Max is 6!

Today, our Max turned 6! 

Here are his current favorites:

Favorite color: Red
Favorite Toy: Legos
Favorite Fruit: Grapes
Favorite TV show: The Magic School Bus
Favorite Thing to Eat for Lunch: Meat and Cheese Sandwiches
Favorite Outfit: New birthday shirts (Angry Birds Star Wars, Ninjago, airplanes)
Favorite Game: Hide and Go Seek
Favorite Snack: Pretzels
Favorite Animal: Peregrine Falcon
Favorite Song: Star Wars theme
Favorite Book: Childcraft: All About Animals
Favorite Cereal: Honey-Nut Cheerios
Favorite Thing to do Outside: Ride scooter
Favorite Drink: Water
Favorite Holiday: My birthday
What to you Take to Bed with You? Books
Favorite Thing to Eat for Breakfast: Pancakes
What Do you Want for Dinner on Your Birthday? McDonalds
What Do you Want to be When you Grow Up? Airplane Pilot

After a busy "Birthday Saturday", Max was thrilled to open up presents from Grandma Kate and Grandpa J while face-timing with Grandma last night.  Today, he had pancakes for breakfast and then it was time for swimming lessons (which he LOVES).  After swimming, daddy took Max and Ryan to the Renton airport to look at planes and watch them take off.  Then we had cake and presents.

Max helped decorate his own cake.  He built the LEGO figures and put them on.

He went on a birthday present hunt!

 

Thank you Aunt Becky!

 

Legos are so expensive but these two awesome sets were bought last year from a friend who was moving!  Score!

 

He has been wanting an airplane shirt so badly.  All of his other airplane shirts are now too small!

 

Thank you Grandma Pearl and Grandpa Dan!

 

After lunch, presents and saying good-bye to daddy, we met up with some friends for a bike ride.  We sang to Max and passed out cupcakes.  We went 3 miles today.  It took some mom teamwork and scooting the younger kids around (would you like to try a scooter?  would you like a ride in the stroller?  do you want to try the bike now?) but it was fun.  The kids were tired (and so were we) :)  Max was excited to try his new scooter.

Now the boys are happily playing Legos and will also get some Wii time since it's a special day.  I heard this from the other room, "best birthday, ever!"  Phew!

Tiffany Park Ward Talent Show 2013

We have a great church family with lots of fun talent.  There were talents that were performed and talents that were displayed.  Some talents (like swimming) were viewed via video.  It was pretty amazing.  My boys wanted to participate so they joined in on a group dance and then told some jokes.

Max's Birthday Saturday

We love birthdays!  We decided awhile back that we would do friend parties every other year, so this year, it was more about just picking some fun things to do together.  Ryan had a cousin camping trip and Max wanted to go to the Family Fun Center.  Tony found out that this weekend there were three war birds that were going to be at the Flight Museum, available for tour (you could also fly in them, but who has that kind of cash with almost 4 kids?)  When Tony told Max about this, he of course wanted to go to the Flight Museum as well! 

B-24 taking off

 

Tony and his three little aviators.

 

Jason has an airplane on his shirt, pants and shoes.  He's too wiggly to see them all.

 

The first (I think) pictures of Jason in front of a B-17.

 

Getting ready to tour the B-17.

 

The P-51 Mustang

 

 

Tony and I decided that we are going to take a bi-plane ride on one of our anniversaries or at least ride in an airplane with an open cockpit.  How fun would this be?

 

Tony, Max and Ryan toured the B-24.  Jase and I waited outside.

 

After lunch we went to the Family Fun Center where the boys played some games, played mini-golf and then played in the Kid Zone.  They climbed and tunneled and slid and wore themselves out.  It was a beautiful thing.

 

 

 

Jason even took a shot.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fishing Fridays

We decided as a family to have a theme for each day so that we would plan something fun, big or small, and at the same time, keep our summer simple and relaxed.  We planned that Fridays would be Fishing Fridays.


Today, we went to Coulon park.  Tony took Max and Ryan fishing while Jason slept in the stroller and I walked around and enjoyed the beauty. 

 

This is either side of a bridge I crossed over.  I love the green forest and then the view of the beautiful, calm, lake.

 

This is "Duck Island" where the boys were going to be fishing, but they had moved by they time I was done with my walk.

Here they are fishing on the dock.

Tony had a work buddy there as well and they kept fishing while I took the boys to the playground and had the best conversation with another mom.  I love meeting people at parks.  So fun.

Jason loved swinging.  He's so funny because even though he wasn't facing the sun, it was bright enough that he kept closing his eyes.

 

 

It's Not My Fault!

Lately the property management gig has gotten a bit frustrating.  I've had to start the eviction process with a tenant and that tenant called the other night and didn't accept responsibility for their lack of rent payment, they blamed me.  Hmmmm...it took me back to social work days when clients would blame me because they weren't doing anything to get their children back into their care.  It is frustrating when people can't take responsibility for their actions.  I have a hard time sleeping normally with a cute baby inside making things uncomfortable, but then I was up just thinking about this situation, again, reminding me of social work days when I would lay in bed thinking of all the things to do to help the kids and make sure I had a solid case.  I remember being especially stressed out before a termination trial.  If parents were contesting the termination then I had to study my notes and make sure I remembered everything for when I took the witness stand.  If the parents weren't contesting or weren't even showing up and losing their parental rights by default, it still bothered me because being a part of the process of severing someone's parental rights is daunting.  Even when the child is in a good, wonderful home, there's still a bit of heartache that would come to me that a child had to experience loss of any kind because of their parents' choices.  Also, there was sadness for the parent who didn't understand what a beautiful blessing they were losing.  Not that the job was always stressful, I loved it at the same time, but it could definitely keep me up at night.  So as I lay awake thinking about this current situation, I scrolled for something to read on my phone and came across this talk.  http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2013/04/the-savior-wants-to-forgive?lang=eng  I realized that in order for this situation to get out of my head, I had to forgive the person who is blaming me and reacting desperately to a horrible situation they are in.  I wasn't mad at this person, but at the same time, I was frustrated and not able to comprehend why they would try to blame me when it was in no way my fault.  So in ruminating about that, I was letting it affect me too much and I had to let it go.  So when I forgave them (in my mind) for taking it out on me, it really was like a weight off my shoulders. 

Max's Last Day of Kindergarten

For spirit week, the kids had crazy hair day, red t-shirt day and professional day.  Max did all of these and on professional day, he dressed up as an airline pilot.  He had wings and a little badge.  He also wore his bomber jacket.  Too bad, we don't have an airline pilot hat. 

There was an assembly where the kindergarteners introduced themselves. 

After school he said good-bye to his teacher and we had a picnic with some of his kindergarten buddies.