The paint goes on.

Good afternoon, it's Tuesday.

Tonight is is the night that Maren gets home from New Orleans. I think we are all ready for her to get home. Lillie has discovered that she can even call her on the phone. While doing the dishes yesterday I heard Lillie from around the corner talking to Maren's answering machine. I asked why she was calling her mom, and she said,"Duh, Mom's a Librarian and I need to know what 'sold' means!...you don't know this stuff!" Ouch. I did tell her that I do know this stuff and explained what "sold" means. She was wondering about the house on our street that sold, she was thinking that the folks moving in were named the name of the real estate agent. Then when Maren called back, I put her on the phone and she said to her mom, "I already found out...bye!" Click.

More on the pick-up.

This morning we were discussing repainting the hood when somehow we decided that Preston should us a silver and paint a Sponge Bob on the hood. I loved the idea, and when we got home from VBS, I prepped the truck and got out the paint for Preston. Here he is getting started.

And the final painting. I think it is great. You can't really see Sponge Bob unless you looking right at it. Fun huh?

See you tomorrow.

Hmm.

Good evening, it is Sunday night.

We will be waking up early for VBS tomorrow and I am sure I won't feel like blogging. Today was a fun day. Church with John and Carol, then lunch and the truck reveal. The pick-up truck turned out OK for now. I may get a different hue of color, sand and paint another coat or two later in the summer...but it is done for now. Pictures below.

But first, tonight was a fire pit night after we got back from the pool. Yes, summer is here for a day or two.

Preston came out with all the work that he could find from this year. I made him keep out the awards and his writing. He decided to keep out some of his science. The rest went up in smoke! This is Preston and Connor, now high schoolers, putting 8th grade behind them.

Not to be outdone, we had our own fire pit in our back yard. The littles invited Kole over just so he could witness how much they fight with each other over everything. Nice.

Here is a before picture of the hood and roof of the pick-up. The sides are doing fine, and I just can't see spending more on a real paint job for this truck than it is worth. So after some tutorials from YouTube, I did it myself:

And after. From certain angles in overcast light, the color seems to be a perfect match! The paint went on smooth and the job itself is well done. The problem is there is no way to match the paint. Even professionals couldn't get it right as there has been fading and such. Besides, a metallic looking paint will always look different than a $5.00 can of Rustoleum. Even the paint on the side of the can seems to match better than the real thing.

And in the sun from the side...totally different color. Groan. My neighbor Shawn thinks the new paint looks better than the old and I should just continue on and do the whole truck. Yeah, right.
Well, it is what it is. At least it wont rust or anything from here on out.

See you tomorrow.

Blue?

Good morning, it is Sunday.

Maren is having a fine time in New Orleans. She got to visit my Aunt Susanna and it sounds like they had a very nice visit. Maren sent me a couple of pictures of what it was like to get Rick Riordan's signature in a book for Hansen. Like a 100 person long line and no personalizing of the signature. Still cool.

But Maren is not the only one having fun. She may be having more fun than us chickens who are currently groaning about having to wake up and then having to wake up for the whole next week for VBS...I even signed up Preston to be a helper.

We painted Lillie's hair blue yesterday with temporary highlights. It is already mostly gone, but it looked cool. She wishes we would let her put blue highlights in her hair for real!

Hansen got out my RC truck, charged the batteries and drove it around for a bit. Hansen loves RC things, and riding his ripstick. In the last couple of days we have run into a few friends of mine that all say Hansen looks just like me! Hansen is quite offended by that, especially since I buzzed off my hair, but maybe so.

Last night we had dinner with one of Preston's soccer friend's families. They had a nice trampoline that the littles enjoyed hanging out on. We watched Mexico come back from a 0-2 deficit to beat the USA National Soccer Team 4-2. Mexico just totally out played the US for the last 60 minutes of the game. Today it will be church, pool, nothing. I think Preston has plans for Wild Waves.

See you tomorrow.

Time to paint.

Good morning, it is Friday.

Yesterday I took Maren to the airport for her trip to New Orleans and the ALA conference. She will get to do tons of ALA stuff, and say hi to my Aunt Susanna! The rest of us chickens are just hanging out at home. We're doing ok though. Yesterday Preston got to go to the Sounder game with his girlfriend and her family. Sounds like he had a great time. The littles got to hang with their littler cousins and their grandparents for a nice two days. They even got to spend the night at Stef's place as they were cat checking for the honeymooners. I picked them up at a different cousin's house after lunch and my eye appointment (my eyes are just the same...just time for new glasses). They were having a great time.

And for what we have been doing since Maren has been gone that she may groan about: I have started painting the hood and top of the pick-up truck. Yesterday was sanding and a first coat. Today will be light sanding and a second coat. I have to adjust the color mix a little as it turned out too light. With luck, by the third coat the colors will kind of match:) Yes, that is why Maren would groan. But things she would be happy about: The littles and I turned over the garden and got out our hanging baskets. Then went shopping for lots of flowers, some tomatoes, strawberries, and even a pumpkin plant. Can't forget the slug bait. We will have this place looking spiffy in no time.

Lillie and Camden climbing a tree in Camden's back yard.

I went golfing with my friend Larry on Wednesday. We got paired up with a couple of Husky loving characters. Check out these shoes! We had a (mostly) fun time golfing with these guys, Larry got hit by a 100 yard bladed shot that the shoe guy pulled way off line. Ouch. I'm sure that left a mark.

Off to do some sanding, see you tomorrow.

Summer time.

Good morning, it is Wednesday.

Yesterday was a great last day of school. The weather was perfect, school got out early, field days and pies were fun, and the pool was great too. Maren picked up pizza on the way to meeting us at the pool for a nice relaxing dinner. Preston bailed on the pool to go to Wild Waves with friends...even better!

I took two pies for the team yesterday. This was the first one. My nose is still a little sore, but the pie smell is gone. All the suckers (er, teachers or paras) in the background with the orange ponchos got pies.

Here is the picture of Preston receiving his certificate. All the other 8th graders with exceptional grades are to the right. Ended up being a decent amount which is super! Yesterday Hansen and Lillie also brought home report cards. Both excellent...I really mean extremely excellent. Talk about a bunch of 4s! Hansen's individual reading level test which is a Standard Degrees of Reading Power test extremely high. His national %ile is 99+, doesn't get any better than that!

For the first day of summer vacation, Hansen and Lillie are going with John and Carol to visit the twins and have an adventure in Bellevue. Preston will be going to the lake with friends before soccer for a mini reunion of his 6th grade class. And I am going golfing! What about Maren you ask...poor sap, she is not on summer break! She has to work. But don't feel too bad just yet, tomorrow she heads down to New Orleans for a library conference.

See you tomorrow.

Last day of school...today!

Good morning, it is Tuesday.

Today is the last day of school! And a half day at that...for the kids. The weather is getting nice, so to celebrate it will be dinner at the pool!

Yesterday we got to attend the year end awards ceremony for Preston's middle school days. He is a high school kid as of a few hours from now. He was awarded a certificate for outstanding achievement for good grades. It was fun to see who and how many kids got awards and such. Lots of his long time friends up there with him. I did get some pictures, but I used my real camera, and I can't find it at the moment to download pictures, so you will have to wait till tomorrow.

My day should be a fun one. I will work the field day, then get a pie in my face. Yup, I am one of 13 teachers that get a pie thanks to the students of CV reaching a high level of reading minutes. I am sure everyting will smell like whipped cream for the next few days!
See you tomorrow.

Happy Father's Day, Recital.

Good morning, it is Sunday.

Happy Father's Day! To me! And to my dad! And to John! This is our first Father's Day without Grandpa Sandler, but I'm wearing his watch, so he is on my mind too.

This is a picture of what my dad will look like when I call him at 10:30 pm tonight.

This is my dad as a teenager??? I kind of think this picture of my dad looks like Preston with Aunt Susanna's eyes. Whatever Slane.

For Father's Day I received a nice school project card from Lillie, the movie Despicable Me, a $50.00 gift card for a golf store, and I bought myself a new Cleveland SW (not with earlier gift cart...that is still there!). And that is all by 8:30am.

Now on to other stuff. Preston has one or two soccer game(s) today, I will be leaving very soon to take him. His new team is playing great! Fun to watch!

Lillie did a fabulous job in her dance recital yesterday! You go Lillie! She is such a good dancer. I think she is every bit as good as the dancers on the "club" team. But at 8 years old, one day of dance per week is enough.

Here is Lillie with her recital flowers we bought her. I don't get to see her dance in practice even though I drop her off. There is always a big crowd of moms hogging the window to the dance class, and I like to take that hour to go to the driving range. I always knew she had good moves, but her ability to memorize the routine, and attention to the little details is very good. Her teacher at Dance Arts is obviously excellent.

See you tomorrow.

Wy Tu Jo Hanson!

Good morning, it is Saturday.

Yesterday Hansen was awarded with the Coaches' Award for this year's track season. Hansen had a great track season and a very good 5th grade year. Way to go Hansen!

The trophy is great...but you couldn't spell his name more wrong. Hansen and I had a fun text conservatun ubout nt beng abel ty misspel thisgs ane wurse!

Yesterday Preston had his first soccer game with his new team. The team is the same team, but with 1/3 new kids as they tryout season brought some changes. Preston has been excited, and it showed. Preston scored 3 goals in an 8-0 win. Today is game two...

I have not put any videos on my blog for some time, but here is a very cute video of Lillie playing in the front yard yesterday:

See you tomorrow.

Don't lick the pen!

Good morning, it is Friday.

Last Friday of the school year! We get out of school on Tuesday. Yesterday I went to Lillie's class and we had our year end art docent wrap-up. I gave the kids each a big folder and we had sharpies of every color to decorate, as well as tons of stickers. While the students were decorating, I was passing out all the art they made over the year as well as a cupcake treat. We all had a fine time. I am hoping that another parent will want to take over art docent for this class next year as I may be ready for a break after two years. Lillie wants me to keep going and not even consider giving another parent a chance.

Here is a pic of Lillie decorating her folder. I have another cute pic of all the kids in this picture making funny faces and waving wildly at the camera.

We also attended game night in Hansen's class last night. Each student made a board game or some type of game and last night was the night to check it all out. Hansen is checking out a friend's game. Dressing in fancy wigs and such was optional.

Yesterday evening the neighbor girls were given this box. I love how they each took a side and did their own artwork. Very clever.

See you tomorrow.

Library Card and a Game.

Good morning, it is Tuesday.

Yesterday was a very exciting day for Lillian. She got her first ever Library Card! Yup, she has been wanting to go to the library regularly for some time now, and as strange as it seems, we don't always do that. Yes, Maren usually just brings the library home to us! But Lillie wanted the whole Library experience...and did I mention that yesterday was the first day to sign up for the summer reading program? This girl is motivated by prizes. Well, we have now carved out Monday evenings as Library day. Last night I went over and got a book and a few magazines, found a comfy chair while Lillie searched the stacks. She came back with a few books and a movie. We sat and read for awhile, but then Lillie was ready to leave. I learned that I can even check out a lap top computer to use while at the library if I want! Cool.

Lillie with her new wrist band Library Card. It has a picture of feet in the sand. The Library helper that helped us was joking with Lillie that the smaller card with the feet is better because the bigger card with feet stinks just a little more. Library humor, haha.

For one of his last projects as a 5ht grader, Hansen had to make a game board. He had this neat little board that we took to Office Depot and blew up (not into pieces, 5th grade boy humor, haha) so Hansen could have a huge game board. The only reason I was able to get a smile out of Hansen for this picture was to have him pretend not to "say cheese", but to pretend instead that he...more kid humor, haha.

See you tomorrow.

Confirmation and a parade.

Good morning, it is Monday.

What a great and busy weekend! This weekend the 8th graders were confirmed in their baptism. There was a dinner Saturday night then the ceremony and pictures on Sunday morning. The ceremony was very nice with the pastor reading favorite bible verses and blessing each of the confirmed. Parents were also up front with their child. Ended up being one of the longest church services ever, but being in the mix made it seem just fine. This weekend was also high school graduation for the Kent schools so some of these kids had siblings that graduated, which made for a very emotional weekend for many and you could just feel it in the air. We are very proud of Preston, he did great.

Here is the Confirmation group after all the everything, getting on last picture before eating cake.

This is the group before church, pictures and robes. A very nice bunch of 8th graders.

Saturday morning, Preston got to be in the jr. high marching band for the Maple Valley parade. His school did great! And the parade was very nice. But Maren and Lillie pointed out that there were not enough princess!

Preston playing in the band.

Lillie, Ali (neighbor) and Maren getting ready for the parade to start. We brought Ali, while her dad had Hansen. Hansen helped pass out some fliers for our neighbor's business before the parade, I hear they had fun, but didn't get to see the parade. It's all good.

And here is Maren in front of the Library technology van. I tried to get her to run out and join the parade for a few blocks with the other Library folks, but nope...she was sticking with us. haha...like Maren would actually run out and join the parade, I don't think so!

See you tomorrow.

The Best Dollar Ever Spent!

Good morning, it is Friday.

Yesterday turned out to be a nice weather day about the time school got out for the day. Preston went straight home with his friend Daniel, and we didn't see him again until the evening. Hansen played ping pong and goofed off with friends. Lillie and Ali had many adventures.

Lillie and Ali's first adventure was to make the worlds longest hop-scotch game ever. From the edge of our driveway it goes all the way to the mail boxes in the distance, and nearly as far behind me. The girls worked in opposite directions up to 200 or something. The squares are all too small for my feet, but it does look pretty cool.

Then, the ice-cream man came by our neighborhood with his music blaring. You would never see Lillie and Ali go separate ways so fast as they darted into their respective homes to find their money. Lillie spent her very last dollar on this Bubble Gum Popsicle. She said it was the best dollar she has ever spent in her whole life! She was flying out the door, and by the time I even thought to take a picture, all that was left was this empty wrapper on the counter (she got it almost to the garbage...but not quite). The girls even got a walk to the school park in the early evening. phew.

I don't think too much is happening tonight, but tomorrow we have a full calendar.

See you tomorrow.

Hairy Situation.

Good morning, it is Thursday.

Yesterday was a day that Preston and his buddies had been planning for a week or so. Come over to our house before soccer practice for buzz cuts in the front yard. I won't ramble on as you are already scrolling down to see the pictures.

Before. These are boys from Preston's soccer team, and good friends. Alex, Daniel, and Preston.

After. It's all good! A few of the neighbors were out watching the buzzings. Some horrified that Preston and company would buzz off their hair. Some cheering them on. There is even video of the event somewhere in the world. For now, they are all very happy with their buzzes.

After the buzz cuts it was off to soccer practice for the boys and off to church for me. I am participating in a book club/Bible study based on a book called Crazy Love by Francis Chan. The book may be a bit extreme for my current beliefs, but so is participating in a book club/Bible study as I have never done so. I can feel my rubber band being stretched just a bit.

See you tomorrow.

Salmon Release Day.

Good morning, it is Wednesday.

Yesterday was release the salmon day at school. We have had a program for many years where the school gets salmon eggs, grows them, then releases them into the local stream. Yesterday was release day. The stream is about a mile from school, so it is a walking field trip. The first field trip I was on was the 1st-2nd trip. In the afternoon was the Kinders.

This is Tyler, on of our teacher's son. He was the ones who picked up the eggs in the beginning, and he was the one who got to release the salmon for the Kinders.

For the older group, Mrs. Fontaine got the salmon release honors. The two field trips were surprisingly different. Kinder's had bags of fish they got to take turns carrying, then each class got to stand in the middle of the bridge to watch the separate releases. The olders carried the fish in a bucket and all crowded around and watched a single release. Also, walking Kinders a mile and back is a very different chore than walking 2nd graders. The Kinder field trip took nearly twice as long as the olders. These kids change fast! And both field trips were great.

I was the caboose during the 1st-2nd grade walk. You can see the long string of kids up ahead of me. It is funny how these long strings of walkers go. The leaders feel like they're going slow while us in the back of the line have to run to keep up at times.

Fun day. See you tomorrow.

And Evening Blog!

Good evening, it is Monday.

Didn't blog this morning, so I'm trying an evening blog. We will see if the words flow off my ready for bed fingers as they do from my just woke up fingers. Well, we had a great weekend. I am kind of going in reverse order as that is how my memory is working right now.

I spent most of yesterday afternoon and evening cleaning out the garage and setting up the ping pong table. By like 8:00 pm the games started, but the mess was still outside. The boys got in a few games and my friend Jeff even swung by on his evening walk for a quick game. I was cleaning up in the dark, but it was well worth the work. As I type there are five boys out in the garage playing ping pong.

What you can't see from this picture is Lillie and Ali with Lillie's boom box choreographing their made up dance routines in the front yard. Fun times.

The early afternoon was spent at Lake Tapps with cousins and grandparents at Derek's lake place. His little place is the perfect bachelor pad and we had a very fun time. I will be curious to see where Stef and Derek end up living. Whenever we drive by a house for sale in our area, Lillie and Hansen think they should move there!

Saturday was the nicest day we have seen in a very long time. We spent much of the day and evening at the pool. Lillie came out perfectly brave and spent much of her time doing tricks off the diving board. Our neighbors the Moores were there too as they just joined the pool. The kids had fun having neighbor friends to hang with.

And this picture was taken Friday. Friday evening we had Multicultural night at our school. The turnout was great and the different ethnic foods and information straight from the families of our students is amazing. I enjoyed seeing the performances, eating different foods, and just being there. I should post pictures of the great Multicultural Fair, but this sign cracks me up. The other side had valuable information, but in an effort to stretch resources or something, we have an "icy" sign out on the walk way on the nicest day of the year! To be fair, the walkways in the mornings are icy for like half of the school year.

See you tomorrow.

Most Inspirational Band Concert.

Good morning, it is Friday!

Last night was Preston's last ever band concert! I think. Next year he is scheduled to take an art class instead of band. And after 4 years of band and being very artistic, I think that is just great. Anyhow, the Finale Concert was called "By Request" and was many songs that are popular in our culture, from Beatles Forever to Don't Stop Believin'. It was a great concert.

But wait, there is more. Voted on by his peers, Preston won the Most Inspirational award for 8th grade band! Way to go Preston!

Here is Preston with his certificate.

And up front with other award winners. The 7th graders are the ones in the white shirts. It was very fun when he won. I don't think he expected this award at all. In fact when the teacher said "he plays the clarinet", Preston and the boy next to him (the only boys who play clarinet in the 8th grade) did a little fist pump, because they each thought the other had won. Cool.

See you tomorrow.

Carnival time!

Good morning, it is Thursday.

Last night was the GL carnival! It rained hard all day and we were worried about the carnival. The carnival would have been a success due to pre-sales, but really, it's all about the fun. Luckily about 2:30 it stopped raining and stayed relatively dry the whole time. The weekday worked out great and the crowd was huge. We had purchased punch cards in advance that were good for food, games and rides. Hansen and Lillie were on their own and had a great time. Dance Arts had a dancing team that did great and was undercover in case it did rain. Anyhow, to the pictures:

Lillie with a bag full of prizes!

Hansen playing a football toss into the Gator game! You can tell from this picture that it was still a bit early, wet, and not so crowded...all those factors changed as time went on.

Some how my name was drawn to win a huge prize! Yup, we're winners! A birthday basket, cool! I tried to trade it with my friend Brian (see next picture) as he somehow won the golf basket. I think it was big no on his part...and my girls would have flipped.

Here is Brian. Yes he and I worked the second shift of the Corn Hole game. We had tons of fun both making fun of the name Corn Hole, and running the show. The line was never short as the kids quickly found out that we gave out good prizes for only one punch of the punch card...and by all means, Corn Hole is a fun game. Corn Hole...hahahaha. In the distance you can see the jumpy toys, dunk tank, putting course, tattoo booth, and many other great things for kids to get crazy with.

This picture was taken at the end of the evening. I liked that they let the kids color all over this part of the school with chalk. Very fun.

See you tomorrow.