Singing Time!

My great friend, Marcia, singing with Laura. Our favorite part is when the little one blurts out "ITSY BITSY FIDER!"

First Day of School!

I insisted on wearing his old Transformers shirt to school -- that was not a battle I care enough about (though his button-up was sure cute before he took it off!) but even he noticed it was getting small. He's growing so tall! What a cute boy, ready to start 1st grade.






Jared with his cousin, Sam. We're rockin' a carpool this year! As my friend, Marcia, said, "That looks like double trouble!"

Claire's First Day

Before:

After:

Still smiling and she says she wants to go again tomorrow so we'll call this first day of school a success!

The Post-school interview: (Claire's answers are in bold)

Did you meet your teacher? And I introduced myself, Claire Skippy Thiel.

Claire Elizabeth. No, Claire Skippy Thiel. I want to be Skippy.

How was school today? very well

What did you do: I couldn't find my gluesticks.

What did you do then: I walked home without my gluesticks. We went to the earth and outer space.

So you flew into space? Yeah, and Taylor had a birthday and he turned 5. And then he turned 6.

Yes, Next year he'll turn six. I had cupcakes and chocolate milk.

Did you eat at your table? Uh-uh, pretty good. And I didn't scream or yell.

Did other kids scream or yell? No.

Did you read a book? No I played. I saw a turtle on the board. The white board.

(Daryn: the orange board!) No, the white board

(Daryn: the blue board!) No, the white board and there was a little bit of blue on it and my teacher wrote on it.

What did you see on the white board? I saw a turtle called frankl on the white board and he didn't fight or scream.

What did frankl do? He went to school.

What did you play with outside? The slides and swings, but not the slides. But my teacher said don't play over there, only play right here bcause we like it.

Do dyou ride the school buses? No. But my schoolmates do.

Do you have any friends. Mom I have lots of friends. Lots and lots and lots of friends.

My Babies are Growing Up!

Claire left for her first (half)day of Preschool today, and baby Elise just cut her first teeth this week. Sniff. They're just growing up too fast.

Yeah I know, Elise is 11 months old so it's about time. But all the same I'm going to miss the toothless smile and she won't look like a baby anymore. So here's a fun video of Elise at home without her "game face". She really DOES smile in real life.

Zoo Time!

Some pictures from our trip to the zoo this week. We rode the Zoo Train for the first time, Jared and Tom got attacked by a dinosaur, and Laura visited the Lorikeets. :)
This one was Jared's favorite picture - it makes him laugh and laugh. He loves how his dad is tackling the dinosaur, but he's being eaten anyway.


It's hard to get Laura to look at the camera when there are so many more interesting things to do...

Held up high on Tom's shoulders. Look how tall she is getting!

So here's the latest family portrait. I'm so glad we all got in front of the camera at the same time!

The Star Wars Party

Jared's "Jedi Training" birthday party this weekend...Here is part of the troop with their Padawan Learner robes on, ready to begin their Jedi training. Jared is the one standing behind the "speeder".

First, a multi-part challenge course (balance using your "force", defending your space using the "force", shooting goals, jumping over lava, throwing balls into a target, fixing the Millenium Falcon, driving a speeder). Very fun for a hot, sunny day! Extra points for having this all outside with 16+ kids plus parents and relatives here!
Tom (aka Obi Wan) prepares the younglings for light saber training. Distributing the light sabers.


One of our treat table attractions was "Han Solo in Carbonite". They loved it! I wish we got more pictures of our food table. We had "Princess Leia Buns", "Yoda Soda", "Droid Dip" for the fruits, "Moon Milk", Ewok Food (fruits and vegetables), Wookie Cookies, Sweet Red Lightsabers, "Han Solo Rolos", and a light saber cupcake birthday "cake" presented with 6 1/2 candles.

But wait, I sense a disturbance in the Force!Oh no! It's Darth Vader! He has come to pursuade you to join the Dark Side. Will you go to the Dark Side? Neverrrrr!
Uncle Andrew in full costume. He knew all the lines. I think he's done this before a time or two...

Jared facing Darth Vader. He fought valiantly.

The danger of being Darth Vader...there is always an uprising against you!



The defeated Darth Vader retreats without any new recruits for the Dark Side.
Tom teaching the Padawan Learners awesome fighting technique before they faced Vader and Destroyed the Death Star (our pinata).

It was a tough pinata. After 17 people went through blindfolded with 3 hits each, we let them go without blindfolds. Here is the explosion of the Death Star!

It was a great day.

A Foxy Update

So it's official, this Spring has been crazy! With finals, two weddings, birthdays, a baptism, a new baby in the family and lots of travel, Cyrus and I had some pretty good adventures lately.

First of all, Dan and Julie welcomed a new baby girl into the Fox family.

Meet Aniston Rose Fox
She's pretty cute and her 3 older sisters love her to pieces

Sue and Steve got back from their mission and are thoroughly Swiss.

Then Danielle got baptized.

Ben, Cy's little brother, got married in Oakland. And I forgot to charge my batteries on BOTH cameras so our pictures are somewhat limited....



Tim graduated from USC's law school
(Cyrus was very excited about all the walking around we did that day)


Cy's Grandma Marion turned 90! Sue and Steve welcomed guests to the party Swiss style.


While waiting out the party, Cy got to take his brother's bike out for a ride. Don't worry, he drove around the retirement community and was completely safe.

We also went to Hollywood to check out the stars. Tim's dog Jasper is sitting on one of the best ones.

But the best thing of all is I got a new bike!
We found a screaming deal a few months back and Cy convinced me that I needed my own racing bike. It is awesome and goes really fast. Also, my new bike has clipless peddles and I haven't even fallen off yet. I'm very proud of myself!

In about 5 weeks we drove to California 3 times, saw tons of family, celebrated birthdays and graduations, watched the youngest Fox get married and had a grand old time!

Seattle with Sadeth's Family

Our friends, Sadeth and David, were coming in from an Alaskan cruise to the Port of Seattle on Saturday, so we took a trip up north to see them off the ship and visit the city a bit before they flew home to California. We had a great time hanging out downtown!
Their son, Matthew, is already 14 years old (I've known him for 5 years already!). Jared enjoyed being with him, because, after all, this was the boy who gave Jared a box full of Bakugan toys last Christmas at their family party. Jared remembered him well because that was such a cool present. Matthew would also show Jared cool Wii games when I'd go over to visit teach, and Jared remembers that, too. The boys banded together to secure a trip to an ice cream store at Pike Place Market. They definitely won that request. Jared loves strawberry ice cream and was thrilled to get a waffle cone with it. Ah, the little pleasures of life.
We should have brought our cellos! It was PACKED. A beautiful, hot, sunny day in Seattle on Memorial Day weekend? Oh yeah. The people were definitely out.
A happy dance at the market next to the totem poles.
We also drove out to Snoqualmie Falls, which brought back many memories of the ski school bus (which always smelled of diesel, graham crackers and oranges) and family outings. It was almost tragic that the beautiful rustic road out to the lodge and falls was being built up with California-style tract homes and strip malls. Not quite what you'd expect to see out there. But the rest of the drive was gorgeous!
A few family photos at the Seattle Temple...(really located in Bellevue, but I digress...)
And a photo in the little grove of trees on the temple grounds. We couldn't catch Jared long enough to be in this photograph. And even Laura doesn't seem too thrilled about being stuck on my lap for a picture. Sigh.
The rest of our time was driving and enjoying. Next time we'll stop and visit some old friends from Washington. I think that was the only part that was missing on this trip.

Our Old House

Memorial Day Weekend: we went on a family road trip up to Seattle and visited our old house! It looked beautiful and the foliage was amazing, even though it blocked our view of the back of the house. It was a walk down memory lane for sure! The yard is still amazing, the cul-de-sac is something to be envied by those with young children (Jared was very impressed that it was a double cul-de-sac!), and the house itself looked beautiful with its brick-and-tulip front face. Loved seeing it!
Look how big that little tree on the left has grown in the past 17 years!
Jared chasing the Canadian Geese at Lake Sammamish, where our family used to go to swim and water ski when we were kids. We ate a picnic breakfast there on Saturday morning. Beautiful!
Backyard fun back at our house. Laura LOVES this little cozy coupe car. Jared LOVES swinging in the hammock Tom puts up on sunny days. We're thinking with some chickens, a few blueberry bushes, and a trampoline, our backyard will be pretty fun for the kids!

Dallin's 2nd birthday photos

We're a bit behind in our photo downloading, but we couldn't let these cute photos pass us by! Here are some shots we took at the OMSI (Oregon Museum of Science & Industry) where the Pearsons and Prices met up for Dallin's 2nd birthday in April.

There is a great Ancient Egypt display there. Here are the three kids on a camel in the "desert".
Playing in the water works section.
Lindsay (baby was 17 weeks here), birthday boy Dallin and Emily!