All the Pretty Animals

Some of the animals we saw...💖

This little guy was loving the water! It was such a hot day.

He gave everyone a little show with going number two in the water. The kids were amazed that he just did that. Also, with the size...of course. 

She seemed to be loving the sunshine and heat. The other hippo was hanging out in the water. 

I love giraffes!! I think they are so beautiful! 

Not scary whatsoever...

So cute! The baby turtles were so tiny.

Will apparently was excited for the penguins! I had no idea! I thought they would be too stinky for him. He did say how he forgotten that part! I think afterwards he was leaning more towards panda bears. 

She was just adorable! Another one of my favorite animals. 

This is Velda. She was in animal time-out (in a sense) not that she was misbehaving but was not enjoying human touch as much lately. Totally understandable. 

                                                         ~ Love, Hugs &  Kisses ~
                                                                    The B Family

The Zoo & Old Friends

Friends

We took the kids to the Oregon Zoo yesterday. I have said this before, but I am torn about how I feel about zoos. I want to like them, but at the same time I feel for the animals. I am imagine they just want to run free.  But, what if they were in the wild and did not live long. I know some of the animals at the Oregon Zoo are rescued from their natural habitat. There is an elephant that had her eye shot from a farmer that took over her rain forest. The made me like it more. Colin was so distraught over that story.

Silly

My shadow

Anyways, we went to the zoo to meet up with some of Will's old friends. His fire academy buddy, Joel and his wife, Bobbie. For the past 12 years or so, I have heard stories about some of Will's favorite people. It took us this long to finally meet up. We had tried in DC, but it did not work out. I am so glad it did! What a sweet and lovely couple! Their kids are adorable too! It was nice seeing Will in his element and get a glimpse to him in his Air Force days.  We talked about a few other meet ups this summer... I hope it works. Fingers-crossed for Leavenworth and Seattle.

My babies

She loves this thing

Alligator

Puppet show

Owl

                                                          ~ Love, Hugs & Kisses ~
                                                                 The B Family

Sorry Baby Girl...Mom's Hair is Curly

Opposites

Meli and I are a great example of opposites when it comes to physical features. She has blonde hair and I have super dark brown (almost black, but totally not black). She has super straight hair and I have super curly hair. She also has porcelain skin. I am not as tan as I used to be, having what I call my "Oregon tan" (basically meaning I am pale). I guess that is really the only three things, but it is enough for people to not pick her as my daughter.  There have been a few times, when I took one of her friends to the store with us or other public places and people always think the darker hair ones are mine. Not Meli.

I straighten my hair every once in a while. Usually when I get my hair cut. This last time, Meli asked me if I could put it back to straight after I had washed it. Not necessarily because she does not like it, but she wants us to look the same. She wants to have dark hair and for me to have straight hair. At least she did not pick for me to be a blonde. I do not think that look would work. At all.

It got me to thinking about how as a kid, I always wanted straight hair. I would have given anything to have straight hair like the other girls. Especially in Jr. High. I wanted to fit in by looking like everyone else. It is funny how we think when we are younger. I thought my hair was too different. Not that anyone ever said anything to make me think that. Usually it was compliments. As shy as I was though, I did not really enjoy the attention it would bring. Another contributor was probably all of the magazines that had girls with straight hair or the hair books in the salons that had mostly straight hair styles. When I was going for a haircut, I would always point to the super short, super straight hairdos. My mom would always have to break the news that my hair would not do that. I thought I always had to have the same hair style to work with my hair. Took my 30 years, but now I know that you can do different styles! I love my A-line. Although, that will probably go away soon, since I made a deal with Will and am growing it back out. He liked my hair cut, but he is definitely a long hair type of guy. I am sure I will chop it off again in a few years.

I think I was about 21 to 23 when I realized that I loved my hair! It was nice having something that made me different. Lots of people have wavy hair but probably quite a bit fewer with curly, curly hair. Or as Meli calls it "crazy hair".  Rather than when I was a teenager, I can now appreciate what makes us different.

Around 21.

I also realized that my hair works best for my personality. I need something that is not high maintenance, because I just do not do that. I need minimal time to get ready. I am not someone who will spend hours getting ready. I am irritated  if it takes me more than 30 minutes. My hair gives me the freedom not to wash it very often. I hate having wet hair and I do not blow dry...so once a week - hell yeah! (Caveat - I do shower daily). If my workout makes me sweat too much then this will not work as well.  Too much sweat = Frizz galore.

I do miss long hair

I was telling a friend that you can tell what day from my last wash I am by my hair style! Unless it has been raining a lot. Rain and curls - oh my! I will have to try and take pictures of the different stages.

There are some things I would change. I hate frizz, but that is just a necessary evil that is fixable. I know when it rains, I will not be having a great hair day...but I love rain - so I am OK with that. Sloppy bun day or a cute braid will do. It also takes me longer to get to the length I want. My hair grows super fast, but it also gets curlier the longer it is. It amazes me to straighten my hair and see how long it really is. 

Poor Meli. I am sure when she is older, she will learn to appreciate our differences. She also could eventually turn curly. When her hair is wet, she definitely has some texture to it. Unlike Colin's, whose is just straight when wet.

Maybe curls in her future

                                                         ~ Love, Hugs & Kisses ~
                                                                        The B Family

BBQ, Fireworks, & Friends

Sparklers!

We had a very low-key celebration of our country's independence day this year. Our friends had us over for a BBQ. It was nice to relax, eat, drink, and be merry! Colin and Mae had a great time showing one year old Odin the fireworks. We did some of our own and then watched ones (from a distance) at a park not too far away. Beautiful!

Such a sloppy kiss

Her 2nd s'more, but doesn't remember her first

My buddy

I got him to wear the hat!

Good time with friends!

                                                           ~ Love, Hugs & Kisses ~
                                                                        The B Family

Colin's Summer Reading Challenge

I am so happy that Colin loves to read! Both of my brothers were not book lovers, so I was hoping that my son would be. I have tried to show by example. Books make me giddy and Colin has been exposed to that dorky part of my personality from a very early age. He also is very aware of my book problem. I am a hoarder of books and have trouble not stopping at used book stores.

Even though he does not really need encouragement to read, I thought it would be fun to have a summer reading challenge. He reads a lot, but he tends to read the same books over and over. I do not have a problem with that, but would love to see him enjoy other books. He has read the all of the Diary of the Whimpy kids books 2 or 3 times already.

His challenge this summer is to try different books. All sorts of kinds. I will give him a set amount for each book he finishes (depends on the size, reading level, and wether it is a comic book). He only gets 10, 25 50, 75 cents for most books. He finished one that I gave him $1 for, but because it was a  pretty challenging book.

So far, he has found some other series that he really likes!

I have been having probably way too much fun picking out books for him to try. I even got the library ladies to help me. They thought it was a fun idea and had a great time trying to think of books that were similar to Diary of a Whimpy Kid.

The ladies also recommended some fun books for me to read aloud to both kids! This mama is totally geeking out with some magic series to read!

From Seed to Plants

Last May, Meli's class learned about plant life and the stages. She was so excited to plant her own at home. So, we started with quite a few. She ended up dropping several seeds in each pod. She chose bell peppers, carrots, radishes, little pumpkins, carving pumpkins, different tomatoes, sunflowers, and other flowers. 

She was responsible for watering them. She did a fairly good job. It was nice to see how excited she would get when the seeds started to grow. 

We had to figure out best where to put them, since Charlie also thought it was awesome once they started to grow. Not all survived the terror of Charlie. She has more than enough though. 

We forgot to label hers, so I have a pretty good idea of what type of plant each is. The tomatoes we will have to see which variation. 

Colin now wants to do his own. So, we started that last weekend. Charlie has been keeping an eye on them and trying to figure out a way to get to them!

School's Out...Sunriver Time!

This was our third year heading to Sunriver once the kids were out of school. I love our tradition! This year, we went with one of Will's bandmates and his family. Charlie joined us too! That was interesting with Brendon and Jessica having Odin (who is 1). Charlie did fairly good. He just gets so excited that he jumps up and usually knocks Odin to the ground.

We did our typical things: Sharc pool, shopping at the village,  bumper cars, and having a BBQ. This year, we let the kids join in the bounce house and jump bounce. They had so much fun!

I am so proud of Colin. Last year, I do not think he would have tried this out. He did awesome! Meli tends to be our more adventurous one. At least comparing them at the same age.

It was so fun seeing the B family bump it out! It was lucky to be the only ones there for a turn. It was Meli's first time, so that worked out nicely.

Charlie is not a big fan of cars, but I think this trip helped him out. Since he was in the car for about 5 hours combined. He had so much fun when we walked him around the village.

We were not able to make it to the Observatory or the lava lands. I hope to next year. Colin and Will have been to the observatory, but I want to take Meli. I have heard great things about the lava lands. We did the lava caves one year. 

Puppy Games

I love to watch the kids play with Charlie! They both have very different relationships with our puppy. Colin will definitely play with Char, but he seems to really enjoy when cuddle time. He wants Charlie to sit with him while he reads. 

 Meli and Charlie have a really cute relationship. They seem to have this unspoken connection that they just get each other. They play chase a lot! Meli will also create games for them to play.She obviously has some idea of what they are playing in her mind...and of course Charlie has no clue, but loves it all the same. 

Chase & Jump game Meli created

Big Jump!

It was so cute

She would just laugh and laugh

Last day of School 2017

Last day 2017

We had our last day of school last Tuesday. The kids had to go a few extra days to make up for all of the snow days that they had this past winter. I am not sure why Meli was acting grumpy in the top picture. She is still learning the concept of time, which is not an easy one to do. That can be very frustrating to her. She was excited for something to happen and she thought it was the day after she was out of school. 

First day 2016

They have grown so much since the first day of this school year. I cannot believe that Meli is no longer a Kindergartner and Colin is now a 4th grader. They had so much growth this year. Meli earned the "Grit" award. Only 5 students in the whole school got it! Colin embraced his challenge for improving his writing and time management. He had so much improvement, but he still needs to work on it this summer. I am the mean mama who is making him write 5 sentences about an educational topic twice a day. He gets to choose the topic from the books I bring home from the library. 

He loves to read, so that is not a hard thing to get him to do. He is definitely earning his game/TV time. 

Colin's first day - Meli being supportive (she started the next day)

It has been so fun to see Meli's outfits throughout the year! What a unique fashion sense she has...

Grumpy Meli  - Last day

Meli - First Day

I am so proud of Meli. She can be a real grumplestiltskin at times, but that probably has a lot to do with her eyes. We have seen a major improvement since she has started wearing glasses. I am excited to see what she brings in 1st grade! Scared and excited!

Colin - Last Day

Colin - First day

Oh, Colin! My sweet first born. We are venturing to new parenting areas. Colin had his first friend with a horrible, fowl mouth. That was fun. I am so glad that Colin is someone who feels compelled to confess things, even when he is not doing anything wrong. Helpful on the parenting side of things. He also tells on himself, even though you can tell he is wishing he would not. I do not think that Meli will have that problem. Oh, boy.

I am excited for the summer and some quality family time.