Wordless Wednesday

Oh so handsome boys! I can’t wait for another boy in this picture (Seth in blue, Sam in red)

The Zoo Train

I’m not sure how we’ve had zoo passes for 2+ years and never taken our boys on the zoo train. Clearly it was pure neglect mixed in with a fair amount of cheapness (train rides are not included in the pass). We finally picked up our game as parents, braved the zoo on a busy Saturday, and took the boys on the train. It was a wonderful afternoon as a family, ending with picnic dinner at the rose garden (a summer tradition).

A 6’5” daddy and a big pregnant mommy was not the most comfortable situation in this crammed bench seat. Seth, Sam It’s a beautiful trip through the woods. Seth and Sam, however, were very confused and concerned that the train was not “going faster.” Such a great night for a picnic! Who’s pose is dorkier? Sam or Seth? It’s a toss up… Rose of the day The two little kids down at the bottom of the grass amphitheatre are Sam and Seth. You would not believe the amount of coercing it took to get them to go play down there on their own. And when they finally worked up the courage, we praised their “bravery” and laughed that the people around us must think we are such helicopter parents! Such shy boys! 33 weeks pregnant, by my favorite bright yellow roses

Lego Organizer

I asked a simple little question on facebook, “Should I organize the boys’ legos by shape or color?” and got a barrage of answers—most of which implied that I was being overkill in organizing Seth and Sam’s legos. “Just throw them in tub,” I was told.

However, these people don’t know my kids, and the amount of legos we were given. We were given a HUGE tub, and all the corresponding directions. And while Seth and Sam enjoy free building, what they love to do is build things according to directions—which meant I was spending hours sorting through this enormous tub to find a little 2 x 2 blue piece for their airplane. And when they were free building, within minutes their bedroom floor looked like lego vomit. Also, the big tub wasn’t the only legos I needed to organize: I then had their growing number of sets that we had recently purchased.

Call me overly organized, controlling, or pregnant and irrational…I don’t care. Legos were driving me nuts! So here’s our organizing process:

I decided on a 9 tub organizer from IKEA. I couldn’t be more pleased. Ben and the boys put it together, and then Seth and Sam helped me to sort all the legos by color. A couple people via facebook suggested that I make the boys part of the organizing process and they were so right! It was nice to have them be part of the process. That’s the easiest way to put things together, right Ben?

Now let me proudly present our after:

Don’t you feel your sanity returning in seeing how nicely everything fits into their closet?

Anything they are currently working on goes on top of the work bench

I put their newer sets in these shoe tub from Fred Meyer ($1 each). Now when they want to build a set with directions, we pull it out of this tub and sort it into their new lego carrying case (also bought at Fred Meyer). They now free build in their room, but then build with directions using their traveling case. I love having the traveling case because then they can build in whatever room we are hanging out in. Also, when company comes, or littler kids who may break what they are building, we put them up high were they can’t be disturbed.  Seth Sam

Call me crazy all you want, but now I LOVE the boys playing legos as much as they do. While we still all do occasionally step on that pointy lego, it’s not near as often. We also don’t loose legos that are part of the sets as much because of the cool travel organizers. You may wonder if we’ve been able to keep the free build legos in their room organized. It still gets messy (they build for about an hour a day in their during rest time), but, with the new color coded system, it’s so easy to pick up! I couldn’t be happier with our new lego system!

4th of July

Last year on the 4th of July, Ben and I dropped the kids off in Bend with my parents, and we came back to Portland to pack for our Hawaii trip. Ben and I enjoyed a quiet dinner out to eat and then watched the fireworks without kiddos. This is our last year’s memory of the 4th:

This year was much different. We spent a wonderful day with the kids. We all went raspberry picking together, and Ben totally blessed me by picking two bucket fulls on his own, thus helping to fill my jam quota for the year. We had the Willard’s over for a scrumptious dinner of smoked ribs, fruit, corn on the cob, and ice cream with raspberries. Then we took the boys shopping at a firework tent and let them pick out a few for us to set-off in the street (don’t we all love the age that kids are thrilled to death with $17 worth of fireworks). Finally, we bundled them up, packed our chairs, and drove to a nearby field to watch a show in the distance. We snuggled under our blankets and ate home popped popcorn, while “oohing and ahhing” at the fireworks. The boys loved every minute of it and were excited about each moment and detail.

Last year sure was special, but this year was just as much so. Hawaii is awesome, but there is something so magical about childhood wonder of fireworks and quality time as a family.

Two Trips

Two trips in ten days. It was fun, but I’m one exhausted mama and ready to stay home and prepare for this baby (who’s coming in 8 weeks or less)!

Here’s a quick run down of our final trips of the summer. First we took our second annual trip to visit Michael and Lacy Fischer in Spray, Oregon. They live on and manage a ranch that’s minutes from the John Day river—such a beautiful place! Combined with our two kids, there are 7 kids ages 7 and under, and both Lacy and I are pregnant (can you imagine what next year will be like?). Things were loud and crazy! Seth and Sam warmed up to the Fischer children much quicker this trip and spent a lot of time outside with them just playing, while the adults got to visit.   Look closely at the tractor; yep, that’s Ben and the kids in the bucket! Joel, Jaelle, Titus, Ben, Hannah, Seth and Sam It’s like a carnival ride! All the kids playing with Michael Sam and Titus riding their “daddy boats” down the river Seth, come on, it was such good lighting. Is that the best pose you can give me? Maybe a little better? They had so much fun jumping into the river off a sunken picnic table So beautiful All the Fischer kids adore Ben and he was constantly surrounded by them Especially baby Esther. She’d climb right up on his lap constantly and give him big kisses. So cute! The view out their living room windows—amazing to wake up to every morning! And to end each evening with!

 

Our second trip was the annual Morris camping trip to Crooked River Ranch. This trip didn’t get off to the best start, as the night before we left Ben got out our tent only to discover that he forgot to dry it out after elk hunting last year…which meant that it was ruined by mold. So the next morning before we left, we stopped by Bi-Mart and bought their $80 special for a tent. Then late the first night, as we filled up our air mattress, we found out it had a leak. Praise the Lord we were able to patch it and that those were the only hiccups to the trip! Crooked River is my kind of camping: my mother-in-law blesses us by providing all the food, so I don’t have to deal with coolers. We put our tents on a grassy field, so it’s not excessively dirty or dusty. We hang out with 60 other family members (many of which have camp trailers so we have lots of modern amenities), play games, swim at the pool, and there are tons of kids for the boys to play with. I endured lots of pregnancy jokes and two horrible nights of sleep, but as always, I’m am glad that we went. Sam kept waking up crying that Seth was kicking him. Now we know why. Ben loves spending time with his brothers there! (And Sam with his daddy of course) Nate, Sam, and Caleb on one team Josh, Levi, Ben and Alex on the other (playing “corn hole,” which I couldn’t figure out why it was called that instead of just bean bag toss) All 3 of my boys (it’s getting harder and harder for Sam and Seth to sit on my lap!) Sam, Seth

Seth, Sam riding their cousins’ balance bikes and wearing their cool new hats (I can’t believe that I let the boys pick out such hip looking hats!) I was so hopeful that we would make it through this year without a thunderstorm and subsequent rain shower. But nope, Saturday evening the thunderheads rolled in and we spent the evening playing a corn hole tournament in the covered gazebo. At least it was a beautiful sunset! Ben and I lost in the second round to Jeff and Diane (who went on to win the whole thing)

Until next year crooked river—which should be even more fun with a 9 month old…right?