that he was a good boy and did not blow in the microphone during his part like he was instructed. Next year Mom will be more specific on the instructions.

Charley Turns 8

Charley turned 8 yesterday! Can you believe it, I surely can't either. Where has the time gone. Well Charley has been very excited about this day for a very long time. Unfortunately it didn't go as smoothly as we had planned, but in the end it turned out alright.

While getting ready for church that morning my back went into spasm (as the urgent care doctor told us). Ronny helped me into our room and quickly found neighbors to take the kids to church. After sending them on their way we visited the brand new urgent care right around the corner. I explained to the doctor that it was our daughter's birthday and I had a flower cake to frost and needed my mobility back. She examined my back and announced that it should be back to normal in about 3 days. WHAT!!!! (Jonny where are ya when I need ya?) She prescribed same pain killers and a muscle relaxer and sent us on our way. I was of course in tears trying to figure out how to salvage Charley's birthday.

Well Ronny stepped in and completely took over everything (Have I mentioned that I married the world's best husband and father?). Ronny took over the task of frosting the cake and did an amazing job as you can see. Some good friends came over and helped celebrate with us. We gave Charley a pink CTR ring and a watch (I bet you can't guess what color the watch is!). She also received a much needed winter coat from Nana and Papa and is anxiously awaiting a white dress for her baptism that Grammy Terri is making. Dad surely saved the day!

Charley will be baptized on November 17th at 3:00 p.m. All are invited, it will be a wonderful event!

Halloween 2007

This was a typical Halloween for our family. What does this mean you may ask? This means Dad is MIA for most of it if not all and Mom scurries around trying to make sure everything is ready so we can get out the door. Ronny has been serving on a jury all week for the county and the judge decided to give them instructions that kept them longer than usual. (Apparently he didn't have kids to take out Trick or Treating!) A group of parents and friends in our little complex all get together for soup and appetizers for dinner at our community center and then head over to the Church for Trunk or Treating. So I cheated this year and did a quick soup from a pouch and pizza bites for the appetizer. After dinner we walked back home and I finished getting the kids into their costumes. I had to bribe Ben to put his on so I waited until we were headed out to wrestle him in it. As we were walking out the door Ronny walked in so he made it to a little of the festivities.

So here is our little costume parade. Yes by the way, I did make the costumes (all except for Ben's, you'll notice its a hand-me-down). I only wish you could hear Sam growl "Aargh, Matey!" Its hilarious. We named each kid and their costume: Charley Cat, Joseph Hood, Captain Sam, and Ben Dragon. These pictures aren't the greatest but I did my best! Joseph didn't have his crossbow during the picture and you can't see the feather we made for his hat either so you'll just have to pretend. When we asked the boys what they wanted to be for Halloween, they first asked what kind of swords or weapons they could have with their costumes. They are truly boys! The kids all designed their own Jack-O-Lanterns and drew them out so Dad could cut them. Unfortunately Dad forgot to cut Ben's out. Oh well.

Sam Turns 4!

Friday was Sam's 4th birthday. He was so excited for this day. He asked every morning this week if today was his birthday. This was a birthday of all things dinosaurs, including the cake. Sam had 3 friends and their families come over for cake and ice cream. Then he opened his presents and it became a dinosaur feeding frenzy. They all had fun playing with the dinosaurs and putting together the puzzle. It was a great day and Sam enjoyed it which made all the time the cake took worth it.

A friend of mine came over and helped me put this cake together. She piped almost the entire thing green herself before having to leave. She was quick! Start to finish it took about 2 1/2 hours including baking the cake to put this together. I found the instructions online and jumped in with 2 feet. We had a lot of fun putting this together. Now we are on the hunt for a fun cake for Charley. Any ideas?

Pumpkin Patch and Family Pictures

This has been an extremely busy week at our house with all the activities going on in our kids schools. I was thinking the other day, trying to figure out why I felt like all I was doing was running from one place to the next. It then occurred to me that I had 3 children in 3 different schools. Am I crazy or what?

Wednesday we did our annual family pictures. We decided to venture out and get some pictures that tied in our community a little bit. We went to an iron structure on campus, the dinosaur bones play area, and the old train at a park here. The kids were less than cooperative so we are hoping for at least one good picture to come out of our adventure. Our friend and amateur photographer obtained a new camera recently and is going to cut and crop them and put them on disc for us. We are anxiously awaiting the disc. I'll post a couple when we get it.

Sam's preschool went to the pumpkin patch yesterday. It was great fun and as Joseph has afternoon kindergarten he and Ben were able to tag along. Unfortunately that means my hands were too full for a camera. A friend of mine came with hers and took some great shots so if I can get a copy or two from her I will add them later. Now this pumpkin patch is a keeper. It has old hand water pumps set up to have rubber duck races, a corn cannon, chickens (always a favorite), dried corn bins to jump and dig in, a great tractor ride to the pumpkins themselves and 3 different kinds of pumpkins to choose from (orange, green, and white). They also let you pick out whatever pumpkin you want for the same low price of $2.50 This works out great when your kid chooses the biggest one out there which is what the kids did the first time we went with Joseph's class. This time however Sam had to choose the smallest one there that fit in my palm. It wasn't worth the battle of having him put it back and choose another so we just went with it.

Joseph and Sam had a friend come home from school to play later that day. We decided to paint our small pumpkins instead of carve them and make paper airplanes. They thought this was great and I had them gated in the kitchen to make sure paint didn't make it out. However after two hours of complete chaos of having 5 worked up boys and throwing planes everywhere and one girl who had a tough day at school I was beat!

Papa's Visit

Papa came to visit this week. The kids anxiously awaited his arrival on Thursday and were very excited he came to spend some time with them. Ben warmed up to him very quickly and he and Sam enjoyed playing animals with him. He also took the kids outside and played catch with Joseph and his friend Tyler, soccer with Sam, watched Ben sit in his toy car, and went to Charley's soccer practice. He then took us all out to Izzy's Pizza Buffet. The kids enjoyed every minute of it. Ben affectionately calls him KaKa and the next day walked around the house saying "KaKa uhoh" meaning where did he go. Sam also was a little teary when Papa left and did not come back the next day and is now begging to go to Papa's Barn.

Papa left the kids Border's gift certificates which they spent the next day. Sam picked out a dinosaur book, Joseph a baseball book, and Charley picked out two new chapter books one about fairies and one about the Underground Railroad. This last picture is of Ben, every time we pull the camera out Ben runs to the closet door and waits for his picture to be taken. Its hilarious!

Soccer Season

I have been meaning to blog about the kids playing soccer but just haven't had the time, but today I have committed to catch up! So Charley and Joseph are both playing soccer this year. Ronny volunteered to be Charley's coach and its clear he is the more excited of the two! Ronny researches drills and stays up late figuring out the roster for game days, and pleads to buy more equipment. It won't surprise you that Ronny spent a good portion of his birthday money on more soccer balls for the team.

Charley's team is so much better than last year. So far they are 2-1-1, I don't think they even tied a game last year. Charley is much happier that her team is doing better and scoring goals for a change. She is a true team player and her skills are definitely improving. Charley is also learning the art of "shaking it off"!

The first game of Joseph's we quickly discovered the difference between boys soccer and girls soccer. These 5 year old boys push and shove and all fight for a piece of the ball. They rarely complain about an injury and after being tackled by the pack quickly jump up and dive back in. He has one little boy on his team that is truly amazing. In their last game he scored 5 goals in 3 minutes which meant he was pulled to let other kids get some action and give the other team a shot at scoring. He also has a boy on his team who gets mixed up about which way to shoot the ball. Its a riot to watch these kids!

Joseph scored a goal yesterday. We were all very excited as Joseph typically hangs out on the outside of the pack and waits for the ball to pop out. Yesterday however he was much more aggressive and held his own in the pack.

I have to say that I have dreamt of this time in my life that I would officially become a Soccer Mom. I love it!

Sam and Dad's Big Day (First Day Part 3)

Sam started preschool this last Tuesday which also happened to be Ronny's 33rd birthday. Sam was so excited to start school. He seems to have mixed feelings about it now. He had a great first couple of days with only a few hiccups, however he came home on Friday and told me he cried at school and wanted to come home but his teacher said no. He loves riding the bus with Daddy and loves that his friends are with him at school. He also has a mental health aid that is assigned to him and other kids in his class to help with transitions. The aid certainly helps quite a bit and Sam comes home tired which tells me he is thinking and playing hard at school.

The week before school started Sam was officially diagnosed with ADHD. Everyone seems to have an opinion about this, which is sometimes helpful but mostly not. I have begun researching this and have learned a great deal. Sam's child psychologist is not as helpful as we had originally hoped for. Although she is very kind and a great listener she does not have very much experience with what we are dealing with: a 3 year old, multiple children, and life in general with a child with ADHD to name a few. Textbooks can only take you so far, life seems to be a more direct and sometimes harsher teacher. We have begun different behavior plans at home that seem to be working much better.

In talking with the kids about Ronny's birthday, the kids each wanted to give him a gift. As this may get a little expensive we discussed options. Charley made Ronny a picture and his own game, Joseph and Sam bought him a giant candy bar, Ben and Sam gave him a Fully Invested BYU shirt, and I gave him Season Two of House. Joseph also decided that because Ronny is a student he should get cupcakes at school like he does. So we made cupcakes and took them into the guys at the office. The kids thought this was great! We then let Ronny choose where we went for dinner, Baja Fresh, and then got the kids hamburgers as they don't quite appreciate Mexican food yet. We brought dinner home and then lit the candles on the cake and sang to him. It was a long, but great day for our family!

Family Night

Last night during family night we had the kids line up in their chairs. Ben was so excited to sit with the big kids. Our family night was on Obedience, I bet you can guess why. We were actually shocked they could sit so close to each other without conflict. They lasted for about 3 minutes just long enough for us to get through most of the lesson. Ronny also gave the 3 older kids father's blessing for school this year. They certainly didn't last through those. We had them practice being obedient by putting their clean clothes away after only being asked once. Then Sam led us in a game of red light, green light. We'll see if the lesson had any effect on them this week. We'll keep our fingers crossed.

First Day of School Take 2

Monday was Joseph's first day of school. He loves it of course. However, he has gotten it into his head that since he is now old enough to go to school he can do anything he wants including misbehave. He's been a pill this week. We asked him if acts like this at school. His response was, "Oh no mom, I am so good at school, I'm only bad at home." We told him if this continues he would have to wait one more year for kindergarten, he's finally getting the picture. He also informed us that his teacher makes them work to much and that they only get to play a little bit. There are only 11 kids in his class and the boy that sits next to him is on his soccer team. His parents are from Africa and his Dad teaches at OSU. They are great people and remind us so much of the Esseman's from Turlock. The school just redid their playground and Joseph says its "cool" he only wishes he could play on it longer at school. He is doing well.

1st Day of School Take 1

Today was Charley's first day of school. She was ready 20 minutes early and was having a hard time containing her excitement. Unfortunatley the bus driver was not so ambitious as she was 20 minutes late! So, Charley was late to school. Grrrr! Ronny and I are hoping to meet with her teacher soon to discuss our options for either having Charley move to the 3rd grade or at least attend their reading and math times. Its an uphill battle but one we are determined to accomplish this year.

A new girl moved in a couple doors down that is in Charley's grade and goes to church with us. They have been inseparable since she moved in. Charley refers to her as the sister she has never had. Anyway, Erin is in the class right across the hall from Charley's room. They were sad they weren't together but I think the parents are happy they don't have to worry about their chit-chatting in class.

Joseph starts school this coming Monday and Sam starts on Oct. 2 so we will have the first day take two and three shortly.

Sam's Meeting

Last Thursday Sam had an appointment with Early Intervention. As we were walking in to the meeting Sam asked, "Is it going to hurt Mom?" We assured him he was just going to go and play. Sam played with one of their child evaluators while Ronny and I answered questions with another evaluator. Ben came along as he had a "gunky" eye and we didn't feel that we should leave him with the neighbor. At the end of the evaluation Ronny and I discussed the results with the evaluators. We discovered Sam is a complete visual learner, he does not respond to hardly any auditory stimulus. This was a light bulb moment for Ronny and I as this answered several frustrations we were having. Sam has also been assessed at being significantly low in social/emotional behavior and adaptive behavior skills. Sam's pediatrician agrees with us that Sam is ADHD. Sam's pediatrician recommended Sam see a child psychologist, however we are still battling with our insurance before he can go.

Early Intervention will now send a team of people over to the house to determine the best course of action to get Sam caught up before he goes to kindergarten. He is already signed up for preschool so this may just be sending over an aid to work with Sam at school. It was very interesting to talk to the evaluators about Sam and where he is at. Ronny and I learned a lot just in the hour we were there. It was also interesting watching Sam interact with the evaluator and Ben or lack there of. The last question the evaluator asked us was whether or not Sam was different. I thought that was a funny question. Of course he's different, why do you think we are here?

Just Add Another Table

Ronny has great friends in his office. We have gotten to know the "guys" over the years as we try to have them over a few times a year for dinner. Our kids love to play with them and get rather excited when they come over. Anytime they have family in town they usually ask if we can have a big dinner. (I see this as quite a compliment personally) Well the first of them defended his dissertation this week and is moving to New York. On Sunday we had all the guys over for a celebration and farewell dinner. Well the group has grown over the years so the last time we had dinner we had it in our community room, this time however it was booked so we had it at our home. The guys now bring their current girlfriends and as Charlie was graduating his father was in town so he naturally joined in.

In total we were expecting 14 adults and 6 kids including our family. Well if you have been to our house you know its not exactly large. In preparing for the night Ronny and I were stressing over where we were going to sit everyone. In the end we borrowed a neighbors card-table and chairs, joined it to ours and were able to sit 6 adults and 5 kids in the kitchen and the rest at the card-tables in the family room. In setting the tables I thought to myself, if Stephanie (Ronny's Mom) can seat 40+ at her house during Christmas surely we can seat everyone for dinner here, just add another table, we can find more room.

I wish we had taken a picture, unfortunately I didn't think that far ahead. It was a great night and everyone had fun. They stayed until 9 at which point they decided to go to a movie allowing Ronny to put the kids down. I was called away earlier to visit a friend in the hospital so I wasn't there to say goodbye. The night started at 5 so they were there a total of 4 hours, they ate a ton and laughed a lot so I consider it was giant success. Good times!

Swimming Lessons, Weddings, and Carpet Cleaning

What do all these have in common? They can all be thwarted by pink eye. We are guessing Sam got pink eye from swim lessons, it presented itself at my cousin's wedding reception, and we had to cancel our appointment for the carpet cleaning and swim lessons today because of it. Chances are the other kids will follow in a day or two. It is in these times we are very grateful for a Papa who can call a prescription in on a weekend, otherwise we would have had to wait until this morning to get him into the doctor for the prescription. After only a day and a half of the drops Sam is looking much better and feeling much better. He is not a big fan of the drops but we manage to get them in. We will of course finish the series off so as to not invite the illness back. Hopefully we can reschedule the carpets soon, they really need cleaning.

We had a great time on Saturday as a family before the pink eye presented itself. We started off going to the Farmer's Market and found a local grower selling pluots. They weren't as sweet as Papa's but the kids were so excited to have them. We then made our way to Portland. We did some shopping and had dinner at IKEA. The store in Portland just opened so it way extremely crowded but the kids had fun playing in the kid room and we all had fun in the cafeteria. You can't beat it when you can feed a family of 6 for under $15 with good food. I was so distracted with everything that I forgot to buy the kid chairs we went for in the first place.

We then went to my cousin Lauren's wedding reception. It was great to see my cousins and do some catching up. Sam and Ben were complete rascals during a family picture, thankfully everyone was patient and understanding. There was another little boy there (I'm not quite sure who he belonged to) who enjoyed running around getting into all kinds of trouble with our boys. They had a blast. The reception was outside in a garden and was beautiful. Lauren does floral arrangements for several hotels and businesses in the Seattle area so you can imagine how great everything looked. I forgot our camera so we unfortunately have no pictures. We noticed Sam had goop in his eye while we were eating cake. We wiped it out not thinking too much of it and then it was back within 5 minutes. By the time we got to the car his eye was pretty swollen. Thankfully he was able to sleep on the drive home.

Joseph's 5 year check-up

Joseph had his 5 year check-up today. He would have much preferred to go to his swim lesson. Joseph passed his eye test with flying colors 20/20 on one eye and 20/15 on the other. The doctor also officially diagnosed Joseph with asthma. So its now in the charts. As of right now its not bothering him when he plays so we will refrain from daily medication for the time being and keep up the nebulizer treatments when he gets sick.

The doctor also looked at his toes. He said they are definitely curved and will be an inconvenience but not worth fixing. Apparently surgery would be involved and 9 times out of 10 they would become infected. I told him we were happy to accept his diagnosis and Joseph will just live with crooked toes, he agreed. He had two shots which he cried through but was willing to sit still for. I told him he is now ready for kindergarten, that didn't seem to be enough to stop his crying and whining but maybe later it will be.

Joseph's 5th Birthday

Saturday was Joseph's 5th birthday. As it was an odd numbered birthday he had a friend birthday party. We sent out 8 invitations and 15 people showed up. Surprisingly 3 of the people who received an invitation didn't come. Joseph on the other hand decided to invite all the neighborhood kids and then of few parents called and invited all the other siblings along as well. So needless to say, we had a full house. It was great fun and Joseph had a blast.

I went and found a Yoda poster so we played "Pin the light-saber on Yoda". Two of Joseph's friends are from Korea. When I was explaining the game I asked if the kids knew how to play Pin the tail on the donkey, they had never heard of it. They asked what else we would be doing at the party, when I mentioned we were going to have cake and ice cream the two bothers looked at each other and shouted "ice cream" in unison. It was so funny. We also had a pinata which almost made it to the very last person before breaking but after so many kids it really didn't have much of a chance. Unfortunately we couldn't find the camera at that point.

I went to the dollar store and found those pool foam noodles, I cut them in half and then in fourths down the center and then wrapped electrical tape around the ends to make each kid their own light-sabers. We sent them all outside to duel while we got lunch together. It was fun watching all of them. Ronny and I were tired after they all went home but I know Joseph had a great time and he made out like a bandit, not hard when there were so many kids. We'll have a talk next time about why we send out invitations in the first place.

Sam and his buttons

Sam has a habit of pushing buttons when he's not supposed to. I don't know if he just can't resist it or if he is more curious and wants to see what happens. Last month at church I was right in the middle of photocopying the YW calendar when Sam reached up and turned off the copier. We had to start all over and right after I started it again he pushed the off button again. He was sent behind the partition after the second time. Well a couple weeks ago I was making chocolate milkshakes for a treat after Sunday dinner. I turned off the blender opened the top to pour it into the cups. As I was reaching for the cups Sam reached up and turned the blender on. As you can imagine chocolate shake went everywhere. Here are a few pictures although they don't give the mess justice. Do I think that this mess will make him think before he pushes another button, not a chance!