Attention Schvaneveldt cousins:

Don't you wish you lived by us!
(Neener-Neener)



On Saturday while Mitch and I went to the State track and field meet, the kids spent the day at grandma and grandpa's house. Grandpa spent the day building us a picnic table just the kid's size. It is so cute! What a talented grandpa! We can't wait for the weather to be a little nicer to have lunch on it. This summer lunch will be served outside daily!!!



Thank you grandpa!!
(I am sure you can feel Cameron's gratitude in this picture)

Hair Cuts

With Mitch's help I attempted to cut the girl's hair this weekend. I originally planned to have Julia and Natalie's hair to be shoulder length. As you can see things went a little off course. Oops... It is what we call a nice short summer haircut!

** Could someone please help my children learn to smile for a camera?!**

Happy Memorial Day!

Girls

I LOVE having little girls. They do such cute things. As I was starting to pick up tonight I had to smile at the things left around the house from Julia and Natalie. Isn't it such a girl thing? I had to stop and take some pictures of how sweet they are.

#5

Cameron lost his 5th tooth this morning!! He was so relieved to get it out so that "he could eat again on that side of his mouth." He is getting to have a mouth full of grown up teeth. The big gaps between each of his teeth is finally coming in handy. Fortunately for Cameron he escaped the bad genes Mitch and I have for needing dental work done, his teeth are so straight!
Unfortunately for poor Julia I don't think she escaped and is going to need a lot of dental work when she gets older.

When someone in his class looses a tooth they get a badge to wear, put there name on the tooth graph for that month and they all sing this song. So cute! I love how he is so animated when he sings.

On a side note: His voice is so less hoarse the last few weeks!! Hooray!

Field Trip

Yesterday I had the opportunity to spend the day with Cameron on his field trip to Seahurst Park. It was a RAINY day, but it was low tide so we were able to see all sorts of crabs, starfish, muscles, sand dollars, sea anemones, etc. Cameron kept asking if he could swim in the water he was a little disappointed that it wasn't warm enough. Brrr.....



We had a fun time together!



Not too sure he wants to hold the crab

I'm a beaver, you're a beaver...

we are beavers all and when we get together we do the beaver call!



What the heck!?!
Every pencil in my house (and I have a ton) looks like this!
Who is to blame?



You guessed it!! Mr. Beaver himself.



My mom and dad might think of this a sweet justice, I on the other hand think of it as cruel and unusual punishment.

Father and Son Camp Out

Cam and his dad went on their first father and son camp out last weekend. It was a rain filled 6pm to 10 am, 16 hour trip. They went to a place in Enumclaw, called Winter Quarters. I think the weather was quite fitting to the name. Cameron LOVED it. He had a fun time playing with the boys and hanging out with dad. Hopefully next year will be a little drier!

Flip Flops

Is there any thing cuter?

Happy Birthday to My Baby Brother

He is 20 today!

Summer Birthday Boy

Today at school Cameron celebrated his "summer birthday." He was so excited about it that he couldn't sleep last night. Oh to be seven again and to lose sleep over your birthday because you are excited about it! He got a crown and a birthday book. Each person in the class writes a page about you on your birthday. His teacher wrote "I hope you have a fabulous summer birthday...you are an amazing student and an incredible runner." He was beaming. He kept reading it over and over. He tells me that "he might be the fastest 1st grader" and that his teacher came out to watch him run at recess the other day because all the kids were racing and he was the fastest. The runner in me has no shame and love it! Hopefully I am not becoming one of those parents who lives vicariously through their children in their sports. Well--I will try hard not to be, but I do love to see him run!

On another note...Cameron caught a pop fly at his t-ball game. If you actually went to one of the games you would understand how that is somewhat of a miracle! He also got a grounder and threw it to first base where the first baseman actually caught it before the runner got to base. Not to get too excited, there isn't any outs in the game but hey he gets it!
FYI-- T-ball is still intolerable. Two more weeks! We got an e-mail today about the end of the season party and Mitch and I are going to have some sort of "friendly" but very serious competition, loser has to take him to that party. I plan on winning!



Today he bought a "bear band" (a plastic blue bracelet with a polar bear on it--the school mascot) at school for $2.00. It was a must have and probably will never be worn again. Lovely.

Julia's Creations

Julia is a cutting, taping, creating maniac. She loves to make things for me and it is so cute. Tonight she made "Julia." It is actually impressive what she can make using construction paper. I am starting to run out of wall space to hang these creations and need to buy stock in tape. Last week we ran out and it was a crisis. She reminded me everyday until I bought more that we needed to get more tape. Funny girl.



Here is a reindeer that she made. She is still obsessed with reindeer. I thought it might die down the farther we got from Christmas but no way. What can I say, the girl loves reindeer!!

Jules has been feeling the pressures of middle child lately. She has been really cranky and quite the pistol with me. On Wednesday when I went to pick her up at preschool her teacher told me that she had an incident in class, Julia wouldn't let a girl sit next to her at story time and dug her nails into the girl's arm. She then wouldn't apologize and sort of gave the teacher some attitude. I was shocked because she has NEVER been a problem. In fact, she usually is so good I have never given any thought to her manners. She has what in our family we call "crankies in her feelings" Hopefully my sweet girl to come back soon.

Rain

It has been RAINING.
HARD, like a monsoon where the streets flood and water rushes down the storm drains and then the rain stops as fast as it starts and the sun comes out.



Tonight the kids got out a little boat they have in the bath tub to float down the gutters. It was highly entertaining.

Slave Labor

Last weekend we put new bark in the front yard. We put the kids to work. Cameron and Julia used a little wheelbarrow that Cam got for his birthday a couple years ago, little rakes, shovels and man did they work! We had them dumping and spreading. Both of them did a great job and said that it was a fun day. It sure made it go fast with all the help.



While we were working we heard a commotion in the street and looked up to see a rabbit running down the road as fast as it could with a cat hot on its tail. The kids thought it was so funny they laughed and laughed.

BIG GIRL!

It's official!

Natalie is a big girl, no more diapers!!!


A few months ago I picked May 1st as my "official" start date of potty training Natalie. So last Monday we started off on the "fun" journey of potty training together. Natalie was a breeze... (Sorry Kierstin) she LOVES it and loves getting all the treats. The first day I bought some Pringles and Hawaiian Punch to eat and drink and boy was she in heaven. She almost ate an entire Pringle container herself. We sang, danced, had potty treats, stickers, ate chips, drank punch, and helped her baby go potty too. By the end of the day it was a relief to put her to bed, being on HIGH ALERT at all times is tiring. It has been five days without an accident. HOORAY FOR NATALIE!


Mouth full of M&Ms



In other big news, Natalie got a new bed! No more crib. I found a used one on Craig's List for $20 and the person lived only 5 minutes from my house. Not bad...
I promised Mitch that I wouldn't cry when the crib was taken down because we hope that it will only be temporary and that it will be back up sooner than later. That made the transition a little easier for me.



She loves her bed and wants to show everyone who comes over to see it. She has been SO easy to transition into a bed, no getting out of bed or anything. I think she doesn't even realize she could if she wanted too. In the morning I will hear her playing in her bed and I will come in and let her out. I was reflecting on the 6 months plus that it took to get Cameron to sleep in a big boy bed when he was that age and count my blessings this time around!!

Happy Mother's Day!

A Rant and a MAJOR Whine

Que the violins for my whine....


For the record:
Cameron's t-ball coach is the WORST!
Putting that out there for the world to read I feel much better.

Mitch and I were really on the fence about signing Cameron up for t-ball this year. We were back and forth if it was something that we wanted to do. After making the decision to let him play I wish I could take it back. It has been a bad experience or maybe I should say NO experience. The woman cancels every game and practice if she thinks it is going to MIST. HELLO WE LIVE IN SEATTLE, IF YOU DON'T WANT TO GET WET DON'T SIGN UP FOR T-BALL IN THE SPRING!!!! After busting my chops to get him to practice tonight and her canceling because of the weather, I felt rage that I haven't felt in a long time. I think the City of Maple Valley Parks Department is going to get a strongly worded letter about their terrible volunteer coach of the Blue Hornets. Seriously it is bad. I am sure that I will now be struck by lighting because of the evil person that I am but...ahhh I feel so much better now.

Un-que the violins

Cameron and his Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

I love when Cameron gets off the bus each day. In a split second I can tell what kind of day he had by the look on his face.



Yesterday was a rough one, I knew the second I saw him that he was not a happy camper. The first thing he said to me after getting off the bus was "show and tell was horrible!" I was sort of alarmed because Cam doesn't like to bring things for show and tell, it takes a lot of convincing for him to bring something so having it go bad is not a good sign. Grandpa Stuard gave him a pencil shaped like a cactus that he got in Arizona. Cam was excited about it and wanted to take it for show and tell. I was thrilled. Apparently Baileigh (a very bad girl in Cam's opinion) snapped the pencil in half when it was going around the room for everyone to look at. It was an accident of course-- but still broken.

Later during their timed math tests the same girl started talking to him, asking a question about some of her math problems and slowed Cameron down. He didn't pass his test and had four problems left when the timer ran out.

At the second recess he fell and hurt his hand. At the third recess he wasn't looking where he was running and bonked heads with someone.

His mom forgot to fill up his water bottle and put it in his backpack and was out of his favorite oatmeal cream pies for his lunch treat and all she had was a fruit snack instead.

I told Cameron that it sounded like he had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day and maybe we should have spaghetti for dinner to cheer him up. That seemed to help.

A few years ago we bought the book Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good Very Bad Day. We think it is pretty funny and very relevant. I asked Cameron if maybe he should move to Australia after his bad day. That got a smile. Hopefully next week will be a little better!

I love hugging him and giving him kisses. He told me "you love me the most." I am glad that he feels loved enough that he thinks that.

Animals Dressed Like Humans

While Julia was at preschool, I went into her room and found this: