How could you not?

Duncan is such a fun little man! He is a great sleeper taking two two-hour naps during the day, and then sleeping 12 uninterrupted hours each night! He is an aggressive eater and growls loudly to let you know you aren't going fast enough or that his tray his empty. He is constantly happy and loves to be with his brothers and sister. He rewards you with giggles and higs when you get him out of his crib in the morning (after staying it in and playing quietly for an extra 45 minutes after he wakes up!).

He is such a sweet little baby! I am always amazedwhen people find out I have 5 kids and they wonder how in the world I handle everything. I usually just shrug my shoulders and tell them I'm just addicted to being happy and that's what my kids make me.

Just a fun quote I read somewhere...

Whatever you give a woman she will make greater. Give her sperm, she will make a baby. Give her a house and she will make a home. Give her groceries and she will make you a meal. Give her a smile and she will give you her heart. She multiplies and enlarges whatever she is given. So if you give her any crap, be ready to receive a ton of it!

Graduated and done

Now that Garrett is 11, he's no longer a cub scout; now he is an actual BOY scout. So, I wanted to finish his cub scout memory board so that he could look back on all the fun he's had over the past three years, and keep that excitement going as he begins boy scouts. Now, in his room, over by his dresser, he has his very own memory corner.

 

The biggest thing in it is his cub scout memory board with all his ribbons, badges, and pins that he earned.  (All it is missing is the shoulder badge and troop numbers for his troop out here. I told him I would add that latter on after I bought new ones. His old ones went on Owen's soon-to-be cub scout shirt!)

 

 He also has most of his belt loops that he earned on display underneath his memory board. This holder only holds forty, so he has about 6 more in his treasure box that just didn't have any spaces to go in. He did have the goal of earning ALL the belt loops and pins for cub scouts, but he was about 10 or 11 shy of that goal.

 He also has a little shelf with his three pine wood derby cars on it. We just added the Lego people this year, so they didn't get the chance to be in the actual races! He won second on his first year with the flame car, then he won first in his second year with the eagle car, and then he won fourth his last year with the striped car.

The cars are under his baptism picture that has all the well wishes and signatures from everyone who was able to attend his baptism. He reads that fairly often and remembers that day with happy memories.

 So that's his happy little corner. His dresser holds all his trophies from 4-H and Reflections contests and the walls have all his happy memories on them to make him smile. The last thing I am wanting to get for him is that I want to make him an arrow for his Arrow of Light award and have it hanging from the bottom of his memory board. We'll see how long that one takes me to finish!

Owen is so excited to start cub scouts in November and to start making his own collection of badges and pins and belt loops so he can have his own happy corner over by his dresser, too! He's told Garrett that his will be just as full if not FULLER by the time he finishes cub scouts himself.

Emme's play date

Emme was so excited for his Fisher-Price play date! That morning started really early for us because Teagan had a soccer game on Whidbey Island and it took a while to get there, over an hour for the game, and then a while to ride the ferry back home again, So we got home half an hour before his guests were scheduled to arrive and we did a mad "Toss and Gloss" cleaning of the house. We laid out some simple refreshments - apples and dip, cheetos, nuts, store bought cream puffs, and capri sun drinks. Most of the kids were more interested in playing than nibbling on snacks, so us adults ate the majority of the refreshments and let them play their hearts out!

 Even the older siblings had a fun time! Only one of Emme's actual guests showed up, but he brought his siblings, and then our friends the Greens (with their pre-teen and teenage kids) came. Add those 7 kids to our 5, and there were plenty of kids to play the toys! The castle set is really cool - it interacts with all the other pieces through infrared and when the dragon, catalult, or the ogre get close, the people in the castle talk.

 The ogre was Garrett's favorite because on the bottom of one of his feet is an indentation in the shape of a knight, so he can walk around and stomp the knights and one can get stuck on the bottom of his foot. Owen liked that he could eat them, too, and made chewing sounds, followed by a spitting out sound.

They even mixed the car set and castle set up and had the heros of the castle commandeering the tow hauler for purposes of good.

 

 Emme had a fun afternoon and was sad to see his buddies go. He did a great job sharing all of his new toys and gave each of the younger kids one of his new cars and then let their family take the car hauler home as well to play. They were excited about that!

We really do love this company, and now the moms who we had invited to play are really interested in it as well! I wonder if referrals will help my chances of winning future parties? :-)

Kick it, girl!

Tig is really starting to enjoy soccer. She was a little hesitant at first because she is playing on an advanced team even though is is anything but advanced. But she is getting better each practice she goes to, and she is starting to be able to hold her own. She even did a header in this last game to assist a goal!

 

To get to her game, we had to take a ferry across the sound to get to the island. It was our first time on a ferry and the kids thought it was so awesome!

 It was pretty fun to drive our van onto the boat and then get out and walk around, but it was also very chilly! These are Teagan's and Garrett's best friends (who happen to be brother and sister, also), Orion and Kelsey. Kelsey is on the same team as Teagan and was the one who asked her to join this team. Orion is 5 weeks younger than Garrett and Kelsey is 7 months younger than Teagan.

 I loved that we were able to get an updated picture of the whole family and no one was making too crazy of a face, or looking in the wrong direction, or crying!

 At the game, Scott took the boys to a children's safety fair that was going on down the hill while I stayed and cheered Teagan and her team on. The boys got to climb a 50' rock wall and sit in a fire truck and all sorts of fun stuff while Teagan played mid defense in her game. I forgot that I had my camera with me for most of it, but I did snag a couple of shots of her in action. She is number 15 - the one with the pretty braids :-) (Kelsey is the girl behind Teagan in the bright blue cleats. Tig is usually a forward, so they don't get to be close to each other often, but this game she was put in a different position so they got to be in the same shot together! )

 Up by the fields there was a memorial to a young teenage boy who had passed away. It was carved out of a tree stump and was pretty awesome. The boys loved it and each had their picture taken sitting in the carved out chair.

Someone put a lot of effort in making it a nice memorial. There were little hidden surprises on all sides. A at curled up under the chair itself. A soccer ball rolled under the chair. A book draped over one of the arms and a tiny dragonfly on the back side of it. It really was neat.

 Emme spent the most time sitting in it and tried to get Duncan to stay with him, but Dunc wasn't too interested in staying still for long. (Look at the color contrast between those two boys. you wouldn't think they were brothers!)

 We gave him his chance to work some of his energy out after the game ended. Having him sit there and not be able to play with his favorite thing (a ball) while everyone else got to was pretty much baby torture for the little boy!

 On the ferry ride back home we got another great thrill for us when we looked out the car window and saw a seal playing in the harbor as we crossed! The seagulls were dive bombing his little head, so I was never able to get a good shot of him because he kept diving back under the water to avoid their pesky little beaks!

 Well, not ALL of us got to see the seal...someone had had all the fun he could handle and slept his way home.

 But the rest of us were elated to see our first real life seal; one not in a zoobehind glass or not on a TV documentary.

Duncan's first birthday

I know it was a month ago, but I never did get a round to posting about Duncan's first birthday - a monumentous occasion for every little guy.I still have a video from him trying out his chocolate cupcake, but it is on my phone and I am having technical difficulties getting it to cooperate tonight. Hopefully I'll be able to get it to load; he was funny with it when he first got it and wouldn't touch with because he didn't like the feel of the mushy frosting!

He had a good little birthday. We loved on him and sang birthday songs to him all day and let him have his first taste of some sweets he hasn't been able to eat until now (cupcakes, cookies, etc.). He got a pair of shoes that squeak every time he steps down and he LOVES them! He giggled when he first put them on and was stomping his feet on purpose to make them squeak. He loved when I sang to him throughout the day, and even would rock and sway and dance to it, but when we sang as a group to him that night when we were at the Green's house for dinner and Lego league he thought we were all out of our minds! The look of confusion that was on his face as we sang was wonderful! 

 I can't believe it's been a year already. HE seems like such a little baby still. When I took him in for his one year check up he was barely in the 10th percentile for height and weight, so he is still a little guy! But what a happy, wonderful, terrific little guy he is! He's our little Duncan Scott!

Duncan's nicknames:
Dunky (sometimes also called Dunky Monkey, Chunky Dunky, or Chunky Dunky Monkey)
Duncs (this one was given to him by Emme)
Dunkers (Teagan is the main user of this one)
Sparky (also called Sparky Sparky Boom Man)
Dunky Doodle

favorite things:
his Wendi blankets
balls of any kind or size - prefers round ones he can kick along the ground (as opposed to footballs)
finger foods
watermelon
being in his own crib to sleep
sticking to his schedule
bouncing on the trampoline
Emme being silly
warm water to drink
dancing to music
his squeaky shoes

An unexpected surprise

 When I was loading pictures on the computer a couple of days ago I came across one that kinda shocked me.

Someone had put a snake on my kitchen counter!!

There are only two kinds of snakes in western Washington - garter snakes and rubber snakes - both are non-venomous. This was just a common garter snake, so I wasn't worried about the kids playing with it; but,

IT WAS ON MY COUNTER!!

I PREPARE FOOD THERE!

I had in idea who the culprit was, and then I found proof:

Owen was the mastermind, but the other side of the camera held his accomplice and since I had no proof, I went to my first suspect and interrogated him - Garrett.

I asked Garrett if he had disinfected the counters after the snake was done slithering on them and his answer was, "Well, I didn't disinfect them like you would, with, like, cleaners and everything, but I did wipe it off like this..." and he swooshed his hand across an invisible counter.

Thanks, boys. I don't remember what we ate that night for dinner, but a little part of me hopes that I did chop your onions on the counter later that day so you had snake scales in your soup!

You've gotta love boys!

We love working with House Party

I found out about this company, House Party, from my mom. She had gone to a Ball canning party thrown by one of her friends and thought it would be something I might be interested in. So I looked into it.

 

You sign up with this company and sign up to host different types of parties. You fill out a short survey so they can see if you fit they type of person they are looking for, and if you are chosen, then they send you free things for you to try out and send your opinion back. It's sort of like you are semi-free advertising for them; or a research group for their products. Either way, it's a pretty sweet deal to me!

 

 

We've hosted two Kinect game parties - one for Just Dance 3 and one for the new Disney/Pixar game - and a Philly Cream Cheese party for their new line of pasta sauces. For the Kinect parties, they sent us the free game to try out with our friends, and for the Philly party, I got a great new Green pan and other kitchen goodies. But this new party we were chosen for is the favorite of our house by far!

 

We were chosen to have Emme and I host a toddler boys' Fisher-Price play date and they sent us about $300 of toys from two of their new lines - the Talon Castle and the Rev n' Go Cars. Emme was SUPER excited!

 Now we just have to invite all of his little boy friends over to come and play with the new toys! Afterwards, the moms are asked to fill out online surveys about the toys their kids played with and that is that. We keep the toys, the moms get some goodie bags filled with coupons and fun stuff from Fisher-Price, Fisher-Price gets real-life feed back, and everyone is happy!

 The kids were so thrilled to open the box today when it came and were a bit disappointed when I told them we weren't going to open the toys until the party day. But the party is only two weeks away, so they don't have too long to wait! I think the big kids were most excited about the castle set - it has infrared sensors on each of the toys so they 'talk' to each other when they get near. Teagan's favorite part is that they all speak with a Scottish accent!

 Owen loved the toys, too, but was happy enough just to get to play in the giant box the toys came in.

 Emme is most excited about the car set that it came with. (I'm excited that the cars don't make as much noise as the  castle set does!)

 We were kind of blown away by the amount of toys that came in the party pack and are thinking about sharing some of them with the little guys who come to the party. This is more toys than they get over a couple of Christmases, so they are okay with the idea of sharing with the party guests. (It's interesting how they could all see the 'surplus' of toys that came and had no problem with the idea of giving some of them away!)

 And even though the toys didn't come from me, Emme thanked me over and over again all the same. So I got the gratitude for being part of a fun company who sends me free stuff to try out and keep! Awesome!

Garrett's Arrow of Light

Tonight was Garrett's last Cub Scout pack meeting. Actually, he aged out of Cub Scouts last month, but with him having a summer birthday when they don't do pack meetings, he had to wait an extra month. He finally received his Arrow of Light award (after a few months of confusion down at the scout office!) and he crossed the bridge over to 11 year-old scouts.

 

After he crossed over, he got to sign his name to the bridge.

 The pack activity was Turtle races, so all the boys got to make their own wooden turtle.

 After attaching them to a string tied to the far end of the room, they would slowly inch the turtle to them by tugging on the string. It really was slow going! Garrett's turtle came in second place, but the pack leader added a three second delay to the winner's turtle (which was his son's) because he had been able to practice beforehand at home. So he declared Garrett the winner. (Luckily, the other little boy is Garrett's best friend, so there were no hard feelings!)

 Garrett has worked hard for the past three years progressing through Cub Scouts. In this last pack meeting, along with his Arrow of Light, he earned a belt loop and pin for badminton, his first ever summertime pack award, his final year outdoor activity pin, his three compass points to put on his compass badge, and his Super Achiever 20 patch and certificate for earning all 20 of the Webelos badges. These were his final cubby awards!

After we got home, we went to add his pins to his Cub Scout wall hanging and he and Owen sat together admiring all his things and remembering all that he had to do to earn each one. Owen was giddy with excitement as Garrett pointed out all the different things Owen would have the chance to earn as soon as he turns 8 in  a couple of months. Owen made a goal to earn at LEAST as many as Garrett, if not more! It was fun watching the two of them so excited together, but I also got a little tired just listening to the two of them talk about all the work Owen was going to have to do and remembering all the Mommy work that goes into helping your young guy in scouts.

It's a good thing they're worth it!