Tim's 9th Birthday Party! The Crood's Theme

Like my saber tooth tiger? It took me a while to figure out what kind of cake I was gonna make for Tim. I saw a step by step plan for a shark head cake and thought I could take those ideas and convert it into the Crood's saber tooth tiger. He is 3D. Hard to tell in the picture, but his mouth is wide open, =) I also spent the night before, sowing leopard and zebra print bandannas for the teams. Hahahha, made me feel so domestic.

This group was a hard one to please. We had lots of games planned, but some didn't want to participate, or were not great in supporting their teammates. So, we played, but it was more of a free for all then organized games. We just rolled with it, and all was good.

 They went for the food challenges, well, all accept for one who told me, "I don't like gummy worms." Wow, that was a first for me. Never met a kid who doesn't like gummy worms topped with whip cream!

Tim loved his cake. He was proud of me, =) Even though this party didn't go as smooth as I had planned, we all had a great time. Tim made out like a bandit. 9 Lego sets, huge Nerf gun, books, and almost $100 in cash! He deserved it though. I am proud of you Tim, you are a fabulous kid!

Weston's 10th Birthday! Survivor Theme

 What a great group of kids! This was one of the best birthday parties James and I have done for the kids. We decided to throw Wes a party with a Survivor theme.  James put together challenges with elimination, although, even if you were eliminated, you still participated in every event. The above photo is our two teams getting ready to kick it off with a classic three legged race!

Tim loved the lemon relay race!

 In this challenge, I hid some squares of bubble gum in a mound of whipped cream.  With hands tied behind their backs, we had them search for the gum with their face. The first person to blow a bubble won immunity!

What would survivor be without the nasty food challenge?  On the menu we have smoked mussels, sardines, and canned spinach!

Jacobs face tells it all!

But it paid off! Jacob won the game, and was voted the best survivor player!

The best part...Wes telling me that was the BEST birthday party ever! Not only him, but all  the parents and kids thought so too. We played Kickball, 3 crazy food challenges, 2 different relay races, rubber band shooting, in your neighbors yard game, and ended in a fantastic scavenger hunt.  For the cake, I bought some candy rocks and worms, and tried to make it look like the worms where digging holes through out the  cake. Love you Wes! It's kids like you that make me love being a parent!

Apple Cider TIme!

 James' Grandpa lives way out in north Pasco area.  This is where all the different varieties of farms reside.  Luckily for us, grandpa lives next to a cherry and Golden Delicious apple orchard.  After the Apples are harvested, we go in and glean them to make apple cider. This is an all day event.  I think this year we did well over 40 jugs of cider. I volunteered to be in the kitchen with the help of Ian's mom to make the food for all the hard workers.  Lunch was butternut squash soup with coconut-ginger, and summer sausage potato soup with kale. Rissa made 6 loaves of delicious home made bread. There were no left overs, and we both got rave reviews. I then put together 3 large apple crisps with whip cream, and hot apple cider to top it off.  It was a fabulous day.  One I look forward to every year.

 I love it when they get the kids involved!

And here's our HAPPY BUNCH!

Halloween 2012

 So this year I got the kids dressed a little scary. Went to the good will and found some cute Halloween costumes.  I got brave too, and decided I could paint their faces.  The good part is, they all loved it.  This photo was taken just before we left to a cub scout meeting. Tim won the silver gourd award for his costume. He was pretty thrilled.

 Tim an I worked on this pumpkin.  I like the serious road rash this scary pumpkin has. Tim is adding his special touch.

 I decided to make a drag queen pumpkin. I'm kicking myself for not getting a picture of it all lite up. Those eye lashes and lips were awesome!

 I think Ian's sail boat pumpkin is really cool. And James did a great job on his giant Aztec pumpkin carving.

What is not shown here is the caramel apples and home made caramel popcorn.  They were so good, I guess I didn't get a chance to take pictures in between stuffing my face.

On Halloween we got to share this event with the neighbors who through a large get together at their home.  We had a fabulous potluck. Afterwards husbands took the kids trick-r-treating while the wives stayed and partied it up. When the kids returned, they set up all their candy and swapped amongst each other.  They say that's their favorite part. ...it was all my favorite

Paradise, Mt Rainier

We saved the best for last. There is a reason they call this part of the park Paradise. It is a well known hike where thousands come to take in its beauty. We are all looking a little rough as we hadn't taken a shower in 4 days, but who is looking at us? There is so much to see, I found myself often saying, "This is so amazing."  Mt Rainier from this tail is so huge, massive, majestic. If you only make it once to Rainier, this is the trail I recommend.

From one of the look outs, you can see Adams and Mt Saint Helen's.  It is such an awesome experience.  We did a little over 4 miles this day, and there were no complaints. 

Gotta take the time to play in the snow.

Love the waterfall off to the left of the picture on the mountain.  The glaciers were huge and mesmerizing.


The fields of flowers made it feel like you were in a story book. Like these 3 puffy cream colored flowers below.  We all called them mini Truffala trees from the Dr. Seuss book The Lorax.  Oh to be a honey bee in these fields. Pure heaven.

 See those cute little kids on the trail.  Yep, those are mine, =)

The trail ended with this beautiful waterfall.  Perfect way to end such a glorious experience.  I was thinking to myself how lucky I was to have experienced this with the ones I love the most. And even though I was sore, dirty, and tired, I wouldn't have changed a thing. Looking forward to doing it all over again. Maybe in five years or so. Rowan will be 5 and I will have teenagers. Time sure does fly when your having fun. I'm definitely enjoying these precious moments.

Grove of the Patriarchs and Silver falls Mt. Rainier

This day we decided to give our kids a little break, hehee. We hiked two different trails for a total of 4.3 miles. Definitely a must see at Rainer. The Grove of the Patriarchs is a island of really big trees that the park has worked hard to preserve. All along the trail were places to stop and explore. We all enjoyed it.

This was one of the big trees that fell in the 70's and you can climb into the trunk from the root end making this awesome photo prop. The kids thought it was super cool. I thought the photo turned out awesome.

The park did an awesome job of making a wood bridge/path through the trees.

 I looked at Rowan who was squealing with glee and saw a little inch worm crawling across his head. Super cute. He also is sporting some mosquito bites. I have to say, the bugs were not that bad. In the 4 nights we were there we only put bug spray on once. This was one of those times we should have done it back at the trail head. Poor little guy. He survived though.

Weston the mighty explorer

Silver Falls. There are a series of little falls to see before you reach the big one. Just beautiful.

Hike to Jug Lake and Sunrise

 Our first hiking trip definitely told me a couple of things about me and my kids. One, I am out of shape, and two, my kids are excellent hikers. We hiked 5 miles that day. It was a good trail, but about midway it got super steep and rocky.  Had a couple of complaints from the Alli and Wes, but Tim lead the pack with eagerness. So proud of all of them. Even Rowan wanted out of the pack to do his share of hiking.

 Once we got to Jug lake, I striped the kids down to their undies and threw their sweaty little bodies in the lake. There was a small handful of horseback riders that had brought up swimming pool air mattresses to float around on. It was kinda odd to see, but super cool.

No swim diaper here.

 The next day we drove into Rainier park and hiked around Sunrise . Part of the hike was on the famous Wonderland Trail. It was truly beautiful. Again, the kids hiked about 5 miles with Tim leading the pack. We loved the area. Wild flowers galore, streams, lakes, waterfalls, and...

 a herd of mountain goats grazing.

We had a blast with the patches of snow we ran into. Nothing like a snowball fight in August!

This is just one of the many beautiful vallies you'll run across on the trail. The fields of wild flowers smelled amazing.