The Goat Farm

On June 20th, we went on a field trip with our friends, the Holmes, to Left Foot Farms, a cute goat farm. It was $20 a family and we learned a lot about goats! These were the friendliest goats. They loved to be petted and would come up to you to say, "Hi".  Everyone loved the goats, except Berg. He was scared to death! He cried whenever a goat even looked at him. Mr. Holmes had to carry him on his shoulders most of the time.

He was better when we went to the milking area because the goats weren't walking around. We all got to take turns milking the goats with our hands even though that's not the normal routine at the farm. The goats are usually hooked up to a milking machine. We were able to tour that barn, too.

Next, we visited the nursery where the little kids come to get bottle fed. The kids run around and climb on the picnic tables and rub up against you. The human kids loved it. Even Berg got brave and pet the baby goats. Eben loved to lean back and have the kids climb up to his chest and just stand on him.

After a short visit with the farm's chickens, we went to the garden where fresh goat cheese, crackers and goat milk were wait for us. It was delicious! The kids were able to eat anything in the garden, but the favorite was the fresh strawberries. We put goat cheese and a strawberry on a cracker and it tasted just like cheesecake!

 As everyone was started to go home, we noticed it was time to bottle feed the little kids, so I asked if Kivi and I could feed them. Kivi was so excited! We had to hold the kid while we fed them the bottle, and they were greedy little guys. Kivi did great although she found holding the goat with one arm while feeding it a bottle with the other gets very tiring. 

June Memories on Lake Louise

I can't believe we didn't paint this house sooner. It actually looks great with the colors we chose. Now that the flowers are blooming and the sun is shining I can't believe were going to move away from this beautiful place!

We haven't seen sun like this  - ever. We must be setting some sort of record here in WA. We've never eaten so many meals outside. Deck dining is a nightly routine.

June 8th- 12th we had Shark Week and learned all we could about sharks, watched movies, built them, made them out of bananas and went to see them at the zoo. (We even got to see the tank behind the scenes at Member's Only Day!)

 Eben and Kivi gave us some oral reports on two missionaries they had been reading about. Also, Eben started going to Middle School youth group on Wednesdays! How did he get so big already?

 More outdoor dining. This time on the dock! Grace and Kivi set up a tea party for Pella, Opal and Megan.

Tuff eats his toes! So it's time for his toe eating picture on June 17th!

Amazing sunsets! I will definitely miss this summer view.

The McKinley House Flood - Before & After

When we first purchased this little house we had no idea it would bring us to greater faith in our God. To make a long story short, after realizing that our rental house had been flooding through a burst pipe in the attic for over 3 months, back in March of 2014 we were ready to completely let it go. There was no way we could afford to fix up this house after all the damage and the insurance company said they wouldn't touch it. But miraculously, after we told them we would have to give it back to the bank, they started working with us! Now, more than a year later, it's done! 

It is so much nicer that we could have ever imagined it to be. It went from a two bedroom to a three bedroom, now has an open concept living and kitchen space and a hallway to the bedrooms and bathroom. Before you had to go through the bathroom to get to the back bedroom.

Here is our cute little rental:

And here are some Before and After pics:

Thank you, God for providing. Thank you, Tony and team, for all your hard work!

Seaside, May 29-Jun 2

We love Seaside, OR! We started off the summer by going to Dada's work friends' house two blocks from the beach.  The first thing we love to do is go to the Goodwill. The Goodwill out there has an amazing toy section. Each kid gets to spend $5 on a toy of their choice! This time Berg chose a plane, Pella a doll, Opal a rock tumbler Jasper a baton and Eben and Kivi put their money together and got a RipStick.

Mama found the motherload of Charles Wysocki puzzles! There were probably over 100. We chose seven to buy since CW is the only type of puzzle we do.  We worked on three of them while we were there.

That evening we took a bike ride down the promenade to go get

ICE CREAM!! It's usually our favorite and only destination. $1.00 Tillamook ice cream just can't be beat at the Candy Man! We also get to spin the wheel and get free candy.

Dad went to bed early and the kids and I went to the beach in our jammies to see the amazing sunset. They are all at the log where we told them we were pregnant with Baby Tuff a year earlier!

It was a good thing we did our bike ride to ice cream that first day because for the rest of our time, Dada was overtaken by sickness. He stayed in bed while we watched movies, did puzzles, ate and went to the beach. Jasper and Opal made a bunker in the sand, Kivi tried to skim board, Pella collected jellyfish and Berg and Eben sat on a log and ate ice cream with potato chips.

We made more fruit and marshmallow kabobs to go with dinner because they were such a big hit at Berg's party.

We had a fun time although it would have been much greater if Dada were able to join us in our activities. We were all glad we had that first day with him. We spent the next day doing much of the same; beach, movies, puzzles, playing with our Goodwill toys and before we left Dada felt good enough to take us ice cream one more time before we headed for home.

Awana Awards Night!

This year our kids did some amazing things in Awana! We love Awana because it helps us hide God's Word in our hearts. We work on our Awana verses everyday at home and when our kids get to church on Wednesday night it shows. They have God's Word ready. Berg and Pella completed their second and first years of Cubbies, respectively.  The Cubbies all work on their verses together and go at the same pace.

Opal earned her Second Book Award in Sparks!

Jasper got his Sparky plaque for finishing all of the Sparks books!

Kivi, our over achiever, was called up at the end of all the TNT awards by herself because she worked super hard this year. She was able to go back through all four of the TNT books she finished last year and do the Silvers for books 1-4 and Golds for books 1-3. The Silvers are review verses and new verses that have to be said at the same time for the whole discovery  (1 question, 4 answers and about 8 verses) and the Golds are projects related to serving, missions, essays, letters, craft projects, journaling and Bible reading. Some of these can take up to 3 months just to finish one section! The very last Gold of each book has the kids recite the whole book (Four theological questions, thirty-two answers and thirty-two verses each) which she did in one setting so she also earned 3 review patches, which have to be ordered because no one has done this yet. We are super excited to see how God uses this girl and her amazing memory skills.

Then Mr. Knack called Eben up to the stage all by himself and he was given his awards, too! He finished his fourth TNT book and completed his first Gold! This is huge for him because he wasn't even in TNT this year!

Actually, both he and Kivi were able to join a special Serve Team with Mr. Edgren as their leader because they had both finished the 3rd TNT book the year before. Instead of doing TNT each Wed. night, they completed service projects or put on skits for Awana. This was a great opportunity for them both, but also made it more difficult to say their verses as they had to seek out someone to listen to them after Awana each time. We would have to stay after for at least 30 min. each Wed. But they persevered and got it done!

Berg's Marshmallow Birthday!

On Berg's actual birthday, May 17th, we celebrated our boy turning five! 

He wanted a Marshmallow Party.

The first thing we did was hold a marshmallow survey. Kivi and Opal manned the taste test and guests chose which flavor marshmallow they liked the best.

We built marshmallow and toothpick creations.

Dinner consisted of Berg's choice foods; combo pizza, fruit and marshmallow kabobs, chips and lemonade.

The Marshmallow On a String game was my favorite. Contestants had to try to eat the marshmallow without using their hands. We had a boy, girl and adult divisions. Dada was the ultimate winner!

For dessert we made homemade ice cream sandwiches with marshmallow fluff and roasted s'mores.

I wish I had gotten some better pics of the marshmallow fight. Poppie had made enough marshmallow blow guns for each family to have one and it turned into an all out war! So much for my planned aim at the target game.

We had such a fun time with friends and family who came to love our Berg!

Happy 5th Birthday, Bergie! You are such a joy to have in our family. We love your smiles, hugs, encouragement and sharing attitude. You are still the best to cuddle and squish, thus you are the Squishy. You are an amazing reader. You are self motivated and have learned so many new things all on your own! You pick out some great outfits - most of which include plaid shorts. You still love your Nay Nay and playing video games with Eben is one of your favorite past times. You hate water. You like order and rules and are very good at following them. You are a great example of Jesus' love and a light for Him in our family and for the world. We love you, Berg!