bracelets

Crafts have taken over nap times this week.  

Monday we did lanterns.

Tuesday I let the boys make a royal mess with some paper punches and colored paper.  

Thanks to an idea I saw on Pinterest, today I made some handmade bracelets for this weekend.

(via Motherhuddle, another site I love!)

I love them! 

I am seriously loving Pinterest.  If you haven't looked at it yet, go...now!  Such a fun place.  I have to really limit when I look at it, it is seriously addictive.  Now, if someone could hand me a few extra hours in the day so I could do and make all the things I find....

paper lanterns

 At nap time this afternoon Gage and I made a few festive 4th of July Paper Lanterns.

Thanks to the Crafting Chicks for the idea and easy instructions!  

Of course if you click on their name for the link you will notice that their's look one million times better than ours, but Gage was super proud and I think they look fun.

I think tomorrow we will have to make these stars we did a few years ago.

Sunday Photo

We just got home from residency graduation at the Tacoma Yacht Club.  Such a bitter sweet event.  Our great friend Micah graduated tonight.  With the residency closing things are getting pretty slim.  Looks like the next year will be full of Wade, Wade, and more...oh yeah, Wade!  (I am so NOT looking forward to the hours!) Wade likes to joke and tell everyone to watch out because he is the "Chief Resident" now.  Chief of who, we aren't quite sure.  I told him he will always be our chief at home.

We are pretty sad to see Micah and Alison go.  They are always there for us, keep us laughing & such good friends and support.  We truly love their family.  We are excited for them and their next chapter.  And we are excited they aren't moving too far away (Portland!) so we can visit them!

For graduation Wade and I planned a few speical presents for Micah.  First Wade and the office staff got him a new white coat with his name embroidered on it.  But Wade and I also got him a few special gifts.  The first was a one pound chocolate foot.  Ordered straight from a company called, Toe Food!  But the last gift was from me.  Since there were a lot of days I felt that Micah saw Wade more than I got too, I didn't think that Micah should move so far away and not see Wade daily.  So we gave him a framed picture of Wade. The best was that on the back we attached a recording device of Wade's voice asking Micah how to spell stuff. (Apparently, Wade always is asking Micah how to spell.)

Congratulations Micah and Alison!  

Only one more year for us!  YAY!

Milkshake

Mr. Eli has been introduced to yummy milkshakes and ice cream.  

He absolutely can't get enough of them.  

Good stuff Mr. Eli.  

Good stuff! 

Summer Activities

Today is our first offical day of summer! Bonus: It finally feels like it too!  

This morning I finished off some activity jars thanks to the the Crafting Chicks.

The kids are pretty excited to get started on these jars.  We are so glad the sun is finally shining and it is starting to warm up.  Pea pods and tomatoes are starting to dot our garden.  Last night we got a "new" to us play set   I had to remind the kids this morning that it probably isn't a good idea to be outside playing on it at 6:45 in the morning.  I am positive that our neighbors love us!

No matter the activity, I have to remember to keep my eye on Miss Avery Ann.  I found her this morning outside at her picnic table acting pretty sneaky.  She had grabbed my phone off the counter and was outside playing Starfall.  When I asked her what she was doing she nonchalantly replied, "I found letter O!"

O for Outsmarting.  She is a tricky one!

So Long First Grade...

On Monday Gage finally had his last day of school and said good bye to first grade!  

What a year it has been!

First Day:

Last Day:

We started the morning off with a little celebration. He woke up to find a banner hung in his honor and the music to "Celebrate Good Times" playing.  We all ate our breakfast and had a great dance party.  Wade came down and thought we were all a little nuts!

Gage was a very hard worker in first grade.  Gage started kindergarten knowing all his letters and all their sounds.  He came out knowing some site words.  But in first grade reading is the majority of the curriculum and despite his best efforts it hasn't "clicked" as fast as he would have liked it.  But like I remind him, slow and steady wins the race.  He hasn't always enjoyed the practice worksheets that I have him do, but in the past few weeks I have seen him really get excited over it.  He is trying really hard this summer to work on the library reading program and earn some prizes.  This weekend he read out loud to me for an hour!  I know he will get it if he just keeps it up!

Gage has really loved science and math.  He decided to enter the science fair this year and got to take his board to district.  He won people's choice! (I think thanks to all those pictures of those big brown eyes!)

In March Gage won a "Bright Knight" award for writing.  He really enjoys writing stories and letters.  He loves to write about space.  He likes to write his best friend Maren letters.  When he brought home all his work from this year I found lots and lots of stories about space, but his spring break journal was pretty cute.  His spelling isn't the best, but it's pretty cute either way!

"I did on spring bread (break). I went to the hands on chilchins (childrens) myooseaum (museum).  I went with my frend Loko (friend Luca).  My fererit (favroite) part was rasean bots (racing boats).  The neks (next) day I went to paygeroop (playgroup).  My sister got sik there.  The neks day we had to stay hom.  The little tow had to take a nap.  I stay up.  The neks day my sister was a little beter.  We went to the store to biy new shoos.  I learned how to tiy my shoos in two days."

The kids had little envelopes on their desks where they could write each other notes and keep them.  I found all kinds of notes from his friend Maren.  My favorite had to be the one that said,


"To Gage, From Maren.  2 little kids sitting in a tree.  One named Maren and one named Gage"


Too cute!


Gage also really loved art this year.  The school doesn't have an art program, but has parent volunteers come in and teach art.  In the spring they had an art show where art work was all over the school.  Gage got to bring home his art portfolio.  All his art work is bound together, one of my favorites is his Starry Night impression.

Friday after the schools field day I got a picture of Gage and Maren with their teacher Miss Stellfox.  He has really loved her.  He is so excited to be a second grader!

Family Reunion, Day 4 & 5

Sunday was the fourth day of the reunion.  Some of us got up early and made it to the 9 o'clock church. Others (tried) to sleep in and made it to the 1 o'clock.

The kids had a good time after church watching movies and playing together.

And of course we had a good time with the fire pit and marshmallows all weekend long.

Each family was responsible for a lunch or dinner throughout the weekend.  Since there were 3 full days, breakfast was cereal every morning, that left 6 other meals, and 6 families work out perfectly!  The meals were all great.  We had:
sandwich bar
pizza
spaghetti
chinese
BBQ ribs (a favorite!)
pulled beef sandwiches

We had no idea that would leave us with so much food and leftovers though!  (I suggested next time only making dinner for the group).  Anyway...Sunday night was our meal.  We made breakfast for dinner!  I made pancake after pancake after pancake while Wade made eggs, sausage and bacon.   And since we served pork 2 ways (bacon AND sausage!) that put us over the "BBQ ribs" served the day before and in the lead of being favorite meal!

After dinner everyone was full, but we had two participants willing to give the pancake eating contest a try.  Gage and Ben.  Not really a fair competition, but Gage gave it his all.  Maybe next time we will have to have age categories.

DAY 5:
We headed home.  I think my favorite line from the whole trip came on our way home. Coming across Eastern Washington Gage had just downed his happy meal and an orange soda.  He was relaxing in the backseat watching a DVD.  When he asked if we had anymore water, and I answered no, he said to me, "I feel like a pioneer!  I am so thirsty and this is so hard!"

~~
I am blessed to have such wonderful parents who organized this trip and made it possible.  I am blessed to have such fun siblings.  In my eyes this family reunion was such a success!  The Christiansens already can't wait for the next one!

Family Reunion, Day 3

Day three started off bright and ealry with the sibling (and spouse) breakfast. The Grandparents (and Wade who was worried about Grandpa picking up the babies since he had surgery on his shoulder not too long ago) stayed at home and we headed out for breakfast.  I would insert the word "little" before breakfast, but that would not apply.  Here, Evan shows off his appetizer cinnamon roll.  That was the size of his head.

After breakfast we took a few family pictures and soaked up some much needed Vitamin D.

Then after lunch (everything revolves around the menu, the food and the meals in my family!) we had group family pictures down by the lake.  Then the kids had a fun time throwing rocks.

Uncle Dave and Aunt Karen

Avery had a good time.  The water was cold, but that didn't stop her.  It didn't take long before she lost her pants...and then her diaper.  Silly girl!

Bird man Noah.

Pointer Gage.

The diaper back on.

And Mr. Eli.

After dinner and bedtime (for a few of my kids at least!) we held the 2011 Coke Challenge!

I broke down and let my boys play.  Noah drank every cup super fast. He doesn't care what it is, as long as it has carbonation.  Gage was pretty serious.  The week before the reunion he got really worried about the Coke Challenge and told me that he needed to drink a lot of coke so he knows what it tastes like!

Since I won the challenge last time, I didn't compete this time, but organized it.  Sadly enough, Wade didn't represent our family well.

Go Josh!  He was the winner of the 2011 Coke Challenge! (Noah totally looks mad in the picture!) haha!

Bullard Family Reunion - Day one and two

The Bullard family reunion was held this year on June 9th -13th in McCall, Idaho.  Because of work, school and two slaves...I mean residents in the mix, it's hard to get our schedules to work.  Not to mention that we are all scattered - across the entire nation - Tennessee, Michigan, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and Washington.  We've had a few "sister weekends" here and there, but the last time we all were together was Christmas 2007!

Thursday we headed out bright and early for our road trip.  We got to caravan with Grandma and Grandpa Bullard.  No road trip is complete without this same exact picture of Wade that I get every time:)

It really isn't that bad of a trip.  About a nine hour drive - which is a piece of cake compared to our 14 hour Utah drive.  Gage and Noah were pretty excited when I showed them the "grab bag" of presents.  They opened their new sets of Lego's after lunch.  I am still very surprised we didn't lose any in the car.  They are really careful with their Legos.

My old stomping grounds!  It was so fun to drive through Lewiston, Idaho and show Wade and the kids were I used to live.  (Our family lived there from 1989-1994). I think Wade had now been to 3 of the 4 places I grew up as a kid.  Not too bad, I doubt we will ever get back to Bruce, Mississippi.  But I guess you never know!

My old elementary school!  Gage thought this was great!

Our house!  I remember it looking so much bigger as a kid.  And the trees have grown and are huge now!  Funny how that happens.

I wish we would have had more time to drive around.  My parents did drive us by a nice new podiatry office and hinted to Wade it would be a good place to practice.  I wouldn't mind that so much.  Although, honestly, I think I can be happy anywhere we have a job with better hours and a bigger place for our family.  I digress....

Around dinner time we pulled into McCall and found Conifer Lodge.  This place was perfect for us!  Talk about huge!  It had 11 rooms (one that had 13 beds!), 7 bathrooms, two laundry rooms (Seriously, I think I was most excited about the laundry situation, I am so jealous!  Two laundry rooms, and one that had two dryers!  What a perfect set up!  I was in heaven!!!)

The girl cousins had made everyone room signs.

This was our room, with some mess thrown in.  We lucked out and got one of the two master bedrooms.  Maybe the fact we had two portable cribs to set up had something to do with that.

 This is where Gage and Noah slept.  We called it the orphanage.  13 beds!  The boys were so excited to sleep there with all their cousins, but when we got there were found out no one else wanted to sleep up there...so Wade slept up there and they had Father's Sons weekend on the top floor of the lodge!

The playroom was also on the top floor.  If you look close maybe you can see Gage's school book that we accidentally left there...and one of Avery's tu-tu dresses.

It didn't take us long to dive into the playroom.  Or for Avery to find the dress up clothes.  The girl was in heaven!

And Eli? Not so much!  (Chandra, does this remind you of Blackula from a few years ago?) hahaha!

The Triplets hanging out, wrapping up day one!

DAY TWO:

Friday was the river raft trip day for part of our crew.  10 people geared up and had an adventure on the Salmon River.  Wade had a good time.  He got thrown out of the boat a few times, one of the times he kept coming up UNDER the boat.  But he survived.  We are all very happy.  I don't have the pictures yet, so I will post more about the trip when I get them.

The rest of us just hung out at the cabin.  It might sound boring, but it was nice to relax and I think the kids had fun just running around, being together and playing.

Cute baby Madison!  And we found out she is going to be a big sister! (guess I can't call her baby anymore?)  What fun news!

Noah and Chief Noah.

Miss Avery Ann was all sorts of trouble, but is that any surprise?  I took this picture after she locked herself in the entry way!  She loved trying to coax her cousin Daniel into the many bathroom and would then try and turn on the shower.  One we found them in the bathtub together and she had managed to take her diaper off so they could take a bath!

Eli and Uncle Dave!

Noah blasting a rocket off the second floor landing.  Grandma, you did NOT see this picture!  No one got hit, or hurt:)

Aunt Jenny gave the little girl cousins a little makeover with some lip gloss and mascara.  They thought they were super models.

Allison.

Avery.

Gage...oops.  He didn't get lip gloss or mascara.  But he was a handsome cow boy who came to save the girls.

Charlotte.

Maren and the group.

Eli eating.  And eating.  I know I came home with a few extra pounds from this trip, I think we all did with the amount of food we made...with the exception of Eli, but the little man did try to pack it all down!

Avery being good reading books:)

Uncle Ken and Madison looking very grumpy.

Uncle Ken and Madison looking even more grumpy! haha!  Maybe because the chocolate muffins were almost gone.

And Gage and Charlotte performing a play.  We had a few performances that evening.  The kids were great entertainment.