Bittersweet

Today was the first day of Kindergarten for Cayden!

All dressed and ready to go. And, yes, that is a "Lost in Space" lunchbox. So cool!!

I am so excited for him because he is going to have so much fun and learn so many new things, but it is hard, much harder than I thought to let your baby grow up! Thankfully the school understands and they held a Boo Hoo Breakfast for the kindergarten parents. Lots of good food (even the coffee was excellent!) and a good distraction. That is until the principal decided to read a little story called "The Kissing Hand". It is about a mommy raccoon and her little baby raccoon on his first day of kindergarten. He's very nervous about going and wants to stay home with her. She explains to him that he has to go and kisses his hand so that when he feels sad, he can hold that kiss up to his cheek and he will feel it all the way to his heart and know that his mommy loves him. Then the little raccoon does the same thing for his mommy. You can imagine how all the parents reacted. I even saw some Dad's wiping their eyes!!

Let's see.....just 4 hours and 28 minutes left until I get to pick Cayden up.......

Museum of Flight

We finally got ourselves up to the Museum of Flight in Seattle today. We have been wanting to take Cayden up there as he is an airplane and space fanatic.

This looked like an interesting early flight experience. The "Albatross" actually made it across the English Channel on manpower. Can you see the mannaquin on the bicycle inside?

Cayden and Tom in front of the SR71 Blackbird (Cayden's current fav)

This is a Boeing 80A-1. I love the sconces and the pull down shades!

Cayden got to control this little plane by himself!

My personal favorite: The Taylor Aerocar! The guy who invented this was born in Portland, grew up in Longview and graduated from UW. I can't figure out why this never caught on.....

This is an actual SR71 Blackbird cockpit.

Cool sharky machine gun.

This one was nicknamed "Big Stud". It's Tom's favorite WWII plane.

A little memento. His very own SR71 Blackbird model!

What a good time!!!

Passport to the Future

The Hands On Children's Museum is sponsering an event by NASA this week. You can walk through their trailer and build a video space station and take a "trip to the moon" via video. You even get to touch a real moon rock!!

Here is the trailer with all the neat stuff inside. They only allow about 12 people in at time so everyone has a chance to participate. Thank heaven for a beautiful day!!
While we were standing in line, we saw my friend Kim and her three boys a few places ahead of us. We cut in line so we could all go together :)


When you are finished with the neat stuff in the trailer, you get to have your picture taken as an astronaut! They also had demonstrations of cool Lego robots that are models of the ones they use in space. Of course, my batteries in my camera died, so I don't have any pictures of those. Sorry!

The cuteset astronaut in the solar system!

No comment :)

As we left, they gave us this cool NASA pen that has a maze inside and a space capsule stress toy! What a fun time!!

Belated July 4th Post

So those who know me well know that I am a horrible procrastinator. I have FINALLY downloaded my pix from the 4th of July........unfortunately, there are very few pictures to share....enjoy anyway :)

We usually spend the 4th at my in-laws house on Harstine Island. It is one of two holidays (Christmas being the other) when my in-laws can get all of us together. They have a gate with a code on their road and Cayden LOVES to punch in the code. As an added bonus, he gets to drive the rest of the way to their house, which is about 1/2 mile on a curvy, gravel road. Fun Stuff!

Cayden and his big sis Conner sharing an eskimo kiss!
This is Rufus, the newest edition to the clan. He is a German Wirehaird Pointer and an absolute sweetheart! He belongs to Tom's sister Ann and her family. See his little white "soul patch"? Precious!!

This picture and the next are just to make you feel jealous. What better location is there for any occasion?!

Look at ME, I'm Cavity FREE!!

Cayden had a dentist appointment the other day. We were very excited to learn that in the four visits he's had to the dentist, he has had no cavities! Even the dentist thinks it's a big deal because Cayden got this cool t-shirt (with a little bit of free advertising) for all of my efforts. His hygentist also sent him a really nice card in the mail congratulating him further. Wow, dentistry has come a long way since I was a kid!!

Happy 5th Birthday Cayden!!

My sweet little Boo turned five on Sunday! We had a joint Mother's Day/Birthday celebration which was lots of fun. The only snafu.....Cayden was sick!! He was a trooper though and is finally on the mend :)

This is his birthday cake. He planned and designed the whole thing! Vanilla cake, blackberry cream filling and whipped cream frosting. If you don't watch Max and Ruby, that is Max's Ear Spinner Space Cadet! He is the robot that hooked Cayden on robots. He is very comical, so if you haven't seen him, check out a few Max and Ruby episodes....you won't be disappointed :)

Cayden FINALLY gets his "Build Your Own Lightsaber"! Thanks Grammy!! (see those rosy, sick cheeks?)
Cayden and his big cousin Caleb trying to put together the lightsaber.
Since Cayden was so sick on Sunday, we postponed his cake until Monday night. Thankfully, most of the guests were able to come back for this little celebration. You can't tell from this picture, but the flame of the candles are the color of the candles. (i.e. blue candle, blue flame; red candle, red flame) They were pretty cool!

The happy boy with Spinner Space Cadet's face. See the nummy filling?!

The other big bummer with Cayden being sick was that he missed being the birthday special helper at school. Luckily, they will include him with the summer birthdays at the end of this week. We decided to drop our treats off there anyway so the kids could enjoy them.

They are robot cake pops! http://bakerella.blogspot.com/2008/08/hope-these-put-smile-on-your-face.html These are based on Robot 2000, the first robot Cayden got. They were quite the hit! Tasty too!

Robot Factory

Happy Birthday Cayden!! We love you so much!!!

Snowman!

Cayden and I built a snowman yesterday afternoon. We had enough snow this year to make him a decent height - in years past, they would only be 2 feet high!

Cayden did all the decorating: eyes, nose, mouth and arms!

Then, it snowed some more and this is what we saw this morning.

After his haircut!

We measured the snow on our driveway this morning and we have 6 1/2 inches!!!

SNOW!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

How Do YOU spell "Hot Dog"?

Cayden and I went to visit the Oscar Meyer Wienermobile at Top Foods today.

The Wienermobile (these crazy people kept getting in my pictures, so I just kept it!)

Cayden standing in the doorway. They wouldn't let us inside. It seats about 6 and all the chairs are the colored of ketchup and mustard. Clever!

Our famed newspaper promised us "wiener whistles", but all we got were some coupons and a sticker saying "I Saw It" with the wienermobile on it.



Now, for some wienermobile "Fun Facts"

* The first wienermobile was introduced in 1936.

* There are 7 wienermobiles in existence today.

* The hotdogger position of driving the wienermobile is an open position to U.S. citzens and the duration of the job lasts for one full year. (any takers?)

*http://brands.kraftfoods.com/oscarmayer/omm_cbit2008.htm Check out this link to see the new mini wienermobile! Very cute!

Happy Halloween!

Our friends Kim and Andy invited us over to go trick or treating with them as we only have four houses in our neighborhood. Also, Kim had the great idea of the dads taking out the four boys and she and I could stay home, pass out candy and drink wine. Count me in!!

Robot Cayden

From behind

The Trick-or-Treating crew
Jacob the fireman; Joshua the policeman; Matthew as Pooh; and Booey the robot

Poor Matthew was brought home early. He had a hard time keeping up with the older boys. He enjoyed passing out candy to the other kids and wished each one a "Happy How'ween!" (with major emphasis on the 'ween').

A Little Jig..

or as his dad thought it should be titled, "Young, Fresh Cayden Shaking his Groove Thang!"

Sorry it is on it's side. I couldn't get it to rotate. :)

Apple Cider Donuts and the Aroma of Goat Cheese

Our playgroup took the kids to Lattin's Country Cider Mill yesterday afternoon to visit the animals, get some pumpkins and of course, eat some yummy donuts (my whole reason for going).

Cayden looks so crazed because just before I took this picture the big goat butted the little goat right in the tummy and lifted his back legs right up in air!

The black goat with the really long goatee on the far left was making all this noise at us the whole time we were there. Cayden has some feed in his hand and that goat was so bold he grabbed Cayden's sleeve and was pulling his arm closer to get at it.

The goats were so cute, especially the babies. Oh, but do they stink! Like goat cheese! I love goat cheese, but the aroma makes the thought a little unappetizing. Posing in the pumpkin patch

Riding the carousel (all 6 kids!!!)

This is a little video of the pig at the farm running in circles with the kids.

That's odd, I never took any pictures of the donuts!! Sorry Erin! If you are coming up this weekend, we can go and get hot apple fritters!!!!!! NUMMY!