Family Birthday Party

Birthday time! Time to celebrate Ryan's birthday, Lee's birthday, and Mom/Gramma's birthday.

That weekend Amy came up to join the celebrations (no idea why there are no pictures of her, sad!) There was also a big storm that weekend - high winds and lots of rain. 

We arrived at my parent's house and the power had recently gone out. Luckily, we were still able to cook the dinner using the grill and gas stove, but we were out of luck for using the oven to bake the cake!

You can see all the candles behind the boys in this picture -- power was out and it was starting to get darker.

But we still had family! And presents! 

We got lucky - the power came back on just before serving dinner, and we were able to throw the cake in the oven and it baked while we ate. Then we had chocolate zucchini cake and sang Happy Birthday 3 times! 

Aunt Amy's gift to Ryan - this wonderful mini-trampoline!

Ryan - First Day of Preschool

Beach Day

This summer we discovered we love going to a beach on Sauvie Island. It is a much shorter drive than going to the coast, and the weather is almost always guaranteed to be hotter and sunnier. We went once on Mike's birthday and then again in September to celebrate summer's last hurrah.

Ryan's time with the Nanny

For about 15 months, we shared a nanny for Ryan with 2 other families. Ryan was with Silas 2-3 days a week, and Jude would join 1 day per week. Kalene was their wonderful nanny and she took all these pictures and sent them to me. 

 Once a month on Wednesdays Jake has "late start" which is when school starts 2 hours later. On those days I would drop both Jake and Ryan off with Kalene, and then Kalene would walk all 4 of them to the bus stop and see Finley and Jake off on the bus. Jake LOVED those days because he got some playtime with his friend and then the coooool experience of riding the bus!

Silas, Ryan, and Jude.

 One day Porter joined them for a few hours.

Jake - First Day of Second Grade