Reading...and reading, and reading!

Over the last couple of months Joel has shown an interest in learning to read, so we went to the library to get some beginning reading books. We joined the summer reading program where for every hour they read they get to enter a raffle for prizes, and after 10 hours, they get to pick out a free book! (It also counts to be read to, or listen to books on tape.) In the last 12 days, Joel has read a total of almost 13 hours! A good portion of this is him reading easy reading books! We are amazed at how well he is doing at learning to read words and sentences and whole books! He is also doing great at recording his start and stop times and adding up the minutes he reads.

Here is Joel reading at bedtime...he reads every night for anywhere from 20-40 minutes!

Maren has caught the bug, too! She will "read" books that we have read so many times she knows the words! We are also spending a lot of time reading all together. (Maren has clocked about 10-11 hours.)

As an avid reader and proud mommy, I love to see these kids be so excited about reading.

Summer Days

Summer has FINALLY arrived here in Washington...we are spending as much time outside as possible!

This is breakfast one morning last week...they are even still in their jammies!

Greg started sugar snap peas from seed several months ago but it had been so cold that I doubted we would ever get any peas...I was wrong!! The kids picked about 10-15 peas last night and we had them for dinner. SO good. And so fun to have food on our table that came from our backyard! We are looking forward to getting some tomatoes and cucumbers later in the summer.

I am so glad Greg has a green thumb and is persistent with it because I think it is so great for the kids to learn to appreciate and enjoy home-grown produce!

Strawberry Picking!

Last weekend we found a U-Pick berry farm and went strawberry picking! This is one of our favorite summer things to do and it was so fun!

This is the fun part...

Fun family times.

We also ended up buying a half-flat of raspberries from the berry stand...this is a TON of berries!

Maren had woken up with a bunch of HUGE bites on her arms and legs that day...and see her fat eye? (Sorry about the sideways pic...darn blogger.) Anyway, I had given her Benadryl and it knocked her out...she slept in the car on the way to AND from the berry farm and then slept for another 3 hours after that! I had to wake her up!!

So we decided to make raspberry-lemon sorbet with some of the berries. There were just too many and they don't last very long...so into the blender they went!

Yes, it's a bit loud... :)

After mixing it all together we put it in containers in the freezer and voila, we have sorbet! Yummy!

(PS We ate ALL the strawberries and the rest of the raspberries -5 pints - in about 3 days!)

The "Island"

This island is in our neighborhood, very close to our house and we spend a lot of time here! There is a sidewalk all the way around so the kids can ride their bikes and scooters around and around and not have to go in the street. They also have fun playing on the rocks and climbing in the trees.

4th of July Weekend...

Despite the cold and gray weather, we had a great long weekend. Saturday we actually got some sun in the afternoon! We headed over to Point Defiance to go to the Zoo and the "beach". These cute kids had so much fun together...and the adults had a great time, too!
All dressed up for a safari!

Friends...

The water was FREEZING - but that didn't stop Conner from going all the way in! The rest of the kids stayed close to shore and played in the rocks (where is the sand? they asked when we got there...um...it's a rock beach!).

Sunday after church we set off some little fireworks with our friends (thanks McMullens!).

Joel wasn't too crazy about the loud ones...

He and Kylie wore ear "muffles" to help with the sound :)

A few sparklers...

and don't forget to clean up the mess!

We went to a BBQ in the late afternoon and then came home and watched our neighbors setting off huge fireworks (the kind that are illegal in Oregon, so I only ever saw at the big organized foreworks shows!)! We had a perfect view from Joel's window, so I scooted his bed over and they fell asleep like this.

On Monday Greg took the kids out for a bike ride and came home with a FLAT of raspberries! I knew immediately that I had to make a pie!

It turned out SO good. It was my first time making or eating raspberry pie, and I think it has become a favorite. I have never seen Greg so excited about pie!