Lego Table

Herein we log progress on the continuing and quixotic adventures of finding a perfect storage solution for our legos .  We have amassed enough Legos that we need a largish storage area.  We also need a large play area.  Thus we keep trying to create a joint storage/play thingy.  We found this plan on Ana White's blog.  It says train table, but it works for what we wanted.

The construction was pretty basic, we followed the directions (for once) and then spray painted it.

Looking back, I should have built something with side drawers and not a removable top (like this one).  The lego play space is always being used so getting into the storage is awkward.

Noah's Preschool

One of the things I was most concerned about when we moved to Kennewick was finding a good preschool for Noah to participate in.  He loves being around other kids, and I know with all the moving around we've done, I haven't been the best in helping him make friends quickly or having lots of playdates set up.  When we figured out what ward we would be in in our temporary housing, I called the Relief society president, and asked about preschools.   She was so helpful, and gave me the names and numbers of 2 ladies in the ward that held a preschool in their homes.  I called Heather first, and she had an opening, and it was walking distance from our apartment, so it seemed like a perfect fit.  And it was.  Noah loved going to preschool every Tuesday and Thursday.  He made great friends there, and loved doing all the preschooly stuff they do in preschool.   

 

This is the end of the year performance they did for us.  The class had grown to 7 kids by the end of the year (the kids on the right end are siblings that wanted to participate.)

Here's a little snippit of their alphabet song/chant.

Piano Recital

Harrison started piano lessons back in the middle of April.  About a month after he started, his teacher held a recital.  His teacher is an older sister of one of his friends from his 2nd grade class.  I didn't manage to take any pictures, but I did get a video of Harrison playing his pieces.  I thought he did a great job, especially only having 4 or 5 lessons under his belt.

Best Friends

Olivia and Noah have been really cute playing together all the time.  They do a remarkable job of playing each other's games.  When Noah wants to play boy things, she goes along with it.  Noah will similarly play kitchen or other 'girl' things.  They just like being together.  There also is a good bit of cuddle-wrestling and chasing around the couch.

One morning when I was about to leave for work, I saw them both out in the back yard, still in pajamas.  Harrison was getting ready for school, but they were just having fun being king of the world.

Happy Mother's Day!

I love my Mom.  I have such wonderful childhood memories, and so many of them were made with her intentions.  From the handmade Easter dresses, Christmas pj's, Halloween costumes and trick-or-treating bags, to the delicous meals, home-baked and canned food, and wonderful family outings and adventures, I know none of it would have been possible without the hard and diligent work of my mother.  Ever since I have become a mother I have looked to her wonderful example and tried to live up to it.  And she's still the person I love talking to when things happen - good or bad.  She always puts a positive spin on things, and helps me though it all.  Thanks for everything, Mom! 

I think she probably made all the clothes worn in this picture.  She always made a point to make us clothes for special occiations, whether it was Easter or a trip to Disneyland or the last day of school.  I loved those special outfits!

My mom was always the one to pack us and make all the preparations for family trips and adventures. 

That's me in the stroller!

Springtime Saturday

We had a really great Saturday yesterday.  It was the perfect combination of fun and work, almost all out doors, and the weather couldn't have been more perfect.  Well, maybe a little less wind would have been more perfect, but we are coming to expect wind is pretty  much the norm here.

We started off the day doing some outdoor clean up at our church building.  The kids really had a great time scouting out trash and weeds, and getting them all in trash bags.  Then we were off to Kid's Fishing Day at Columbia Park Fishing Pond.  Every year they set up a day where you can pay a nominal fee, and the provide you will a reel, rod and bait (and a cool t-shirt to wear) and stock the pond.  You then have about an hour to try and catch some fish.  Harrison really enjoyed this, and learned to cast a fishing line.

Noah reeled his line in a few times, but mostly watched Sam and I attempt to fish.

And Olivia was a happy observer the whole time, kept occupied with a few snacks.

It felt good to be part of a real community building activity.  There were TONS of people out, and we even ran into some friends while we were there. We didn't catch anything, but part of me was glad - dealing with the hook out of the fish, cleaning the fish and eating the fish are my least favorite parts of fishing.  I do have great childhood memories of fishing (probably has something to do with the fact that my dad took care of all of my least favorite parts) so I was glad we could go do this with the kids.  And now the boys each have their own reel and rod, and we can take those to Utah this summer to do some more fishing with grandpa. Where he can take care of all those parts if we do catch anything :)

Next we headed off to Harrison's soccer thing.  It's not really a team.  They just learn some skills, and then do some scrimmaging.  I am afraid I'm not much of a soccer mom.  I'm glad to have my kids participate if they want to, but part of me just doesn't get the soccer mom thing.  And having both the boys involved in soccer this spring has really gobbled up some family time. I guess we'll see where we go with it.

Next we came home do do some of our own yard work.  We have been removing all the rock they put in when they did the landscaping (before we bought our home) and replacing it with bark.  I want to have flowers in my yard - which don't really grow well in rock, so we took the leap to replace it all.  I guess we'll find out if it does in fact all blow away in the winter, as a few of our neighbors have warned us.  But I think I'd rather have my flowers in the spring and summer, and replace the bark each year, than have planting beds full of rock.  With the help of  a faithful home-teacher's truck, we got a load of bark from a local nursery, and did some planting, and filled it all in.  I love how it's looking.  I just need to plant some more annuals.  We've got some perennials that are done, and some new ones just breaking through.  We also planted some water melon in the square patch in front of our porch, so we'll see how that goes.  We put some strawberries in the lowest area of the terracing, and think we'll add some tomato plants there.  Eventually we'll want to put a garden area in the back, but with so much great full sun in the front yard (we have a south facing house) we're doing some planing out there this year.  We almost splurged and got a dogwood tree to plant in the front yard, but after a little research, we were worried it wouldn't thrive in the heat of the front yard, where we would want to put it.  But we did put a couple lilacs in the terracing nearest to the house. And that's a weeping flowering cherry we added about a month ago, up in the top area next to the porch. Here's what it looks like now: 

And here's some before and after's of the front yard.  I don't know how much you can see from these pictures - the before was taken when we did our first showing of the house - before we even knew we'd be buying it someday!

Before - taken Sept. 21st, 2010

After - taken today about 7:30.  I don't know if you can see the difference in the landscaping - rock vs. bark, but we like it so much better with the bark. 

After that was all done, Noah decided it was time for him to learn how to ride his bike without training wheels.  He had a friend over earlier in the week, who had requested the training wheels be taken off (he was already riding a 2-wheeler at home) and so I took them off.  Noah was very anxious to catch up to his friend, and so we just went for it.  We decided it was time for Harrison to learn too, and after seeing Noah ride a couple of time without training wheels, he decided he was ready to try to.  Here's some videos of both of them riding their bikes:

Olivia also wanted us to take a video of her riding:

Easter

We had another fun Easter this year.  On Saturday we dyed eggs (I tried my hand at blowing them out, so that we could use them for decorations.  You can see some of my failed attempts in the background...),

And the Easter bunny brought tote bags filled with some treasures.  Olivia kept referring to the Easter Bunny as "the monster", as she would pull each item from her bag, she would exclaim, "Look what the monster brought me!"  Gives me a little insight into what she thinks about when I tell her someone mysterious is going to come and leave things for her during the night!

 

Here the kids are on Easter Sunday.  I got to teach Sharing time in Primary, and so that was a lot of fun.  Olivia had to stay home sick with dad, as she had another cold, and couldn't attend nursery.  But I still got her dressed up in her Easter dress and snapped a picture.