Mommathon

Grandma came to visit and we kept her BUSY! The weather was super hot part of the time, but we were still able to get out and have some fun and we had a great time catching up.
We’ve kind of made it a tradition to paint pottery with Grandma.

Have I mentioned that grandad was not here? Super sad. Grandad should be in this picture too. 🙁

Dinner at one of our favorite places.

Cuddletime with Grandma

Lots of sewing went on while Grandma was here. Both of the boys made a bag to keep their knitting supplies in.

We picked a LOT of blueberries. When you have three adults and two kids picking berries and the weather is perfect, you get way more than you do when it’s just me and the two boys and it’s screamin’ hot outside. I see a lot of blueberry smoothies, blueberry pancakes and blueberry muffins in our future.

We also went bowling and swimming while grandma was here, but I don’t have any pictures of that. I am sure grandma is glad to be back home in her own bed now and not having to go, go, go all the time. We sure do miss her though. 🙁

I finally finished The Hunger Games trilogy. It was a great series…now I just need to see the movie.

Staying up late to watch the Olympics combined with getting up early to lead crafts at VBS all week led to a lot of napping on my part this week. I don’t know why, but I was wiped out at the end of the day most days this week. The boys had a great time at VBS though and the kids were great. We made a lot of neat crafts and really enjoyed getting to know some of the other parishioners at our church.

Liam getting his craft on at VBS.

We had time to have a friend over to swim one afternoon. Here they are doing pool gymnastics.

One of the greatest things about living here is that about this time of year you can just walk down the street and pick blackberries.

I really, really liked this book which surprised me since I am not a huge Barbara Kingsolver fan. I had no idea what it was about when I started reading it, but it turns out it is historical fiction. It follows the life of Harrison Shepherd growing up in Mexico and eventually working as a cook for Trotsky, Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera. I won’t tell you any more. I don’t want to give anything else away. 🙂

We headed south for this little adventure (southwest, actually). The weather was perfect and we got to go crabbing…definitely not something I thought I would ever do and we stayed in a yurt, also something I have never done.

Since it was kind of a long drive, we made a pitstop at OSU and rode our bikes around the campus.

I really cool sculpture on OSU’s campus made out of willow.

The inside of Umpqua Lighthouse

Liam climbing up into the part where the light is.

These glass panels spin slowly around. They are so pretty, but you kind of get dizzy up there looking at them.

These two LOVE to dig in the sand.

S’mores…a must have when camping.

So, we went crabbing. It was awesome. We were way more successful than I thought we would be. It’s actually very easy. Just get some traps and some VERY stinky bait, set it all up, throw in the traps, wait about 15 minutes and VOILA…crabs!

Pulling in our haul…let me just say I was absolutely terrified the entire time that one of the boys was going to fall off the pier.

One of the funniest parts of the whole experience was Colm getting a crab stuck on one of his gloves. It pinched Colm through the glove, Colm freaked out and flung the poor thing clear across the pier.

Success!!!

Our yurt

We saw some elk on the way home.

We had our 3rd Annual Popsicle Stand last week to benefit the Oregon Food Bank. It was a slow start, but things picked up at the end and we ended up not having any leftover popsicles.

Making their signs

Popsicles for sale…50 cents a popsicle!

The boys and I and some of our friends went on a behind the scenes tour of the Rose Garden Arena (where the Portland Trailblazers play) last week. It was very cool.

Learning about all of the security that goes into the Rose Garden. We also learned about how they change the floor from a hockey floor to a basketball floor in a short amount of time.

They were getting ready for a hockey game while we were there.

Liam and his friend relaxing at The Sphere…a fancy schmancy restaurant/night club that is only for Trailblazers and their families.

The bathroom in the Trailblazer’s suite.

We got to touch the basket even though they weren’t up.

Running through the fountain after the tour.

All the boys

Sean’s highlight last week was that he got an espresso maker.

Colm was busy pitting cherries and finishing his first knitting project…a hat!

Liam spent his afternoons last week at a biology class where they learned about and even dissected invertebrates. They also created their own invertebrate with paper måché with a backstory to go along with it. This picture isn’t a very good representation of his project, but at least you get to see Liam’s smiling face. 🙂

On Friday I took the boys to a pizza/video game place…kind of like Chuck E. Cheese on steroids. It was little much for me, but the boys had a good time.

It was hard to take a picture because they went spinning by way too fast.

These are the last two books I have read. Both of them deal with families that are highly dysfunctional, in different ways, but dysfunctional all the same. I am tired of reading about other people’s problems and will choose a different kind of book next. I need something a little more light-hearted. It IS summer after all. I am supposed to be reading something light-hearted, right? That’s why we have beach reads. Total fluff.

What have we been up to this week?

Bowling

Swim Lessons

Shelling peas with our neighbors

Summer book club for 3rd grade boys…lots of fun and a great way to get kids reading during the summer. We discussed the book, played a game that had to do with the book and then all of the boys and their siblings went swimming. We had lots of snacks for them to munch on while they were swimming and popsicles at the end. If nothing else, no one went home from book club hungry. 🙂