Fire Station Field Trip

Last Friday, Jemma's preschool took a field trip to the Forest Grove Fire Station. They asked for parents to volunteer to chaperon, and with Carter LOVING big vehicles of ANY kind, I signed up...(Don't think I'll be doing that again for a while unless I find someone to watch the boys...Carter was ALL OVER THE PLACE and Gavin was super fussy...it was his nap time...what did I expect...I guess that he would fall asleep in the stroller. No. Such. Luck.)

Awesome Fire Fighter.

Jemma using the hose.

The mischievous one.

This is the best shot I could get of Jemma in the fire engine.

Jem's preschool class on the fire engine.

Lots. Of. Fun.

Despite, my stressful experience, Jemma had a TOTAL and CoMpLeTe BLAST and spent HOURS when we got home working on the coloring book they gave her. In hind sight, I am glad I was there to share it with her. :)

Just a few things that have been goin' on...

mostly just stuff that we want to remember...

On Monday, when Jemma was gone to preschool and Gavin was napping, Carter wanted me to play "the buttoe-fly game" with him ... (aka Elefun). It didn't take long for him to decide that he liked playing with the elephant trunk off better than on. There is a much faster and more effective result when he hit the "on" switch.

"Buttoe-flies" EVERYWHERE!

I have gotten into a bad habit of letting Jemma turn on a movie for every quiet time lately... but the other day, I happened upon this idea here and thought, it's about time "the girls" did a little craft together.

IT WAS A HIT!

Jemma said over, and over, and over again that she was having such a FUN DAY.

When Carter woke up, she took him by the hand and led him downstairs to where we were crafting and when we were all done, she took as many kids as were outside playing to our back porch to show them where she had taped up our leaves.

And then today when I got home from a Dr.'s appointment with Gavin, she showed me the stack of wax paper she had cut out while I was gone so we could get crackin' on some more of those leaves. Maybe we'll do some really big ones this time. :)

So, I know Gavin is only 4 months old and that I might be a bit early on the whole solid food thang, but seriously...I am SUPER ready for a consistent sleeping routine that involves at least 8 hours of uninterupted sleep!!!!

He's not big on the idea...

we'll keep at it though, cuz I'm gettin' DESPERATE!

4 months

At four months, Gavin is:

Smiling

Laughing

Cooing

Rolling over (from back to belly...his arm just gets stuck most of the time)

Sitting (in a bumbo)

Almost sleeping through the night...(wakes once in an 11 hour span)

and is such a fun part of our family!

Lots of Birds

Monday night, we headed over to Portland to view the Vaux Swifts (birds). We had heard about their nesting in the old chimney of a school (Chapman School to be precise) every September before they migrate and how it's an incredible sight. Thanks to our friends, the Skinner's, our seeing this phenomena became a reality. :)

We got there about an hour before sunset to get a good spot on the field and had a picnic dinner.

Carter through the football around to pass the time...

And Jemma slid down the hill on a cardboard box with buddies, Jefferson and Grant. (Thanks Kristina and Shawn for bring the box along! That was genius!!)

They seriously did this the whole time we were there. They maybe took a 10 minute break for dinner and to watch the birds...and ONLY 'cause we made them. I asked Jemma if she even saw the birds when we were headed home, and she said she did while she was sliding down the hill...


Here's a pic of the chimney...pretty darn old. Apparently, it used to be the schools heat source, but in true Oregonian style, once it was discovered that the swifts were nesting there every September, they stopped using it...hopefully they have implemented a new source of heat so the kids aren't FREEZING every winter on behalf of the "September Swifts".


Don't know if you can really see, but there are little black specks in the sky there...the birds were just beginning to gather at this point.



Carter and Reagan having some brownies to kill time.


Once the sun started setting, HUGE groups of these birds started circling and eventually diving into the chimney. The sight is pretty indescribable and I WISH I had video taped it. We even had a hawk show up trying to pick off some of these little guys for dinner. There was one casualty of which we're aware...one little bird fell out of the sky and landed just up the hill from where we were sitting...the poor folks sitting right next to where it fell got a bit closer to a swift than they had planned on I'm sure.


The pics below were taken by Kristina...they are AWESOME! And, hopefully give you a better idea of what we saw...

The crowd totally gets into it. We CHEERED and CLAPPED every time a group of these birds would plunge into the chimney, and then we all marvled over how THOUSANDS of these birds could even all fit inside.

Mr. Gavin even got a little souvenir...Brandon and I were talking about how lucky we were that none of us had been pooped on with all these birds flying over head...not 2 minutes later, we look down and poor little Gavin has a nice blob of bird dropping on his head. We wiped half of it off before we thought to document the occurence with a photo, but there you have it...

Thanks Skinner Family for inviting us to see the Vaux Swifts! It ROCKED and Jemma and Carter have asked to go back multiple times a day ever since.

Just so you know...

I heard Carter say this morning,

"I smell sumping... "

(a couple seconds pass)...

"I smell poopoo on my bum."

Delightful.

Off to Preschool

Jemma started preschool yesterday.

I knew she would be fine, well more than fine. She has been so excited to start going to a "real school". She has a late birthday (December) so she missed the cut-off for kindergarten this year.

I'm sighing in relief and she's bummed.

I did a co-op preschool last year with some friends, and she made sure this year, "preschool" was going to be held somewhere other than our house and friends' houses.

I don't think it's because she didn't enjoy it...(I sure hope not or all that work was for naught!) I think it's more that all her friends at church and from that preschool are starting kindergarten, and she's feelin' a bit left behind. How do you explain to a 4 3/4 year old that once you start school, that's your life for like the next 15 years...and it's a whole lot of work! Live up the free, no-homework life while you can!?

I had to practically beg her to get this pic. She was in the room, backpack in cubby, name tag on, and working on a puzzle before I made it even halfway through the door with the boys.

Doesn't she look so grown-up?

Where has the time gone?

Quotables

This morning, Carter was asking Jemma if she wanted to play cars with him...these two are generally better parallel players rather than interactive players, so I complimented Carter on inviting Jemma to play with him, to which he responded,

"That's a warm fuzzy! "

me: "That's right, that's a warm fuzzy."

Carter: "And warm m&ms."

(This boy loves m&ms and will do ANYTHING for them.)

A few other things the kids have said that crack me up:

Carter:

"I want diamonds!" (diamonds = vitamins)

"Gavin's spitting!!!" (It's generally just a bit of drool.)

(While I'm sewing...)

"Stop Mom! It's making loudy!"

Jemma:

(This is the jist of a conversation we had the other day.)

me: Jemma, can you stop growing?

Jemma: No Mom, I have to get bigger and bigger until I'm a mom.

me: But then you'll leave me!

Jemma: No Mom, I can be your kitchen girl!

me: Does that mean you'll do all the cooking and cleaning for meals?

Jemma: Ya, mom!

me: If you're a mom though, that means you'll have a husband. Where will he stay?

Jemma: Here! He can be in the kitchen too!

Jibber Jabber

Gavin is changing SO much.

He talks, and coos,

and SCREAMS

when he wants attention

or when he's in the bathtub...

not sure if that's because he thinks it's above and beyond fun,

or if it's because it's wiggin' him out.

Anyhow, here's the little guy havin' a chat with me.

Like father like son.

Need I say more?

There may be one difference.

Brandon doesn't usually golf in Lightning McQueen jammies and flip-flops.