june in pictures

we spent a lot of june at the pool. last year, the pool was practically empty the entire month, but since our weather was abnormally hot this june, we had to share it with more people.

this is a picture from a lacrosse field that is nearby us. we got two of these big yellow balls at a garage sale one morning and took them to the field to kick them around.

i went to utah for my annual sisters weekend. of course, this is the only picture i have from the whole weekend, but needless to say, we had a great time together.

this is diane's finger as it was healing. at first, she would proudly wave her middle finger whenever people would ask how it was doing, but she got self-conscious after enough people laughed at the gesture (it's hard not to), that she stopped being willing to show people.

these are from the elementary school carnival. i was kind of dreading going because randy was teaching and i didn't want to have to haul the kids around alone, but they did really well and it made me realize that we're starting to get to a little bit easier stage with our kids. not always, but we're getting there.

this is madeleine and her teacher, mrs. o'connor on the last day of school. mrs. o'connor was wonderful for madeleine and we loved her.

this is madeleine posing with the flowers we took to mrs. o'connor. she struck this pose all by herself.

jonathan went around with a bandaid on his forehead for much of june. not because he injured himself, but because he was obsessed with his "boy bandaids," and wanted to show them off in a prominent place.

family snuggle on the couch.

these are my beautiful peonies from my front yard, which didn't last long enough in our hot june weather, but sure were nice while they lasted.

may in pictures

these are pictures of me with the kids from mother's day. i need to be better about taking pictures of me with my children more than once a year.

all three kids sitting on the rooster at the yakima fruit market:

ferry ride to kingston from some craigslist item pick up, i can't remember what.

cool dude with a tool belt.

these next few are at the university mall while we were waiting for some ridiculous amount of time to get into din tai fung, a delicious dumpling house. the kids did remarkably well. i guess it helps that there were bronze cows.

the following pictures are from our nightmare of may - diane cutting off the tip of her middle right finger in our front door. long story short, she cut it off and it has grown back completely since then, including her fingernail. it was a pretty miserable experience for us as parents, especially because hand injuries (with potential permanent implications) are randy's worst nightmare. we are grateful that her body healed so well and that she was so resilient throughout the whole ordeal.


this is her in the ER with the splint that they put around it to protect it while it was healing. also, with her new bear they gave her, named "luffy," since she already had a stuffed rabbit named "fluffy." i think she may tell you that the whole thing was worth it for the bear alone, she loves it that much. i would not say the same thing and would rather have bought the bear for $6.

recovering in style:

this was trip number two to a different ER. our family doctor sent us back because he thought maybe they should put something in the fingernail bed to give her fingernail a better chance of growing back in. long story short again, we decided not to, but not until after a couple of hours in the ER. diane might also tell you that the whole thing was worth it for the amount of screen time that she got on our phones and the iPad (both are usually off limits to our kids) during various ER trips and doctors appointments. i would not say the same thing.

i love how well these two play together.

also in may, the pool opened! poor diane couldn't swim for a few weeks because of her hand, but was happy to sit on the side and play on the iPad while i swam with jonathan and madeleine.

that's a wrap for may.

april in pictures

the beginning of april started off with easter, which was also jonathan's birthday. two holiday birthdays this year. on the saturday before easter, we did a neighborhood easter egg hunt. the kids had a great time, and one of our neighbors made a delicious carrot cake for us to all share as well, so the adults had a pretty great time, too.

 

dying easter eggs: 

these are from jonathan's birthday. he is sort of obsessed with construction trucks right now, so he got "goodnight, goodnight, construction site," and a couple of nice construction truck toys. he was thrilled.

he even went to bed with his truck crane, so i guess that's a pretty good sign that he liked it. 

 
with easter and everything we had going on that weekend, including all of the candy, i decided to forgo a cake and jonathan seemed just as happy with his ice cream and strawberries.

the next weekend, i got to fly to boise for a special girls weekend with my mom (she drove up from utah), and randy's mom. i can't express how fun, relaxing, and needed it was. big thanks to my moms for getting it all planned and randy for helping it happen. this is the only picture i have from the weekend, we were taking a picture to congratulate my cousin, who just decided to go to BSU.

as if the weekend weren't great enough, i returned to a clean house and these beauties: 

the next week was madeleine's spring break and we spent the week doing fun things like getting free ice cream at ben and jerry's free cone day, going to the tulip festival, and doing a small hike nearby with friends.

 

 

a few more from the month: 

one of madeleine's normal school outfits. she loves combining colors and patterns and i don't get in the way.

these last two are from our daily walk to school. there's a corner where we have to wait to cross the street and the corner lot is not very well maintained. during the spring the grass grows really high and my kids love to sit and pick the clover while they wait. they usually end up looking like feral children on the side of the road, but they're cute, so i guess it works.