Pumpkin Hat 2011

I made Jayden a new pumpkin hat this year.  I thought he could use an older kids version of one...well, let's face it...I had orange and green yarn and wanted to make a ribbed pumpkin hat, so I made up an excuse that one of my kids "need" one to justify me making, yet again, another pumpkin hat....

It's been done for awhile now, but Jayden really doesn't care that I want to take a picture of it on his head.  So, this evening, I bribed him with an M&M.  Yes, just one.  I know, I kinda suck.  :)  But he said, he'd do it.  So, he let me take one, just one, picture.  And he wouldn't even turn around for it.... I guess that is what I get for only offering up one measly M&M...

Then he sauntered off to the table where his dad was eating his dinner and started stuffing his face with crackers.  But he left his pumpkin hat on!  And I have this fantastic lens that gets me up close, even when they are way far away....

Then I started saying something about, why are you eating so many crackers?  you just finished dinner (a huge amount of salmon patties, watermelon, and pattie pans - which he promptly took one bite of and then pretended to throw up on his plate).  jayden?  hello?  are you listening to me?  are you still so hungry?  i can get you more dinner if you'd like?  hello?  jayden?


To which I get this look and a, "Are you talking to me?!?"   And a picture that just cracks me up!  And a laugh I really needed today too...

"No.  No more dinner.  Just crackers"

At least he left his pumpkin hat on.  Although, I'm kinda wishing I would of made it like an inch longer.....wonder if I have enough yarn left over for one more....

Sam the Stealer

Our garden, this year, has done pretty well, I think, for how hot it has been, and the lack of watering on my part.  You see, when I plant my garden, I give my plants a talking too, and I tell them that I am busy and won't have tons of time to devote to them.  They will get watered in the morning with the sprinkler system and then I will try my best to come out once during the hot, hot day and pull some weeds, train them up trellises, and water them, but that I have 2 busy kids to look after and they might not get as much love as they should.  So despite their neglect, we have had a pretty good year.  However, we have had a few things go missing this year.  Our tomato plants grew really well with lots of fruit and for a couple weeks we were getting quite a few tomatoes off of them everyday, then all the sudden the ones that I saw orange the day before weren't there when I went out to pick them.  I blamed Royal.  He denied it.  I was still quite skeptical.  Then one day when we came home from church, there was a vine up on the porch, a cantaloupe vine.  We had like 5 cantaloupes growing and ripening out in the garden.  When I went out to check on them, they were all missing, and then when I went out in the yard to pick up all the dog poo,  every pile looked like a homemade pinecone bird feeder, full of cantaloupe seeds.  Sam had been sneaking into our garden and eating all our cantaloupes, and also eating only our red tomatoes.  You see last year, Royal and I tried out a couple topsy turvy's, so the tomatoes were much more in Sam's reach, and he ate all the green ones as soon as they were big enough to pluck off.  We thought we got smarter this year and planted our tomatoes in our garden with a fence all around it.  Sam, I've decided is like Houdini, and can get into and out of whatever he wants.  I swear he can fit through a 2 inch opening, because I guess Sam got smarter this year too and waits until the fruit is just barely ripe enough and then somehow gets into the garden and eats the fruit right before we would pick it.   I found our last ripening cantaloupe, and Jayden's one and only growing pumpkin, and set them up on the top rung of the trellis and hid them behind leaves.  Sadly, a few days ago, Sam managed to get into the garden and would of had to jump, but obviously he was desperate, and pulled them both down and devoured them.  All we found were scattered pieces of orange pumpkin all over the yard.  Jayden was furious and demanded we take Sam back to the Humane Society.  :)  I've decided next year to build a taller and stronger fence, and for now, I've given into Sam's love of fruit and feed him the end pieces of our watermelons.

And before you go thinking how healthy of an eater Sam is, in my adventures around the yard picking up Sam's piles of poo, I've also found evidence that Sam is eating Royal's ear plugs.  Bright, neon, green ear plugs.  Yummy.

Flowers

Everyday this week (except Monday), Jayden has brought his teacher flowers.  If we walk to school, then he picks what he can find along the road.  If we drive to school, then he goes around the yard and picks things from our very much-in-need-of-a-mowing grass and our garden (lavendar and zinnias on this day)

Jayden says he is going to bring her flowers every day.   Who wouldn't want this kid in their class????

1st Day of School

Jayden started kindergarten today!  Kindergarten!!!  I can hardly believe it!  I feel like we have been working towards this forever.  We pretty much started helping Jayden come to terms with kindergarten since he got out of pre-k last spring  Jayden likes routine and really needs to feel safe and has a very active imagination which tends to cause him a lot of anxiety.  Just last night, he proclaimed we could no longer go to the zoo because Willow was now big enough that she could climb over the wall that overlooks the hippo pool, and to keep Willow safe, we needed to stop going to the zoo.  This all stems from that fateful April Fools Day when Willow lost one of her shoes in the hippo pool and the hippo ate it.  Why he was worried about it last night?  I don't know.  The whole time Royal was up in Alaska, during his prayers at night, he would ask God to keep Royal safe and to help him not fall out of the boat and get eaten by a killer whale, and to keep killer whales away from Royal's boat.  It did not matter that we kept reassuring him there weren't going to be any killer whales next to dad's boat, he just couldn't get it out of his head.  And kindergarten?  Well, back in May, Jayden said very firmly that he was NOT going, especially if he was going to have a different teacher and different kids in his class.  And we have worked with him all summer, validating his feelings over and over and over.  Every time we drove by his new elementary school, we would say, 'There's your new school!'  And after weeks and probably months of his closing his eyes tight and shouting he wasn't going there, he finally started asking a question here and there about it.  Then we "snuck" (he thought we were breaking rules and he thought that was fantastic!) into the school playground a couple times.  Last week we had meet the teacher night and he walked right in and introduced himself to his new teachers.  Then later in the week, we went back for his kindergarten screening and he made sure Royal and I weren't leaving the building, but he marched right in and did really well on his tests.   I knew he was going to do great today.

Jayden woke up this morning and said he was excited to go to school.  We went to our exercise class and someone asked him about starting school - last year he would have hid his face in my leg and acted like that person didn't exist - this year he just said, 'Yup!  Today's my first day and I'm excited!"  I was feeling so relieved that this wasn't going to be a battle, that we were going to be able to get out the door without having to get in the car 15 minutes earlier than we needed to, while we waited for Jayden to come out of the house on his own.  However, we had a small little hiccup.  Jayden decided he wanted to walk to school, which on most days really isn't too big of a deal, it's only about a mile from our house.  But today, it has pretty much been raining all day, and Royal had come home from work to take Jayden to school with us, and walking a mile to and a mile back from school in his dress shoes would only result in blisters, not to mention we'd all be soaked from the rain.  So, I'm sure because of the nerves Jayden probably was already feeling about school, this just wasn't acceptable and he started crying and getting really upset and said there was no way he was going to school then.  Well, crapola....with Jayden acting like this, there was no way I was going to get first day of school pictures.  So, we got in the car 10 minutes before we needed to, and on our way out the door told Jayden what we were doing and that we'd wait for him there. 

Here we are....waiting for him....

We finally heard the front door open and before Jayden could dart back in the house, Royal helped him get in the car....

We only got to school about 5 minutes late...

We got Jayden to his classroom, found his locker, got his backpack hung up, and he started to perk up a little.  Although, he still refused to let me take his picture, or at least acknowledge me wanting to take his picture.

Then he found his seat and got to business.  I pretty much didn't exist anymore and he didn't even say goodbye.  Guess he is going to do just fine!

So, Royal, Wilow and I headed for the door and as we stepped outside and held the door open for Wilow.....she refused to leave.

"I'm staying at school.  With Jaydo!"  (these are her mad lips)

I think it's going to be a long year for Willow, and Royal and I are seriously considering putting her in pre-school next year when she's 3.  :)


Willow and I went back to the school 3 hours later and picked Jayden up.  He jumps in the car and when I ask him how his first day was he says, "Well!  I didn't get sent to the principal's office!"  Well... fantastic!!!  Then he gave me a packet of papers and this:

And then I bribed him with an ice cream sundae if he'd let me take his "first day of school" picture on the porch.  However, there was no way Willow was letting him out of her sights.

And trying to get a decent picture of these 2 together is pretty much impossible...

Last Day of Summer

Today was our last day of summer vacation.  Jayden starts kindergarten tomorrow, and I believe he is actually excited about it!  Royal starts school this next week too, but his classes are going to cut into our family time a bit more this year.  He has 2 evening classes and 1 class that is all day on Saturday.  Yuck!  So, this weekend, we tried to spend as much time with Royal as we could.  We went to the zoo, a birthday party, Jayden and Royal took the dog on a really long walk, church this morning, and movie night tonight with popcorn and everything! 

Royal also spoiled the kids this weekend with a new kiddie pool for the backyard.  You all remember what happened to our dino pool during a storm a couple weeks ago, right?  Well the dino pool couldn't be repaired and lucky for us the summer pools are starting to go on sale and we found this dragon pool in the back of the pile and we just knew it was for us!

 

Jayden is getting a bit big for these little kiddie pools, but he still has a pretty good time!

New Super Heros

Jayden has been begging for a new super hero cape for while now, but kind of off and on, and since he already has a dino cape that I made him, and the children have a history of not really loving things that I make - not sure why, they're AWESOME! - I was kind of hesitant to go out and get him material for a new cape.  However, while grandma was here, she was in dire need of a nap, so I drug Jayden with me to Hobby Lobby and told him we could search for new cape material.  He was a little grumpy about the whole thing, said there was no material there that would make a good cape, until he spotted the super shiny metallic material in the way back corner.  Perfect for super hero capes.  He picked out gold and silver for his own, and silver and pink for Willows.  And then I spent a few hours trying to bend the extremely slippery material to my will and came out with these!

Willow a.k.a Sparkle Girl   She named herself after her favorite sparkle shoes she had on today.  (I apologize again about the hair, but I believe I've pleaded my case before)

And Jayden a.k.a ????  When I asked him what his super hero name was he said, "I can't tell you, it's a secret"  Oooooookay!

And I believe we've heard before that "you don't need pants to save people!" Obviously these two come from the same stock!

Freezer Full of Fish

Royal made it back from Alaska last night with 160 pounds of fish in tow! Well, actually, really early this morning.  He was suppose to get in around 11, which for me is really late to be out and about!  But taking 3 planes across the country you are bound to run into delays, especially we've found, if you are flying United, so he didn't get in until around 1am this morning.  I was so tired driving to the airport, I kept finding myself driving like 10 under the speed limit.  Oops!  Good thing there weren't many cars on the road!  :)

I sent Royal to Alaska with a camera and an assignment to take A LOT of pictures.  He came back with a whopping 38 pictures, which for him is a lot.  Over 7 days, that's a little over 5 pictures a day!

Here is their camping/fishing set up in Sitka.  Royal got to snuggle up with his dad at night and after sharing a bed with all 6 feet of Wayne, I'm pretty sure he's not going to accuse little ole 5'1" me of hogging the bed anymore!

With a view of the ocean!  That's what I'm talking about!  Salty water within walking distance!!!  With fog and everything!  Ahhhh to feel cool and damp.....

Here's Fireball out in the boat.

And some of the fish they caught!  Royal's holding a 45lb halibut and 2 10lb yellow eye rockfish.

 

 

Here Royal is holding a 35lb Chinook (a.k.a king salmon).  He caught 2 of those!  Most of the other fish they caught were Cohos (a.k.a silvers), and there were a couple sea bass in there too!

To try and entice me to one day move to Alaska with him, he took lots of pictures of the things he knew I've been missing out here in K-land.
Water and Trees and Mountains.

Little sea otters and their pups

And Bald Eagles soaring around.  The only bald eagle's I've seen here are sitting in the zoo!

It's been a long week around here with Royal being gone, but it kinda feels worth it when I open my freezer and it now looks like this!  with more fish stuffed in the door and more stuffed in the freezer in the house!

**disclaimer** I know Royal usually looks far happier when he's holding a fish in his hands.  But the face you are seeing in the pictures is the face of Royal as he's trying to explain to his 66 year old dad how to use a digital camera (his dad uses disposable box cameras) and that you have to look for him on the screen not in a little view finder and his dad saying he can't see anything and doesn't know what he's doing and then pushing the button and taking a picture.  And in the world of Royal and Fireball, there is not a lot of patience, so there is not a lot of do-overs.  I assure you, from listening to Royal's voice on the phone every night, he was much happier then these pictures show....