Water Fight!

 I started a water fight the other day. We had so much fun! Jane was down for a nap when we started but woke up and I had her in my arms during the water fight. She enjoyed it, until she got a face full of cold water. I had to leave the fight at that point and decided to get the camera out.

 I love this picture cause you can see the water coming down on Jacob but Jacob had no idea what was coming!

They loved getting Kendall wet! It was a fun afternoon as a family!

Please pass the peas, please!

 We went to the garden on Saturday to pick some peas. Kendall grabbed a 6 gallon bucket and asked me if I thought we would be able to fill it. I thought it would happen and boy was I right!

 We picked about 10 gallons of peas! We figure we can get another 2 or 3 harvests of the same amount! The kids had so much fun picking that morning and it was fun to hear their little comments while picking. Jane was evening getting into it. I had her on my back in the carrier and as I was picking she would reach out and pick a pea pod off the plant and start munching on it. When I put her down she would follow the bucket around and steal the peas and eat them.

 When we got home we dumped the peas on the table and the kids were super excited to see the fruit of their labor.

 And Jane was just excited to see so many peas in one place!

 We got right to work getting all the peas out of those pods. All the kids helped with this and we got the peas shelled in an hour. It's amazing how quickly the work goes when you have lots of hands willing to help.

The peas all ready to be blanched and then frozen. We have never grown enough peas to put any away for the winter so it was fun to do something new for home storage.

School Co-op

This year we joined a home school co-op called L.E.A.F. It's been awesome! The kids have made some good friends and so have I! Noah and Emma took a colonial dance class this spring and then they invited the whole family to come learn some of the dances. We had a great time!

Here is the whole group of kids after the dance.

We meet at this really nice community center and Kendall was able to capture this awesome sunset over the water.

We went to the Seattle Zoo one day and we had perfect weather!

The kids had a great time seeing the animals and playing with friends.

 

There is this great tree at the zoo and all the kids had a great time pretending to be monkeys!

At the end of the school year we had a big Field Day! The little toddlers had a great time playing with the parachute and bubbles!

Noah and Daniel teamed up for the wheelbarrow race!

It was such a great year for the kids and they learned a lot and had a great time. We all look forward to next year's classes!

Emma's Birthday

Emma had her 9th birthday! Boy have the years gone by fast!

We wrapped Emma's gift in ductape and she had a hard time getting it open!

The only thing she asked for her birthday was camo pants! Can you tell she's got lots of brothers!? She wears them all the time and makes sure that she gets them straight into the laundry when they get dirty.

She designed her birthday cake and Mana decorated it with her. It turned out way cute! She's kind of a girly tomboy!

She really really really wanted to go roller skating as a family. She has been twice before and love it.

Kendall and I had not been skating since we were young (not that we're old now). The kids had never been before and it was quite the adventure! We tightened the boy's skates so they wouldn't fall every time the tried to stand up and towards the end of the session they weren't falling as much. Emma had the time of her life! She was out there doing the limbo and skating the whole time!

After skating we went home and had dinner and cake and ice cream. She's becoming quite the young lady and we are so blessed to have her in our family!

Wedding

 This last weekend my mom and Stan got married. Stan is from around here and whenever I mention his name to anyone they always tell me what a great guy he is and how much they like and respect him, so we were pretty happy my mom found such a great man!

My sister Jessica and her family came into town for the wedding and she did all the flowers for the wedding! She did an awesome job! I am not good with flowers so I was super happy she was here to do those! My mom made her cake and then we made different kinds of cupcakes for everyone at the wedding.

Emma and Emily loved my mom's bouquet of flowers and held onto it most of the evening.

 

Jane with her favorite uncle, Joshua. We just had to get a picture of Joshua in his suit. I've only seen it on him a handful of times and all those times have been at weddings!

The wedding cake, cup cakes and Jane (who was way to excited to be so close to all that sugar).

The Garden

 Every year we have a garden, but this year we decided to go bigger! It's a lot of work, but it will be worth it all when we are eating fresh veggies this summer and fall. I want to do a lot of canning this year to make up for last summer when I wasn't able to can cause I had Jane.

 We planted 184 (I know, totally insane!) potato plants and they ALL came up and are starting to bloom! I want to try canning some potatoes this year.

 Our lettuce is doing awesome, but I'm feeling a little overwhelmed with the amount that needs to be eaten right now. We are sharing with anyone who wants it! Love eating fresh salad everyday!

Peas are climbing and in the next few weeks we are going to have a lot of them! The kids love fresh peas from the garden. Every summer the kids go pick them for snacks and they never make it into the house. I look forward to eating some myself this year!

Potato Planting

 Today we spent the day at the garden planting potatoes! The kids took a lot of rocks out of the tilled up garden. It wasn't their favorite part of the day, but they all did a great job.

The kids worked really well together and put all the potatoes in the ground. Poor Noah was on a scout camp out the night before and I picked him up around noon. He was pretty tired and I think he was looking forward to a hot shower and a relaxing afternoon and evening at home. But he worked hard and didn't complain to much.

This girl got soooo dirty! All the kids did, but I think she takes the prize for the dirtiest!

 I love when Jane just wants her daddy. Today she kept reaching for him when she woke up from her nap. But Kendall needed to work so she tagged along and was as happy as can be!

After a much needed bath I found Jacob on the couch sound asleep! He worked hard today. We started the day with a piece of land that hadn't been worked in many years.  By the end of the day we had tilled the potato garden plot up, tilled up another field for other veggies, and planted 184 potatoes! So glad those potatoes are in the ground and look forward to eating them all next year!