Marshmallows and Milestones

If I am being honest, this will not go down as the best week in Clifford family history.  I honestly don't even know what happened at the beginning of the week.  All I really know is that for the last 5 days I have been battling the stomach bug that has been slowly and painfully making its way through the family.  Thankfully my parents were watching Ben and Becca's kids most of the week and the cousins were more than happy to spend the days playing together.  The other thing compounding the problem of me not feeling well was that Jeremy has been working 10 plus hour days and had to work this Saturday.  Since our family time this weekend was drastically reduced and I still wasn't feeling great we had to do some big timing planning to make the most of the time we had.

When Jeremy got home yesterday we headed straight to Home Depot to gather supplies for our special project.  The week before we went to a big picnic and one of the picnic games was knocking down cans with mini marshmallows and a pvc pipe marshmallow shooter.  Ever since then my kids (especially Merrick) have been obsessed with the idea of making our own guns.  It was the perfect activity for our limited time and thankfully it went off without a hitch.  We are a little obsessed now and are planning to make them for all Merrick's friends with upcoming birthdays.

The other big news, that I mentioned last week, is that our little Elsie is now a big 5 months old.  She is a mama's girl to the core and loves nothing more than to be with me all the time.  She is loving her solid foods and hasn't turned down anything we have tried.  She can roll from her tummy to her back and from her back to her side.  She loves baths and to have her feet rubbed.  She is a social girl and has really found her voice, screeching and squealing to make her presence known.  Her sleeping has been leaving a little bit to be desired lately and I am hoping we can get that back on track.  I enjoyed having a baby that actually slept.  She is adored by all in the family as evidenced by the the fact that I couldn't even get her 5 month pictures taken without brother and sister jumping in to snuggle her.

Scout Camp

This week was all about Merrick and his first ever scout camp, but it almost didn't happen.  Last Friday Merrick came down with the stomach bug Carrigan had a few weeks ago and it really knocked him flat on his back.  All weekend he struggled to do much of anything except sleep.  By the time Monday rolled around he was definitely on the mend but just didn't have the energy to spend the day out in the sun at scout camp so I kept a VERY disappointed boy home.

By Tuesday he was at least enough better to pretend he was well enough to go and away he went.  The clear highlight of that day for him was archery and he came home saying that scout camp was better than Disneyland.  The next day was my volunteer day and I got to spend the day at camp (with Elsie in a pack on my chest).  It wasn't my first choice of how to spend the day, but I did get to see Merrick shoot a BB gun, which is what he was the most excited about for the week.  The rest of the week flew by in a blur of scouting excitement and even included a bulls-eye in archery.

Even though the week at camp was a day shorter than Merrick would have liked, the days he did attend did not disappoint and he is already excited for next year.

The other excitement of the week is that our big Elise girl turns 5 months today.  I haven't had a chance to take her pictures yet though so you will have to wait until next week for that.

   

Promos and New Tricks

It seems like now that we have three kids, the blogs don't wrap up as nicely into one central theme.  Instead, each week there are at least two separate things I want to talk about.  This week was no different.

The first theme of the week was "Promo Day".  This week we took advantage of two different promo days of local businesses.  The first was "cow appreciation day" at Chick-fil-a.  The kids and I were more than happy to throw on some cows spots for free kids meals and entrees.  Jeremy was less inclined to participate so the kids and I went for lunch.

 
The other promo of the week was "pay your age" day at Build a Bear.  Becca and I planned to take the kids but on the morning of the event we heard stories of people in other states waiting 5 hours.  Oregon tends to not be so crazy on these type of events so we told the kids we would go see, but we were not waiting 5 hours.  We got there almost an hour before the store opened and the line wasn't too bad.  We were only a couple of store fronts down so we decided to wait.  As we waited the line grew and grew behind us, wrapping around inside the mall and ultimately heading out of the mall and around the building.  We knew we had at least an hour wait until the store opened and then probably another hour until we were finished.  Unfortunately, when the store opened, we discovered that the line moved much slower than anticipated.  Even when we finally got into the store, the stuffing line was horrendous.  When we finally emerged victorious from the store, we had been at the mall for almost 5 hours.  I have no idea how long people further down the line waited or if they even got bears.  Since then I have told people that I am not sure it was worth 5 hours to save $50 and Merrick (wise beyond his years) said "Mom, I don't think we really saved $50 because if they weren't having the sale we wouldn't have gone at all and wouldn't have spent any money."  I guess I don't have to worry about his financial well-being in the future.

Lastly, but certainly not least, is the "new tricks" portion of the blog.  Emily and her family went home early this week and I started thinking about the fact that over the last two weeks Elsie never saw the ground and was thinking that she would never learn to roll over.  I decided I needed to make sure she got some floor time that morning.  I set her down on her tummy and went ten feet away to put away her hair brush.  When I came out of the bathroom she was on her back.  I decided to see if it was a fluke so I flipped her back over and she flipped right back to her back.  We did that several times so I guess we're doing that now.  She is growing up faster than I can believe!

   

Family Fun

This week was jam packed!  I really don't even know where to begin.  I guess I will just go day by day and sprinkle in pictures where I have them. 

Monday was our most low key day as Carrigan was still recovering from being sick, but we did spend time playing with cousins at Nana and Papa's house and shockingly Carrigan's tummy felt good enough that she jumped at a chance to get slurpees with her cousins.  The major highlight of Monday was giving Elsie solids for the first time.  We started with rice cereal and if our first experience was any indication of what is to come, this girl is going to like to eat.  I could hardly get the food in fast enough for her.

Tuesday we headed downtown.  We had Voodoo Doughnuts, lunch at the food carts and walked along the river.  We spent the afternoon at Playdate PDX, which has a three story play structure (think fancy McDonald's on steroids).  The kids were wiped out by the end and in serious need of a bath.

Wednesday was the 4th of July.  We started the day with a parade in Lake Oswego.  Jeremy didn't want to go so he stayed home with a sleeping Elsie and I took the big kids and went with Emily and her boys.  After the parade we all went with Em's and Bec's families and my parent to see Incredibles II.  We ended the day at my parents for dinner, s'mores, rocket launching, football, Samoan dancing and fireworks.  I was just saying that since we moved here, 4th of July has become one of my favorite holidays and it held true this year.

Thursday morning was about recovering from the 4th.  I wish I could say that my kids slept in but they never do.  Instead we just had a bit of a slow start to the morning before heading back over to my parents.  Ultimately we made it to the river beach in the afternoon and enjoyed a day of sand, sun and playing in the water.

Friday we spent the day at the aquatic center.  There was a slide, a wave pool, diving board, and a kiddie pool.  It is only about 20 minutes from our house and yet we have never been in the almost 7 years we have lived here (that isn't exactly true because Merrick went for the first time with a friend last week, but that really was the first time any of us had been).  If that wasn't enough for one day, all the cousins had a sleep over at Nana and Papa's that night.

Yesterday we wrapped up the week with a trip to the bounce house and a big screen movie in the cousin's backyard at dark--which doesn't happen until like 10pm in the summer.  It was a long night to wrap up a long week packed full of fun.