How We Read the Friend

All of the Barney grandkids were in the May issue of The Friend magazine! If you click here, it will show it in the magazine. It was on the inside of the front cover in the "Friends By Mail" section. It is a little picture at the bottom, but still fun! I thought of the idea before we had our family reunion in Lincoln City last summer, so I brought 20 copies of a Friend magazine and we got all the kids together and started snapping pictures. I submitted it later last summer and they published it! The kids were all excited to see themselves in a real magazine:). (Spencer was grumpy and Skyler is hidden but, hey, it's still cool!)

Memorial Day 2011

This year we had our 2nd Annual get-together with the Brown's and Bybee's! Yay! I'm excited we're continuing the tradition:).

On our way to the Brown's, we stopped by Dallin Bybee's grave in Hillsboro. The cemetary was beautiful with all the flags and flowers everywhere.

I forgot to take pictures until right when we were leaving, and Michael and Memory had already left with their darling kids, so I quickly snapped one of Kylene and Nicole. They always have a fabulous time together and begged for a play-date or sleepover. I wish we lived closer so we could make it a reality!

But here is a picture (that I stole from Beth) that we took in April when we got together--just the ladies--for dinner. We always have such a wonderful time catching up and talking. It's fun to get our families together, too.

On the way home, I was somehow possessed to go to the Outlet Malls (again!) and shop the Memorial Day sales...this time for kids' clothes. (Again, something I never buy!) I couldn't resist buying matching shirts for Spencer and Skyler. I think they only have one other matching outfit--Hawaiian shirts--so it was fun. Soon I'll have three boys to buy matching outfit's for:).

Graduation Celebration, Part 3

Kyle had to wait for my "real" gift to him for his graduation. I told him we were going out on a date last Friday night, but really I had booked a room at a Bed and Breakfast about 40 minutes from our house. (In Hopewell, Oregon; if you haven't heard of it, that's okay, because there's not much there!) But this sweet couple has turned their 12-acre farm into a beautiful, peaceful get-away.

I ended up telling him the night before that it was an overnighter (so I didn't have to pack for him and because I was too excited), so he was anxious all day Friday trying to figure out where we were going. (Luckily, he never guessed Hopewell!) Our dear friends, Julie and Christian, volunteered to take all our kids (what's three more when you already have five, they said?!), so we were set! Since the room had a full kitchen, I packed dinner for us for the evening. Afterward we enjoyed a hike overlooking the valley then watched a movie, read, and relaxed. It was so quiet and peaceful with no kids!

Saturday morning we enjoyed a delicious breakfast brought to our room and relaxed until we had to check out, then crossed a ferry over the Willamette River and headed to Willamette Mission State Park for more hiking. Then we went to the Outlet Malls in Woodburn to buy Kyle some new work clothes with some of his graduation money. Being the big shopper that I am, I totally forgot there would be all the Memorial Day weekend sales, so it was really crowded but we got some great deals. (I even scored on a new pair of shoes!) We finally went home to our kids around 4:00 p.m. (We had a babysitter take our kids for the day so Christian and Julie could have a break.) , and planted our garden and Kyle mowed.

It was such a wonderfully, rejuvenating weekend. I thanked Kyle that even I got to enjoy his graduation gift from me:).

Random "Catching Up"

Here are a few random shots from the last month.

Mother's Day. I look awful in this picture, but I really did have a great Mother's Day. Just changing no diapers for a day would have made it a great success, but I also got sweet cards/gifts from my family, took a nap, and had a delish dinner made for me. Kyle is a killer gourmet salad maker. Kylene actually ate her entire salad with no dressing and requested it for dinner the next night, so we had it two nights in a row. We also went to my parent's house that evening and enjoyed dessert and conversation with the Clark's and my mom and dad.

Kylene wanted to make these bread bunnies from a recipe in the Friend for a Family Night treat. So she did much of the mixing and all three kids helped shape them. It was a fun (all) afternoon project. I also made some yummy coconut-caramel popcorn to go with it.

I just loved this picture of Skyler and his little buddy, Bridger.

This picture makes me laugh out loud. Cute Spencer in his Hawaiian outfit...collar up with the belly button peeking out. Must be adorable four-year-old-ness!

Modeling their new sunglasses. The sun will shine in Oregon sometime this summer, right?!

What television does to my kids, and why I let them watch so little of it!

Butterflies

I ordered caterpillars from "Insect Lore" for the kids to experience. Five cute, little crawly caterpillars came in this little cup. (I should have taken a picture while they were still in there!)

After about 10 days of eating and pooping, they turned into this, hanging from the paper lid inside the cup:

Kyle carefully transferred them to this:

And after another 10 days or so, they turned into beautiful Painted Lady butterflies!

We released them a few days ago and they flew off into the big world outside.

My kids loved checking on them every morning and seeing how they had changed. The coolest part for me was seeing them create their cocoons: it is so miraculous that they suddenly harden into that shape/shell. Yet you could tell they were still "alive" in there because when the other caterpillars who hadn't "changed" yet would touch the ones in the cocoons, the cocoon would spasm and shake back and forth as if to say, "Get away from me! I don't want you touching me." It must be a natural protection method. It was crazy to watch them spasming.

It was a fun little project, and definitely my idea of a great pet: no care, watch and wait, and release after a few weeks! Kylene says it doesn't count as a pet, though, and she's still desperate for a dog, cat or horse. Poor child has such a mean mommy!