Orange County Fair!

The day after Buggy's wedding Shmee took Steve, Peter and I, and Mamacita and Pops to the Magic Castle, which was amazing. We saw lots of rope tricks and slight of hand tricks and I'm sure I figured most of them out, but there's no way I could ever do them. I just like to say I've got them figured out. No photos are allowed though, so no pics of that. 

On Wednesday, July 24th, Nonnie and I took all the kids to the Orange County Fair while the boys and Shmee went kite boarding. If you donated a book to a charity they gave you a free ticket! I love free! A free ride even came with each ticket!

Eben, Kivi, Jasper and I all rode the ferris wheel for the first time. 

Nonnie and Opal went on a dragon roller coaster. 

Berg chose a "monster truck" ride!

Pella didn't even use her ride ticket. We saw some animals and a huge garden and watched pigs race.

Then Nonnie treated us all to a yummy treat, Eben got a carmel apple, Kivi and Berg shared a funnel cake with berries and Opal, Jasper and Pella had kettle corn.

In the course of the day we lost and found Kivi's fedora and a Pella's right shoe, and permanently lost Pella's left shoe. Two out of three ain't bad. It was still a fun day at the fair in the OC.

Buggy and Kirk's Big Day!

After everyone was ready and everything was set up we took some before the wedding photos. 

Here's the whole wedding party:

All of us with Buggy and Uncle Kookie

The Tague Girls

This is what the kids did while waiting for their turn to be in pictures. Sadly the bear ripped up the tule in the girl's dresses, but it wasn't that noticeable.

They found all the metal statues around.

The wedding began and all the kids walked down the isle! At the last minute I switched the flower petals in Pella's little basket for fruit loops. Everyone thought she was eating the petals as she walked down and cracked up. It worked though and she was happy. Berg carried down an heirloom Bible, the girls tossed rose petals and Eben and Jasper held a sign that said, "Here comes the bride". They sat with Poppie, Nonnie and Mimi during the rest of the wedding and did pretty good!

Buggy was so beautiful!

Afterwards we took some more photos and came right back in to the outdoor room decorated in antiques, lace and burlap and had a delicious pulled pork meal and enjoyed the ice cream bar. Peter spent most of the time driving a very cranky Pella around in the van, but she had made it though the ceremony and that was the important part. The kids had so much fun, there was a big play ground right next to the reception and loved playing with their cousins. (Pella was done posing for pictures from the beginning, but early on I put my expectations out of my mind, so I was ok with it. The photographer actually got some of her happy and got our family photo, something I didn't even think happened!) 

It was a beautiful, love-filled day.

Wedding Prep in CA

 Thursday in CA the girls went to a nail salon and got our nails did. Kivi and Opal and Shmee got their nails painted, I got a pedicure and Buggy got the works!

The girls wanted to stay by her side and watch the whole time. That night was the rehearsal for the wedding and the rehearsal dinner, which was soooo good! It was outside and even had a garden area and bench swing right where we were dining so the kids could play and roam a little.

On Friday night, Shmee and I threw Buggy a lingerie bachelorette party with a twist. We had her guests make her the lingerie at the party with material they had to pick without seeing out of a paper bag. They had to design, cut, and sew their creations by a strict deadline - Project Runway style. The teams came up with the cutest little "outfits" ever and bold little Bug modeled them all for us and then chose a winning team. She chose the dark maroon, velvet, heart shaped one that came with a matching headband. But since those photos are now for Kirk's eyes only I will post this racy picture of what the guys did during Kirk's bachelor party, which they had at the apartment where Kirk and Buggy would live together as husband and wife, and was going on at the same time. Buggy was not so glad that her soon to be marriage bed was being defiled. They sent a photo text during our party.

Seal Beach with Cousins

On Wednesday of our CA adventure, we went to see my cousin and her kiddos who were in the States from Dubai for family weddings. The little kids dug a big hole in the sand, while the two big boys, Lars and Eben worked on their sand village. We took a picture of all of them in the hole.

My cousin, Kenzie, and I at the beach.

Opal was a very brave girl that day. She jumped waves with Jasper, and even got buried in the sand.

Berg was not so brave, after he got wet, he was not so happy with the wind and stayed cuddled up in a towel eating life cereal most of the time.

Even Eben, who said there was no way he was going in the water so he didn't bring his bathing suit, got in with all of his clothes on!

Nonnie and Poppie's Pool

While we were in CA the kids probably went swimming everyday. It was really hot. We only took pictures of them in the pool for the first couple of days.  On Monday, the first day we all got in pool:

Pella is a scary pool baby. She has no fear. She is daring. She loves the water and thinks she can swim. If we weren't there to save her she would have drowned herself about 20 times over and over.  But she can blow bubbles!

On Wednesday, the third day we were there, this happened:

Apparently the kids were using a brick as a pool toy.

Don't worry she was fine. Right after her crazy looking injury, she was blowing out candles on yummy ice cream birthday cake that Aunt Sherri made since she spent her actual birthday in the car the whole time.

California Horses

We left for California on Kivi's birthday, July 14th, the week after our church's VBS week. On the drive down we gave Kivi her birthday present - Heely's. It was probably not the best timing for the gift since she could only hold them on her lap while we drove and then got frustrated when she tried them at rest stops because it's hard to get the hang of, but Dada was too excited to give them to her.  (Now they can ride through Costco together.) We got to Poppie and Nonnie's late or actually really early in the morning on Monday. The next day my cousin, Fifi, took us to ride her horses.

We groomed them, saddled them, and fed them watermelon.

 Then we went on a little trail ride!

There were two horses to ride so first Opal and Berg went.

Next, Jasper and Pella got a turn.

Then Eben and Kivi got to go.

On the way back they all wanted to ride doubles and lead the horses without an adult. Oooohhh! So risky!

VBS Athens

Lake City Community Church's VBS was the second week of July. We did Paul in Athens this year and it was great! I did the MC part which is a lot of fun, but then also needed to lead a group because we had so many kids come! It was a busy week, full of fun and excitement and I felt like I never stood still the whole time! The kids loved it especially the marketplace which is always their favorite.

Sammy

My friend, Drea, gave us a pet, Sammy. He's our bread starter and we keep him in the fridge. We have to feed him everyday, but in return he makes us delicious bread and rolls, and raisin bread and cinnamon rolls, pizza crust and anything you can think up! We all love Sammy! The only downside is you have to wait a whole day for him to rise before you bake the bread so you have to plan ahead. I'm trying to get better at making bread first thing in the morning so my poor hubby doesn't have to get up at one in the morning and bake bread for me! He's so sweet! Right after this we went to CA and I had to find a babysitter for it! I divided it in two and got two babysitters for almost 3 weeks! I was sure they'd be dead when I got back so I got more from Drea, but amazingly Miss Niki kept him alive! Thank you Niki for watching Sammy for us!

Fourth of July 2014

This 4th of July was so different from any of our others. We didn't have a party. The first time in 8 years! We decided to have a relaxing afternoon, go to the Steilacoom parade, and invite a family over for dinner knowing that more people would probably show up for the fireworks show. We had our friends, the Millers, over for dinner. Like we thought more people did show up for the evening show. We tried to send off the lanterns like we did the year before, but it was too windy and had to stop when one got stuck in a tree. The boys loved lighting off all the fireworks this year and did most of them. I don't even think I got to light off a big one! Berg and Pella had fun lighting their little bottle rockets and the big kids and I loved the ladybugs, huge sparklers and as always, roman candles. We got two family pictures this day!! Pella is covered by my head in one and a firework in the other - oh well. One great idea Peter came up with was lined the dock and walls with red and white paper bags that the kids filled with sand and put a candle in. Everyone around the lake could see them. They were really beautiful.

Fourth of July - Day

Fourth of July - Night

Shilo Bible Camp and The DeyArmins

My friend, Drea, invited us to come to the county to spend time with their family and go to their day camp while I was at our church's women's retreat. I'm so glad I said, "yes"! We had a great time living the country life the week of June 23rd and learning how to be more natural and healthy. We went on walks, hikes, did lots of laundry, ate Drea's all from scratch food, met Sammy (our bread starter), broke a table, played with kittens, found a dead kitten, and my favorite - used a compost toilet (not at the DeyArmins)! Between mine, theirs and their niece, we had 11 kids and it couldn't have been more pleasant.

Everyday the seven big kids would pack up with me and we'd go have fun at Shilo Bible Day Camp learning about the Armor of God while Drea stayed at home with the four little ones. At camp we played games, ate snack while watching a puppet musical, did crafts, watched a skit, ate lunch and while watching a puppet show, sang songs, acted in skits and walked around the pool (it was too cold to actually swim). Then we'd pack up and come home to Mama DeyArmin who did our laundry and made us dinner. I loved having a Mama that week! We slept out in our friend's trailer that we parked in their front yard and fell asleep to the sound of rain every night.

Thanks, DeyArmins, for the special week and thanks Ericksons for the trailer!