McKenna's portfolio

McKenna went to a friend's birthday party Saturday. It was at a place called Monkey Doos. We thought it was a jungle gym type place. Were we wrong. She came home like this. It is a place where they do little girls' hair and makeup. They have a separate room for parties. I was at work so I missed it, but Dan took pictures before she played and messed it up. I'm pretty sure I know where we are spending McKenna's next birthday!

Drool bomb!

If you look closely at the second picture, Ryleigh has a drop of drool hanging off her chin. This is a common occurrence now that she may have started teething. Her two bottom front teeth are pushing their way up but have not broken through. This results in excessive drooling (which Dan is constantly trying to bomb on me and McKenna), grumpiness, and whinning. I need to record her whinny voice. It is hard to bare sometimes. Ryleigh is sitting up all by herself now. Sometimes she loses her balance and falls backward which stuns her, but she can basically sit independently. I've been feeding her rice cereal and she loves it. I also mix in baby food fruit and she loves it. She tried sweet potatoes yesterday and loved it. I don't think there is anything she won't eat. I should enjoy it while I can. Oh wait... there is one thing. I, being such a good mom, was trying to get her to stop whinning at a restaurant so I was letting her taste salad dressing and other sauces off of a chop stick. I gave her some bbq sauce. She did not like that. She waved her hands in front of her face and pursed her lips until the taste went away. Then she gave me a look like I had tried to kill her. I guess it was too strong. I told my mom and we couldn't stop laughing. I won't be trying that for a while.



Now that the excitement of kindergarten has worn off, I find myself with quite a bit of time on my hands in the morning. It's not like McKenna bogged me down a whole lot, but she kept me company and busy (always asking questions). Ryleigh takes her nap at 10am so from 10 to noon I am looking for things to do. I cleaned out (vacuumed, washed the windows, and 409'd the interior) the Honda yesterday and the Toyota this morning. I also made chocolate zuchini bread. I realized after I stuck it in the oven that I forgot the salt. I hope it turns out. Yesterday I spent some of the morning looking for Thumper in the neighborhood. It's a long story, so here goes nothing...



Our neighbor has a great dane and she (the great dane) likes to play with Thumper. Her owner gets Thumper out of his kennel and takes them to the park which is basically in our backyard. He does not keep them on leashes because they like to run and chase each other. Dan and I appreciate it because Thumper gets some exercise. However, Thumper does not listen to our neighbor very well. Thumper listens to Dan and that is about it. So Thumper likes to wander off in the neighborhood. It is hard to catch him because he runs when you get close enough. He still has lots of puppy in him. I have noticed that he is running off more often so I keep a look out for my neighbor when he comes. Yesterday Thumper ran away from him. Ryleigh was napping and Kenna was at school so I searched the neighborhood with my neighbor for about 15 minutes. Thumper was no where in site. I had to wake up Ryleigh and get her loaded up in the car to drive around to look for him. Just as I was pulling out of the driveway my neighbor comes walking up with Thumper on his leash. It turns out that my neighbor had left the back gate unlocked of another neighbor's backyard to let their dog out and Thumper ran in their backyard. He got stuck in there when we lock the dog up. So he was just chilling out while we were searching frantically for him. Luckily my neighbor thought about it and checked. For the record, Thumper will probably not be going to play for a while.

So what to do with my couple of hours of silence in the house? Maybe I should go back to sleep. I always think that but it never happens. Maybe I will blog more since my blogs and my life are soooo exciting. I guess I will figure things out. After Kindergarten Kenna will be gone all day long instead of just in the morning. What'll I do then? Gotta go pick Kenna up from school. TTFN!

Kindergarten!!!

Well, Kenna's first day of school has officially come and gone. She made it like a pro. Dan and I dropped her off and she almost forgot to give me a hug! Can you believe it! Her teacher was waiting at the drop off and took her into the playground area. I didn't even cry. When I went to pick her up, she had a cute visor on that they had made in class. She said at recess when the bell rang she couldn't find her classroom door so she asked a mom helping out on the playground where room 8 was. How grown up. She did say that she almost cried. Poor girl. She'll get the hang of it soon. They had graham crackers and milk, learned about letters and colors, read stories, and colored. What a hard life she has! Sounds like a lot of fun for the first day.

Isn't she beautiful?

Her name tag says she is a car rider. It helps the teacher know who goes on the bus and who gets picked up by mom or daycare. Pretty good system. She has to wear it to school for the rest of the week.

I love her backpack. It is not too huge, but fits folders in it. The character ones don't fit folders in them. I wanted one that she could use for a few years without getting sick of looking at Dora or Princesses.

Kenna has gotten to be a pretty decent colorer.

One day to go!

Kenna first day of school is tomorrow! My little girl is all grown up. I think I am more nervous than she is. She is very excited. I bought her a new outfit including shoes for her first day. I will post pictures tomorrow. Dan is fortunate to go to Girl's Camp tomorrow too. He will see McKenna off and head over to Cascade Lake. So much fun for him. I hope he comes back alive.

BBQ Chicken Wings

For all those out there who have tried my mom's bbq chicken wings but don't know how to reproduce them, here's the secret recipe. It's not really secret and they are really easy to make.


Janet Wong's BBQ Chicken Wings (gotta give her all the credit)

15-20 Chicken wings (depending on how many you can eat)-thawed, washed, & drained
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1-2 tablespoons soy sauce
1/4 tsp pepper- I just sprinkle some on

Mix all ingredients together and allow to marinate for a few hours. About 1/2 hour before cooking, add 1/2 cup Kraft original bbq sauce("has to be Kraft"-my mother always says) to the wings and mix.
Line a cookie sheet with foil and arrange chicken wings in a single layer skin side up.
Bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes. Brush additional bbq sauce on wings about half way through cooking.

*You can use Honey bbq sauce for variety or add hot sauce for spicyness

So if you were wondering what to make for dinner this week, I hope I gave you an idea.

Ha Ha Ha Happy Birthday! (Gus from Cinderella)

We had a blast at Kenna's birthday party! Well she did at least. With 10 girls (8 girls ages 4-5 & 2 girls ages 8-9), 2 boys (ages 1 & 5), 5 extra parents, and about 15 balloons, it was a mad house. On a side note... I don't understand why parents stay at birthday parties. I figured they would drop the girls off and run! My sister-in-law and brother-in-law stayed because they are family, but some of the other parents stayed. Strange to want to be in a house with that many kids running around. I am positively sure I don't want more than 4 of my own now.

Back to the party... It was too windy to have the party outside as planned so it was moved indoors. Talk about crazy! At least we blocked off the stairway so the party was confined to downstairs. Dan was my decorator. He did a great job!

We split the kids up into two groups. The kids traded off playing games -BINGO and Disney Princess DVD game (thank you Ray and Catherine).

Then Kenna opened her presents...

And more presents...

Sheesh, she is not spoiled.

There were even more pictures, but I thought these were plenty. McKenna posed like that after each present was opened. She is such a ham.

Then we sang Happy Birthday and had cake!

Thank goodness for all the guests. They ate the whole cake!

We had a butterfly pinata. My brother-in-law acted like the tree you tie the pinata too.

He is 6'4"ish.

We sent all the kids outside after the pinata to color with sidewalk chalk. Then it was over! Whew! What a party!

Kenna couldn't wait to start coloring after the party.

She is the best 5 year old anyone could ask for.

A little wobbly!

Ryleigh is starting to sit up! She sits in her boppy still but she can stay upright. It is really funny to watch because she wobbles back and forth to keep herself up. She also really wanted McKenna bobcat "Cindy" so she had incentive to stay sitting. Two weeks ago she was still falling forward and face planting it in the carpet. Her legs would come flying out from underneath her. That was fun to watch too.

Taken on July 1st

Doesn't she have the sweetest face on?
Ten days later- July 10th

I have also had a request from Tracie for a picture of my kitchen. Well, here it is finally. I love my island. It is HUGE!

COMING SOON!

Pictures from McKenna's 5th birthday party!

It was exciting, crazy, loud, and exhausting all rolled into one!

Happy Fourth of July!!!

We started the morning by going to Sunrise Cafe for breakfast. It was fantastic.
Dan set up our two man tent in the backyard so Kenna could play in it. Ryleigh liked it too. I did get kinda stuffy in it. Thumper sat in the shade right outside the door. Either he was protecting the girls or just wanted shade. I think it was the latter.









Dan cooling off in the pool. He had just finished putting up new exterior lights by our back doors. He was tired of the mason jar looking lights that were already on the house.


















We had a neighborhood party that evening since so many of our neighbors were staying in town because gas prices are so high. There was a bounce house and small pool for the kids. They had water balloons and a volleyball net set up. We had a bbq and a bike parade. Kenna decorated that hat all by herself. It turned out to be a really nice day. And we were able to get to know our neighbors a little better.






We were watching fireworks and Ryleigh woke up from the sounds of the screamers. She liked watching the lights and didn't cry once. There was too much to see to cry. We were out until 11pm. I gave the girls baths before bed and boy were they tired.













Everyone brought a small amount of fireworks so combined we had plenty. And there were illegal ones going off all around us. So we had our small show and every once in a while would see big ones up in the sky. It was lots of fun. Thumper didn't like the sound of the big fireworks. He kept barking at them.

Eagle Island

We spent Thursday evening at Eagle Island enjoying the sun and beach. We had a picnic dinner and then hit the water.

Here's Ryleigh in her Dora suit. She wasn't too happy that I put her down after I changed her. She sat in shallow water with me for a while.









Kenna in her speedo suit (a hand me down from KayKay or Kaitlin, I can't remember). I like the speedo suits because they cover more up on top. Kenna loved the water and playing in the sand.
















RyRy was tired after a bit. She didn't really sleep at all though.












Dan practicing his sand castle building technique for our family sand castle contest in Oregon in August. It turned out pretty nice considering the sand had huge rocks in it. I was not allowed to post pictures of the finished product because Dan did not want to reveal his secrets.