The Gospel According to Mater

I was rather amused the other day when I heard what sounded like a Sunday school lesson coming from Abby's room, complete with Bible songs and prayers. I went to check it out and found that Ryan had set up his Cars toys for a church service in which Mater was the preacher!

Geared Up

Ryan and Abby all geared up and ready to fight the bad guys (which often ends up being me).

Eye Appointment

Ryan had an appointment with his eye surgeon Friday. We have been going in about every five or six months to check on his progress. This time she hinted that we might need to do some patching again at some point, but for now she is happy with his vision and the positioning of his eyes. One eye has better vision than the other, but she said it's good to have a strong eye. So we go back to see her again in November, and then she said we may be able to go down to one visit per year!

Catching a Blessing

I'm not sure why, but I am always so blessed when I "catch" Ryan reading to Abigail. Sometimes he does it because I ask him to, but often I will find him doing it just for the fun or because she asked him to. In this picture he is finishing up the last chapters of Nim's Island.

The Talker

Ryan is quite the chatterbox at times. The other day as Daddy and I were trying to have a conversation, he was chattering away at no one in particular. I said to him, "You really like to talk, don't you?" To which he replied, "Yeah, I've got a lot on my mind."

Try, Try Again

We keep a small Etch-a-Sketch in the van for the kids to play with, but Ryan doesn't draw with it for very long. He gets frustrated because he can't make it draw what he wants (I have the same problem!). Yesterday, as we were getting out of the van I hear an excited little boy saying, "Look, I finally drew something good on the Etch-a-Sketch!" Can you guess what it is?

Hint: Just like the previous post, it has a Star Wars theme.

Charades

One of the ways Ryan passed the time at urgent care was playing charades. Can you guess what he is?

Hint: Think Star Wars.

Celebrating Abby's Birthday

We took advantage of our first day with temps above the 60s to be outside enjoying the sunshine. Since it was Abby's birthday, we got her "approval" to go to the coast and do some tide pooling. First we stopped at a fun logging camp restaurant, Camp 18, and Ryan wouldn't stop bugging us to go climb on all the old equipment.


Then, much to Ryan's dismay, we made a brief stop to see what was left of the tallest Sitka Spruce in the U.S. Ryan had no interest in this at all and just wanted to get to the beach!


Not the Sitka we came to see, but a neat tree formation nonetheless.
Finally, after some parking issues, we managed to climb down onto the beach. There were lots of people out enjoying the negative tide and the sunshine, but it really wasn't too terribly crowded.



Haystack Rock and the Needles.
Ryan was dying to see starfish (which he did), and he also saw muscles like this huge one he's holding, and anenomes and other critters. He even muscled up the courage to hold a hermit crab that Daddy found among the rocks and barnacles!



Ryan really enjoyed himself, especially once he found his much-sought after starfish. But all good things have to end, and the tide came in after a couple of hours so we left the beach and went geocaching before heading home.


Once we arrived home both kids were dying for Abby to open her gifts. Ryan has known what he wanted to get Abby for months now, and she was very excited to get it, a baby to go with her other Snap 'N Style dolls! Here he's giving her a birthday kiss, for him a more magnanimous gesture than the gift itself.


We were hoping that once Abby got a bike Ryan's competitiveness wouldn't allow him to give in to his fear any longer, and we weren't disappointed! While Abby was getting her new helmet and pads on, Ryan got out his long-forgotten bike and tore around the street like he had been riding it every day for the last two years. We hardly been able to get him to ride it because his fear of falling sucks all the joy out of him riding it (and drives me to distraction!), but yesterday he either conquered his fear or quit pretending to be so afraid and had a blast riding bikes with his sister!

LaCrosse Game

Daddy won tickets to see Portland's professional LaCrosse team the Lumberjax Friday night. We have been wanting to go, but now we had a great reason to do so...it was free! We picked up Daddy from work and then went out to dinner at Red Robin since we had a free coupon due to Abby's birthday. Then we parked on the street and took the light rail to the Rose Garden Arena.


Both kids were really excited, but Ryan particularly so. We had to read the rules in the program since we had no idea how the game is played, but it was a fast-paced game and we had a good time. I think Ryan's favorite part is yelling!



The music was incredibly loud, the people behind us terribly profane (although a bit better after we asked them to cut out the foul language) and Lumberjax ended up losing, but we still enjoyed our evening and may try to go again sometime.


Jaxon, the mascot.

New Challenge

Ryan has grown so skilled at checkers that he has been beating Daddy quite a bit lately. This afternoon Daddy broke out Stratego and started to teach him how to play. I stink at this game, and Daddy's hoping Ryan will get good enough at it that he will be a challenge to him since I won't play with him any more.

Doing Math

Whatever works has been my motto lately. Ryan has taken to doing his math book in strange spots lately. I used to fight with him to get him to sit at the table "correctly," but I just decided that wasn't a battle that was worth having. Now, with the exception of doing his assigned writing, he can sit however he wants as long as I can read his work and he isn't distracted.

Blooming Capitalist

Ryan has discovered the value of money in recent months. He has been asking for ways to earn money and has expressed some pretty capitalistic ideas. For instance, when Gramie was here we were waiting while our gas tank was being filled (yep, we aren't allowed to pump our own gas in Oregon), and Ryan said, "Mommy, when I grow up and if I own a gas station, if more people want diesel than gas, I'm going to raise the price of diesel, but if more people want gas than diesel, then I'm going to raise the price of gas and lower diesel."


Then when he found out that the bank pays you to put money into savings, he wanted to run right down and get his small fortune put into the bank! I think his main motivation is that he really wants to save enough money to buy this really cool R2-D2 robot that he saw on a video some time ago. Hopefully by the time he saves $120 he will be done with his R2 obsession and will use the money for something else! In the meantime he has been having fun translating words and phrases into "R2" with this cute website.

Goofing Off

I have a list of things I had planned to get done while Daddy was gone, but, alas, they remain undone so far. We are all missing him so much that on a whim I decided to just have a fun day yesterday. Ryan was counting his money and asking questions about banking, and once he heard you can earn interest, he wanted to go to the bank right then and put his meager savings into his bank account. He also wanted a tour of the bank but had to content himself with being lifted up to see behind the counter and taking a look into the vault (really, what else is there?). Being a typical six-year-old though, he found the play area infinitely more interesting than anything the bank had to offer!


After our bank outing we went out to breakfast at a local restaurant, then to a new place that just opened a few weeks ago called Out of This World (or what the kids call Pizza Planet). We got some half-off gift certificates and decided to buy a membership last week. I brought my book and just let the kids play to their heart's content. We stayed for FOUR hours, and they had a blast. They wanted to stay longer, but we were all hungry and I didn't want to buy food there (we're saving that for Abby's birthday).


In addition to the three-story play structure,
they have inflatables...

and a rock crawl (not to be confused
with a rock climbing wall!)...

and what they call Glider cars. Of course R & A have their
very own and were racing around like mad on the race track!

Again, Ryan has his own train table, but he still
spent quite a bit of time playing with this one.

After getting a quick bite to eat, we picked up some milk and the game of Life at Fred Meyer. We came home played the game and then it was bedtime. It was a very fun day for all, and the kids fell asleep almost as soon as their heads hit the pillow!

Reading Time

I went to check on how Ryan's reading was going yesterday and found him training his buddies how to read. He had a book open for each one, and they were all happily reading their stories. Sprinkles was reading The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Speckles was reading The Tale of Jasper Jay, and Ryan was reading Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue!

No Joke

I thought maybe it was an April Fool's joke when I saw the forecast for April 1st was completely dry and 60 degrees! Thankfully, it wasn't a joke, and we got outside and had a wonderful time in the sunshine. We went to the park for several hours, and then came home and planted some shrubs in our empty flower beds. When Daddy came home, he mowed the lawn while Ryan pulled weeds for about an hour (and earned three bucks doing so)!


Yes, believe it or not, there are shrubs in that flower bed!

Budding Game Designer

Ryan has been talking about making up a game for a while, and when Gramie was here he finally decided to do it. She wasn't clear on the rules, so she had him write them out before she agreed to play it with him. It's called "Hurricanes and Tornadoes," and it turned out to be fairly playable (much to my surprise).



It wasn't his best penmanship, but what it tells you what happens if you roll each number:

Roll a 6: Tornado and Hurricane-Lose house and car
Roll a 5: Tornado-Lose house
Roll a 4: Hurricane-Lose car
Roll a 1: Lose turn
Roll a 2: Get house back
Roll a 3: Get car back

Park Playdate

While Gramie was here we had at least one day of nice weather, so we took advantage of it by meeting some friends at the park. It was sunny and dry, but still a bit chilly, so we didn't stay as long as usual. Ryan still had lots of fun with his buddy Frankie

Easter with Gramie

Though Easter kind of crept up on me quickly this year, we did still manage to do most of our usual activities. Ryan loves to bake cookies, especially roll-out ones where you get to cut them out and decorate them. So we made a batch of sugar cookies, and they turned out quite pretty!


We had the special treat of having my mom visit for Easter. Before picking up Gramie at the airport, we had enough time to do a few geocaches. We haven't been for months due to the wet weather, but it was finally dry enough. We put Ryan up in this tree for a picture and he tried his best to be brave, but you can tell he's clinging to the tree and can't wait to get down!


Next we headed to the airport where the kids waited impatiently for Gramie to arrive. It was a fun reunion!


That evening we colored eggs with Gramie.


Then Sunday was Easter! Ryan looked rather handsome in his vest and slacks.


Trying on Abby's Easter bonnet...silly boy!


Ryan and Abby each got two baskets this year: one from Mommy and Daddy and one from Gramie.

The Month in Photos

Ryan has made such progress with swimming, not only
in skill but in overcoming his fears!




Daddy took the kids to a fire station tour with our
homeschool and playgroup kids. They got to walk through
the fire engine and ambulance as well as see the fire station.
The best part was that there was an alarm while they were
there so they got to watch the firemen in action!



Inside the ambulance with his friend Vincent from
across the street.




Enjoying our Valentine's Tea Party.




Ryan had been complaining that he had way too much
responsibility, so we let Abby and him be the parents
one Saturday. They lasted all of about 90 minutes
before wanting to be the kids again. Here is Ryan
trying to decide what to make all of us for breakfast.




Ryan loves doing crafts, and when I saw this cute little
wood model at Michael's for $1, I picked it up to give him
some rainy day. Well, it's been raining plenty around here,
so he got to do this project this month.




With the exception of helping with an obstinate axle and
the cloth cover, he pretty much did the whole thing himself.
It turned out really cute.




Fishing, but not catching, at Vernonia.




Reeling in a "salad fish," aka weeds from the
bottom of the lake.




Daddy is teaching Ryan to fly cast, and he's
finding harder than it looks!




In order to break up the monotony of memorizing math
facts, Ryan loves to do word problems (go figure!). I
found a good basic word problem book at the learning store
a few weeks ago, and he has almost finished it already.




We have been getting together once a week with some new friends from church. They homeschool as well and have a boy and girl just about Ryan's and Abby's age. Keston is about six months older than Ryan and doesn't let Ryan boss him around, which is just what we were looking for!




Making light sabers from modeling clay.