Most of our evenings were spent on walks, usually to a playground or park by our house. We live by quite a few and can alternate where we go.
Ben's version of the trust fall
Teddy's turn
Nayeli and Teddy are still trying to find their groove as playmates. Most of the time they are on two totally different wavelengths. He is an intense, crazy, busy boy to the core and Nayeli is a girly girl that like to play by herself. He wants to wrestle and she wants to have a tea party. Sometimes it is maddening how much I feel I have to referee just to keep the peace in our home, but slowly they are learning to play together.
A moment of friendship
Our neighbor Anita gave us butterfly nets so we went on some butterfly hunts. We didn't catch anything, but you wouldn't know it by their faces.
At certain times of the year our apartment has ants like crazy. These were the traps I set in the bathroom after only a few days. One day I look forward to living in a place where I don't find ants in my kitchen, shower, bed, etc. One day.
Our beautiful apartment complex
We also have been spending lots of time at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) since Tina left us with a year pass from her visit. It's a really fun place and they have great exhibits for kids.
"Look Mom, I'm a bacterium!"
The sand area
Playdough!
One thing that Ben did with the kids in August is he took them magnet fishing in the Willamette River. Ben bought an old set of speakers at Goodwill and extracted the strong magnets from the inside. He then attached the magnets to paracord and dragged it along the bottom of the river from a dock. The idea is that you can catch metal objects on the bottom of the river. Unfortunately we only caught dirt, but we still had a great time doing it.
"Won't it be so exciting when we catch a tin can or a rusty old nail kids?!"
This picture just KILLS me and I can't stop laughing about it. Isn't this the quintessential parenting moment? We kill ourselves to impress our kids, and this is how they respond?
One fun event at the end of the month was that we were invited to a "Husbands with July Birthdays" party. Essentially, a bunch of my friends have husbands with birthdays in July and every year they do a birthday party together. Since Ben's birthday is in July, they invited us. We weren't able to meet together until the end of August, but we had no problem partying like it was July.
A tradition of the party is that every guy brings his own pinata. The guys love it because they get to hit something and the kids love it because they get candy. I didn't want to spend the money on one, so I looked up how to make one on online, simplified it (like I do), and voila!
(L to R) Ben, Jodie Fish, Ryan Reese, Jason Gough, Keith Smith
Our glorious, homemade pinata that was made from a gift bag, cardboard box and tissue paper. It actually worked perfectly and was the best pinata break of the night.
CANDY RUN!
Singing to the birthday boys. I made a big Texas sheet cake for the birthday cake and it was DELICIOUS (sorry to toot my own horn, but it really was).
My good friend Jana Fish showed up wearing the exact same outfit as me! Who wore it better? ;)
More pictures of the kids and Teddy laying on top of Nayeli as she tries to have "alone time"
Snuggles. Five seconds before the brawl broke out.
Nayeli is becoming a better helper every day, even when she "helps" me take the spaghetti leftovers out of the fridge :)
At the beginning of the summer, Jane sent Nayeli three sunflower seeds. We planted them in a small pot, but I really didn't think they would grow, especially when Teddy dug them up and ate one. Little did I know that in Oregon, everything grows. The other two sprouted great and soon we had to transplant them to the soil outside our house. One was eventually knocked down by a maintenance worked, but the last seed continued to grow until it reached almost nine feet tall. It was the talk of the neighborhood! We even had people take pictures in front of it! Nayeli was so proud of her sunflower and we loved getting to see it's progress each day. It's now bent over and wilted and we're waiting for it to brown so we can harvest the seeds and plant more next year. We'll also roast a few because, isn't that what you're supposed to do with sunflower seeds?
Our amazing sunflower.
Our sweet neighbor girls Maddie and Makayla, who often come play with kids outside so I can cook dinner in peace.
On a Sunday walk. The summer weather was hot at times, but so beautiful. We went on so many walks and enjoyed so many days outside. I love where we live and I love Oregon. August was a wonderful time to be here.
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