Lone Pine Farm

We went out to Lone Pine farm for a family fun day.  I wanted pictures with the Halloween decorations, and they wanted apples.  Unfortunately, my children were not in the most cooperative mood for pictures...but we got a few anyway. 

The problem with my kids is that they each want their own picture - not group shots - in the exact same place.  Yay for digital!  I would never be able to afford all the film they would want me to use.

 They didn't want to leave the hay maze.

 This is where the pictures get to be a drag to take.  Each of my kids have to have a turn to put their heads in the pumpkins.

Then we have to each have our turn to put our heads in each character.  So many pictures!  You can tell in this one that Benjamin is starting to get mad.  They were fighting over who would be Harry Potter...and his sister was not sharing.

 Alan earned "Dad of the Year" for the Batman poses.  The girls wanted to measure taller than Batman, so Alan got down and let each kid stand on him for a picture.

 By this point Benjamin was in full melt down mode because he was not getting his way in all the pictures, and he had not been getting enough sleep lately.  I will show these to his girlfriends someday :)

We were going to print Happy Halloween on this one and send it everyone...but it didn't get done.  After this picture, the night went downhill.  My kids give me the pictures I want, because they know it is faster to just take the picture than to fight me and stay there all night. But in case someone has been fooled into thinking my kids are perfect...I caught some of their bad behavior too.

 Ben trying to ruin the pictures he wasn't in, and his sister bugging him.

 The girls fighting over swings and having kicking wars.

 

There are more, but this is a long post anyway.  Suffice it to say, they are mine, and I love them!!!

 

Fun at the Park with Cousins

We hung out the other night at Rosetta park with my parents and my sister Kari and her kids.

The merry-go-round was the hot spot.

But some people ended up laying down after a while.  A bit too much "go-round"? 

 Robert and Emily

 

Grandpa relaxing

The swings were full of fun too.  Leilani and Kari liked to twist them.

 

Benjamin and Tanner 

Emily and Robert 

Grandma with Natalie and Elisabeth

Leilani and Robert

 

Leah and Natalie

 

Mom and Kari

The kids joined in a game of kick ball that some neighbors were playing.

Alan tried to sit on Robert

Brayden and Benjamin rocking the teeter totter.  We had fun, and enjoyed the cool evening after a hot day!

Spring Soccer 2015

Benjamin got to play soccer this season, after having to sit the last 3 seasons out.  He was very excited, and he did a really good job.  He can run fast, isn't afraid to try and get to the ball first, and he can place those corner kicks perfectly in front of the goal.  It was a lot of fun to watch him!

I had to take my own pictures, because my dad couldn't make it to any of the games, but I think I got some fairly good shots.

 

He definitely love sports!  Baseball tryouts are this week, and then it will be on to the next sport.

Cleaning the Church

Our family helped clean the church today with the Relief Society.  I think Robert was more excited about it than anyone else in the family.  We were all there by 8:30 am, ready to clean and clean.  (Leilani threw up as we were leaving, so we left her home)

 First they emptied all the garbage cans.

 While the younger kids did that, Emily and I shined the drinking fountains and Alan vacuumed the halls.

 Then we cleaned windows.  The kids did a pretty good job!  Alan and I just had to go behind and clean up a little with paper towels when they were done.

 

It was hard to get up early on a Saturday morning, but it felt good to help out and clean the church.

We Are the Champions - Oregon Battle Of the Books 2015

Saturday I took our school's Battle of the Books team to our regional competition at Thurston high school. (I am the coach) There were 52 elementary school teams there ready to compete.  Our team is a young team - all 3rd and 4th graders - so I wasn't sure how well they would do.  Benjamin is one of the two 3rd graders on the team, and he has worked very hard reading all of  the books (16 of them) and studying questions.  But two of our team members have only read half the books, so I wasn't sure if the other three team members could carry the bulk of the knowledge.

 The kids were excited at ready to compete when the battles started.  There are only 4 team members and an alternate.  We took turns switching out the two kids who hadn't read all the books.  Our battles during pool play were against two schools named Laurel and Maple.  I have never heard of either school, but apparently one is from Junction City and one is from Springfield.  At the end of pool play, they take the top 16 teams with the most points.  Win/loss doesn't count at this point (although we won both our battles).  We ended up with 113 total points.  If you answer all your questions in a battle, the most you can get is 40 points in a battle, and 80 points total in pool play.  But, you can steal the other team's questions if they answer them wrong.

While we were waiting to see if we made it into the top 16 bracket, the kids took some funny pictures and ate lunch.

 The kids were worried when they started announcing the top 16 teams, because they start with 16th place and work up, and they didn't hear our school name.  I knew we had made it in when I heard #11 Malabon called, because I had talked to their coach and knew they got 87 points total.  But it shocked us all when we found out we were the #1 team going into the sweet sixteen brackets.  The kids were jumping around screaming and excited!

 Once the sweet 16 starts, it is all about win/loss.  Each time we won a battle (and they were all close!), the kids were so excited!

We moved up gradually until we were in the quarterfinals with St. Paul.  The highest a team  from Yujin Gakuen has ever finished is 3rd place, and we wanted to beat that this time.  When they won their quarter finals battle, everyone was excited, because we knew it was a guarantee we were going to state. (They take the top three teams because our region has grown so much.  The last time we took third, they only took the top two teams, so we missed out).  But they were really excited to be playing for first place too!

 It was held in the auditorium, on the stage, with microphones and twice as many questions as usual.  We were playing Prairie Mountain school from the Bethel school district.

 Our team was so surprised/shocked/happy when they won!  First place!  They only won by one question (5 points), so it was a close battle.  I couldn't believe we had actually gone all the way.  I had been trying to coach a winning team for 7 years, and we finally did it!  Of course it is the kids who get the credit.  They have to read, remember the info, and answer the questions.  But I like to think that I help them :)  I read all the books too, and quiz, motivate, and work these kids.

Benjamin was so excited!  He kept saying that now he had done something his sisters hadn't done, because none of their OBOB teams had ever taken first place.  Now we get to prepare for the state competition on April 11.