Rolcanos and Dinosaurs

No that is not a typo... that is what Gabe calls volcanoes and I think it's adorable. :) One day he had his friend Sook over to play and they used play doh to make a fabulous recreation of the earth just before the dinosaurs were wiped out!! We even made the volcano erupt (with a little help from baking soda and vinegar)... super cool and exciting!!!  Aren't they creative? 

 

 Ok I decided to share a funny tidbit about this "play date".  Where to start though...?  Gabe is super reserved at school.  I mean it's actually painful for me to watch him struggle so much to open up around others.  For the most part I try not to worry - it's just him and I have to let him be himself and not try to force him to be someone he's not.  But I was more than I little frustrated when encouraging him to talk, smile, look people in the eye and return a hello - even practicing with him - wasn't doing any good.  I would work in his classroom and watch as a whole day would go by without him cracking a smile and barely saying two words to the kids around him.  Argh!  I want him to be happy. I want people to see his bright, vivacious personality.  I could see, plain as day, that he was observing instead of participating and that was just tormenting me.  As I said already though, I had to come full circle in the end and accept that he will do things the way HE wants to do things and I just need to love him the way he is.  But I did decide that at least I could start coordinating play times with school friends at our house so that he could break the ice a little, one on one. Gabe and Sook actually get along great together and play at recess together. Sook is almost exactly like Gabe... so quiet and straight faced that I have only seen him smile a couple times all year!!  So anyway, back to the story... When Sook arrived at our house I suggested Gabe go show him all his toys upstairs.  After a while I went up to surreptitiously see how things were going... and found them both sitting in his room not talking, just kinda looking around!!!  I laugh just remembering it! I was slightly horrified at first and immediately gave them some ideas for a fun time, one of which was making a play-doh landscape.  The dinosaurs and volcano were their idea.  I should have known that those two would need a little help, haha!!!

day trip to the Northern Cascades

 

 

Jill and Buzz for a visit

My dear friend from high school came to stay with us for 4 days before heading out on an Alaskan cruise.  It was so fun to catch up and reconnect after so long.  Jill is one of those heart friends that will always feel like a sister, even when you haven't seen each other for years.  I love her. It was so fun to meet her younger kids (and have her meet mine!) and spend so much one on one time together. We seriously had a blast!

Buzz was happy to have Eric show him a good time biking in the mountains! Of course they came back filthy!! It gave Jill and I lots of girl time to chat! ;)

what a party!

Since we live far from family, I have really enjoyed throwing a big friend party for Gabe's birthday every year. Every year he has picked the theme... and this year he wanted a Bird Party!  So the week leading up to his birthday, we created 3-D birds to hang from the ceiling, cut out and colored jungle trees to tape on the walls,  and discussed bird crafts we could make.  The night before we were blowing up balloons, frosting the cake, hanging up green streamers so it would look like a forest, and cutting up supplies to make feathery bird masks. And Gabe helped with almost all of it.  It was almost as fun preparing as it was enjoying the party!  Gabe had 8 of his buddies from school and church come so we had a full house... I was thankful that Cheryl and Don were here. Having a few extra adults helped keep the chaos to a minimum!  The kids had fun making their masks as well as peanut butter and bird seed feeders but I think the most fun was to be had when Eric took them all outside and had them run races! They did the crab crawl, the bear crawl, the buddy run (arm around each other), the leap frog, the wheelbarrow race, as well as a good ole sprint.  It was so cute!  Here are some of my favorite pictures of the day.

Gabe's quail mask! I love it!!

Ian posing at the entrance of the bird forest!

So many creative bird masks!

probably my favorite pic of the races. Look at all those excited faces!

 

Bear crawl

The crab crawl... Nyah doesn't quite grasp what to do but that doesn't stop her from jumping in and having fun! :)

Leap-frog... now this was funny to watch!!

Opening presents - they started in the middle of the room but all those excited boys crowding closer and closer slowly pushed Gabe right into the entertainment center!

Funfetti cake with a big 6 on top! 

Woohoo for turning 6!!!! We love you bigger than the sky, Gabe!