Sweet siblings, if only for a moment...

It isn't like our kids get along all the time, I'd say about 40% of the day they work and play together, the other times they are at each other.

Today, Jakob had soccer, then his wood shop class, Sarah and I had some time to spend together, and in that time I think she asked about Jakob or "Jabub" at least 5 times. We sat and watched him play soccer, "When he be done?", "Go Jakob, Go Jakob, HAHAHAHA!" She really thought yelling at him was funny. Then when we dropped him off at his wood shop class she asked a few more times about when we could get him, I annoyingly told her "We'll get him in 1 hour, remember he's just inside that building.", "Ok Mama".

While Jakob was at his class, I walked with Sarah to the resale shop to see what kind of treasures we could find, of course we found lots of great dress up stuff (don't have any pics yet), a pretty purple princess dress, bright pink ballet/princess shoes, a new princess nightgown and some bedazzled shoes that her Daddy won't touch.

Anyhow, Sarah was quick to tell Jakob about her new things, he was a bit jealous but remembered that he just got a huge bin of dinosaurs from the same shop on Monday (like we needed more dinosaurs - "Mom these ones are small and have some trees with them").

We hadn't even made it to the front door when Sarah begged for her new dress, she wanted it on and apparently didn't want to get out of it for the rest of her life! Well, after her nap (yep she slept in the dress), she threw a fit when I told her she couldn't wear it to the park - she would ruin it - serious screaming and crying going on. Big brother to the rescue - Jakob stepped in and gave her a big hug, held her tight and said, "Sarah it's ok, I know you want to wear that dress, but you don't want to ruin it, right?"

I about died! So darling. Of course she understood then and off we went.

This is what big brothers are for, now I understand why we have 2 kids!

I think!

Summer of bugs...

The summer is flying by, and we are keeping busy. Jakob is loving the nature hikes at Tryon Creek State Park, the last one was on insects of the night, we learned all about different insects, how to catch them, how they are necessary to us, what their bodies are like, what they do to plants/trees etc. Jakob can of course repeat all the facts verbatim.
Unfortunately, during the insect hike, Jakob got eaten up by the mosquitoes, we were all covered with long pants and long sleeves but Jakob got the worst of it on his forehead, and hands - poor kiddo! He's a trooper though. The mosquitoes this year are terrible here, really unusually bad, I'm thinking we need to invest in bug spray!
We've also been digging for bugs in the forest across the street and anywhere we can. I'm getting braver with my insect catching technique, using little tupperware containers to catch them in to look at up close. Jakob had me chasing a spider (a big one that was most likely a black widow, I put aside my fears and went for it, but it didn't happen). I still have yet to pick up a worm, Jakob will do it for me and for Sarah, although, Sarah is getting braver now and picked one up by herself the other day, she was REALLY proud of herself and yelled, "I did it by MYSELF!!" During our hikes, Sarah usually is running around like a nutball, pretending to be a butterfly, trying to got the opposite direction of the group, picking leaves and/or just singing to herself. Jakob is quite serious and looks at all the details of the trees, moss, insects, slugs etc. Needless to say, hiking with both is challenging!
I took Jakob today to Tryon Creek for our Mom/Son day, he always wants to go hiking, even after playing soccer for 45 minutes he was up for the hour long hike!
We also made blueberry bread today, with the berries we picked, happy to report it turned out fantastic!

Here is Jakob digging for bugs in a decomposing tree at Gabriel Park.

Jakob's new favorite words are decomposing and stagnant (which he usually pronounces as "tagnant"), he knows where the mosquitos are hanging out now!

Sarah going in for the worm
Looking at it with awe, she really was so proud, I wish I had recorded her reaction.
Had to add this one in, just because - Sarah's newest fashion craze - the tool belt, baby carrier - very multifunctional!

Sarah funnies..

Here is Sarah in her dress up today...
"You can be a fairy princess and ride a horse Mom?"
"Yep, get your chaps on, you can be a princess cowgirl."
"OK!"



"YEEHAW!"


Sarah started gymnastics today for 2 1/2 year olds, she loved it, especially the swinging on the bar part, of course, she could do her monkey man tricks. But, she seemed to be the only 2 1/2 year old having a hard time following directions - yeah we are in for it with this girl! She is on her own track, I tell you!

Keeping in cool in the heat...

We are just coming out of a bit of a heat wave - a 30 degree jump in temp in 3 days - yikes!

This is what we've been doing to keep cool....

Sleeping in whatever we want, sometimes just the skivvies!

Playing in the fountains at Jamison Square

Taking walks in the river
Umm, cooling off in the river!

And taking relaxing naps by the fan or window!

Parents Day out, wine tasting

Had a fantastic day with great friends, wine tasting (4 wineries, in a limo, no kids). I think we were all so giddy to be out without children, it wouldn't have mattered what we did. Needless to say, the fantastic wine, conversation and tons of laughter made it so memorable!

Our first winery, feeling great after all the "tasting" we did! I am speaking only for myself of course, but I did more drinking than tasting! It was fabulous wine though!

Mark at the second winery, Domaine Serene, really was a serene setting. Mark is trying to be so fancy with his wine tasting skills - what a dork!

The three amigos, seriously they spell trouble! They didn't go to one wine tasting spot, they chose the local pub and food over that - yep trouble I tell you!! Too funny!
The ladies weren't any trouble at all!
!

Sarah funnies..

I forget to write the things she says down, so here are a few gems:
"I peed in the potty, so the kitty could see me, I a big girl." (Visited Amber and Josh's new kittens and indeed the kitten was interested and was quite the motivator for her to pee in the potty).
"I pee in the grass like Dillon too?", and that she did, she is ready for camping now. How is it that she is so hard to potty train, so darn hard headed about not sitting on the potty, but she will pee in the grass on command - unbelievable!
"You don't poop on the curtains, or your shirt or in your eyes..." random poop observations.
"I am a monkey man!", she is still declaring this when she hangs upside down or twists wildly on any bar she can get her hands on, today she made 2 boys crack up when she yelled that.
"My tummy hurts, I ate too much fruit...(2 seconds later) can I have mo' watomelon?"

I don't have a picture of this yet, but I took Sarah to Target for a few things, we stopped in the clothing section and they are having some great deals on dresses etc. right now, she of course didn't like any of the ones I showed her, but was adamant on taking her shoes and skirt off in the store - which she did do as I foolishly turned my back on her - then she proceeded to beg me for a Run DMC shirt that has a fake gold necklace iron on, on it - can't wait to take a pic of her in it!! Side note, Sarah never has her shoes on, she takes them off at first chance.

The sun hasn't been out much this year here, Sarah has apparently taken notice to that, she yells every morning "The sun is out, it's sunny today!" Poor girl, she is a California girl at heart.

She is really into playing make up, she has a pretend make up set we just found for her at the resale shop - Jakob picked it out for her, now she stands at the mirror with me doing her make up, but every time asks, "Can I put this make up brush in my nose?"

Have to stop typing now, she is waking up from her nap, that she refuses to take daily then sleeps for more than 2 hours, and is now yelling, "Mama Mama Mama, I woked up!"

Happy 4th!

We had a pretty low key 4th, park in the morning (no sun, summer in Portland isn't going to start until the 6th of July apparently). Mark had a great idea of making paper airplanes and throwing them off the hill, Jakob loved it! Sarah enjoyed the big bottle of bubbles I found, until she dumped it, but it was fun while it lasted.
Went to our traditional place for the 4th - the Brinks house for swimming and fireworks, super fun! Then on our way home we drove up the hill to watch the fireworks on the river, pretty cool. Kids didn't get in bed until 11pm, so we are having quite the lazy day today!