1st Grade - The real deal!

For most kids 1st grade is serious business because there is a transition from 1/2 day to full day. However, for Griffen it was business as usual. Last year Griffen attended full day Kindergarten so making the move to 1st grade had no effect on him schedule wise.
I call 1st grade the "real deal" because one of the first things that Griffen noticed was there are no longer toys in his classroom. It's time to get down to business! Mrs. Laske is a fantastic teacher and very regimented which I think helps all children when they are in school because structure in the classroom is very important.
A new added event this year is homework! We have now built in 20 minutes to our afternoon schedule for homework time. I love opening Griffen's backpack and checking out what has been placed in the "take home" folder. Each day the children are given an easy reader along with any classwork they have completed. It is nice to go over these things with Griffen and confirm his understanding. During this time if there aren't enough assignments in his backpack to fill 20 minutes then we will work on reading other books or playing online learning games.
Griffen is an extremely bright kid and I look forward to the 1st round of progress reports this fall!

Soccer Season kickoff!

Griffen is now in his 3rd season of soccer and it has bee very exciting to watch the tremendous growth from when he started at age 3!
As I watch him play I notice that he has taken some of the skills he has learned to heart. He now dribbles the ball fairly well and has become much better at passing. As a whole this age group has moved on from the "beehive" strategy of playing soccer where everyone groups together and chases the ball around the field. Now they realize that they need to spread out and pass the ball if they want to score a goal.
The score is also something that Griffen and his teammates has recognized this year. The teams and the league don't keep score but the kids sure do! They are well aware when the opposing team has scored more goals than them. Griffen even made a comment that his team had lost. I tried really hard to cheer him on and let him know that right now we are just playing for fun and not to worry about who wins.
This is going to be a great season and I can't wait to see how Griffen progresses this year!

Hey mom.....no training wheels!

It was one of those proud moments as a mother that you look forward to - Griffen learned to ride his bike without training wheels! While Matt was home this past week we decided to take a walk at the Centennial trail with the dog. Before leaving Matt asked Griffen if he wanted to take off his training wheels. Originally Griffen said "no, I might fall". Matt explained that if he never tries then he will have them on forever. Griffen finally said "sure I guess I will try". He strapped on his helmet and knee pads for extra protection and we were off to the trail. Matt started off by walking behind Griffen with his hand on the seat and then moved to a hand on his back, then before Griffen knew it Matt was jogging next to him. There was only 1 fall on trail and he got right back on his bike to try again. The most wonderful sight to see was when Matt picked Griffen up, gave him the biggest bear hug, and told him how proud he was!
In less than 1 hour Griffen was riding by himself and even able to turn without falling over. The kickoff is taking some time but that part isn't so easy.
I was bursting with joy and wish someone could have captured how big the smile on my face was as I watched Griffen over come a fear and hit another milestone!

Pacific City, OR 2010

We packed up the car and headed south to the OR coast for an entire week of fun with the family. I plugged the address into the GPS and the 6 hour drive seemed like it would take forever but I knew that the drive time would be worth it. Little did I know....the drive would really take 8 hours! We left around 12:30pm and arrived at the beach house around 8:30pm.
There were many points during the drive when Griffen would ask how much longer we had and all I could do was sweetly reply an estimated amount of time. He kept busy with movies and the leapster, thank goodness we packed them.
We had a fun filled week at the beach with Grandma and Papa along with aunts, uncles, and cousins. The kids never seemed to be bored and were entertained for hours playing in the sand.
I learned that when someone says "beach" it doesn't necessarily mean that it will be 75+ degrees, sunny, and swimsuit worthy. It was sunny for the most part but the wind kept the temp down and we wore our sweatshirts quite often.
There was a huge sand dune that was quite the challenge for me. We all hiked up but I didn't know if I would ever reach the top. Thanks to the kids yelling "you can do it auntie Shannon" I was successful! The view from the top was beautiful. We could see all of Pacific City. Going down the sand dune was much easier than going up!
One of the mornings when the tide was out we made our way down the beach to the tide pools. The kids had so much fun discovering all of the different sea creatures. The hermit crabs seemed to peak everyones interest along with the multiple starfish that were found. I guess you're not supposed to take the starfish with you because there were a few people that approached the kids to tell them that they needed to put them back in the water.....we had already taken care of this.
Grandma was prepared with multiple games and projects for all of the grandkids to keep them entertained. The cousins play pretty well together although we had some issues with sharing. I was so proud of Griffen to set a good example by sharing his leapster with his cousins. Learning to share is a work in progress for everyone.
The vacation at the beach was a success with plenty of relaxing, food, book reading, naps, and socializing. Although I don't look forward to the drive again, I do look forward to spending many more vacations with the family.

THE Demiter Garden

The garden is growing like crazy! This year we planted.....are you ready for this.....3 varieties of tomatoes, cucumbers, artichokes, spring mix, green leaf lettuce, green beans, sweet peas, corn, squash, zucchini, pumpkins, green and yellow bell peppers, jalapenos, green onions, and walla walla sweet onions. Wow - that is a whole lot of stuff!

Matt has asked why we planted so much but I remind him that I plan to can salsa and spaghetti sauce along with grinding and freezing veggies for the new baby. He is pretty proud that I am tackling so many projects.

We planted late this year due to the cool weather so now that it is mid July only the lettuce is ready but we are hopeful that many of the other veggies will be following along shortly. There is plenty blooming so it shouldn't be too long.

The "girls" are also doing very well. Alfredo, BBQ, Teriyaki, and Dijon should start laying in about another month and then we will have wonderful fresh eggs! We have 2 brown egg layers and 2 speckled/Easter egg layers so it will be lots of fun to get eggs each day with Griffen.

Matt has stated that he would like to add a sheep or goat to our mini farm but I don't think that will be happening in the near future. :)

Weekend in Richland

I drove to Richland to spend the weekend of 7/8 with Matt and the family. Almost everyone was in town so I had the chance to catch up with all of the in-laws. This weekend was also a great opportunity for Matt and I to spend some time together so although it was 100 degrees we decided to play a round of twilight golf. We rented a cart, of course. I played fairly well considering the heat and the fact that I am 6 months pregnant with Knox! We had a great time laughing and playing a non-serious round of golf.
This was the weekend that we set aside to visit the Columbia River Temple and receive our Endowments. Both Matt and I were a little nervous but also excited for this next step in our lives. It was so wonderful that Jim and Sharon could be our escorts and Renae, Janelle, and Jeremy were able to attend the endowments session as well. All of the Temple workers were extremely helpful and we never felt lost. This was truly an amazing experience for the both of us and we look forward to many trips to the Temple with our family and friends.

Papa and Nana's Lake Tyee Property

Papa Rick and Nana Linda came to visit in June and this gave us the opportunity to spend some time with them at the Lake Tyee Property.
We got to spend 2 separate days with the family. Matt was in town for one of the visits and we all took some time to go fishing. No one had any nibbles but we all enjoyed ourselves anyways. Griffen was counting down the days until he got to fish with Matt, he thought he was the master fisherman!
On the 2nd visit we also got to see Michelle and Ryan. The weather was warm enough that we headed down to the pool. Griffen spent a few hours swimming while I sat in the sun and caught up on my reading.
Dad made a great dinner on both visits and we topped the nights off with smores!
I can't wait until Dad and Linda can spend more time here so that the grandkids can get to know them better. Until then we will make the most of the visits that we do have. It was so nice to have Papa and Nana home for a little while.