Boxx Berry Farm

One of my new favorite things about where we live is all the berry farms!  Right now strawberries are on, so the kids and I went to a local farm to pick some this afternoon.  We got nearly ten pounds of berries before they (the kids, not the berries) got tired.  

Then we went home and gorged ourselves on them.  I have never tasted anything like them!  They were, in Garreth's words, "Bleedin' gorgeous!"  After we had nearly made ourselves sick eating so many, Sam and I made the rest into freezer jam.  I hope the strawberry season lasts a little longer because I fully intend to fill my freezer with them to enjoy all year round.  Strawberries from the grocery store will never be good enough again -  now that our taste buds have been enlightened with some home-grown goodness!!

A Break From the Moving Madness

This week has been crazy with trying to get everything boxed up and ready to move, so yesterday I decided it was time to get out of the chaos of our messy house and have some fun with the kids.  They've been such great helpers but we've all been a little stir crazy, especially since the weather here has been so nice and we've spent most of it indoors.

  

We started off with a picnic lunch at the park.

This is one way to avoid getting skinned knees.  (Another way would be to learn how to WALK already!)

Grace and Deeky.

After the little boys took naps we went down to the Fragrance Gardens and Tennant Lake to explore.  Here's the kids with the lavender patch.

This picture cracks me up.  Look at their faces and you know they're all thinking "Here goes Mom again with another picture."  Someday maybe they'll thank me for capturing so many pictures of their childhood...

Liam on top of the tower overlooking the gardens and Tennant Lake, which is not really a lake but more like wetlands.  

Sam and the tower.

There is a boardwalk that takes you over the water and through essentially a swamp.  Very cool.  It felt like we were in Vietnam instead of Washington.  There is a lot of wildlife there (cranes, frogs, beavers, etc) but I'm pretty sure they all heard us coming a mile away and had plenty of time to hide.  We did see fish and dragonflies.

Back at the Fragrance Gardens having a snack under the honeysuckle.

Then it was on to Daddy's soccer game.  Notice Sam, the little yogi practicing "downward facing dog" in the background.

This was Garreth's first game playing on his intermural team and the coach picked out lovely pink team jerseys. (maybe to intimidate the other teams with their manliness?)  We were a little late and as we approached the field, I asked Liam if he could see Daddy.  He said yes and then quietly said, "And I'm not too sure about the pink jersey with the red shorts."  Great fashion advice from the kid in the orange tie dye shirt and red track pants!

Flying Sam

And an other one of Sam.  Don't those big brown eyes just make you melt?  

Even though we've been moving things in the van over to the new house all week, tomorrow's the official "moving truck" day.  We'll be so glad to finally get settled.  Garreth and I have been taking turns every night going over to paint and we'll have the kids' rooms all done when we move in - hooray!  

My Other Baby

So lately this little guy has been on my mind a lot...

For those of you who may not know, we have been foster parents for three years and have had 7 foster kids live with our family.  We were blessed to have two of those babies join our forever family.  Four of our foster kids were only with us for several weeks.  

And then there's Mikey.  Mikey came into our care when he was 11 months old and was with us for 6 beautiful, hectic, and emotional months.  He is such a great little guy and became such a big part of our family.  

Mikey and Sam are only a month apart and life was very busy, to say the least. (Check out Mont in the back of this picture!)

The kids adored Mikey.  He had the cutest, most infectious laugh and was such a roly poly little baby!  Garreth used to say that Mikey was built like a bowling ball!

I still can't get over how many times I got asked if these two were twins!

Best friends and worst enemies.  After Mikey went home, Sam seemed a little lost and lonely for a week.  They were two little peas in a pod.

It was hard to get him to show it for pictures, but what a great smile!

Below is what our family looked like for two crazy weeks.  DCFS called to see if we could take a sibling group of three.  The kids were at the emergency shelter and needed a placement quickly and if we couldn't take them, would have to be split up and go to separate foster homes.  Since our hearts are much bigger than our brains, we agreed to take them.  But logistically we knew that it could only be short-term, until the state could find a family willing to foster all three.  After two very stressful weeks, the state found a family that could take the two girls (Cassie, age 10 and Mykala, age 2) but not the baby.  By this time we had fallen completely in love with Mikey, so when they asked if we could keep him, the answer was easy.

This was a very bittersweet day.  I'm getting so emotional just writing about it.  This was the day we had to return Mikey to his family.  They worked so hard to turn their lives around for their kids and we were proud of them for that, but he had become our baby, too.  Lots of tears were shed that day and for many days afterwards.

Today is Mikey's third birthday.  

I still think about him and miss him and wonder how he's doing and what he looks like now.  It's hard to know that he will never even remember our family, but I hear that his family is doing really well and I'm so grateful for that.  He is a truly great kid, and I'll probably always think of him as mine.  

I love you, baby Mikey!  Happy Birthday!

FINALLY!

After nearly three months of patiently waiting, we are proud to be the new owners of this:

Yay!  We closed on Wednesday and got the keys today so we finally feel like it's real!  Now we are back in moving mode, although this one shouldn't be too bad since it's only fifteen minutes away.

The kids have been a great help packing boxes.  Hopefully the novelty doesn't wear off for a while! 

Dec in a box.

Sam and the contents of his room.

Bless her heart, Grace likes to label things very specifically after she tapes the box up.  I'm sure all the people from church who come to help us move next week won't wonder at all about the contents of this one..... (the little hearts are a nice touch, too, don't you think?)

Summer Fun

Hooray!  Summer has finally made it to the Washington coast!

Grace's Last Day of 2nd Grade

Grace's first day of second grade, August 2007:

Grace's last day of second grade, June 2008.

These pictures and Liam's make me laugh - the lighting in the ones I took this week makes them look SO pale!  Don't get me wrong, it's not like we all have great tans or anything (we do live in Washington after all!) 

Last week Grace's teacher called to tell me that Grace would be getting another award at the assembly on the last day of school so that we could be there.  She said that she usually doesn't give kids more than one (Grace got the academic award last trimester), but that she felt that Grace had earned the Citizenship award more than anyone else in the class!  What a great kid!

Holding her Citizenship award.

Grace, her brother, and her best friends from class!

Grace and her teacher, Mrs. McCormack.  She is an awesome teacher and Grace loves her so much!  (Yes, she looks like a supermodel in real life, too!)

Let the summer fun (and sibling fights) begin!!!

Bloedel Donovan Park video

Maybe the last video we posted was enough to make you not want to see any more from us, but just in case(!)... here is my first attempt at iMovie using video clips instead of pictures.

For some reason when I uploaded it to Blogger, the pixelation got off a little, making it look like the kids are on an episode of "Cops."  They aren't.  It's just technical difficulties.

True love isn't always pretty

We seriously need some friends....

 

A special thanks to Larry for introducing us to this new form of expression.  This is going straight to  American Idol.  Simon is a freak for originality.