May and June - baseball, birthday and beach

Ben had a great baseball season with his Rookie league Red Sox team! Here are a ton of pics from the season!

 

 

End of year picnic

 

In other news, Ben lost his 'other' front tooth, and has been sporting the typical 1st grade smile as of late. And Eli is just a cute as ever.

Mother's day at Champoeg

Garden planning

Mother's Day wine and canvas with the girls!

Ben's 7th birthday - celebrated at the Beach!!

 

 

 

 

 

The boys enjoying some splash time in the backyard.

 

Eli at Kindergarten orientation (after eating a fudge-sickle)

I am finally done with another year of teaching - ready for summer break!

March and April

March and April: Zoo trip with Andy's whole family,

 Eli was really looking forward to the cheetahs, but they were sleeping. One of them woke up and got a peek at Eli, then back to napping. Eli really wanted to see them run.

Plus, (in what ever order my camera downloaded) Andy's 40th birthday Portland Brewcycle,

My folks came to visit for Spring Break, but I don't think I took a single picture. Yikes! I was very busy with appointments, and errands, etc.  Grandma and grandpa had lots of quality time with the boys playing LEGOs and games and basketball in the street.  We even got in some bowling, but the pictures were not very good.  Ben beat me, and Eli wasn't far behind.  Grandpa beat us all.

Ben starting baseball practice

And loosing one of the big top front teeth on daddy's actual birthday at Red Robin, while eating a corn dog.  Literally.  Loosing it.  As in swallowing it.  He wrote a sweet note to the tooth fairy, who understood and still paid up.

Hosting Andy's family for Easter.  The boys wore their suits from Adam and Stephanie's wedding to church in the morning.  So cute.  Here they are with their loot.

 All ready to go!

 Fun with cousins on Easter afternoon.

The next weekend, our family went to the final Trailblazers game of the regular season. Ben was pretty excited to go.  He even made a chalk symbol for our home court (the street) before we went to the game.

 Eli spelling names with sticks at the park.

 Blazer game!

 Both boys made signs, but Eli did not want a picture with his sign at the end of the night....

Today, we went to a rock and gem show, which they always enjoy, and this one even had a 'treasure hunt' for easter eggs filled with polished rocks.  Pretty cool.  We then headed to McDowell Creek Falls Parks outside Lebanon (about 1.5 hrs away) for a sweet 3 mile hike.  The boys did very well on the hike, and there were several neat falls and footbridges to keep their interest (as well as flowers to keep my interest) :)

Baseball games start Monday, so I'll have to get some pictures up and posted.  Also, Ben lost his second top tooth at the park on Friday, but lost it in the bark chips.  Another note for the tooth fairy.

January and February

One fine day in January, Eli was being a great helper and was pulling the garbage can down the driveway after the garbage truck dumped the garbage.  I still am not exactly sure what happened, but he somehow slipped on the driveway, and fell with his thumb smashed between the garbage can and the driveway.  There was a good scrape below the thumbnail, involving blood, so Eli was screaming immediately.  We headed inside and got him some Tylenol, and a Band-Aid and I tried calming him down.  It took a full 30 minutes before he stopped crying hysterically.  He was starting to almost hyperventilate.  He was speaking in gibberish.  It was a bit crazy.  I pulled out all of my tricks:  putting on his favorite show, giving him sips of water, tickling, had Ben dancing, but to no avail.  I finally conned him into eating a cookie so he could slow his breathing down.  Poor kid.  We got in for X-rays the next day and you guessed it - he broke his little thumb.  Right on the tip.  Also, his thumb was extremely swollen, and his thumb nail was pretty damaged.  So they pierced (burned) a hole in the thumb nail to relieve the pressure.  Ben watched the whole thing.  Eli and I watched Ben.

This is the third significant damage to his little thumbs...  This past summer, he smashed a thumb between a trailer and a shovel and it turned dark, but finally grew out.  Next, the same thumb was slammed in a sliding patio door, resulting in a black nail and a significant scrape that required constant Band-aid changing for several weeks.  I can't recall if this recent injury was to the same thumb or not, but either way, this kid has had some major bad thumb luck.

How cute is this little lead vest? (and the kid in it?)

 

 Pretty gross, huh?

A broken thumb doesn't stop this kid from much.  We have been having an incredible winter with *many* 50+ degree days filled with sunshine.  Here is a beach trip to Fogarty Creek Beach south of Lincoln City.  The boys enjoyed some serious sand time rerouting the creek and practicing some engineering skills.  Even had some time in the water.

 The boys both made some cute homemade Valentines

 Eli *loves* playing LEGOs.  He independently builds his own concoctions, while Ben loves to follow directions and make 'kits' -or- make patterns, or works with mom to make something.

Ben had a great 5 week basketball season and loved every minute of it.  We finally assembled the hoop from Christmas.  The boys (all 3) are enjoying it! Ben has become quite the shooter!

Here is a clip of the first game of Ben's basketball season.  He scored a big shot and was so proud!

 

 

The boys pooled their Valentine cash from grandmas and went to a used LEGO store.  They filled the bucket with quite a variety of pieces.

 

Eli picked up impetigo (a bacterial rash-like infection usually on the face) somehow and had to miss a few days of school (thank you Grandma Jeanne for watching him!).  His face has been slow to heal, and I don't really want to post any pictures of it... Poor kid.