Happy Father's Day!!

Yummy!!!

Public Works Day

Salem Public Works puts on a great event at the park once a year and it was today. Perfect weather, mid 60's, no rain. It is a free event and includes a free lunch!

Oddly enough, this was a giant fish that they got to walk into. Kinda gross if you ask me, but they loved it! I love how Tyler helped Kylie the whole way.

They got all sorts of free prizes and candy. Kylie got this little pinwheel that she has carried around all day, trying to blow it and make it spin.

See her little cheeks puffed out? She's trying to blow it. : )

Awesome day!!

Photo of the 5 kids

I had a Groupon for Picture People for one pose so I wanted to get a nice one of all 5 kids as I haven't done that since Kylie's been born. Well, of course ONE of the 5 wouldn't cooperate. That was Tyler. This was the best of all of them. He wouldn't smile for anything, not even for ice cream and a balloon sword! So...here it is....the best one we got.

Fishing Derby

We were lucky enough to get signed up for a Fishing Derby put on by the Molalla Kiwanis where they take only about 45 kids to a private pond to fish. So this morning, at a few minutes before 7am, Papa, Zach, Tyler, and I headed to Safeway for donuts and chocolate milk, and then to Molalla City Hall to load on this bus and head to the lake. The boys were very anxious to go fishing. I was very anxious about touching not only a worm, but also a fish if we caught once. This is of course why I asked my Dad to go.

This is the beautiful lake where we fished. We had perfect weather. High 60's, mostly cloudy, hardly any wind.


Luckily Grandpa did all the 'work' on the fishing poles. I just made sure the poles stayed in the water. I don't do worms or fish.

Notice Grandpa has his chair to sit in.

Notice the canopies set up behind...there they had a weigh/measure station. Anytime someone got a fish, they ran it up there where it was 'tagged and bagged' and put on ice. The boys loved watching each fish as it came up.

And Grandpa even found a nice rock where he took a snooze or two during the day!

I'm not a good fisherwoman. My dad is not a good fisherman. We caught nothing. Keep in mind, this is a stocked pond. There's really no excuse for us, other than that the fish just don't like us. So a kind man took pity on my children and helped them catch a fish. Zach was first. Funny thing was that once it was caught, neither child would touch it. Oops - they got that from me saying 'gross' all the time!

Here's the fish! It was 16 inches long and 2 lbs. 7 oz.

See how they wouldn't touch it? This poor little boy ended up doing all the work.

This is them taking their fish to the tent to get weighed and measured. They were so excited!

Tyler 'caught' one too with the nice man's help, but it was such a huge fish that I had to reel it in and I guess there is an artform to reeling and I did it wrong (too fast?) and I lost the fish at the very end. Seriously...there is a right and wrong way to spin that little knob that brings in the line? Who knew! But Tyler was still excited so it worked out ok.

The Kiwanis provided a free lunch and each child got a prize. The boys both picked out a new fishing pole!

Preschool Graduation, year #2...one year left...

Today was a big day for the boys. Not as big as this day will be next year, but still a big event. Today was this year's preschool graduation. And although the boys will be back again next year for their 3rd and final year of preschool, most of their good friends were 'on the other team' of kids wearing black graduation caps which means they are going to kindergarten next year. The boys are having a hard time with the thought of not going to kindergarten with their friends, but, their birthday is 9 days past the deadline and they will be able to still keep their old friends and make new ones.

I love their preschool, Titan Tots. The graduation ceremony was so cute! They even had donuts and drinks afterwards!

This is the boys' favorite teacher, Nikki. I am very glad that she is only a sophomore and will be around the next few years to babysit for us.

This is the boys' best friend Jaycoby. He is 'on the other team' who is going to kindergarten next year, but luckily I like his mom alot so we'll have lots of playdates still, no doubt.

After school we went to Applebees with Jaycoby and their other good friend Aliyah to celebrate the day.

The boys insisted on their certificates and hats being up on the mantle. So cute!

I must confess, I actually forgot my camera for graduation, but that previously mentioned friend pretty much rocks, so she took these pictures for me until Mike arrived with my camera. Good thing I have smart friends!

This was the walk down the red carpet during the ceremony