birthdays, babies and sticks

A real beetle came to the party!


Say "Cheese!"



Looks good Jack!

I cannot believe May is almost over! What happened to it? We have had a great month however! My big boy turned 5! We had a fabulous bug birthday with his friends that included a jumper and bug hunt. So fun! It is amazing how 5 years can go by so fast. We are so enjoying seeing him grow into his own person. I was talking to someone about Ryan turning 5 and they reminded me that he will now hold all his memories and remember things from now on. Exciting, but a little scary too.

We decided to stay home during Memorial Day weekend so. On Monday, we were invited by a dear lady, Lynne, I work with out to her farm in Enumclaw. She had brought 2 baby ducks and 1 chick to school on Friday and I had mentioned that my boys would love to see all the babies. She was so kind to host us for a morning and show us their organic farm. Wow! So much work but so rewarding too. Ryan got to get eggs out of the hen house and take a dozen home. He really thought they would "patch" so I had to prove to him that they were indeed normal brown eggs by cracking one. He then asked how eggs turn into chicks. Fortunately I was able to give the abbreviated way. :) Along with the countless chicks, ducklings, and turkey chick (the hen hatched!) they have a calf named Colleen Marie. She is so cute and Ryan wanted to hug her. Fortunately, she was faster than he was. Lily the Llama was pretty darn sweet too. Great times and memories to hold.

A wandering stick bug. Can you see it?

As for the sticks...my neighbor and I were talking about her 5 year old Brooke wanted a hamster. We talked and came up w/co-oping the hamster for a week. In exchange, we got their stick bugs. So much fun! Ryan and Brooke loved babysitting each others pets and they learned a lot too. I look forward to doing this again with them as well as finding others to share our Hander with. Any takers?

"Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened."- Dr Seuss

Mom's Day!

My boys!


Ryan and Jack exploring!

Ryan kissing the crab!

Our little snail family.

Me and my little boys!

Today was a great day w/the family. It started w/the boys sleeping in until 6:30. I know that doesn't sound late, but in this house we are happy w/ anything after 6:00. Jeff made us breakfast; Swedish pancakes, sausage links, strawberries and OJ. After breakfast, we headed to Saltwater State Park. We did this last year and I decided this will be our Mother's Day tradition. We had a blast! It was so fun to watch the boys explore the tide pools, find treasures and get really filthy. Jack was in heaven w/the sand and rocks. Ryan was really adventurous. Those that know him know he does not take risks. Today was unlike any other day. He went nuts and tried so many new things. He held crabs, snails, hermit crabs and touched sea anenome and a dead starfish. It was awesome! We even found HUGE live crabs. I told Ryan he could have ice cream if he kissed it....we got ice cream! There were so many creatures to observe and touch. Jack, of course, had no fear and touched anything that was in the bucket. We had to keep him away from the big crabs. I can't imagine what would have happened if he tried to grab one of those! Aside from running to urgent care w/Jack, the day was perfect. (He is fine, just a continuation of the same old rash and runny nose and now has more meds.) Jeff ended the day w/making me dinner. After dinner, the boys danced to the music and ran around. Such joy and love in the house! Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there. I hope you felt as special as I did today!

Each day of our lives we make deposits in the memory banks of our children. ~Charles R. Swindoll, The Strong Family

Roar!!!!!!

The Mighty T-Rex after coming after us!


The Fiesty Liliensternus-before eating!

Ryan & I waiting for the show!

Dad and Ryan so excited!

Having a 4 (almost 5!) year old boy we've learned a lot about dinosaurs. Probably more than I ever wanted to know and told regularly that I am wrong about some things. We took Ryan to "Walking w/the Dinosaurs" for an early birthday present. It is a show created by the BBC and has life-like (and size!) dinosaurs that move and interact as if they are right in front of you. PHENOMENAL! Ryan loved it!!! He did not take his eyes off the show nor did his mouth stop talking. It started out w/a "paleontologist" taking us through the different eras of the dinosaurs. Pretty remarkable; dinosaurs fighting, eating food, chasing each other as well as the paleontologist. It ends w/the giant T-Rex. We bought the tickets months ago and thought 7th row was pretty good. They were even better than we even imagined b/c the first 5 rows were blacked out. Why were they blacked out you ask? If you sat there, you ran the risk of losing your head to either a tail or a dinosaur taking a nibble. :) Ryan swears one of the dinosaurs tried to eat him. The pictures I've included are not the best quality and do not do the show justice but they warned us not to use our flashes b/c the dinosaurs can get a bit feisty. I know better not to mess w/a dinosaur or a 4 (almost 5) year old's sense of seriousness. A wonderful memory to add to our collection!

Exhaustion....

Life is so tiring some days. Playing is wonderful and sickness is terrible. I tell you what, if one more germ bug hits this house I am going to fumigate the whole thing.
The good exhaustion: The weather has been so beautiful on and off the last couple of weeks we have spent most of our days outside-our house, our neighbor's house, NW Trek.... We all know Ryan loves to go outside in search of his new treasure; whether it be a bug, a worm, a new plant or weed. Jack is the same. He just follows Ryan around doing exactly what his big brother does. We continue to remind Ryan that Jack is watching and will try anything he is doing.
We have been so fortunate, our family had not gotten sick in a long time until...Easter. Jack started it w/the flu. Yuck! All I have to say is I LOVE my hardwood floors and am so thankful for them!!!!! (Remind me of this when I start complaining again about the messes!) Ryan came next. (Thank you hubbby for staying home and dealing w/them!) Jeff next! I was sanitizing and Lysoling everything. Praying that my teaching immunity is paying off. No such luck! I ended up in bed this week. Jack had a small rash for a couple of days so Jeff decided to take him in thinking it was really nothing....nope! He had strep. We put 2 and 2 together=I had it too. Not fun! Medication is a great thing! ENT doctors that will prescribe you meds w/o seeing them until after the meds have kicked in is another wonderful thing. I am now feeling 95%. Jack hasn't stopped moving. We never would have thought he was sick. I am hoping that is the end of that!
Exhaustion...need I say more?
With all the germs and sanitizing, Easter pictures have been postponed. I swore that this post would be about Easter...not quite yet. Maybe tomorrow....:)

"Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion...I myself prefer to laugh, since there is less cleaning up to do afterward." Kurt Vonnequt, Jr.

Spring Break!

I love Spring Break! I've always loved it as long as I remember. Now being a teacher, I appreciate it that much more. It is time to relax, clean and just play. We've done all of that and more this week. Cleaning our garage was a huge task but so rewarding. One day I went w/a couple of friends and scrapbooked. So relaxing too!

We also went to Cle Elum for one night and headed over to Chelan Falls for the day. Beautiful! My in-laws are building a vacation home on the river. It was the first time I saw the house. I can't wait until it is finished. The boys and Daisy had the best time. I think most of the mud and dirt came home w/us on Jack as you can see in the pictures. It took Daisy about 2 minutes to realize there was water. We had to drag the ding-dong out to get warmed up. She did not want to leave the river. She then would roll in the dirt and then jump back in. Crazy dog! Ryan loved playing w/the water (not in!), making mud pies, and trying to catch little creatures in the water w/a bucket. Jack loved throwing rocks and mud and just sitting at the water's edge. He also found a great dirt pile to roll around in. So fun and so exhausting. We ended the day w/fresh milkshakes in Entiat. I love Spring Break!

If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant: if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome.
Anne Bradstreet

Crazy Daisy Dog!

Birthdays are a time for great celebration. We always seem to plan and plan for these great events. Today is Daisy, our now 6 year old lab's special day. Unfortunately, time ran away and we forgot. We put her in the kennel and headed off to the pet store. She is one of the family members that sometimes gets lost in the shuffle. When we first got her, I was so excited. A cute little puppy with the big belly and loving way she licked everything. She was and is still very cute. There are many moments in my day and throughout the last 6 years that I think, "why on Earth did we get a dog???" Not just a dog, but a shedding dog w/hardwoods? Not just a shedding dog, but a 70 pound lap shedding dog?

Let me tell you all the things that she has maimed or destroyed or have disappeared since her arrival: kitchen cabinet corners, window sills, an aluminum blind (I can't imagine how that looked by people passingby), an Ethan Allen chair, endless socks, indestructible dog toys, shoes, toys, books, the latch to a seatbelt, balls, a backyard, sticks of butter, 70 chocolate cookies w/melted Andies mints on them, garbage, garbage, garbage, loaf of bread (only the crust, mind you!) and so many other things that have escaped my mind. How I haven't thrown her out or left her in the woods, I am not sure.

The thing about Daisy is she is so sweet. She knows when she has been in getting into mischief and just looks at you with those big eyes. She will let the boys do anything to her. I do mean anything. They have laid on her, rode her, pulled her tail and ears, poked her eyes, looked at her teeth-and she let's them w/such grace. She knows when you are sad and need a little love. "Daisy" was one of the boys' first words. Ryan and Jack both look for her for a hug. Man's best friend indeed.

Yes, there are days I hate having a dog but I will be one of the saddest in our home when she is gone. So with that, happy birthday Daisy-our world would not be the same without you!

A dog doesn't care if you're rich or poor, educated or illiterate, clever or dull. Give him your heart and he will give you his. Josh Grobin (Marley & Me)

Perseverance...

Here is Ryan playing PeeWee Basketball. He realized after about 2 minutes this was not for him and let us know regularly. He just wanted us to say the word and let him quit. Trying to teach your four year old a good solid lesson is a challenge and a lot of times I don't think he is listening. To back up a minute, we struggle to finish our homework every week. Several Sundays ago we had a lot of work to do because he was absent and had a book report to do. Meltdown, wailing. I just told him that we don't quit when we have a job to do. He gained his composure and did the work and did it really well. I figured we'd be going through the agony next week w/our homework.

Now, back to basketball... The next Saturday was another basketball game and Ryan really did not want to go but he said to me, "you know mom, I realized I have a job to do and my team is counting on me. Severson's don't quit." Well, we continued to go to games every Saturday for the last 6 weeks. He was counting down for today...his last basketball game he'd ever have to play. I have to say I am so proud of him. He did it. We learned basketball is not his thing. But I think we both learned something even more important. I learned that he is listening and he learned a good lesson in perseverance. I am so very proud of him.

"You can't go through life quitting everything. If you're going to achieve anything, you've got to stick with something." ~From the television show Family Matters