Spring and End of the School Year

 A quick review of spring: Easter Sunday Paul spoke at church about the Christ's Atonement. It was NOT raining (it's been the wettest year I can remember). We had Easter dinner with my sister Sanni and her family. The kids found all 23 hard-boiled eggs (one shy of two dozen because it broke) and Rowen was happy to just carry his Easter basket and find one single egg. The Easter Bunny left two chocolate eggs in each basket. Nobody was sick. It was a good Easter. Simple.

Spring break was hit and miss with the weather....as it has been unpredictable all year. I took Reina, Baelor, cousin Karter, and Mummi to the closest roller-skating rink which is now in Gresham. We met up with Angela and her two girls as they have been going there weekly! Sadly, they tore down the near and dear "Golden Skate" in Vancouver that housed many elementary roller-skating parties. I always loved those parties and can still smell the even then, old walls and overly-buttered popcorn wafting through the arena. Reina and I had a BLAST! I haven't gone for years but oh, it was so fun! Baelor? Not so much. He tried it for about 10 minutes and had a great time, but once he saw the concession stand, he was stuck on it. I seriously should have given in and got him some junk food, but I'm really trying to get him ready for kindergarten. He is not a rule follower (despite our consistent efforts) and fear how he will perform next year. I didn't want to give in so he had a meltdown for 45 minutes (or more)! Finally, a girl was winning candy at the Kandy Krane and asked if he was okay. She gave him a sucker and he was great the rest of the time. Thank goodness for that girl. He got what he wanted without me caving in. The last 10 minutes he skated again. Reina is a natural on skates, or on her feet. She learns so quickly. I was surprised just the other day she was playing basketball with the neighbors and knows how to dribble down the court!

Top Left: chaperoning LDS prom, Activity Days family heritage night

Making riisipiirakkas, Fircrest walkathon, perfect sunset in the Gorge

My friend Jessica and her daughter Isabella also came to town. They always stay at least one night at a hotel and we have the tradition of swimming at the hotel pool. What kid doesn't like a pool? Answer: mommy! I'm just not a fan of simple pools. I'd take a lake or water slide any day. While I was standing in the pool pretending to swim (but really talking with Jessica), Paul was being an awesome daddy and swimming with all four kids! As a special treat we had Wendy's for lunch. Jessica and Isabella also got to stay the night- another special treat! Lately, we've been playing the game "Sleeping Queens" with the kids (and neighbor girl Ily). Baelor seems to win almost every time! I wonder if it has something to do with the fact that we are all afraid to steal his queens and see what will happen. I don't know but it's kept him focused on following the rules which is what we are trying to work on. The last month or so I have taken Baelor into the school for pre-K testing to see if he will need extra help in speech therapy, occupational therapy. or an IEP (a specialized curriculum). Baelor is a smart kid, doesn't have ADD or autism, but seriously is not in the mental mind for school yet. We are waiting to hear back from all of his testing. He can stick to a task very well if it is on HIS agenda. His primary and Sunday school teachers love his personality so we are still hopeful that the daily grind of school will keep him on track. I learned a little about Charles Darwin as a child in a science class while substituting one day...ummm just like Baelor. Update: Since writing this post we went back in for update on Special Education (IEP) for Baelor and he passed all of the testing except speech therapy. Okay, so this is good new right? He's not a special needs child, but does not fit with traditional school routines. Sooo worried about kindergarten- we will continue to prime him as best we can for school. He is a spectacular kid, just enjoys his mind's pattern.

Rowen is starting to piece sentences together. We love how he says "maow" for "more" and pieces random sounds together into a sentence as if jabbering like everyone else in a conversation. He imitates Baelor making car and airplane noises while holding the toy in the air. Typical boy stuff. He has some favorites: the Cat in the Hat taggie blanket (but only the silky tags which remind him of mommy's underwear), eating the lotion on my nightstand, picking the toilet seat cap off the lid (gross), sitting on the little white stairs every night during family prayer (soooo adorable) and reciting the prayer they say at Mummi's for lunch (foreign languages), getting tickled and eaten up by mommy and daddy, dumping any bucket of toys he can, finding the pens and writing on himself or in proper pen-holding form on paper, putting my makeup on when I am, climbing on the dining room table and throwing things down, opening any restricted drawer, helping pop popcorn with the air popper and dip it in the lava-hot melted butter, (yikes!) pointing to what he wants to eat in the fridge or pantry and immediately denying what he just chose, hanging from his hands with legs lifted on the ground on whatever will hold him up, going outside. Update: Now at 21 months he has included "no" to his language, "piece" when he wants something to eat, "on", and "k" for "okay". He reminds us of Reina at this age...bright and quick.

Someone got their own cereal, the view from our deck, s'mores with neighbor kids

The weather this year has been really bi-polar. Seriously, you can't plan for anything as one day it's shorts weather and the next you have to pull out the winter coats. On the days that are nice we like to spend time outside as much as possible! Baelor LOVES to dig for worms or rollie-pollies or spiders.

Helping to prep raspberry shoots, cousin Karter sleeping over, learning to say "cheese"

Reina loves to do anything active. Much of her free time if we are home is spent with the neighbor kids either jumping on our trampoline or recently playing basketball. They have older boys and one girl her age so luckily our new neighbors are somewhat kid-oriented. She just finished up her dance classes this month for the 4th year at Dayley Dance Academy. Wow! I can't believe it's already been this long! We opted out of the pre-professional classes this year as last year was more time-consuming and costly. This year Reina participated in Jazz/Tap combo class (for her age group), and Hip-Hop. She performed as professionally as always and shined. Before dance classes ended for summer, she tried out for next year's placement. She was welcomed into not only the pre-professional team (NuLights instead of Embers) but also Illuminations Dance Company (the non-profit touring team)! There are only about 40 students who were accepted to this! I am very proud of her and excited for some of the things that are in store for this company but don't know how to make this work with scheduling and cost! I would have loved to do something like this as a kid so we are really considering this!

Mommy and daughter Activity Days event, playing in the dirt everyday!

Rowen LOVES vacuums and working! You can tell who didn't like their dental visit

We are excited for some fun adventures this summer!

Memorial weekend with Grandpa Scarborough visiting