Amber's 1st Birthday

Pre Cake pictures. 

 I think she might like cake a little. 

 Ok, she is crazy about cake. 

Chuck E Cheese

Dallin really wanted to go to Chuck E Cheese for his birthday, and since we were going to be somewhere where there was one around his birthday, we went. He also celebrated with his aunt and uncle and cousins in Vancouver since the kids stayed at their house for the weekend while Me, Nate and Amber went to Olympia for the wedding. Mickie blogged about their weekend here.

We went up to Washington so I could photograph a wedding, and we stopped in Eugene at Chuck E Cheese.

 Doing Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes, and getting free tickets from Chuck E.

What a fun place for the kids. Glad we don't have one close though. Too expensive to go there often.

 Turning in tickets to buy prizes.

 Picking out prizes.

Earrings and Graduation

Ashlyn has been bugging us about getting her ears pierced. Not sure where she is getting the idea. I showed her a YouTube video of a 2 year old getting her ears pierced, and not even that scared her. She asked to watch it again and again. Wierdo.

 So we bought her some sticker earrings, that she seems to be totally satisfied with. 

Love this crooked smile. 

And these EYES! I can stare at this girl all day, she is such a doll face.

 Dallin graduated from Kindergarden last week. He has had a good year. Turns out he is kind of a smart kid. :)

 Here is his wonderful teacher Mrs. Einck. We hope he gets another great teacher for 1st grade.

The sang some songs they have learned this ear. They learned quite a lot of sign language. I was impressed. Not that the signs in the song in the video are real sign language. The other songs they performed had American Sign Language in them.

Dallin's soccer team

Nate coached Dallin's soccer team this year. It was Dallin's first year playing. He really enjoyed it and played really well. I wasn't sure he would be into it. Tanner always seemed like our athletic on, but Dallin has been surprising me. We ran in the "Agony of DeFeet" at their school this past week, and Dallin finished before Tanner. I think it hurt Tanner's ego a little, but it is ok. It is good for him once in a while. 

They called their team the "Flaming Tornados". Dallin came up with it. Funny because Tanner's team was the "Flaming Ninjas", which I think Tanner came up with. Not sure what all the "Flaming" is about, but whatever. 

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 Nate was a good coach. His team respected him, and he was patient with them.

 Goal! Oh yeah! This kid was awesome. Super excited, and just happy to be there.

 I love how little kids have smiles on their face when playing soccer. You don't see that as much with the older kids. Gets a little more serious when you are older.

 "I'm open!"

Color Run

Last year I did the color run with a friend, and Nate and the kids were there at the finish line. We decided it would be fun to do it as a family. It was so fun! I think it will be a new tradition. 

 Ashlyn surprised us and ran the whole 5K with just little 30 second breaks here and there. Amazing endurance that girl has!

My friend Bree joined us with her daughter. Was definitely helpful to have another set of eyes. We lost track of Dallin once and Tanner too.

Tracie joined us this year too. She did it last year with me, along with her friend Kelly. We were the Punching Pandas team.

 Amber took a nap through part of the run. She was covered in the stroller with a plastic cover. 

 One of the fun parts of the run is the end. They do color throws. Everyone has a pack of color and they open it and throw it in the air. Creates this colorful cloud. Tanner just dumped it on his head.

 I think one thing that kept Ashlyn going was knowing another the color stations was coming soon. They were about 1/2 mile apart. 

 Aubree and Bree after the run.

 Nate pre run; nice and clean. And the me and the kids after.

 Bree and Ashlyn. 

Kindergarten after school crew

I have been watching 2 sweet girls, Paige and Ava, all school year. The kindergarteners get out at 11 a.m. so I get them off the bus. I wasn't sure how I would handle it, but it has turned out to be a really great thing for our family. My kids have other kids to play with all afternoon, so the TV hardly ever comes on, and I hardly have to entertain kids. Being mostly girls in the house, they play all those cute make believe games like house or school or whatever they are in the mood for. Even Amber is involved most of the time. 

For Christmas we got this trampoline, and that has been the best investment! The kids get to be outside and get exercise. No serious injuries yet. :) 

 We often have some of the neighbor kids over at the same time, which I love. One is Dallin's buddy from school, and the other is my friends daughter who lives around the corner. It is funny cuz their moms are always apologizing for me having them at my house, but "more the merrier" is actually true with this bunch. 

 Paige

I think I will miss Paige and Ava this summer. And then next year when they are first graders. Next school year poor Ashlyn and Amber will have to wait until 3 pm for siblings to get home. We will have to find some friends to get together with to keep her busy.