Bobcat

Luke's first pack meeting was last night. He received his Bobcat patch. It's upside down because he has to do a good turn to turn it around. He stayed and helped put away the chairs as his good turn.


 





He is really loving Cub Scout and of the fun boy stuff. 

Retired!

Dear Dad,
I noticed that you haven't bugged me about updating the blog lately. Is it because you knew this post was coming? Well, here it is!

While we were down in CA this summer, Jill threw a great retirement party for my dad who retired from working for the railroad.



We met his lunch buddies at Wendy's where Jill had decorated with a plaid pajama pant theme. Everyone brought pajama pants to the guest of honor. Now that he's retired he can sit around in pajamas all day long if he wants to.



Notice the men at one table, women at the other. Children on the side. We pretty much took over the place.


The Real Party Table



The Mimi and The Dale



Allie and Gracie




Mom and Dad




Dad, Jill and Neil



Dad and his Mom



Whenever we get all together we try to take a picture of Grandma and Grandpa and all of the grandkids. It NEVER works. Usually I can photoshop something that looks okay, but this blows my photoshop skills out of the water.  This was the best shot. Haha! If you look closely, everyone is in there. What fun! Grandma gets the prize for being the only one looking at the camera. Way to go Grandma!



Love you Dad! Thanks for working so hard all those years so we could always have what we needed (and then some), play sports, and get a great education. I think we had the best childhood ever. Of course Mom did a lot too, but I appreciate all those middle of the night, hotter then heck runs you made to support our family. And I'm SUPER glad that you don't have to do it anymore.

FIrst Day of Preschool

 Today was Kate's first day of preschool. She was really excited to finally get to go to school like Luke and Allie. She really wanted Luke and Allie to go with her. At the preschool information night they had a clown there to entertain the children while the parents and teachers talked. I thought Kate would totally be afraid of the clown, but she loved him. She must has asked me fifty times before this week if there would be a clown at preschool.



Of course she picked out her favorite outfit to wear.




Sorry for the big giant picture of me--I'm trying to figure out how to get my blog pictures bigger, but this is too big!



 
Kate seemed to settle in a be happy. I left when they went to the playroom. It helps that she has a few friends from church that she already knows. It's almost been two hours and they haven't called yet so she must be okay.

Cub Scouts

Luke had his first Cub Scout Meeting today. Although I'm so sad to see him growing up, I'm excited for this new adventure for him. Plus, he looked cute in his uniform. I love this boy!

Still a Sesame Street Fan...

This is Kate picking up the kids from school yesterday. She still loves Sesame Street. She hardly ever watches the show (she watches Kipper instead) but she loves this Elmo and this outfit that she picked out at the store all by herself. She also loves her bike...and wearing rainboots in the summer with a skirt.

Today they are back to school. It was a beautiful sunny morning and the kids were excited to be back in school. We are all happy that they are going back to the same school--Allie hasn't spent more than one year in the same school since 1st grade. It was nice to walk them to class and see our friends and not be lost like we usually are. We love our school and are thrilled with the teachers they have this year.

5th grade!!! I can't believe that this is her last year in Elementary school. I am sad just thinking about it.

 2nd grade

 Today, Kate had to bring a backpack too and had to have "somsing" inside. So we threw in a banana and she was good to go. In Luke's class she wanted to know where her seat was. When we got home, she wanted to get in the car and go to preschool. Hopefully her first day will go as well as today.

 When we got to Luke's class he forgot I was even there and got busy saying hi to all of his friends and checking out who sat next to him. He seriously could have been the class welcoming committee.

Allie was a little later getting to her class since we took Luke first. She seemed happy, but just wanted me to take the one picture she said I could and then get out of there. (I took two-but she only smiled for one)

Newport, OR

On Saturday we drove over to Newport for the Aquarium and for clam chowder at Mo's. It's been something we have always wanted to do in Oregon. It was a pretty relaxed day. First we went to the aquarium. The shark exhibit was pretty cool. Then we went for lunch/dinner at Mo's. We brought sand toys, but didn't go to the beach. We decided we were just lazy to clean up sandy children. (Plus we just spent a whole week in CA doing that everyday) It was a good way to say goodbye to summer.