The very hungary caterpillar - video

The very hungary caterpillar

I found the biggest caterpillar I've ever seen the other day. It totally reminded me of Eric carle's book 'The very hungry caterpillar'. It's suction cup bottom was so strong he was hard to pull off you when you were holding him. I think the video we took does him a little better justice. I'll have to try and up load that next. Joshi was quite fond of him, most of our backyard caterpillars are orange and black fuzzy ones. I made her let this one go without the normal 24 hour torture period of being her pet.

We seem to eat a lot of ice cream

Pirate festival

Sunday we followed Mikells crew down to Portland to the Pirate festival. Barbara and Elizabeth met us down there. Captain Bogg & Salty played music, and you know how the girls like to dance. The festival was trying to beat the Guinness record for the most pirates in one place, which they did 1,658. Joshi was too girlie to be a Pirate so she went as Tinkerbell. Although thats Tinkerbell slicing my throat in the above photo. Thanks Mikel for lending us the custom.

Today I volunteered at Joshi pre-school and Billi stayed at another moms house. The mom (Kelli) said she didn't even cry. I really thought she would. I think I picked up some germs at the pre-school, though. I have a really bad sore throat tonight. Not another cold arg!

school days

Joshi is super happy to be back at school. This is my favorite outfit of hers. It was suppose to be her first day outfit but because I like it so much, she demoted it to day 3. Today we will be going to the Welches yearly carnival fund raiser. The gym is set up with little games the kids can play for a quarter each. Then before you leave you can go into a classroom thats been stocked with "prizes" Things like Mc Donalds happy meals toys. Fun!

A perfect Sunday

We had a fabulous Sunday. It started with going to a worship service outdoors at Mt. Hood Villages. It was the end to the Christian music festival. After an hour of music the kids were to antsy to stay for the speaker but we had a fun day planned. We went over the mountain to the orchards again, this time for apples and pears. Mikell(bailey and Caleb) drove all of us in her truck. We were set free to pick fruit and were completely clueless as to which types were ripe or not. We tasted several with mounting confusion as to what a ripe apple/pear is even suppose to taste like. But then the women who ran the place came out and told us what to look for and how to pick them. Very fun. The kids could reach the lower fruit but they had more fun pulling and riding in the wagon we had. Then we got to visit the animals they had. They even had a little play area of swings and bikes amongst the trees that the kids played while we choose and paid for our produce. A beautiful place and REALLY nice people. They even gave as a hay ride before we left. Then a stop for some ice cream before we headed back over the mountain. Of course I had to get a pic of Billi eating ice cream with her usual zeal. Scan down to see all the pics. I think the # of Pics can attest to how much fun we had. Thanks again Mikell., its great to have a fellow goof ball to hang out with!

some more photos

and more photos

This is of the hayride and ice cream after all the apple picking

The Festivals in the forest

Saturday Welches hosted 2 festivals at once. Kind of crazy for a tiny town. We went to both. The first was a Festival in the forest. Joshi got to do activities with the forest service and hear a story about how Salmon spawn in a a huge Fish shaped tent. The 2nd was Spirit on the Mountain, a Christian music festival. We signed up to sponsor a child thru World Vision. We got a little boy from S. Africa named Mmuso. I think it will be fun to write letters and send packages to him.

Play Structure

Yesterday I disassembled and cleaned a play structure we had in the front yard. It has been reassigned as an indoor toy. Its been a great success and I think it will be fun in the winter. We never could use it outside because the front yard isn't fenced in and Billi requires fencing. I did absolutely no gardening or yard work in the front yard this year because Billi would take off running down our steep driveway and then our even steeper gravel road. Falling didn't deter her either, she must run free =0)

First Day of Pre-school

Joshi was super happy to be back with "her gang" I'm pretty sure Billi wasn't happy about it at all. When we got home from dropping Joshi off, Billi was in a very bad mood. She kept throwing toys at me and falling on the floor and whining. I couldn't figure out what her problem was. But she was very happy when we went to pick Joshi up. Lets hope she gets use to it.

Trillium Lake

I don't know why I don't go here more often. Trillium lake is 15 minutes from my house and its a gorgeous place. Nice view of Mt. Hood and a huge lake. At this time of year is pretty warm. We've tried to stuff lots of family summer fun in this week. Elwood goes back to work Thursday. We won't see him for a month.