school shopping and sickness

School shopping and sickness, that pretty much sums up this weekend. Tony came down with something about 4 days ago and is just now starting to feel better. Courtney and I went school shopping on saturday...can't believe she will be in the third grade already! Alexa really wishes she could start kindergarten... she is excited to ride the bus with her sister...though Tony and I feel blessed to have her home with us another year. Today was spent shopping, again, and making sure our house and paperwork is ready for our daycare licensor, she's coming tomorrow to make sure we are in compliance with all the rules.

Here is a picture from when Tony's mom and dad came to visit. Today is Bing's (Tony's dad) birthday. Happy Birthday...we love you very much and miss you too!

Busy, busy, busy

We have been so busy lately with our daycare. We have had three parent interviews and one observation from a parent all in one week. Our interviews are at night, after work, so it leaves little time for anything else. We just enrolled a two year old little girl who speaks vietnamese and french, but very little english...should be interesting. We had an interview tonight with a mom and her six year old boy. Wow! At one point Tony had to ask the mom to tell her child to stop hitting Courtney becasue he was hurting her (the boy wouldn't listen to Tony when he asked him to stop). The six year old picked up Jackson (our newly adopted cat) and threw him against a pole outside. He threw and kicked every toy he could. Needless to say, we won't be enrolling this child. I'm feeling rather tired after that!

We went hiking yesterday at Basket Slough, it's a National Wildlife Refuge. We took the kids on a hike thru the dense forests and saw a snail and a few deer. It's such a beautiful, peaceful place. Our batteries in our camera were dead when we got there, so unfortunatley, I don't have any pics to share....next time!

Jackson

Our neighbor's cat, Jackson, has found his place in our family. He is a great cat who loves children and he is here all the time. Our neighbors say they hardly see him anymore!

creativity

Tony, Courtney, and Alexa have been quite creative lately. Tony and I bought weights when we first arrived here but hadn't bought a bench yet. Tony saw an old bench for free on the side of the road a few weeks ago and brought it home. He took the old padding off and painted it yellow and then added carpet where the old pad was. It works great and now matches our room :)

Courtney and Alexa asked to paint their bedroom yesterday so I gave them a few small paint brushes and some paint. They had a blast!!!

Blackberry Season

We are amazed by the blackberries around here.....they grow everywhere! We have found a few great places for picking and I made blackberry cobbler last night.....yum!

Fun at the Fair

I took our two girls to the Yamhill County Fair last weekend while the males went shopping at Lowes. Courtney and Alexa enjoyed the rides and they saw a neat magic show as well. I can't remember paying $3.75 for 1 ride though and I was blown away by the prices of food....but, we had fun!