Halloween 2010

This year we had fun at several Halloween venues. On Thursday, Ben's preschool had a Halloween Party and Ben dressed as a Transformer while Nate dressed as a knight. It was a fun party. On Friday night, Nate and Mary came along to the downtown Oregon City trick or treating (Ben was home sick). They had fun riding around in a wagon and collecting lots of candy. On Saturday, we attended our ward Trunk or Treat. This time Ben dressed as a pirate and Nate as a dragon. It was a lot of fun.

Fun at the pumpkin patch

Today we took the kids to the pumpkin patch in Tualatin as part of a field trip for Ben's preschool. Nate and Mary got to come along and had a fun time checking out the farm animals, going on a hay ride, picking out pumpkins, seeing all the animals, and eating delicious pumpkin doughnuts.

Camping at the coast

For our second camping trip of the year, we headed to the central Oregon coast and camped at Beachside State Park, which is just south of Newport. The weather was a mix between overcast and part sun, but we did see a sunset one night. The kids had so much fun at the beach -- flying our kite, building sandcastles, jumping in the waves. Mary thoroughly enjoyed herself, and was covered in sand and water much of the time. We visited the Newport Aquarium while we were there and got to see all sorts of cool ocean life, including an incredibly long Anaconda Snake, a crocodile, sharks, seals, and jellyfish. At the end of our trip Ben asked if we could move to the coast so that way we could walk to the beach every day. I told him maybe some day.

Nate turned 3

Our little Nate is not so little any more ... we celebrated his third birthday with a small party at our house ... When I had asked him what he wanted for his birthday previously, he said "a rocketship." So a rocketship is what he got ... a rocketship tent, rocketship stickers, and even a rocketship cake (made from rice krispie treats). The cake was a lot of work to make (and didn't even taste that great). But it sure did look cool.

Memorial Day weekend camping trip

We took a trip to the Oregon Coast for Memorial Day weekend. We camped for just one night at Cannon Beach (Friday night), and then spent all day Saturday at the beach. The weather was rainy on Friday, and we got a bit wet that night (thanks to a weak tent fly), but when we woke up on Saturday the rain was gone and by that afternoon we even saw some sun. We had so much fun playing at Cannon Beach and Seaside. It was our exchange students' first time camping since they were very small, so they had a good time. We're all a bit sunburned, but it was worth it. I can't wait for our longer camping trip at the coast in July.

Spring Break 2010

Despite rainy weather and Toby feeling a bit sick all week, we managed to have a fun and somewhat productive spring break this year ... We made it to the community swimming pool, hiking, to the Children's Museum, to McDonald's Playland, Easter Egg hunts, and to a short walk through downtown Oregon City. We set up a new fish bowl for the boys and rearranged their room. And finally, after months of waiting, we cleaned out our garage and got rid of some stuff ...

March birthdays

Benjamin celebrated his fourth birthday last month with a kite-themed party. He invited several friends to come to the party at our house -- and afterwards we went outside and flew kites ...




And Mary celebrated her first birthday on March 15. She was such a doll at her party ...