MEMORIAL DAY BBQ!!!

I love with all that is in me to gather wonderful people together and be in fellowship. This is my first of what I hope to be many gatherings. I pray that God will continue to use me and this great home that He has blessed us with to bless many by bringing His children together.

This is 2 of the 17 kids that were here at the BBQ. Austin is leaping for as much air as he could while his mom was looking the other way! A lot of the kids were lined up at the trampoline....

While others played catch! 

While Neue and Ty and I labored in the garden...Dan put in his horseshoe pits so that he could finally play with the set we bought him for fathers day 3 years ago! It was a huge hit at the BBQ. A lot of fun.  

Uhh,,Memorial Day or Christmas Day??? which could it be???? There are 4 HUGE cottonwood trees around the house and in this picture 2 days ago they had just started dumping cotton. There is easily twice this amount all over the yard. Yikes!  

Here is the beginning of what we hope to be a beautiful harvest this summer and fall. We spent two days cultivating and planting. I can't wait!  

Procrastination makes for a great weekend!

Well even though we had known for several weeks that the Pinewood Derby was going to be this last Sunday we still put off getting that car done. Friday night we got to go out to dinner with our good friends Nick and Somi for a birthday dinner for Nick. The weather has finally gotten nice and so we had a great dinner down town and then had a really nice evening walk through town checking out some of the other sights in downtown Spokane. It was a lovely kid free evening. Thanks Chiacchia's! So the beginning of the weekend seems nice and wonderful right? Well, I will admit that the chaos came in place when I woke up Saturday morning with a crazy idea. As we are laying there in bed I say to Dan Hey I have an idea!!! instead of working on the car during the day we should prune the apple tree! And then not go to the lilac parade tonight so that we can work on the car tonight. He actually said yes to my wild idea.....Have you seen the apple tree? It has been overgrown by at least 10 years...no pruning!!! woopsie...so it took much longer and produced WAY more yard debris than I ever imagined. I also didn't think about what we were going to do with the debris!!! So as lunch passes and dinner grows closer I call on Nick for a truck and he generously lets us borrow his. At about 6pm we got the last branches cut but we all had to shower and then head over to the Brakes' house to get that dang Derby car done! So we halt the tree clean up and head out. Remember we hadn't even started the car..coming with a little block of pine...makes for a long night..mixed with paint fumes and good fellowship....we had tons of laughter! We did't finish until about 1am. it was frightening. So Saturday obviuosly got a little crazy but the real Chaos didn't hit until we woke Sunday morning. Rushed around getting everyone ready for church. Left church came home with fast food lunch where then we realized that BK forgot to put the chicken nuggets in the bag and Dan had to go back. Inhaled some food so that we could head outside to start getting the truck filled with debris so that we could get Nicks truck back...oh but wait Dan had to also touch up some paint on Spencers car and oops the paint dropped on the hardwood floor and splashed up dans front side from legs to head. Hurry along because we need to get going to the Girl Scout Bridging ceremony in 10 minutes....crap.....Sophia is having a total breakdown because she didn't go to bed until 1:15am the night before.....Neue did you get the truck finished loading?....with the FIRST load! Ahh...2:15 and Dan is back from the bridging so now all 3 of us adults are loading the truck. Finally got the second load off to the dump at about 4pm...when they close at 4:30. Oh and the weigh in at the derby is at 5pm...will Dan make it back home to pick up his family and get to the church on time? Ahhh...we were about 15 minutes late. Not too bad. But the night ended on an up with Spencers car doing great and we got Nicks truck back to him so that he could get to work Monday morning and all the yard debris is taken away! It was total chaos! But the kind of chaos that you can sit back and say...we are normal and have some good laughs over it!! Oh hey, we did learn that if you take yard debris to the dump after 3pm it is cheaper! Nice!

Good job Spencer!!! This was his first Pinewood Derby and he took 3rd place in his division. Spidey #4 turned out awesome! Since this was the first Derby for Spencer the theme for him was "even if we lose, we still have fun" I think that Dan must have made him repeat that 100 times in the 24 hours leading up to the big event. I will say it did work. In the first race he took 1tst in all 3 runs so he was very excited, but then in the 2nd race when he took 2nd, 3rd and then 2nd he was ok. And he was actaully very happy for his friends Zach and Micah who beat him out. The only problem he did have was he didn't want the small trophy!  

Best Buds Spencer and Micah! Micah took 2nd place in their division.  

Getting his trophy!  

Spidey #4 is in the middle lane. Go spidey! 

The official weigh in! 

These are our good friends..Kim and Roger Brake and their 3 little girls (sound familiar mom?) Ehlana is 8 and her and Madeline are great friends they love to draw together! Then their is Hannah she is in kindergarden and is the sweetest thing! And little Abbi...she seems to be the night owl...everytime we get together she seems to be the last one to finally cave to the sleep monster. If your eyes were closed and you heard her talk would think you were listening to Sophia...it is quite scary! They are a great family and Dan and I have enjoyed getting to know them more and more. 

Ehlana and I with her Pinewood car. She painted the base of his body and I helped her finish with his face and other little details..we were quite the team and she may not have won the race but she won BEST SHOW! Good job Ehlana!

After church and before the Pinewood Derby we had the honor of taking Madeline to her bridging ceremony for Girl Scouts. She has officially graduated from Daisy to Brownie. God Job Mads we are so proud of you!  

We had been working in the yards all day Saturday and hadn't even started Spencers pinewood car for the derby Sunday. Luckily our good friends Kim and Roger let us come over late and stay really late to finish the car. It was quite the party. We only had Spencers car but Kim and Roger had had 6! A long night. But so much fun!!! 

Spencer and Sophia and Madeline made a "castle" out of the branches that we pruned out of the apple tree. Aren't they so cute 

We have known that the little birds in the yard have made nests in the clothes line poles out back. But unfortunately over the winter Lenny, our nieghbors cat had many times caught the birds. We had no idea that this litte mama bird escaped the wrath of Lenny and had even saved her babies. These 3 little guys were squaking very loud waiting for thier mom to return with some food. The kids really think it is so cool to have little baby birds in the yard! 

BLAZE 2005

This last weekend was the Blaze conference at New Hope. The Aloha kids have come every year since the beginning! It was a blast having them stay with us this year and being able to see them all receive from the Lord. It was yet again another incredible year at Blaze and God definately showed up and delivered! Here Rebecca, Trisha, Amber and Jessica are in the Japanese Gardens with Me and the kids. The rest of the group is relaxing down by the duck pond! It was fun guys, and we already miss you all!

Best Friends..Hailey and Madeline! 

The Koi pond at the Japanese Gardens in Manito Park 

Sophia is leading the way for Jessica.  

Madelines first shoot!  

Just for Mom!

If you know Spencer then you know he all but loses his entire composure at the thought of his hair not being "down." Dan and I have tried since he was baby to style his hair and he has always thrown a fit. I finally pleaded with him on Mother's Day and he said he would do it just for me. And that is the truth!!! Anytime I have asked him since to let me do his hair he gets a serious look and then tells me, "Mom, it's not your day anymore!" So funny!

Saturday Madeline and some of her friends from her Daisy troop marched in the Junior Lilac Parade in downtown Spokane. They had a lot of fun! Although in this picture Jada had a side ache from running to catch up with their spot in the parade!  

Marching along