ANWA Retreat!

Hey everyone, I made a post about my experience at the ANWA writer's retreat this past week. It's on my other blog... http://myliteraryescape.blogspot.com/

Check it out!

Jason rolls down the hill!

Well, Jason is now over the hill and rolling downward as we celebrated his 41st birthday a few weeks ago.

Here are some fun pics.

 Getting ready for the party.

 Jason the King!

 Lighting the candles.

Even after these years, he still blew them out in one try.

For dinner we had a full blown turkey dinner with all the fixings. Instead of pumpkin pie though, we had cheesecake (a birthday tradition).

For his birthday he got money (with which he bought drum accessories), a book on tape, the game Taboo and a CD (he teased me...saying that I really got the CD for me--which might be true, but in my defense I really did think he'd like it).

I usually spotlight my kids for their birthdays so I'll do the same for Jason

Fun Facts

Favorite Food: Lobster and King Crab

Favorite Color: Green

Favorite Activity: Drumming

Favorite Movie: What About Bob

Favorite TV Show: Whose Line is it Anyway (when it's clean)

Favorite Band: Chick Corea Electric Band

What He Does in His Spare Time: Nap, Watch Movies

When He Grows Up, He Wants To Be: A Studio Drummer

A Special Talent: Working with people, playing complex rhythms with his teeth, and making people laugh

If He Could Live Anywhere: His very own Island

4th of July!

 We love the 4th of July! We celebrated by listening to patriotic music, watching documentaries and movies about America, making sugar cookies, having a BBQ and of course...fireworks!  This year was really fun because Kamary learned about the Revolutionary War in school this year so celebrating July 4th took on a whole new meaning for her.

 Here are some of our patriotic cookies.

More patriotic cookies.

 We started our morning with a pancake breakfast at the church.

 They had water games outside to keep nice and cool.

 Here are Lauren, Brynlie, Alyssa & Kohler playing outside.

 The kids are lining up for the parade. Kamary was a candy thrower.

  

 Lauren carried the flag during the parade.

 Even though the water games were for the kids, the "big boys" had the most fun, starting a huge water fight.

 Alyssa, my tree climber.

 Here is a game we played with the guys on one side...

 ...and the kids on the other.

The kids had to transfer water from a cup on their head to a water bottle on the adult's head. Most of the water ran down their faces instead of reaching the water bottle.

 The end result of the water fight. I even got wet (a little).

 These were our 4th of July cupcakes we made.

After the pancake breakfast we went swimming with Jason's sister, Charlene and her family and then had a BBQ. At night we went to the park and watched the fireworks. There were some fireworks that exploded into smiley faces. It was a fun day.

This is a random picture but I thought it worked well here. Over the summer, Kamary wanted to have fun with her hair so we gave her a blue stripe in. It should wash out by the time school starts.

She really likes it. She thinks it makes her look like a rockstar! :)