Kiss Me Baby!

Happy Valentine's Day!!! I usually try to get up before my children and have their rooms heart attacked and raspberry french toast ready for breakfast, but this year they beat me to it. For some reason shortly after 5:00 am they all started appearing from their bedrooms. This is NOT a typical morning. I think they could sense the love being whipped up from the kitchen and wanted to help do the whippn' this time. We made breakfast together.

After breakfast it was Dad's turn to get in on the fun. The boys and I REALLY got a snicker out of this one. We decided to intrude upon the "Physician's Parking Only" section of the hospital and whip up a little more lovin.' We found some inflatable lips for a $1.00 at the dollar store and wanted to give Dad a great big kiss for Valentine's day. We took the extra set of keys for the truck and moved the truck front and center in the physician's parking lot. We covered it in homemade conversation hearts and left some hot lips for our old Daddy-0. The boys were laughing so hard. They kept saying, "Dad is going to walk out of the hospital and it will look like the truck wants to give him a great big kiss!!" They thought that was hysteric! We thought we were pretty sneaky, but one of the later arriving Doc's questioned Jonathan if his was the truck with all the paint and stuff on it in the parking lot. Jonathan was curious and surveyed the damage from a few stories up at the hospital. He had us figured out before the day was done, but we still thought we were pretty funny.

Matthew - 6

Matthew turned 6 and had his very first birthday party. What an exciting day for a young man. He had to sit through an entire day of kindergarten before he could indulge with friends and family. We decided to have a party that was all about him.

Favorite Color: Green

Favorite Animal: Frog

Favorite Thing to Do: Use Dad's tools

Favorite Food: Mac n' cheese and key lime yogurt

So we PARTIED, Matthew style.

Did you know you can buy a screwdriver at Wal-Mart for 82 cents? What more does a kid want in life than a hunk of wood, a cup of screws and a brand new shiny screwdriver? If you are Matthew, there is nothing. These boys screwed their hearts out. I pre-drilled pilot holes all along their names that I had painted on the wood. A nice home repair shop gave me their scrap wood and cut it down for me, didn't pay a dime for the pine. The screws were leftover drywall screws from the remodel in Bloomfield. Like I said, the perfect recipe for little boy heaven.

Toward the end of the screwing we whipped out a few mini nails and hammers. The only way I can describe it is F-U-N.

Next was pin the frog on Matthew's head. We used an old picture of Matthew with a tree frog on his head from Iowa.

And finally the cake. Matthew saw a green cake with Army men online and really wanted it. I was thrilled because it was an easy one to make. We whipped up a little homemade fondant that DIDN'T use marshmallows because I have never had luck with the marshmallow-y kind and starting cutting leaves. Viola! Green, army man cake in minutes.

Happy Birthday Mr. Amazing Matthew! We love you!

One Weekend's Quest to Find the Perfect Sledding Hill

Living in Iowa was wonderful. We had our own personal sledding hill in our backyard that was easily accessible and frequently covered in snow. Oregon has not allotted the same luxuries. So we decided if the sledding hill was not coming to us, we were going to have to go to it. And we did. Friday's stop was Page Mountain. All of Jonathan's chums at work swore this was the all time best place to sled and were certain it would be covered with snow this time of year. We trusted these long timers and packed up snow gear for the whole family, sleds, snacks and the dog and headed for the hills. We found Page Mountain, but we didn't find the mounds of snow we had anticipated. Disregarding the fact that the mountain had brambles and branches poking out of the snow we decided to give the hill a few good runs and made fun with what snow we could find. I had managed to layer 4 small children in snow clothes, underclothes, hats, gloves, and boots and wasn't about to let the 45 minute dress up session go to waste. So here we are:

Page Mountain

Page in all of its splendor. Where I come from we call this bare-nekked.

Matthew didn't have enough snow where he needed it to make his snow men and forts so he decided to load up the chunks he could on his sled and take them where he needed them. Not what I intended to do on our sledding trip, but he had fun.

Michael rode on Dad, and the dog.

Adam trekked up over and over again. He is by far our biggest die-hard.
Matthew ate wild blackberry bushes, and dirt
Andrew and the blue sky
Mr. Jenson eatn' a little snow...
and a bit of bush.
Jonathan is great to take the boys for rides down the hill. On he and Andrew's first ride it was a bit more chilly than Andrew had anticipated it would be with snow whipping in his face all the way down. He was sweet enough to take the brunt of it for his dad.

So Page was fun, but I think we found something a little bit better...

Union Creek

(Saturday, day two of the quest for a sledding hill)

This hill was so slick that Andrew had to hold onto the pole at the top of the hill so he didn't sled off without his dad. Well, he TRIED to hold on, but didn't quite make it until Dad was ready to roll and did a nice backwards slide all ALONE.

It was pretty funny watching this little kid slide down the mountainside, wish I could have read his little mind.

Matthew and Dad,

and their crash landing.

Mom and Andrew

Adam

Dad and Andrew

Oh, you noticed the red patches on Matthew's head and cheek. Well, he decided to leave a piece of himself at Union Creek. While we were unloading the truck he and Adam ran on ahead to start their sledding. Being the incorrigible age of 5, and possessing the mindset of my little Matthew, you think you can take on any mountain. Well, there are a few factors that not every 5 year old considers when choosing their first run of the day. Matthew sized up the mountain, climbed up and took it on, head first. He left blood stains on the snow, a legacy to be had by future sledders until sun or snow erased his indelible red mark. Being that his crash occurred on the first run down the hill we decided to make him tough it out and stay for the afternoon. He was a trooper. Jonathan and I didn't see the crash, we just heard about what a remarkable dive the kid took from all of the responsible parents that were attending their children on the hill while he and I were hanging out in the parking lot. I guess it was a doosy to watch. Poor kid has a scar.

MLK and Oreos (Martin Luther King that is)

I wanted my children to have a greater understanding of MLK day and our history regarding racial segregation. For family home evening we watched the Disney movie, "Perfect Harmony" which I thought was wonderful. Aside from the three older boys walking around all week singing, "All we like sheep,... have gone astray -aaaa-aaaa-aaaaaaa!" they really had an eye opener. They had no idea there were once issues of slavery and segregation. We threw in a little US history prior to the movie. We sat in front of the TV with our glasses of milk lined up on a cookie sheet catching drips (or on Dad's lap), dunked oreos and soaked in a little appreciation for MLK. I'd recommend it.

Primroses for Anna

Andrew was invited to a birthday party for a little girl that has become his dearest friend in nursery. She was the reason he finally started staying in nursery. She is a sweet little dear. We went to town to pick out a birthday present for her and after looking at toy after toy after toy we settled on some play dough something or other. When we were leaving the store we walked out to find a rack with flats of primroses. Andrew stopped and said, "Mom, wait! I have got to get Anna this!" He knew exactly which flower and exactly which color. No toy could ever hold a candle to one of these. We went back and got the $1.49 primrose. I have never seen a child so utterly delighted to give a gift in all of my life. It isn't so much that Andrew has a crush on Anna, or that he thinks boys give girls flowers, but he sensed the pure beauty of the flower and new it would match the same purity which posses his sweet friend Anna. From within his little boy heart he knew this was the greatest gift. It was beautiful.