May

After April that was one big event after another, it was nice to have May be a little more relaxed. (Although I still have a lot of pictures to post and a lot to talk about.)

Corbyn's elementary school isn't very good about communication and I somehow found out it was teacher appreciation week on Thursday night, so I threw together a quick gift with a printable Amazon gift card and some Lifesavers we had leftover from Peyton's piñata and sent it with him on Friday.

That night we drove down to Eugene for the kids' marathon. We got dinner at Chipotle because it was Cinco de Mayo. Then the kids and Rog swam at the hotel pool while I went to the AT&T store to get a new SIM card, so I could use a phone Diana sent me (my phone that got lost in her house while we were visiting and was found months later in an air vent). I had been using Rog's phone all week (while he used his work phone), but it was not the same as having my own phone. (The Relief Society President texted Rog to make sure I was ok since I hadn't been returning her texts and calls.) It should have been quick, but I had to wait my turn and both employees were helping customers who apparently had very complicated problems because it took forever! By the time I got back it was time to be done swimming and get everyone ready for bed.  

The kids had worked hard to run their 25.6 miles and were excited to finish up the last 1K of their marathon.

I ran with the kids while Rog and Logan cheered us on.

The kids were excited to meet Puddles the duck, the University of Oregon's mascot.

The race finished up on Hayward Field which is where the college national championships for track and field are held. They don't understand the significance of that, but we had to get a picture anyway.

We stopped in Woodburn for the Wooden Shoe Tulip Festival on our way home. The tulips had bloomed late this year, so they kept the festival open a week longer than originally scheduled. We were there on the second to last day it was open and we were warned that the tulips were definitely not at their best. We decided to go anyway and we still enjoyed it although when we left we vowed to make sure we go while the tulips are in their prime next year.

We took about a million pictures with the tulips that were left.

And at the various photo spots they had set up.

Logan loved splashing in the mud puddles.

And there were bounce houses...

Slides...

Duck races...

And wooden shoes to ride around in.

I finished binding my Valentine envelope quilt while we drove. 

And then when we got home I had to get out my Valentine plates and hang up the quilt, so I could take pictures.

This stitch design quilted by Just In Time Quilts was perfect for the backing fabric I used.

And it was fun to see the same stitch design used by Missouri Star Quilt Company on this Nine Patch On Point quilt.

We took advantage of a nice day (much more common, but still not a given in May) with a picnic at our neighborhood park.

Logan "rode" his bike the whole way there and almost made it home, but had a complete meltdown at the bottom of our street. He didn't want to ride anymore, but he got mad when I tried to carry his bike for him. So I ended up carrying his bike and a screaming toddler up the hill to our house. Still a fun outing!

At the last possible second I threw together Mother's Day gifts for my mom and mother-in-law with a printable from Our Best Bites. Dixie's arrived the day before Mother's Day with no problem, but the soap in my mom's package leaked which caused a huge delivery delay for hers. 

Peyton's eye exam at her 5 year well child visit revealed that she might not be seeing as well as she should be. I had to take her up to Vancouver since that was the closest office that sees children. They dilated her eyes and did a more accurate eye exam and turns out she is seeing just fine. Of course that was the result we were hoping for, but it was a little annoying that we had to go to all that effort to get it. I always look like a dork in these glasses, but she was totally rocking them!

An early morning Friday long run. Around 15 miles the reality of how long a marathon really is starts to set in.

Rog took Corbyn on the stake Fathers and Sons Campout. I was thinking it was a little weird they had it in May since our ward in Utah did the campout in the summer when the weather is more reliable, but apparently most words do it in May to commemorate the restoration of the Aaronic Priesthood. It rained that night, but they stayed dry in their tent and had a great time.

While they were gone Peyton and I made S'more Cookies.

And watched the animated Beauty and the Beast.

Logan stayed home this year, but I told Rog he's going next year! He got to watch Mickey on the iPad while Peyton and I watched Beauty and the Beast and fortunately he didn't know what he was missing out on with the boys.

That afternoon Corbyn and Peyton got to go to our neighbor, Sebastian's birthday party. Peyton just kills me in that Hulk mask. 😂

Rog and the kids made me Apple Cinnamon Waffles for breakfast on Mother's Day.

After church we tried for a picture with me and the kids, but Logan was not cooperating. We did get a cute one of me and Corbyn.

And me and Peyton.

For dinner we had Tomato Basil Soup and then we went to the park where the kids insisted on giving me an underdog. 😂

For dessert we had this Lemon Blueberry Cake (that I had been looking for an excuse to make for over a year). It was good, but not as amazing as I had hoped.

After dessert we tried again for a picture.

I love being a mom to these three (even if they won't cooperate for a perfect Mother's Day picture).

I got new running shoes and a few other small gifts. Corbyn made me that flower fingerprint picture in a popsicle frame at school and Logan made me a handprint in nursery. Peyton's preschool teacher (me) didn't help her make anything. 😆

Snuggles!

Corbyn enjoyed t-ball much more than he enjoyed soccer. I figured this would be the case because I did not care for soccer one bit, but I did enjoy softball. The coach threw a few pitches and if they didn't hit them, they got out the tee. Corbyn did well with his hitting and only needed the tee a few times the whole season.

Peyton would bring her scooter and Logan would bring his bike and they would ride along the trail that circled the field. Of course they also loved when they got an extra treat at the end of the game!

Logan can't quite reach the pedals on his bike, so I got out Peyton's old trike one day to see if he'd ride that one. He preferred his own, but Peyton had fun riding it around even though she is much too big for it.

Riding around the driveway in circles keeps them entertained for at least a few minutes. They would often pull out the bikes/scooters when we got home from running errands and would ride while I unloaded the car. 

I wasn't able to help in Corbyn's class very much this year, so I was excited to go on his field trip to the Oregon Zoo with him.

I only was responsible for him and one other boy, Jason, so it wasn't very difficult.

This was our first time at the Oregon Zoo and we were delighted to see that they have a few cougars. 

They have a geyser that blows every few minutes.

And some fun play areas (in addition to having lots of fun animals to look at).

We didn't have enough time to see all of the animals, but it was a fun day with my little buddy.

That same day, Peyton had a Kindergarten Orientation at the school. Peyton got to go with the Kindergarten teachers to do a craft while they presented a lot of information that would have been very helpful if Peyton was my first child. 😉 

Also that same day Corbyn had a t-ball game and we went to buy wood for planter boxes after that! Busy day!

Logan loves saying bye to dad when he leaves for work. It was around this time that he added, "Love you" to his vocabulary and I had to take a picture because he was so cute standing out there in his pajamas and rain boots saying, "Bye dad. Love you!" 

You know you're training for a marathon when 11 miles seems like a short run!

I came home to find everyone (even Logan) in the garage hard at work building my planter boxes.

Rog let Corbyn and Peyton operate the saw (under close supervision).

Safety first!

We also cleaned out the garage, put up winter stuff, and got down summer stuff.

Such a busy, productive day called for homemade waffle cones and ice cream after the kids were in bed.

Logan knew his bike was in the back of the car and was wanting to bring it in with us when we went grocery shopping at Winco. At first I was saying no, but then I decided, why not?! We got a few funny looks, but it actually worked pretty well. After a few times he stopped asking to bring it in, but it was great while it lasted. 

One day the RS president asked if Peyton wanted to come on a picnic with her granddaughter, Ryah. She sent me this picture while they were there. Looks like they had a fun time!

Corbyn had a fever for a few days and had to stay home from school. I got out the water table to give him something to do since he was feeling fine as long as I gave him ibuprofen regularly. 

Corbyn had to sell pizzas for a fundraiser for t-ball. Rog took it to work one day and sold a few there. Then I posted this picture on Instagram and we had some great friends buy some too, so we only had to buy a few. They were pretty good and I wouldn't have minded buying more, but we only had room in our freezer for a few. 

Logan figured out how to lean back in his seat and fell over one night. Luckily Rog was able to glue the chair back together and you can't tell unless you look closely.

I told myself I needed to get the kids' pictures taken in May and as the end of the month approached, I realized I hadn't done anything about it. I found a photographer in the mall and scheduled an appointment. Corbyn had an outfit to wear, but I needed something for Peyton and Logan, so we went on a little shopping trip. We have a Carter's, Old Navy, and Kohl's in the same parking lot, so we started at Carter's and made our way down to Kohl's where we finally found something that would work. 

Peyton somehow made it out of the house dressed like this for one of Corbyn's t-ball games without me noticing.

Lorelai Gilmore, anyone? 😂😂😂

I was having a day where I really needed to get something done that would last longer than 5 minutes, so I took a few minutes to finally finish this Ragar shadow box.

After we had the kids' pictures taken, Rog took the kids to the play area in the mall to play while I waited to get the CD with all the pictures on it. (I'll do a separate post with the pictures since this is already the longest post ever.)

When I took Peyton to her 5 year well child visit, she had had bumps on the back of her leg for awhile. Her doctor said they were Molluscum Contagiosum (nothing to worry about and should clear up within a year or so). Soon after that Corbyn got some bumps on his leg too and we figured they were the same thing, but then they started to get crazy and spread like wild. We took pictures of them to show Dr. Jason. He was stumped, but said he'd just put Neosporin on them and watch them to see what happened. After a few more days, we realized they were only getting worse, so we finally took him into Urgent Care and learned the Molluscum Contagiosum he had, had turned into Impetigo. Fortunately they cleared up pretty quickly with the right ointment to put on them and we were lucky that they mostly stayed in areas that were covered by clothing because they were seriously nasty! (Logan also got the same thing the next month, but he had to have ointment and antibiotics because he got some spots close to his eye where we couldn't put the ointment.)

I set out to do 17 miles this day, but my iPod died at mile 10 and I knew I didn't have it in me to do 7 miles without music, so I headed home. (I was 2 miles away from home when it died, so I ended up with 12 miles.) It didn't help that pretty much all of my training up to this point had been in the rain and suddenly it was very hot this day.

I took this picture on the way home from church because Logan was sticking his arm out the window just like dad.

Every Memorial Day my family has a Ririe family pancake breakfast up Millcreek Canyon. This tradition was very important to my Grandpa Ririe and this was the first one since he passed away. It was hard to be away and miss it. So I made us pancakes with red, white, and blue sprinkles for breakfast.

For our first hike of the summer we did (part of) the Horsetail Falls Loop in the Columbia River Gorge.

We found a great view of the Columbia River Gorge at one point. 

We turned around at this bridge because we weren't sure exactly how much was left of the loop.

The hike started and ended at Horsetail Falls. We let the kids play in the waterfall at the end and decided to get them Stride Rite Phibian shoes for the summer, so they could easily transition from hiking to playing in the water.

Somebody was tired after hiking all morning.

We had Orange Thai Beef Skewers for dinner.  

 

With Berries 'n' Cream Icebox Cake for dessert.

After dinner we planted our garden.

I also planted some flowers in the front yard. Gerber daisies are one of my favorite flowers.

Rog worked really hard to finally get our built-in cabinets installed. A few months earlier he had finished them and discovered that they were just a little too big in certain places. So he had to take them apart and cut them down just a little. It was all very frustrating, but now they are done and they are perfect. I'll post pictures of the finished version at some point.

We had the opportunity to help take down the flags at the Willamette National Cemetery. 

A fun craft at B&N story time. 

Logan even made one.

I finished this kite door hang the last day of May - just in time to take it down and pack it away until next year.

I also finished these flowers...

And some spring blocks.

And that was May! It's kind of ridiculous that compared to March and April, that was a relaxing month. Apparently we don't know how to do anything, but busy! And seriously you deserve a medal if you made it to the very end of this post.