June has been extremely busy for us. The warm weather is here and the kids are now out of school but the days leading up to summertime have been packed with activity. It's the first real chance I've had to create a post in awhile. The kids have started building things in the yard with wood. Haven started it by building a table with random wood pieces she found in our wood pile. She did and amazing job with the saw and nails. Then the boys wanted to start building too. One day they all worked hard to build their own wooden airplanes.
We celebrated Sage's 8th birthday in the beginning of June. It's hard for me to believe. When we started the adoption process he was only 5. By the time he came home he was 6 and turned 7 pretty quickly. Now he is a big 8! We gave him the choice to have a party at home or do something fun with a friend. He picked the activity so we all played laser tag together. This was SOOOO fun!!! We played adults against kids and then teamed up with one adult on each team. What a great family activity!!!
Sage wanted a race car ice cream cake for his party so that's what he got. I was all bummed the red food coloring turned pink but Sage loves pink so he was thrilled about it. This party was the first time he had a friend spend the night and he wanted to do it again the next day. He spent the night at a friend's house for the first time a couple weeks ago and I was so proud of him for doing so well.
This was the scene after opening birthday presents. Sage loves space right now so we picked that theme for gifts. Spaceship legos, glow in the dark stars..he loved it all.
Here is solar system toy he wanted. All the planets orbit the sun and you can project constellations on the ceiling. He turns it on before bed at night just to see everything move. He is fascinated with it all and the biologist in me is clueless about space. We look up a lot of his questions on the internet.
We spent his birthday weekend exploring the Olympic peninsula. A ton of people we digging for clams at this beach. Xavier caught so many crabs they were crawling all over his arms and legs.
We had planned a river hike but this lake was too enticing. We grabbed our towels and swim suits and headed to the beach. We had it to ourselves the entire time. On a side note, I LOVE how the boys hug like this. They do it a lot. They even hold hands. One day they will out grow it but for now they are just my adorable boys who love being brothers.
The kids braving the cold water.
After we played in the lake we journeyed up some waterfalls. Man was that water ice cold. Just tromping through for a couple minutes and our toes were freezing. We kept playing though. We had it all to ourselves...how could we not?
Around Sage's birthday Auntie Lauren visited because he drove her moving truck to Washington. YAHOOOOOOO!!!! To say we're happy to have her here is an understatement. Grandpa helped Lauren move up here and he took the kids to the farmers market. They never get tired of going there and the vendors adore the kids. Every time they go they get some sort of yummy fruit from a local farm for free. The cherries the kids are wearing were meant to be eaten but the kids loved hanging them on their ears instead.
June for Paul is always stressful because he is closing out the school year. This year he took on organizing the graduation ceremony for the seniors on his campus so we were relieved to see the school year come to a close. For Fathers day we had a mellow day because it was right in the middle of all the June chaos. The kids made treats for him at school and hid them around the house for him to find. It was so sweet watching them crowd around him as he read the cards and looked at their artwork.
Paul wanted to go on a little hike after having a yummy breakfast of crepes for Father's Day. You might notice Haven's hair being short. She's been fighting us with it so we cut it short and refuse to do it in any style until she asks. That was almost two months ago. I really thought she would never ask for our help with it but she just asked me today. I was and am SHOCKED!!
We recently celebrated Xavier's 10th birthday. We had his party the last weekend in June because so many people go out of town for the 4th. He just wanted friends to come over so he could play. He wanted a truck ice cream cake for his birthday so that's what he got.
The kids played a bunch of games at Xavier party and X loved it. The favorite of all was the good old balloon toss.
To end the month Yomo and Numo came into town the last week of June. They brought with them a very special family treat. Paul's family has passed down a super snazzy train set the past couple generations. The boys now get to enjoy it and are learning what it means to have a gift the belongs to the family and one their kids might enjoy one day. Sage and Xavier played with it the next day...all day long.
