Retirement . . .

. . . has its perks.

Grami may have retired from teaching school (too bad for the educational system), but she was willing to come teach art camp this week (so lucky for us.) It was fantastic!

Relay Wrap Up

I shared some images from our team's Relay for Life experience a couple of weeks ago. But here more are images of the entire event. The wrap up meeting was last night, so I wanted to share the others now.

color

Avy's second art class was yesterday. We talked about how color communicates. There were two crafts. The first one ended up taking a lot longer than I planned because the correct glue was lost on the way down stairs (still don't know how) and we had to use superglue as an alternative. But the girls (and I) had a lot of fun designing rings.

In the second project we took 16 colors to describe a mood, place or thing. I love how it ended up. I love that everyone has different things that are significant to them (for example, Christmas Tree, banana split, summer swimming, Great Wolf Lodge, chocolate chip cookies, etc.) And even those interpretations will vary from person to person.

Summer good times continue.

NOT corporate America

5 minutes ago, this was the scene in my workplace:


H: "Avy, you must clean the paper and crayons off your floor."

A: "You are not like other moms!"

H: "I assure you, Avy, other moms ask their kids to clean up their rooms."

A: "No they don't! They are . . . . . . . NICE!"


Boy, there are times I think working for "the man" isn't so bad.

EVANGELINE MUDD AND THE GOLDEN-HAIRED APES OF THE IKKINASTI JUNGLE

Relay '09

This past weekend was Oregon City's Relay for Life. After last year's efforts, I was a little worn out, but was SO glad we participated again this year. It was a lot of fun! Here are some of my favorites. (Get ready, eliminating is not my strong point.)

The survivors' lap always chokes me up and makes me thankful for sunglasses to hide the tears. Especially when I saw our friends, Kathy and Mark.

Avy enjoyed yummy treats.

Avy chose an alternative mode of transportation around the track for her laps.

Our friends, Joe and Autumn, came to cover our first shifts.

Sawyer was a superb tent supervisor.

Sophie enjoyed a cool treat and . . .

meeting Cinderella.

The Hoeppners came to walk an afternoon shift. Later, in Home Depot, they actually met Autumn and Joe in the paint line. Small world.

Michael actually got Sawyer out into the sunshine. For a brief moment.

Jordan ventured onto the track for the team.

Bike riding is a team effort.

The Moonwalkers' tent. (Who would have known that would have been a timely name?)

Bounce house time . . .

Then came the water in the heat of the day.

Jenni and Patty got in the creative 80's mode and . . .

and took us right back.

Avy sang during kids' karaoke.

This is Slade's team participation contribution . . .

He ate 6 hot dogs and buns in less than 5 minutes. But believe it or not, he was beaten by 10 seconds.

Jenny Wayne came in the evening. The girls had a blast Jenny Wayne style.

There were 700 luminary around the track. And there was no wind this year so they burned through the night.

The following morning everyone took one final lap together . . .

and 'til next year.

Another Toy Substitute

Today we spent some time in the park taking pictures of cute little Koen.

Sawyer sat in the car impatiently waiting until 3:00 sharp, when he could begin swimming with other cousins. Avy helped with the reflector. Kennah wandered around doing something, but I didn't pay a lot of attention to the details. (Poor Spock was tied to a post. Seriously, I thought the kids would harass the dog this summer, not relegate him to the fringes.)

As we finished, Kennah said I needed to take a picture of something and led me over to a spot where she'd created a little log cabin. (Don't you love her new fashion statement? She's been sporting the head band off and on for the past month or so. She even wrote a letter to her principal sharing her opinion that bandannas, in 4th grade, are not gang related and that the dress code could include them.)

She explained the larger sticks are on the bottom and tapered off towards the top. She was so proud of her creation. That's now day 2 of no-cost toys. SCORE!! I am pretty confident, however, if I asked her to play with the sticks, she'd turned her nose up at me. My feelings aren't hurt by her independence--grow girl, grow!!