Petpalooza!

On Saturday we went to Petpalooza. It was a really fun day with gobs of activities going on. There were about 50 vendors, a Canine Disc Competition (shown below), K-9 Dancing, performing pigs, dog fashion show, pet parade, face painting, and hundreds of dogs of every breed to visit with and give loves to.

Lacey got transformed into a Kitty and Seth enjoyed a hot dog (no pun intended).

One of our favorite things, was the K-9 Dancing. It is actually a mix of extreme obedience and some agility put to music. Very entertaining!

This was a first time event but considering the number of people there, I wouldn't be surprised to see it again annually. It was a lot of fun.

Cute Drawings

Lacey is always making drawings for me. This one is the result of her asking me for my four favorite animals and four foods. It has a Tiger with Pizza, a Boxer with Pineapple, a Pug with a hamburger and Sugie Boogie (our old dog) with macaroni and cheese.
Her other favorite thing to do is to have us draw shapes or squiggle lines and then she creates a picture from them. This one is The Shape Sea.

Way to go - Seth!

Seth has been walking at school on the walking path during his lunch hour. The path was created by an Eagle Scout and is exactly a quarter mile. The teachers have a system to keep track of miles logged and they give certificates and backpack charms for every 10 miles. This is totally voluntary and done during recess time. Lacey has logged a few miles too, but she prefers to play volleyball with her recess time.
We went to the school after hours so Seth could demonstrate:

Neal Rocks!

Lacey loves rocks and a friend of mine from work is a rockhound. He has given Lacey some of his leftovers and she is thrilled with them! Thanks Neal!

Here she is sharing her goods with Ashtyn and Tenley who love rocks too.

The Good, The Bad, and The Pug

What a busy weekend! I took part of the day off on Friday to go to the kids Spring music program. Lacey played the xylophone for one of the songs. She was very excited about this and practiced every day the last couple of weeks. She performed flawlessly! The theme was sports, just in case you wondered why some of the kids are dressed in sports attire.
I arrived home at 5:00 to Erik and Lacey informing me that they had just reported the neighbors house was on fire. Erik heard the distinct snap, crackle, pop of a house fire when he was up in the pasture. He looked around and saw the fire and smoke. I ventured into the pasture (not my favorite thing to do -- there are horses in pastures - aaaagh!), and took pictures of the firefighters doing their thing. Not sure how much damage there was, it was put out fairly quickly after the firefighters arrived, but they had to punch a few holes so I'm sure the damage was significant. Saturday was such a beautiful day and was predicted to be quite hot, so the kids and I headed for the coast. Our destination was Rockaway Beach for the kite festival. The weather was absolutely gorgeous! We enjoyed Rockaway and then checked out Manzanita on the way back and fell in love with that town. I really want to go back, it was paradise.

On Sunday, Lacey and I went to Portland to enjoy the Pug Crawl. Seth was sunburned from the day before (yes, I'm Mother of the Year, I forgot to sunscreen his arms!), so he wasn't interested in going with us. We saw about a million pugs......OK, it was more like 1,000, but it was still significant in a one block area. Here is Huey and Chloe. Huey was a new found pug friend with whom Chloe shared a platform because it was much cooler than the blacktop. There is no such thing as an unfriendly Pug, Huey buddied right up to me soon after this picture was taken and leaned in to me for a snuggle.
Overall, the weekend was extremely busy with very little home time, but a lot of wonderful memories were made. More pictures are posted on our Dropshots and Picasa sites.

Mother's Day

We all gathered at Judy's house for brunch Sunday morning to celebrate Mother's Day and a belated Lacey/Anneliese birthday party. Anneliese received a much appreciated trike from Great Grandma Lila and Great Grandpa Bob.

Jackson had a great time tasting the pieces of Anneliese's Little Tykes animals (or in this case, the brush for the animals).

The last picture is Anneliese sporting her "Minnie Pearl" look!

Woodpecker For Sale -- Cheap!

How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?


Our house is made of Hardi-Plank so one would think we would be immune to woodpeckers. Well, a woodpecker found one of the only pieces of wood on the house! We think he was probably after the beetles which are constantly all over our house. Erik sprayed the house with something that deters the beetles so hopefully this won't happen again.

Other duties as assigned....

Lily isn't just a pretty face, apparently she is a rather comfy pillow too!

Sock Hop

Tonight was the Sock Hop for the kids school. All of the kids and families had an absolute blast. One of the teachers has a DJ business complete with lights, etc. The music was loud and therefore Seth spent most of the time outside the gym assisting the Principal with pictures. I could kick myself for not getting a picture of him doing his "job". He was quite proud of having a job to do and he was very good at it too!

Here's Lacey on the dance floor, her friend Madison has the blue ribbon in her hair. When their hair is back in ponytails, these girls are easily mistaken for each other, they look like they could be sisters.


These two girls sought Seth out for a dance, he actually obliged, and they were thrilled!
Here is Seth dancing with one of his teachers, Mrs. Roberts. He REALLY likes spinning girls around!

This video is of Lacey, and then Madison, doing the Limbo. Unfortunately, the lights were turned down so it is kind of dark.

A good time was had by all, and just in case you were wondering, they were exhausted! So am I, the noise overload reminds me of my single days with my ears ringing after a night of music and dancing.

Full Weekend

The weekend started early, leaving the house at 6:30 to get to Olympia and help Mom with a garage sale. The garage sale was a bust -- it rained, was cold and the sales were pathetic -- so we closed up shop early, took the leftovers to Goodwill and headed to Cabela's. Cabela's was quite nice. Seth and Lacey really liked the animals and aquarium. Seth wanted to buy everything in the store! We had lunch there which was pretty good for a cafeteria style luncheon.

On our way home we stopped by the Great Wolf Lodge to check it out. We are going there in June with the CHASA group. It's a pretty awesome facility with a lot of fun things going on. There is a beautiful lobby with about 8 separate seating areas, log tables and a gorgeous fireplace that is about 20' wide and 25' or so high. There is an arcade, a craft room, pizza hut, a cafe, a spa, a kid's spa and a place with free internet, karaoke, flat screen TV's, X Box, etc. We noticed there were computer screens in the "trees" which were part of the decor. An employee told us that in a couple of weeks there will be a Magic Quest game that can be played throughout the hotel -- the kids will have a wand that they take to the screens and it will give them clues for the next treasure to find. The kids are really looking forward to this, it sounds like a lot of fun. The CHASA group will be 10 families with kids ranging from 3 to 17. We are also going to meet for bowling on Saturday morning with a few families who were not going to come to the lodge. It will be nice to meet new families and spend time with others we have met at previous retreats.

Sunday was spent cleaning the house and yard. Erik fixed the sweeper on the tractor and then mowed and "swept" the yard. I cleaned house, did laundry and cleaned the outdoor furniture. Seth and Lacey played inside and out along with the dogs who ran their little hearts out. Lily loves the water! She got thoroughly soaked while "helping" me clean the outdoor furniture. Later, Lacey decided to wash her bike and I was able to get some pictures of her and Lily helping her out too.