Ballerina and boyfriend?

Our top story tonight...
Isabelle had her first kiss tonight with this boy, named Dane. He is in Kindergarten too. They begged to have a playdate together soon. She said they both like art and he is so cute. She also said, "We don't know if we are going to get married, we have to pray about it first." So cute!
Obituary;

Our poor Lizzy has died this week. She was much loved. She has inspired her owner to new heights of animal friendliness. She will be missed.Baby makes great leaps and bounds!

Talia is moving and so motivated! She can get to almost anywhere she wants to go, and she has crawled at least two knees! Way to go Talia!
Many attend Grand Ball in French Palace

There was a grand and fancy ball in the French Palace this week. We were honored by a handsome prince and two lovely princesses.

New talent emerging in Vancouver

Isabelle has been loving her new ballet class. Here are a few pics to capture what she has been up to.

Austin's 1st day of school, farm field trip

I think that it must be hard to be the kid in the middle. I think Austin has been waiting his whole life to do anything that his older siblings have been doing. Now he finally gets to go to school! I thought he looked so cute his first day.
On Friday I (yes me, not the school!) took the kids on a field trip to the Sauvie Island Center. It is an old time farm that has plants the way they looked when the pioneers first came to this area.We got to try a bunch of veggies like tomatoes,flowers, and white carrots. Robert was the only kid who could pull this ginormous carrot out of the ground. He was very proud.The kids learned about compost and got to dig around in the compost pile.
Here Austin found a worm...
Talia liked to play with the weeds.I started a new reward system with the kids to help them to be more responsible. They earned their reward Friday, so we took them to Chuck e Cheese.Talia has been so funny lately. She has been making lots of noises. Some of them actually sound like words! It sounded so much like "Hi Dada" last night, it was so fun! She is SO close to crawling that we get so excited! She also breathes really fast when she gets excited. She is so fun to have around!

First Day of School

When we got back from our trip to Yellowstone, we got back in the car and went up to Seattle for a short business trip. We went to the Experience Music Museum and saw these dresses from the Supremes.We also went to a wildlife refuge right before school started.This is a nutrea. I had never heard of a nutrea until we went there, but they pretty much look like a beaver, but with a long rat looking tail.We had a picnic in the park afterwards.
My kid's first day of school was this week. I am homeschooling Robert, but he goes to the Home School Connection once a week at the Jim Parsley Center. So, I am so glad that Isabelle and Robert both had their first days of school on the same day.

The night before, Robert laid out his new school clothes to wear.


Isabelle was SO excited. I was going to drive her to and from school her first day, but she wanted to ride the bus. She was just acting so old and mature! I was really glad that she has a little friend in class too. (Mckenna McAllister).



Robert seemed to have a nice teacher and a friend in class too, Seth Peacock!



It was so strange to be alone with Austin (I did have the baby too). He begged to go to Kid's Club. I thought, well, the kids are having a special day, Austin can have one too.

Robert made a little friend this week. He found a little lizard and is currently keeping it as a pet. Robert loves animals so much, but is generally very afraid of them! He won't go near a dog or cat, actually, he clings to me or tries to run away when he is near one, so we were very surprized with his actions with his new pet "Lizzy". He loves to hold his petEven looking at this picture I am amazed that Robert is holding this little guy. He held him for two hours while we watched a movie tonight.

The kids have started into sports. Austy is doing soccer and loving it! I can't believe how smooth he is running with the ball. He just looks natural.Robert is doing Karate and loving it.I love that they are teaching him confidence and values at the same time.

Isabelle is in Ballet now. She is so cute! (pictures to come...)

We finished the tile work in the laundry room, as well as painted it from teal to yellow.

We played some croquet today. I felt so dashing and European.Here is some of our garden success. Everything was really late this year. But, we sure got a lot of zucchini. I have been using it for main dishes, side dishes, breads and dessert. I even made zucchini cobbler this week, and it was pretty good!