"You know you're in love when you don't want to fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams." Dr. Seuss

I  can hardly stand myself, so excited for this wedding and to call Meagan officially ours! Only 8 days until the newest and cutest 
Mr & Mrs Ruff start their happily every after. The countdown is on... 

Glitter is the Herpes of the craft world

I don't get my craft on as often as I used to, but I needed to make 2 baby gifts so I made a blanket and then decided to make a squishy whale for the other gift. Kind of an odd choice I guess, but the baby lives in San Francisco {along with his parents;)} and I thought a whale would be fun. I was on a roll so I made another, they are super cute and super soft, and all of my kids tried to steal them. I found the blue one tucked away up on Dawson's bed the day I finished it. Not surprised he was the thief since he's obsessed with all things silky and  cozy. And I took a risk making my tomboy a little rag doll, but she absolutely loves it and has slept with it ever since. I used some scrap muslin for the body and just free-handed the shape, sewing a scrap of lace where the body met the legs to create the look of a slip. I used a shirt of Ella's that was one of my faves when she was a toddler and made a little dress, and used another of her old t-shirts to make tiny legwarmers. I made felt hair and "braided" it and an itty bitty heart for the lips, blue French knots for eyes and she was done.

"And though she be but little, she is fierce." ~ Shakespeare

I know I tease about Ella's "challenging" personality, but she really is precious. I see a lot of growth in her {mixed with many moments of "Lord , give me patience because if you give me strength, I may just kill her!"} and know she is, albeit slowly, maturing and finding her footing as a girl trying to follow Jesus in a crazy world. I forgot to mention this in the school post, but Ella received the Heart of Gold and Gentle Spirit awards on the last day of school. For all her faults {and don't we all have them} she has a good heart. One of my favorite things about Ella is her adventurous spirit, which is really apparent when she  is at her horseback riding lessons. I just love seeing her up on a horse, it makes my heart happy. I can't say she's nearly as passionate about horses as I was and still am, but I am just over the moon that she desires to ride and that she is brave enough. Horses are powerful animals and can be intimidating! So her riding instructor was also her 3rd grade teacher, she owns gorgeous Fjord horses, and she is an excellent teacher. I really want Ella to learn all she can and this is a perfect fit for her, plus she has to do "barn chores" and I think that is so important. So much of riding really isn't riding, but all the stuff before and after. Mrs. Rollins says that Ella has a lot of natural talent to ride and that she "has a good seat." Which is just horse talk for "doesn't look she'll get bucked off all that easily!" ;) She is having her do all sorts of movements with her hands and body, while not holding on {yikes}, to give her a feel for the horse and how to use her body to stay in the saddle. She gets on Ella about her posture too which is great, wish I'd learned that when I was young! After nursing 3 kids in quick succession, including twins for a year and a half, I look like the Hunchback of Notre Dame. Dawson really wanted to ride too, so Mrs. Rollins let all 3 boys take turns on Budea and they loved it. While Ella swept up in the barn after her lesson, the boys loved on the horse and stroked every inch of her soft coat.

"I have no special talents, I am only passionately curious." Albert Einstein

Dawson wrapped up his Kindergarten year and I just can't believe he's a 1st grader now, complete with his first loose tooth. Unlike Ella's kindergarten graduation, in which I cried on and off for days, surprisingly, seeing Dawson at his ceremony for NWC Link made me proud, but not sad. And all I can attribute that to is that I home schooled? I didn't miss anything, and it didn't go by "too fast" and I got to be a big part of his kindergarten year, so even though it was bittersweet, it didn't hurt like I expected it to. We did it together and I am so proud of us. My all-time, most favorite, SuPer exciting milestone of his year was watching him learn to read! And knowing I taught him how to read and didn't screw him up by home schooling him was a major highlight {and relief}. Half way through the year he started picking it up and it's still clicking and getting more fluid, but to be there to see that moment when he really, honest-to-goodness "got it" was priceless. I will never forget how excited we both were and how loud I screamed:)

 This is our Domestic Engineering course at Ruff Academy. Not sure what's up with Charlie, looks like he had a mild stroke.

I love this acronym he did of his name. He wrote his bump on the wrong side, it's supposed to say "soda" which cracks me up. That is so Dawson, even though we only let them have pop on special occasions, he asks for it relentlessly.  

 Dawson and some of his classmates from Link. Just noticing that he's surrounded by girls, hmm...

 That was his K teacher at Link, Mrs. Strandy {for the 1st few months Dawson lovingly referred to her as "Mrs. Sta-wandy}

I was really proud of him, he received the Respectfulness award, love this boy.

Post awards ceremony silliness with his bros.

 We had fun watching our caterpillars form chrysalides then break out as beautiful Painted Lady butterflies. We waited until Ella got home from school to release them.

 Chasing our butterflies. For days the twins asked if our butterflies were "going to come home and drink nectar from our flowers?"

 I love this little butterfly life cycle we made at home, it reminds me of Dawson's transformation this year too. Cute little pupa > hungry caterpillar > all wrapped up in a stress pod of change and then, voila, beautiful and free and ready to fly.

 Dawson made this self portrait in art class at Link, I will cherish it forever!

Now onto Ella, my girl Mowgli forest child, who continues to amaze and exasperate me and her poor Dad. I ran to grab something from the store earlier tonight and when I got home, she was waiting behind the tree on the end of our drive way, with her homemade bow and arrow flung across her back. When I drove up she jumped out from behind the tree and scared me to death, then she just giggled and ran off. She is so full of life, and full of it in general. I'm really proud of her for just making it through this school year without needing therapy. Her work load this year was intense, and projects and homework almost did me in, so I can only imagine how hard it must've seemed to an 8-9 year old. Some of the math they did had me and Todd scratching our heads. And I thought grammar sucked when I was a kid but my goodness, so complicated these days. And their Bible tests had me looking things up in my concordance to make sure I knew half the stuff she had to know. They also had a 50 states test which I thought came around in 8th grade, guess not. Back when I was a kid we walked up hill both ways in the deep snow to get to school, but we didn't have pre-college courses in 3rd grade!

A BiG sigh of relief that we are on summer break, glory hallelujah. The Bean has lots to look forward to. Art camp at church with her BFFL {best friends for life, duh}, her riding lessons, swim lessons, a visit to Ninny and Papa's here and there, play dates, fishing, adventuring, ice cream eating, Green Bluffing, and being a flower girl in her big brother's wedding on the west side. She'll be busy making lots of happy memories before school rolls around again.

And to wrap up this school themed chapter, and as a reminder that there is hope that our children will someday be able to do homework on their own, drive themselves to activities, and pack their own lunch, our nephew, Adam, just graduated from Mead High School. I just love Adam, I remember every bit about the night all 10 pounds, 5 ounces of his cute little self came into this world and our lives. And since it's only been 6 months since he was diagnosed with cancer, we are so beyond grateful that God brought him through and that he was receiving his diploma, happy and healthy. 

I don't have any cool gadgets like an iPhone, iPad, Kindle ~ and that saved me at Adam's graduation because my kids were enamored with them! My Mom charged hers up and had Angry Birds Space, a cupcake and popsicle game downloaded, and I packed some little candies and snacks. All 4 kids were quiet as mice during the whole ceremony!

Todd was away on business so we'll have to Photo Shop him in:)

 Double Dynamic Duo

Now if we can just get these two goobers in a cap and gown someday, that will truly be an accomplishment. Our main goal is to keep Ella off the pole and get Dawson to stop sucking his thumb. Anything beyond that is icing on the cake.

Garage to Gorgeous!

After 6 months of squeezing our family of 6 into two bedrooms, we were able to move into the master bedroom this winter and are the proud owners of a THREE bedroom house, ahh.... Amazing how Todd's dad transformed our attached garage into this beautiful master suite, I feel like I get to sleep at a Bed & Breakfast every night! Well, minus the obnoxious elipti-kill machine in the corner it feels like a B & B. Oh and the kids are always in our bed, so that's not really like a Bed & Breakfast either, and I  have to make everyone's breakfast, so just forget I said that. It's a beautiful bedroom that is defiled by our children. And although I never thought I'd miss having an attached garage {and I definitely do} it was so worth it, even when I have to go outside in the snow to grab an extra gallon of milk from the extra fridge:) We feel so much more at home now that the kids are situated in their rooms instead of having 4 mattresses scattered on the floor of one room! Larry tracked down the last bit of our siding in Spokane, it was blue but once painted, you can't even tell there was a garage door there. Todd did the electrical, and I was only concerned a couple of times about this fact. One time he said "I'm supposed to have only 2 wires but I have three....I hate when that happens, oh well." Hmm, maybe I'll make sure to not run the dryer and the vacuum at the same time. So here are a few before pictures and the piece de resistance! My favorite part is the ceiling, although it was a pain in the you-know-what to paint all those grooves, especially when you're painting above your head. We were powered by Coke and Lays potato chips and some good Christmas music. We roughed in a master bathroom as well but will have to wait to finish it. It will either be Disneyland or a tub and tile, we shall see...I'm having fun making it cozy and just painted our wood picture frames Florence green, and I think it adds the perfect touch. Larry, thank you for all of your hard work and expertise! I'd say we think of you every time we go to bed, but that would be weird.

Nigh-night