1st Day of Kindergarten

I know; this update is a few weeks late. J's first few weeks of school have been a bit tulmultuous as he has figured out the cafeteria, made new friends, given up "rest time" in the afternoon and "had to do a lot of reading." At the end of the second week, things seem to be going much better.

Daddy dropped J off and took a few photos of the scene. J looks a little intimidated in the first photo. Can you spot him in the second?

One special attraction of his new school--riding his bike to and from school. The school, Beverly Cleary, has two campuses. Hollyrood, his campus, is tiny--only nine classrooms total. It used to be a small k-3 that merged with another neighborhood school to form a k-8. The Hollyrood site only houses k-1 now. It's pretty nice; very intimate. However, I'm already anticipating what will happen when H starts school--we'll have to drop off and pick up on two separate campuses.

That, however, is in the future. For now, we'll just try to make it through kindergarten.

Happy Birthdays

Happy Birthdays

This past weekend was all about getting older--for better or for worse. The Currier family had invites to four birthdays this weekend.

Each birthday took place in a different park around town. It started with the oldest first--Kyu's birthday was on Saturday. I believe the official theme was "dork games." He's seen here playing croquet. On Sunday J's first party from 11-3 was for a girl in his class last year. He had to keep his energy up, though, because the double Braun birthday party was from 3-5.

BJ the Clown made an appearance at this party, and I got some great pictures of the kids laughing and yucking it up with the clown. (Now, in general, I'm NOT a fan of clowns, but BJ is awesome. )

24 Hours in Newport

24 hours in Newport

Newport, Oregon 3:00 PM Saturday to 3:00 PM Sunday. Ever since J's birthday party, when he adopted a wolf eel from the Newport aquarium, he has been begging to go. So we spent Saturday night in Newport with the Brauns, a quick end of summer trip for us and a before baby trip for the Brauns.

We stayed at this great inn on the beach, but the kids could have cared less about the view. They wanted to jump on the beds!

We went to see the tide pools below the Yaquina Head Lighthouse, my favoite part of the trip because it provided many photo oportunities. And of course we went to the aquarium.

When we got to the aquarium and began searching for the wolf eel, we discovered there wasn't just one--there were several adults and a slithering mass of young-uns, so we're not really sure WHICH ONE J adopted. It didn't really matter because he became obsessed with the giant octopus anyway.

The kids seemed to have a great time hanging out together. I have a few pictures of the babies, uh, I mean two-year-olds, H and G, exploring together. Click on the web album link to see the whole photo story of the weekend.

North Carolina

Okay, I've finally uploaded the photos from our trip to North Carolina. They are just a click away because I've added a link on the right hand side of the page called "summer photos." However, if you can't find that link try this one. http://picasaweb.google.com/hillary.currier/080715TreasureIsland

(Actually, that's a link to our pirate adventure; however, all the new albums are public, so you should be able to get to all NC photos from there.)

To summarize: J and H had a great vacation.

Even though we remembered how sea sick J had become during last year's Barta Tournament, we thought it was just the rough seas, and did NOT medicate him before leaving on the first day. This turned out to be a big mistake. What was surprising, however, was how game he was for the next day on the boat. Apparently, it never even occured to him that he could complain and say he didn't want to go. He had one thing on his mind, catching a fish. So, we loaded him up on Dramamine, and the second day went smoothly. He caught a 10.9lb dolphin fish! (See photo below.)

Another highlight for J was a 'behind the scenes" tour of The Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores. And of course all the cousins enjoyed catching pin fish off of the dock by Gandmommy and Grandaddy's house and going to visit the next door neighbor and feed the fish in her pond. One evening J came back soaking wet; he had fallen into the pond while trying to catch a tadpole.

H is in a possessive stage right now. She enjoyed getting in MY suit and going on MY boat with MY daddy. (See photo.) She hated being left behind. She was as happy as could be whenever she got to get on MY boat with all of the cousins and be part of the action, like going on the pirate treasure hunt and even taking a spin tubing.

Our days of fun in the sun behind us, we returned to sweatshirt weather, which has given way to mostly sunny 78-82 highs. I know many reading this blog will be jealous; however, we sure will miss the nice warm water.

Playing at the Pool

Baby H gets some air at the pool. More photos at http://picasaweb.google.com/hillary.currier/080703HannahPool

The FIsh's First Swim Meet

On Saturday J swam in his first meet. Daddy and H went with him. In the first photo J shows off his powerful swimming body. In the second, he poses with the other members of his 8 and under relay team. And finally, would you look at that dive. If you look closely, you'll see there's only one other kid in his heat with any kind of form. Daddy was really proud and told lots of stories of the days when he too was on the swim team.

Lots of Birthdays to Celebrate

Two weekends ago we went to Seattle to celebrate all the June birthdays. H and H got matching dresses. To see more photos of the weekend, you can go to this link.

http://picasaweb.google.com/hillary.currier/080615WeekendSeattleMattBday

Berry Picking

It's strawberry season. The cold spring and early summer have put the growing season behind, but the berries we picked last Friday were sweet and delicious, though a bit small. (There's not much quality control when the kids are doing the picking.)

Two

This is a link to more photos of H's day.

http://picasaweb.google.com/hillcphotography/080613Hannah2ndBday?authkey=l5TXTapljUI

Bend

For our "summer is officially here" weekend, we went to Bend. We stayed at Murph's. He has a place on five acres. There's a barn, a pasture, and a rock formation that is perfect for practicing tee shots. The kids had a great time playing. J jumped the ramp on his bike, hit golf balls, played football, and hit pine cones with a tee ball bat. What more could any kid want. The house in the bottom photo is Wendy's place, just a few blocks from downtown Bend. Notice the long sleeves and fleece. It was sunny, but even in Bend it wasn't very warm. We can't wait for summer weather to arrive.

A Week With Mom

A photo of J and his 5th grade buddies from school. These guys are really sweet to J. Their main responsibility is to keep an eye on J during Mass. As it turns out, this is an easy job because J always falls asleep. However, they go above and beyond their duties. They always talk to him after school on the playground, and they give him presents too. We've kept busy this week going to tee ball practice, taking photos at school, eating out. We miss Daddy and Sis, but the week has flown by.

All about H

While J has been going to tee ball practice, H has learned how to swing a bat. (See her technique with the pinata at a Cinco de Mayo party.) She continues to love dance class and playing with all of her brother's toys, especially the balls.