Gleneden Beach - Memorial Day Weekend

When I was growing up, Memorial Day was such a tradition filled day:  Lion's Club breakfast, picking flowers with my Mom from our yard, then heading to the cemetery.  And then we'd spend the rest of the day with our cousins for a picnic.  When I moved away from home, Memorial Day was one of the holidays I missed sharing with my family the most.  This year, it hit me especially hard, and I am grateful to my friend, Travis, who took a picture of my mom's headstone.  

Starting traditions in our own family has been important too.  We love going to the beach and this year we went to Gleneden Beach, OR (near Lincoln City).  We were prepared for cloudy, cold, and rain at the beach.  It was a bit brisk when we got there on Saturday (you can see the girls happily playing in the sand in their rain coats and fleece), but there was also blue sky, with few clouds and definitely no rain.

Here's Amelia "parting the sea".

And no matter the weather, the girls have to get in the water.  Thank goodness for a Daddy who indulges and doesn't mind numb feet.

We were fortunate to be able to stay in a resort (courtesy of Ken's Dad) with a view of the ocean.  Since the girls are usually in bed before the sun sets, they thought watching the sun set was pretty cool (I never get tired of watching it either; especially over the ocean.).

They also thought it was pretty fun to sleep on the bed that came out of the wall.  And they surprised me by sleeping together without me, all night!

Amelia loves flowers, and loves taking pictures of flowers (probably because I won't let her pick them).  Here are the pictures she took of her favorite flowers.

Day 2 turned out to be even more sunny than the day before . . . although still a bit cool at first.  But we enjoyed another few hours on the beach, digging, flying kites, and splashing in the waves.

Sophia finally got her turn to fly the kite.

Monday surprised us by being sunny AND warmer than the 2 previous days.  Surely a miracle for the Oregon coast, but a miracle that did not go unappreciated.

We built more sand castles, splashed in more water, saw a few seals, and just enjoyed the sunny beach.

We even went for a "boat" ride.  Here's Amelia "throwing out candy" as if she's in a parade.

Sophia's turn to drive.

We had a great weekend, despite Ken being bombed by a seagull :(  And despite the fact that my girls don't sleep in the car, we all survived the 4-hr+ drive each way without too much whining or "are we there yet?".   This trip was, to me, a test run for our big road trip to UT this summer.  I'm finding more interactive games for the kids and other ways to "entertain" during the drive and even though I need more for our longer drive, I'm well on my way to happier children, and therefore, a happier me.

This weekend I also practiced being more flexible, less schedule-driven, less worried about structure . . . I wasn't perfect at it, but I think I did okay.

Musings of a Mother

It's been awhile since I've done a rambling post, and I know you've all been missing them, so here ya go, in no particular order. 

• The other day, Amelia hung clothes on her dresser knobs to match what is inside the drawers.  For example, underwear hanging on the underwear drawer knob, pajamas on the pajama drawer knob, etc.  I told her I thought that was pretty creative.
• Last night I heard Sophia cry and when she found me in the kitchen, I asked her what was wrong.  She told me, "Amelia broke my heart".  I didn't know whether to giggle at the cuteness or cry with her, so I just hugged her instead.
• Memorial Day is coming up.  I have very fond memories of going around our yard with my Mom, cutting flowers to put on headstones on Memorial Day.  The other day, my good friend Travis asked if he could put flowers on my Mom's headstone.  That hit me hard.  Last year my Mom put flowers on headstones, and this year, it's her headstone getting the flowers.
• This weekend, our neighborhood was holding garage sales.  Ken wanted me to look for some things for the house, so I took the girls.  I gave them each $.25 and told them they could each buy something.  Amelia immediately bought her "treasure", but Sophia clutched her quarter tightly in her hand as we walked and walked.  I figured we'd just walk down the street to a few houses and come home, but after house after house, we soon found ourselves farther away from home, with tired legs and hungry bellies.  We walked back home, stocked up with snacks, grabbed the car and finished our subdivision.  Sophia's interest was short lived in garage sales, but Amelia couldn't seem to get enough, even after she had spent her money and I wasn't buying her every stuffed animal we saw . . . and believe me, we saw a TON.  (How do some people end up with so many new, stuffed animals?)  Sophia was content to just sit in the car and eat her snack while Amelia and I got out at each stop.  I find garage sale-ing exhausting, but it did give me an opportunity to meet a few more of our neighbors.  Oh, and Sophia finally found something to spend her $.25 on - a helium balloon that wasn't really for sale, but the little old lady who's house it was, told Sophia she could have it.  Needless to say, Amelia was wishing she'd spent her $.25 on a helium balloon that wasn't for sale, instead of a giant Christmas ribbon ;)
• Amelia and I both like to be in charge, which as you can imagine, often causes contention.  Thank goodness for Sophia, my mediator.  I don't like to be corrected by a 2-yr old telling me to "be nice", but it certainly brings a halt to my bad behavior.

The Race Not Run

Today we tried something new.  Ken was volunteering at Providence's 5k and Kid's Dash, so we decided to go too.  The girls, especially Amelia, were excited about running for fun.  Amelia LOVES to run.  The girls and I got there just as the kids were lining up.  I got the girls lined up, the starter shot their starting gun, and off they ran, with me holding onto Sophia's hand.  Amelia ran fast, and was almost out front, when suddenly she runs off to the side, into the trees, sits down and sobs.  I couldn't figure out what had happened, but after Amelia calmed down . . . . 10 min. later and when Dad showed up . . . Amelia told us that she didn't like it when the people on the side were cheering for her.  Maybe it's a good thing that Amelia doesn't like praise?  She's happy to do things just because she likes it, not because it makes anyone else happy.

And here she is doing something that is making her happy.  Climbing a tree.  She didn't go up very far, as you can see, but she was thrilled at her accomplishment.

They also had a small booth that did face painting, and Amelia wanted her face painted . . . but didn't want a stranger to paint her face.  By the time Amelia decided that she was okay with a stranger painting her face, it was time to go home.  But Daddy saved the day by painting the girl's faces when we got home.  The question of the day is: Will the non-face paint Ken used come off easily?  or will the girls have cute butterflies on their faces until the paint wears off?  I thought he did a great job though, and hope that the girls get his artistic ability rather than mine ;)

For the love of books

I love to read, and am so grateful that my girls enjoy books and being read to.  This evening while I was fixing dinner, I heard Sophia talking, and discovered her "reading" 'Hop on Pop' to herself.  It's probably too quiet to actually hear what she's saying, but she's saying most of words on each page.

For the love of Ballet

For the love of ballet, Amelia will eat breakfast, let me do her hair, get her shoes on . . . and all in double time . . . or at least faster than normal, in order to get to her class.

Ken has been taking Amelia to her ballet class, but because he had a PT Conference today, I took the girls this morning and got to see her shine.  And doesn't she look so cute in her all pink ballet outfit :)

Amelia is quick to line up, follow instructions, and obviously has a great time.

Easter and Ballet

Amelia had her first ballet class on Saturday.  In contrast to the dance class that she took last summer, Amelia LOVED this class.  She participated, smiled, had a great experience, and can't wait for next week's class.  Ken took her to the class and since I wasn't there to see it, Ken took a bunch of videos.  Luckily for you, I'm only posting 1 video here - of Amelia's favorite part "Good-bye Toes, Hello Toes".

Saturday we also colored Easter eggs.  I finally had enough courage to do something I love, but can potentially be very messy, so this was the first time the girls had done it and they loved it.

Amelia doesn't look very happy in this picture, but I think she was just in deep thought ;)

And then we had our annual Easter egg hunt in the backyard . . . in between rain showers.  I hid 69 eggs and the girls found 67.  I found 1 of the "lost" eggs later that day, and Sophia found the other "lost" egg today.

 Part 2 of the egg hunt:

Fortunately, Amelia was a nice sister, and gave Sophia the pink egg that they had both grabbed for at the same time.  I wish I had caught that on video too.

Here are the happy, not quite rained out, egg hunters, with their very full Easter baskets.

Conference & Children's Museum

Last weekend was General Conference . . . and I loved it.  If you didn't have a chance to see it, or like me, watched it with a few distractions, check it out here.  I loved that Amelia remembered watching Conference 6-months ago and was looking forward to our traditions.  Here are the girls waiting for it to start.  It's hard to be relatively quiet for 2 hours at a time, times 4, but with a large collection of quiet toys/ games/ activities at their disposal, the girls did really well.  I even heard Amelia say on Sunday morning, "Yeah, it's General Conference!". 

On Sunday, the girls saw Daddy taking notes, and wanted their notebooks to take notes too.  Don't they look so studious?  Too bad that was before the meeting even started ;)

Ken had Monday off, so we went as a family to the Children's Museum in Olympia.  The girls have been there a few times before, and they know what areas they like to play in, but strangely, this was the first time they ever played in this old truck.  Sophia was so excited for her turn to drive the truck.

One of their favorite areas to play in is the craft room.  This was the first time I've let Sophia use scissors and she happily, though a bit awkwardly, cut up a little paper cup until it was time I move to another area.

Amelia surprised me by dancing on the stage.  It surprised me because there were lots of other people watching her and she didn't even seem to mind.  Maybe she'll be a Thespian just like her mother ;)  Sophia had fun dancing on the stage too . . . but just not in front of the camera.

But Amelia's favorite part of the museum is on the outside.  She would have been just as happy . . . or maybe even happier . . . to have spent the entire time at the water feature without even going inside.  And maybe Mom would have been happier too, since that part is free ;)  I promised Amelia that when it got warmer, we'd come back, with appropriate water gear, and just play in the water.