Mason is 9! Drew is 11! Darcy is 7! And Paul and I are . . . Another year older!

 In the interest of saving time and space, I will combine the rest of our birthdays into one post.  Paul was first in March.  Its his last year climbing up the hill.  He wears his age well though!  I went out on a limb this year and actually bought him a present that he didn't order for himself.  We got him the opportunity to drive 3 laps in a Ferrari at PIR!  Unfortunately on the day he was scheduled to drive he went to help his sister work on her house before they move.  She had just hurt her shoulder and needed all the help she could get.  We were disappointed he missed his drive and now I will never buy another gift without his approval.  Happy birthday Paul!

Drew turned 11 in April.  I think she had a good day.  Its hard for me to figure out what to get her anymore.  We went with a big girl gift and got her an MP3 player which is more complicated than her old Ipod.  That's all I know about it.  Drew is finally growing, it kind of freaks me out sometimes when she gets next to me and she's getting up to my face level.  She wears about a half size smaller shoe than me and is sure to pass me up.  Drew is the kindest, most thoughtful 11 year old I know.  She is always willing to help out and is practicing to be a great mom, just ask her siblings!  I don't know what I would do with out my Drew.  As a side note, she was tested as an Intellectual TAG student this year and qualified in math and just missed in reading.  Go Drew!  All this really means is that I have proof Paul is her dad because she sure didn't get her math skills from me.  Must come from her engineering father.  Happy birthday Drew!

Mason turned 9 in May.  He is a crazy dude.  His 3rd grade teacher always commented on how much they enjoyed his humor in the class room.  Hopefully he was able to keep it under control.  Mase is a pretty smart little guy too.  No troubles staying at the top of his class in all areas.  He's reading Harry Potter now and its fun to relive each and every chapter of each and every book with yet another child.  I'm thrilled my kids love to read though.  This light bulb thing over his head is supposed to change into a rainbow of colors but I'm pretty sure the darn thing never worked from the start.  Mason's feet are now bigger than mine (he's only 9!) and he will pass me up height-wise in no time.  He keeps me on my toes, makes me laugh, makes me frustrated, makes me want to kiss his sweet cheeks while swatting the not so sweet cheeks, but he's mine and I'll keep him!  Happy birthday Mason!

And my birthday was in July, 2 days before Darcy's.  You will notice that Drew, Me, and Darcy all have the same birthday "cake."  Its called angel delight and its a mix of angel food cake torn in pieces with whipped cream, egg whites, and melted chocolate chips all mixed together.  Heavenly!  I'm getting so old I fell asleep before I could even blow out the candles!  I got a cool purple FitBit that absolutely runs my life now.  That thing is addictive.  I spent the entire last year battling hives, hair loss, and unexplained numbness.  I love getting old!   Happy birthday to me!

Miss Darcy is the last birthday in the family for the calendar year.  Kind of fun, all the birthday in the first half, holidays in the last.  Makes for a year-round party!  Darcy turned 7 and made me make the exact same birthday cake we had just eaten two days earlier.  There were no complaints from any of us.  Darcy got to have her friend party this year, the only year I have allowed any of my kids to have one.  Drew had one when she turned 7 so I figured that was a good year for everyone to get theirs.  With her birthday  in the middle of summer, right after 4th of July, it was hard to find friends to come.  A problem I know all to well from having a birthday at the same time.  She had a great time with the 4 who did come to party though.  She had a Rainbow Dash My Little Pony party and most of her gifts revolved around the same theme.  She loves Rainbow Dash!  Darce has grown quite a bit this year too.  She is definitely not a little girl anymore.  She is measuring just shorter than Mason each year on our growth plank in the garage.  I'm pretty sure she'll be the tallest of my girls.  She loves to be active and also loves to read.  She is a big sweetheart, always ready to give me a hug and kiss whenever she can.  How did I get so lucky?  Happy birthday Darcy!

NCAA Tournament

 As I mentioned in my Christmas post, Paul gave me tickets to the 2nd and 3rd round NCAA Tournament games played in Portland this year.  And the best part was, it was only 1 ticket so I could go alone!  He knows me so well.  I would much rather go alone than have someone bugging me for 2 days.  The first day, Thursday, there were 4 games.  I saw Arizona, Georgetown, Utah, Eastern Washington (my brother's alma mater) Ohio State, etc.   Saturday had two games with the winners playing each other for a shot in the Sweet 16.   It was so much fun!  I was in heaven.  The first picture is my view from my original seats.  Since the arena was not full for the evening session of games I moved down into much better seats, as you can see in the second picture.  I was joined by a group of ex-basketball coaches who attend the tournament games together wherever they are on the west coast each year.  Some of them were so hard-core they were taking off after our games to watch the games in Seattle the next day.  That's a lot of basketball!  I had so much fun and loved every second of those two days.  Even though mom was missing my kids probably loved those two days too because it meant I wasn't commandeering every TV and computer in the house.  Cross this off my bucket list!  Thanks Paul!

Bree is 5!

 Bree turned 5 on the last day of January.  It is my least favorite month, long and dreary, but ends with the celebration of this little cutie!  She was thrilled to turn 5 because that means kindergarten is in her near future.  Bree loves to snuggle and be the baby, but she sure wants to grow up and be like the big kids.  She and I had lots of alone time this year and we loved every minute of it.  She like her "peace and quiet," just like mom, where she doesn't have any music or tv or noise on while she plays.  She's already worried that we won't have our snuggle time or peace and quiet once she goes to kindergarten because it will never be just her and I alone again.  I try not to think about it.  I'll sure miss that time together too, but I'm so excited for Bree to move on, learn to read, make new friends, etc.  I know she will be just fine because she is a social little thing and doesn't have any trouble meeting or making new friends.  She is quite a spit-fire and a wonderful blessing to our family.  She collected a bunch of presents, those we missed at Christmas, including the Queen Elsa ice castle Lego set, and a La La Loopsy doll you can color and wash again and again.   Here is the crew celebrating our sweet Breezy.  I have noticed that in all our group pictures everyone likes to make faces, Bree especially.  Love her personality!

 

Since all the kids were in school I was able to finally volunteer to help at the preschool parties.  I helped at all 4, hoping it made up for missing all of the other kids' parties.  It was fun, but a lot of work.  No wonder there were only 4 of us who volunteered each time.  I'm glad I could be there to help, but equally glad to never have to do it again!

 

Christmas 2014

As I look out my window at the haze of wildfires in the air on this 95 degree August day, I am returning to December 2014 in the hopes it will cool me down a bit.  And I feel guilty for neglecting my "journal" for almost an entire year so I need to get busy while I have nothing else to do.  Last Christmas we once again went huge with the tree.  Our intent was to go a bit smaller but we ended up with another 18 footer.  I'm always amazed we can get it home because it pretty much dwarfs our car.  We were on Highway 26 when a car was passing us on the left and then slammed on their brakes to stay even with us.  I thought something was wrong but the driver was just getting a good line of sight for his passenger to take our picture while laughing hysterically.  Just spreading the holiday cheer!   We had to get the ladder and our make-shift ornament hanger out again.  Paul tries to hook the ornaments on a specific branch but if the ornament falls we know it will hook somewhere and that is where it will stay till we find it when Paul cuts the tree down to get it out of the house the day after Christmas because by the 26th I'm done!

 The kids got to visit with Santa at the ward Christmas party.  No tears!  I think they all even sat on his lap.  Bree was so impressed that he actually knew her name!  Little does she know, he's the one who helps make sure there are animal crackers for her when we visit teach his wife :)

 Let's see how good I am at remembering gifts.  Bree got a pack of Disney Princess Barbies, along with a Tupperware tote to keep them and all of their accessories in one place.  Pretty smart of Santa if I do say so myself.  Darcy got a Frozen scooter so she didn't have to ride the baby one with 3 wheels anymore.


Mason came away with a new telescope, though we have discovered that Paul's high-powered binoculars work just as well, or even better than the telescope.  And they are much smaller and don't take up a whole corner of my bedroom.

 Drew was a tough one.  Toys?  Big girl stuff?  I think we kind of split the difference, but her favorite is this Build A Bear Little Pony of her favorite character, Pinkie Pie.  To each his own.  I was mildly chagrined to unwrap a new flat screen TV for my bedroom, which I didn't really want or need.  It was all better though when I opened the envelope attached to it with tickets to the NCAA Tournament games held in Portland in March!  I was so excited Paul could have gotten away with getting an even larger TV, but don't tell him that.

 Christmas Day we went to Corvallis to have dinner with my side of the family.  We have a gift exchange where the siblings and spouses draw names, Grandma and Grandpa give a gift to everyone, and we all give gifts to Grandma and Grandpa.  Someone (or two) makes out like a bandit but I'm not complaining.  I will expect the same from my children :)  We all try to fit in the living room, gifts are passed out, and then starting with the youngest we open them one at a time so we can all see what they got.  Its a long process but that's how my family did it growing up and that's how I do it with my kids too.  I like it.  This year I make no promises that we'll go smaller on the tree.

Thanksgiving 2014

Thanksgiving 2014 was spent with Paul's side of the family, with his sister Carmen hosting at her beautiful home.  We always have a great time visiting and eating the wonderful food.

I missed out on the basketball game unfortunately.  In September I broke out in hives again for no apparent reason.  I thought I'd just take some prednisone and kill them quickly but no such luck.  For some reason the medicine wouldn't touch them.  I went to my regular doctor, my endocrinologist, and finally to an allergist before I got any relief.  She put me on high doses of antihistamines and a drug that is used for anxiety and hives.  Not sure what they have in common but I gave it a try.  It made me so loopy I had to take it at night at a specific time so it would be out of my system before I had to function the next day.  It was awful stuff but it helped.  It is now March and I still have a mild case of hives.  They have never gone away completely and I am so done with them.  No one can help me get rid of them completely so I guess its just a waiting game.  Either they will go away or I will go insane, whichever comes first.  I've also been losing my hair like crazy since September and it pretty much makes me sick to see how much I lose every day.  No one can tell me why or offer any help.  But anyway, I couldn't play basketball because getting sweaty irritates the hives.  Everyone else had fun showing off their skills and I had fun rooting them on.

Halloween 2014

Halloween!  My favorite holiday!  It was so long ago I barely remember it!  But a quick synopsis is due.  We went to our favorite pumpkin patch on Sauvie Island again this year.  Great big pumpkins in a beautiful setting.  The fun of each of us picking out our own perfect pumpkin far outweighs the fun of each of us carving our own perfect pumpkin.  It is getting better though.  Mason and Drew are able to carve their own now and Bree prefers to paint hers so Darcy is really the only one needing help anymore.  Its good for forcing family togetherness.  The kids and I visited Halloweentown and had some fun with all the spooky scenes they have set up.  My kids can look pretty spooky themselves.

This year Drew brought out the good 'ol stand bye jelly fish costume, Mason reused his pirate costume, and Darcy and Bree were Elsa and Anna.  Though they would have looked more like the characters if they had switched costumes.  Whatever makes them happy I guess.  Paul set up something cool in our front windows this year.  He had a projector set up so it looked like ghosts were in our windows when you were looking from the outside in.  The spooky music that accompanied it impressed quite a few trick-or-treaters we overheard.  I love Halloween!

Cross Country and Basketball

Last fall Drew signed up with the 4H Striders and participated in Cross Country.  It was a fun experience for the whole family.  Drew was the only one eligible to sign up and attend practices, but her team competed in races at different sites in Hillsboro, where all of my kids were old enough to run if they wanted to.  Darcy and Mason each chose to run in one race.  Darcy had fun, though it was a hot hot day, and Mason was thoroughly disgusted that he didn't win his race.  He did great, he just wasn't in condition compared to the other boys, and some of those boys are built to run in the Olympics.  It was a pretty fun sport to be involved in.  Drew was able to improve her time each race and she really liked it.  I'm sure she will run again next season.  I wish Mason would do it too, instead of football, but he has his heart set on starting this fall.  Ugh, I do not want to give my life up for football yet.

 

Basketball season was a bit different this year.  Darcy, Mason, and Drew all played and I was head coach for Darcy and assistant coach for Drew.  I think my favorite age group is the 3/4 girls but I went ahead and tried the new age groups this year.  Darcy's team never won a game because none of the girls had ever played before.  We played against one team who ran us off the court and I had some choice words with the coaches after the first game.  They were not following league rules and it was such a horrible experience for all of us I never wanted to play them again.  But we had a weird schedule in order to finish the season by Christmas so we played that team every week as part of our double headers.  That was a rough season.  Darcy did really well though.  She likes to play, until she doesn't, and then she turns off completely and won't listen to me.  Why oh why can't all my kids be coachable like Drew?  Life is extremely difficult if you can't take constructive criticism and feel the only way to have fun is to win.  Good luck kids!

Mason's team did pretty well.  He played full court with the bigger basketballs and stopped clock this year. That makes for some tiring Saturdays when you play a double header like that.  Mason is Mr Defense.  Of course scoring baskets is what every kids wants to do, and he made a couple, but he really excels on defense.  He just knows what to do without really telling him.  Which is good cuz he wouldn't listen anyway :)  He says he doesn't want to play anymore but I am asserting my parental rights and saying no way.  He can't quit yet.  He has to give it a few more years.  I refuse to have a couch potato for a 9 year old.

I didn't feel like I was ready to coach the 5/6 girls so I signed up to be Drew's assistant coach.  I think I'll do that next year too.  The attitudes of some of those girls were unbelievable.  I don't want any part of that.  Drew did really well.  In one game she had 14 of the team's 16 points.  She asked me if she was a ball hog but her coach said no way, the lane was open for lay ins each time and she can make a lay in each time so she did.  I love to watch her play.  She gets into the game and she is pretty smart on defense too.  And I also love that she will actually ask me how to improve her game, unlike her siblings :)

 It was a relatively short season and was over by Christmas, which was nice, but it meant double headers every Saturday for all three kids.  Poor Paul and Bree had to be the ones shuttling kids back and forth to games while I was coaching.  Hopefully next year it will change a bit so I can see more of each kid play.  Now we are headed towards T-ball season.  Darcy and Bree will be on the same team.  I can't wait!  I took Darcy to a softball clinic to see where she fit skills wise and it was a horrible experience.  It felt like they were trying to pump out 6 year old Olympians.  Darcy's anxiety was at an all time high.  I decided I would not subject her to that trauma and we signed up for the much more laid back little league T-ball.  This will probably be Darcy's last year because she doesn't love the sport, and I don't love the sport either.  Its nice to be outside in the spring but baseball is so boring.  Mason isn't playing this year and I'm totally OK with that.  He would have been on minors and that means traveling and I'm not interested.  We were able to get to the tennis court in February and if he could get on a team with a good coach he would be a good tennis player.  I wish there was something local for him to participate in besides summer camp with Coach Mom.  I'm so glad my kids kind of put up with me.