Jog-A-Thon

Today Tyler is taking part in a fundraiser for another elementary school here in the West Valley. It's a Jog-A-Thon in memory of Barry James (the late husband of Mrs. James, Tyler's 2nd grade teacher) who taught at the school for 16 years, until losing his battle with cancer this past December.

 

The school was selling t-shirts to raise money to build a paved running track as a dedication to Mr. James. Next to teaching children, his second passion in life was running and fitness, so it would be so completely perfect to build a track in his name. I can't think of anything better.

The Jog-A-Thon is taking place at the school where he taught, but Mrs. James and her entire class have been invited as special guests to participate. So cool! So the whole class bought t-shirts and will be bused over to the school to partake in the event. As far as I can tell, it's pretty similar to the Dash for Cash, where the kids spend their lunch recess running as much as they can.

Tyler may not have the same passion for running as Mr. James, but hopefully he gives it his all today, if for no other reason then to make Mrs. James proud. ♥♥♥

May Favorites

It's the end of the month, so it's time to go back and look at my favorite photos. Most of these made it into Project Life, but never made an appearance here on the blog, so that's why I'm sharing them with you now.

 

We found this giant stuffed Mario at Toys R Us and Kyle loved it. He's a big fan of stuffed toys and has a stuffed bear and wolf that he sleeps with every night. He recognized Mario from all the video games Tyler plays and upon meeting him at the store, he couldn't stop giving him hugs and kisses. Too funny! We actually had to trick him (look Kyle, what's that...a plane!?) so we could hide Mario and move on with our shopping trip.

Kyle got a toy lawn mower recently and he's having all kinds of fun pulling the starter, pushing it around the living room and stopping to refill the gas tank.

What you can't see in this picture is that Kyle is actually standing on the table in the office, which he climbed onto so that he could pet Coco Bear. It's one dangerous thing after the next with that boy.

More cat love. This time he's hanging out with Carmelita on the couch.

I've found myself saying over and over again how big Tyler's getting. He's taller and he's starting to look older. I can't believe it when I look at him sometimes. He used to be just as little as Kyle is now. What happened? Plus... who is this monkey on the playground?

Like I said before...whose monkey is this?

I'm so glad when Rick is able to go to the park with us, because nothing stops him from playing with the boys.

One last look at my teeth. Do they look straight? I'm going to the orthodontist today and hopefully he'll say we're good and my next appointment will be to get the braces off. Woot! One year down.

 

Long Weekend

With a half school day on Friday and Memorial Day on Monday, it was a long 3-1/2 day weekend for us. Tyler got home from school around 12:30 and spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out with Kyle.

 

He pulled out one of his Lego kits to work on, which is always risky to do around Kyle since he tends to run off with pieces and hide them in all kinds of crazy places.

And to keep arguments between the boys to a minimum, I suggested a movie and some popcorn.

Kyle chose to watch Curious George, so then it was time to make the popcorn. I got an air popper semi-recently from Kohl's and the boys love it. Popcorn has become one of their favorite snacks.

We spent most of Saturday doing chores around the house, but did get outside in spurts, as the weather allowed. It rained on and off all weekend long, not to mention all of last week. Hopefully we'll get some sun again soon.

On Sunday we headed over to Costco for our weekly stock-up of milk, bread and fruit. We also grabbed a package of pre-seasoned ribs from the meat section to grill up on Memorial Day.

Suddenly Kyle thinks he big enough to push the cart all by himself. Cute... until he reaches the end of the aisle and nearly collides with innocent shoppers.

After dinner on Sunday we rode our bikes over to the park. We brought a kite since it's notoriously windy during the spring and fall in Yakima. No luck for us though....the wind had completely died down.

At least the boys were still able to play on the playground equipment. We stayed for about an hour before it was time to bike back home.

Monday was Memorial Day and we showed our support by putting the flag out on the house.

Then Rick made a pancake breakfast, which was enjoyed by all.

For dinner we grilled the ribs from Costco and ate them with some macaroni salad, baked beans, and corn on the cob.

And to end the evening on a sweet note, Rick made a batch of oatmeal raisin cookies. So good! Thank you Ina Garten for the best recipe ever! (Just don't let Alton Brown know I said that)

Not As Pictured

We bought a sand and water table for the boys over the weekend. I say boys, but let's be honest, it's really for Kyle. All you have to do is look at the thing and you realize that it's intended for preschoolers. Still...that doesn't stop Tyler from wanting to play with it. There is NO toy that boy won't play with, especially if it involves taking something away from Kyle and playing with it himself. I can understand though. It seems like a fun toy and we were never able to get anything like that for him when he was younger.

 

So this is it...it has two sections: one for sand and the other for water. Just look at the picture. The sand is perfectly dry and contained in its own section, while the water is pristine and separate from the sand. And look at the kids...they're not fighting and they're totally dry and clean. Not a speck of dirt anywhere.

But this is reality.

By the end of the first day, the water and sand were completely mixed up. It was just a gigantic mess. And the boys themselves were so wet and sandy, just like a real day at the beach.

They had fun though...I have to admit that. Now if only our back entryway didn't look like a beach parking lot. Sand everywhere. I see lots of sweeping and vacuuming in my future.

 

Happy Mother's Day

Usually the boys get together and make me breakfast on Mother's Day, something like pancakes and eggs and then we normally go to the opening day of the farmer's market. This year, though, they gave me a choice of breakfast or lunch. I chose lunch, so they made some grilled hot dogs and baked beans. Then instead of going to the farmer's market, we just stayed home and made sure that Rick got everything packed and was able to leave in time to catch his flight out of Pasco.

 

He's going to be gone all week, so to make things easier on my end, I made the boys promise that they'll act like angels the entire time. We'll see how far that goes. Probably just a wishful thought.

As a gift I got a gorgeous bouquet of flowers and a cute little Mother's Day book that Tyler made at school.

Also this family pendant necklace and a new sewing machine. We'll see if this one has the power that my old one lacked to sew through that pesky twill fabric. The only way to find out is to cut out the pieces for another apron and get to work.

Runnin' Around

Every year from about late April through the end of July, there's a summer activity program here in town called Kiddin' Around that's geared towards children and families. It includes things like fun runs, free golf, soccer and tennis practice, hikes to Boulder Cave, scavenger hunts, and geocaching.

 

Last Friday night there was an event called Runnin'/Walkin' Around and it was a 1-mile fun run hosted by the Hard Core Runners Club of Yakima. Tyler's 2nd grade teacher is a member of the runner's club, as was her late husband, so she was on hand for registrations and to hand out ribbons at the finish line. By the way, she also ran in See Spot Run a few weeks ago and completely beat both me and Tyler.

 

For this Runnin' Around event she made a proposition to her students: if they came and completed the 1-mile run, then they didn't have to do their homework packet for the week. And with that, Tyler was right on board. 

 

I told him he was on his own though since I couldn't  run with Kyle. He had plenty of friends from class to run with anyway, so he was fine.

 

The course went in a big circle around Sarg Hubbard Park and part of the Greenway. I told Tyler not to do mileage club in school that day (which is optional on Fridays anyway) so that he'd have plenty of energy for the race.

 

Fifteen minutes later he crossed the finish line and was able to bask in the glory of a mission complete. No homework for a week. So he may be getting a break from his teacher, but I still expect him to keep blazing his way through Harry Potter so he can get his AR points in before the end of the school year.

New Layouts

After attending the scrapbooking convention in Portland earlier this year, I vowed to complete my class kits. For real this time. No more setting the kits aside and forgetting about them. So I've been working on them little by little and I've actually completed a handful of layouts.

 

Finishing these pages while keeping up with Project Life...I'd call that an accomplishment. Especially since those silly boys hardly ever allow for an ounce of free time.

Quack, Quack, Duck

Kyle is 21 months old, but he still doesn't talk that much. I mean, he's vocal, but it's more sounds than words. The only words he says on a daily basis are cat, ball and milk. For everything else he just points and grunts. There's also a handful of other words that he knows how to say, but never does, like mama and dada.

 

Then there's a group of words he uses that are actually exclamations and have no real communicative value. Those are: uh-oh, whoa, aye aye aye, and ta-da.

 

Besides that, the things he says the most are animal and vehicle sounds. He says broom-broom for just about any car, motorcycle, lawn mower, or airplane. He says roar for lions and tigers.  Grrrr for dinosaurs. Aaaa-woooooo for a wolf. Mooo for cows. Hahahahahaha for a neighing horse. And he uses the entire phrase quack, quack, duck whenever he sees a duck.

 

Speaking of which, we saw plenty of quack, quack, ducks at the park last week.

 

Kyle was so excited that he started running after the first one he saw.

I told him there was plenty where that one came from and took him over to the pond to see some more.

My favorite part of the duck pond this time of year is seeing all the little babies. So cute! Now all I need to do is teach Kyle how to say honk, honk, goose, because there were several of those in the water as well.

Thirty-One

Today is Rick's birthday and since it's the weekend, he has the day off from work. And the weather is beautiful...well, maybe a little windy, but with the temperature near 80 degrees, we decided to take the festivities outside.

 

We recently bought an outdoor picnic table at Costco that converts into a bench and after moving it into the shade, it was the perfect place for presents and cake.

 

I made a Cooking Light carrot cake again this year. It was basic carrot, without all the extra stuff (coconut, pineapple, nuts, raisins) that you sometimes see in that kind of cake. It was easier to slice, that's for sure, but I think Rick might have missed all the extras.  I'll have to remember to make him a "deluxe" cake next year. This one was still good though, it won't last for long around here.
 

Then it was time to open presents. A box of dark chocolate truffles from Boehm's.

Some shirts from Eddie Bauer that I had to get through mail order since our local store closed in January.

And finally some new Felco pruners and a new set of garden gloves.

As for the rest of the day, I plan to make a chicken and wild rice soup for dinner and then maybe we'll head over to the park with the boys.