Too short to yo-yo

After Samantha spent 10 minutes in her room trying to yo-yo, she came out to show me that the "stupid" yo-yo was broken. I thought it was because she could not rewind the string around it. I rewound the string and handed back to her to try again, explaining to do it gently & purposefully - even Christopher gave her all the advice he had. So she was ready.

She gently lowered the yo-yo down the string - BAM! Yo-yo hit the floor.

"See, Mommy, I told you this yo-yo doesn't work!"

Poor baby was too short! :0)

"No, honey, the yo-yo isn't broken. You're too short. It can't go up & down because it hit the floor." LOL!

A shorter string = a happy Samantha

And shortening the string was sooo much easier than teaching her to yo-yo!

Remember When

When you clean out the garage and come across a long-lost friend,

doesn't it take you back to "the good ol' days"?

What, exactly, do you think he is reminiscing about?

Surely he does not already have too many misspent days of his youth.

Are We There Yet?!

So I have been prompted by a friend's blog about her summer road trip from Washington to Mississippi (and yes, I did just sing-song "Mississippi" like a child to make sure I spelled it correctly) with three young ones to reflect on my summer plans.

I was born & raised in the O.C. - before it was cool - and like salmon, I seem to return every year. This year I am excited to be attending the fourth Boies family reunion to be held in Newport Beach. Last year we carefully considered the different modes of transportation. After realizing that the most expensive part of flying was a rental car for the week, we decided to bring our car with us (a.k.a. - drive). But how would we spend 24 hrs drive time in the car without anyone (i.e. me) losing her mind?

And that is when I came up with my first rule:

Rule #1: Always travel as much through the night as possible.

Very important! A good friend baby sat the kids the day we left for a few hours in the afternoon so I could take a nap. (I'm the one who can never sleep before a big event, but I figured it was worth a try.) We left home at bed time. We made it from home to mid-Oregon before Matthew even knew we were in the car. We drove until about 4pm and then stopped at a hotel. I went to bed at about 6pm - eyes crossed and deliriously tired. We were back on the road by about 4am.

Rule #2 -Keep them guessing.

For weeks before we left I just kept "road trip" in the back of my mind and whenever I saw a small toy or activity I would buy it and then hide it in a designated box in my closet. I bought a bunch of non-perishable kid-friendly snacks. I packed up three bags for each day of our journey. And yes, I did have them labeled "Thursday bag# 1", mostly because although each child's bag was geared towards the individual child, the items also complimented each other - such as Samantha would have a new Princess coloring book when Christopher opened a new Star Wars coloring book. Instead of hearing "Are we there yet?" I heard "You're the best mommy EVER!" -three times a day. That alone made my vacation!

Yeah, ok, so that's it. I'm out of ideas. And this year the kids will already be expecting activity bags. So friends, I need your ideas, tricks and suggestions. Please - help! :o)

A New View from Our Church Sometimes Sees a Grill

My family and some close friends attend church at New View Church on Camano Island. We meet at the gorgeous grounds that is Four Springs Preserve. From the nursery and preschoolers room you can see a beautiful pond down below. The older kids love that they get to worship in a barn!

Like a family should do, when someone is having a hard time others at New View come alongside him and help him along. When my family was pretty new to New View Church I had a cholecystectomy. Our wonderful campus Pastor, Brett Kinney, and his lovely wife Cindy brought meals to my family not once, not twice, but three times while I was recovering!

Now, our family had a big decision to make so we called a family meeting. But first, we had a bbq together after morning service. Pastor Brett grilled up some delicious cheeseburgers and hot dogs. We has salads, chips, watermelon, homemade ice cream, and brownies!

The little ones ate and the ran around and played for a little while as the grown-ups chatted.

It was a great time to just enjoy the company of good friends, of family.

Matthew managed to get himself some lovin' from Teacher Cherie. He really loves her!

While we ate our worship team played music - with a brand new up-and-coming drummer!

There are no pictures of our family meeting. In the room we were just there listening to all that our senior pastor, Mike Acker, had to share with us. We discussed the issue at hand. The pastors really listened to everything we had to say. I loved that they were open to us; the weren't the dictatorial parents telling us how it was going to be. They openly shared the information and listened to our comments and addressed them. At the end, we prayed together like a family does when faced with a large issue. There were tears, confessions, praise, and best of all, Jesus was there! It was absolutely awesome!

Growing up I always wished I was from a big family. Please, come join us if you want to be a part of the family at New View Church. I promise you, the view will definitely be new!

Cupcakes Canadian style

Last weekend we went to Victoria to celebrate Cousin Amy's 6th birthday. I've always known that my aunt was a great mother. She seems to have an endless supply of energy and patience - both I could use a little more of these days. But it wasn't until she told me that the kids would be decorating cupcakes as an activity during Amy's birthday party and then they would eat them for dessert that I knew how truly brilliant she is. 

The kids had so much fun decorating. We had 13 kids in the room and it was actually pretty quiet. We adults enjoyed watching each child's individual approach to cupcake decorating. Some we very intentional with the placement of each piece of candy.

Other children just slapped on some frosting and candy because 

they couldn't wait to eat it!

One little boy seemed to be particularly shocked by the discovery that someone (him) ate the candy and frosting off both his cupcakes (mind you, this is the same child who only a few weeks before cried as he was pulling his own hair - three times!).

Motherhood

What can I add to this moment? Nothing, other than to say

what a privilege it was to be present for

this moment of sweetness between mother & child!

Do You Like To People Watch?

Do you like to people watch? I used to love to watch people at the airport - it seemed so funny to me as a kid to see people walking around L.A. in July wearing jeans, sweaters, and long coats.

Now, as an adult, a mommy, and a photographer I have found my new people-watching happy place - the park! It can be similar to a visit at the zoo. I watched this young Carter as he worked in his natural habitat, observing his carefully planning and problem solving at he traversed the wooden stumps. Below are a few photographs that capture his quiet play.

When did we stop skipping?

When did we stop skipping?

I had so much fun following this little girl through the neighborhood, just capturing Samantha being Samantha in all her wonder. As I watched her skipping around in a flower girl dress and pink cowboys boots I couldn't help but try to remember the last time I skipped. Do you remember the last time you skipped through your neighborhood? I envy the freedom she felt - confidently and basically unaware of her surroundings - just having fun for the sake of fun!