Oskar's 13

Oskar's birthday is at the end of August (this post is not past due).

 Oskar got the privilege to unwrap a gift from Papa - Papa style. There were 3 layers.
The 1st layer was the comics from the local newspaper.

 2nd layer was 15 feet of bubble wrap taped with packaging tape.

 The 3rd layer was an ad from the Army Navy store.
Oskar had a good time un-wrapping it.

 His turn for the money bag. Oskar got only one reach because he got everything that there was in the bag. (He's a growing boy).

Oskar is using his money towards a bird.

Emmi's 14

(this post is past due)
Emmi's birthday falls on July 3rd. She gets fireworks for her birthday. Also, my parents have started a tradition with Emmi (and Oskar) - one that I had when I was growing up - reaching into the money bag!
The rules are: NO scooping. NO holding the bag with your other hand. You can reach in once, decide if you want to keep what's there (no counting) or put in back, see if you can do better, but you have to keep the next reach.
That's the gift from Nana and Papa.

She ended up putting back her first reach and kept the second. She really liked what she ended up with. What a great tradition!

Henry's ONE!

We had a construction party for Henry. I kind of waited until the last minute to do the decorations so there are only a few. The pictures of the decorations are not very good - I forgot to take a picture of them while they were hanging up.

DECORATIONS

I made the orange construction signs and the tractors I got at Zurchers. They are table decorations, but I hung them from the ceiling with fish line. I also had brown, orange and light blue balloons in the corners of the kitchen.

OPENING PRESENTS

THE CAKE

Thanks to everyone who helped us celebrate his special day.

Happy Birthday, Abigail!

Gabi turned 4 years old today. It doesn't seem that long ago when she was just a baby. How fast time flies. This year she wanted a butterfly birthday. I also told her she could invite 4 friends since she was turning 4. She only wanted to invite 2, but that's okay. They had a lot of fun.

ACTIVITIES

creating beautiful foam butterflies with craft foam stickers

decorating butterfly shaped cookies

Emmi, Tillie, Gabi, Kylie Bollard, Sarah showing their butterflies off. (cousin Maylee also came to the party, but was unable to be in the picture)

OPENING PRESENTS

Gabi's haul. She wanted to play with everything all at once. She had a great birthday and thanked everyone for their gifts and for coming to her party. What a sweet, wonderful girl.

DECORATIONS

I made these butterfly clips for each of the girls. They were in their party bags.

(and lunch with Dad at Wingers) - the popcorn restaurant she said)

Summer Vacation

This summer we went on a week long vacation to Crater Lake, Oregon, The Redwoods, California and Lassen Volcano. We had a lot of fun and saw some great National Parks. We mostly camped and the other nights, we stayed in a hotel. The kids all enjoyed the swimming pools at the hotels.

CRATER LAKE

OREGON COAST

THE REDWOODS

LASSEN VOLCANO