October is Coming!

Erika was taking care of her niece, Farah, so brought her down Friday night to play and have ice cream with Jillian, Bridget and Torion. Saturday they taught her how to rip-stick, went to the play-fort, and tree fort. Finally able to get lots of outside time. Farah sadly had to leave after lunch.

For lunch it was nice enough to go outside to eat! Yay!

After Farah left they helped me put up all the Halloween decorations, plus a little silliness with some of the props I have. They did a great job of doing everything to get ready for a fun holiday.

 

Bridget & Papa Ken's Combined B-day Party

For the 3rd of Bridget's birthday parties, we went to Papa Ken and Bev's on Saturday night (to celebrate Papa's 74th). We were joined by Auntie Sheryl and kids, Auntie Greta and kids, and Grandma Cindy and Hal. After a dinner of Bruno's pizza, Mommy brought out her homemade cake that Bridget decorated.

The rest of the evening was spent relaxing around the firepit, enjoying fresh air following a week of smoke. The cousins all enjoyed just hanging out together.

Bridget's B-day Party in CR

We managed to survive the torrential downpour in Longview that flooded the streets to get to Grannie and Papa's house to celebrate Bridget's 10th birthday. Aunt Robin, Uncle Dan, Aunt Julie and Uncle Kevin joined us. Mommy cooked shish kabobs and rice for dinner. Then, we played a game of Family Feud using surveys about Bridget (like favorite foods, activities, sports, etc.) - the girls won.

Bridget chose a Polar Pizza from Baskin Robbins for her cake, plus leftover brownies from Thursday.

She received lots of cool presents, and even Jillian and Tor were surprised with gifts from Papa (wooden name puzzle for all 3 of them).

Bridget is 10 !!!

Thursday was Bridget's actual birth day, turning 10 years old. It's been hard to wait, but worth it because this the first of 3 parties. After school-at-home, the neighbor girls Hazel and Ila came over to play, eat and celebrate. They brought over a huge wrapped box for a present (see pic) ... containing Ila holding a small jewelry box.

As per tradition, we went to Guadalajara's for a birthday dinner. They sang to Bridget and gave her an ice cream treat ... but alas, no sombrero due to the virus.

Smoky Days

Jillian, Bridget, and Tor came up but had to stay inside all two days as it was so smoky outside. Perfect time for me to work on Tor's penmanship, spelling, and fluency in reading. He reads really well but slowly to sound out longer words. We would work for about 20 minutes (his attention span) and then he could watch 15 minutes of his hero football player Mahomes, then back at it. He did this both days and really did well!

Jillian and Bridget meanwhile decided  to make Papa's favorite, Cookie Owls. Jillian would mix and Bridget would read directions. They turned out very yummy!

Bridget opted for ice cream instead of some leftover peanut butter pie. She only gets one scoop but it is giant. By the time I got the camera ready, some had melted and she had already licked a lot.

I had to take this picture of Anna laying down with Bridget, which happens rarely, as Anna will usually stay out of their way. Bridget had just played with her for a long time using some yarn . So maybe this was Anna's way of saying "Thank You!"

Tor has a wonderful way with all our animals and especially Mocha, who is getting so old and a little lame. He spends a lot of time petting them and they love his attention. Sometimes he just sits by them and talks to them.

 

Papa Bob & Tierney B-day

It was our end-of-summer party, celebrating Papa Bob (81) and Tierney (26). Papa made his enchiladas, and Grannie made a lot of pies. And we finally got to meet Tierney's boyfriend, Jared.

Plus, Tor finally got to have Brock and Ty around. We all played a tournament of the new game "Slam".

Boy's Weekend at Skamakowa

We made our 2nd annual trip to Papa Ken's Skamakowa property on Saturday, joined by cousins Adam, Andy, Jesse, Parker and Jace. The kids got right to work on Papa's retaining wall, hauling rocks and tossing them in the slough.

That earned them some lunch: hot dogs over the fire pit. Tor wanted to roast his own this time.

Tor had a grea time playing with his cousin Jace. They spent much of their time in the bottoms, jumping over a small slough.

Unfortunately, Tor didn't quite make it over one time, and went up to his knees in muddy water. He was pretty proud of that fail.

The big job of the weekend was building a footbridge across a big slough canyon (no way to go around it) to get to the rest of the Skamakowa property. The kids worked on clearing brush to make trails. Cousin Jesse and Daddy helped with construction, and stressed out about dropping tools into the slough.

Once it was built, it opened up even more areas for the kids to play. We were able to continue exploring and building trails far out towards the town.

All that work earned the kids their dinner: hamburgers, with s'mores and conga bars for dessert.

It was a beautiful evening ... we were able to see the milky way galaxy, and a harvest moon even showed up. We relaxed around a very large fire in the pit to end the evening. Tor was first to bed at 8 pm.

Tor slept all night in his new sleeping bag, then joined Daddy for a selfie.

We gathered to eat a big breakfast. You can see the canopy / tarp setup that we slept under - this year, we stayed dry.

The kids did some more work clearing brush, before we packed up and headed home.

Projects and bumper boats!

The kids got here really early so after breakfast they started on a project for me. They were making a centerpiece for each table for the Labor Day party. 

They all turned out really cute. Here is Tor's and I liked it because he made a miniature fire pit in the center of his creation. Jillian and Bridget also helped decorate the jars for the party.

                                      

Later in the morning we made a trip up to Aunt Laury's to see Josie, Emmy's 3 month old. She is a doll and loved grabbing Bridget's hair and all of them enjoyed using her many toys to entertain her.

After lunch we made a trip up to Streeter's Resort to ride the bumper boats. All three got a boat and went out.

Each boat had a water jet so they got plenty wet on this hot-hot day. They would do a lot of slamming into one another too!

Later that night at sunset, I enjoyed sitting outside while they twirled a hula hoop in routines while riding their ripsticks. It got so dark I couldn't get a good picture but it sure was entertaining. 

Another hot day today so we made a trip to the Toutle river and enjoyed many rides down the rapids.So sad that it's the end of summer since school starts next week!