Health Kids Day

The YMCA hosts a free Healthy Kids Day every April.  There are lots of vendors with fun games and prizes.  I think this was the 3rd year we've been.  I was sick and felt rotten, but Spencer had a good time.  It's nice to have some one else telling him why we don't eat a lot of sugary snacks for once. I think he gets tired of hearing it from me.  :)  I think Spencer's favorite part was all of the snacks he got (some healthy, some not so much).  I know my least favorite part was the Home Depot building workshop.  They had several projects to choose from and Spencer chose the hardest one - a moving truck.  We usually love Home Depot building workshops and it probably would have been fine if I hadn't felt so yucky, but it took us forever to build that thing.  Oh well.  Still a great activity and I'm sure we'll be back next year!

Spencer turns 6 (and Easter)

Spencer's birthday fell on Easter this year and he thought that was pretty cool.  It being Sunday, we didn't celebrate too much, but birthday excitement still eclipsed the religious holiday.  I guess that's ok when you're turning six and birthdays are pretty much the biggest day of the year.

Our weekend rule of not entering Alan's and my bedroom until 7:00 was still in place, but Spencer was jumping on our bed the second his clock turned to 7.  He got to open presents before we even ate breakfast.

Scripture Scouts audio cds from Grandma LeFevre.  She also ordered him the coveted World Grand Prix racer Rip Clutchgonsky.  We had been looking for him forever!  Spencer got to open that one a few weeks ago though.

Aunt Katelyn sent him this cool Cars book.  At first Spencer said he wanted to take it back to the store because he already has one of the two stories in the book.  But, he changed his mind and is in love with it now.  :)  Thanks Kate!

Awesome drawing from cousin Porter:

I got him a fun game called Fastrack and Planes underwear :) and Alan got him a good basketball. 

He decided on the traditional Sunday morning waffles for his birthday breakfast with the addition of sugary yogurt that I usually won't buy.

After Church, we had a nice Easter/birthday dinner with Alan's parents, grandparents, and Great Aunt Peggy.  It was good to see them again!

Grandma and Grandpa Rasmussen got Spencer a bunch of chapter books and the Jolly Wrenches aircraft carrier from Planes.  That ship was definitely the favorite present!  I made a video of him opening it, but can never post videos from my camera on here. :(

I made a hummingbird cake for dessert so we could have a birthday cake on his actual birthday, but I'm making Spencer's real birthday cake for his party this coming Saturday.  (We have to hold his party late this year because Alan wasn't home last weekend and I wasn't up to throwing a party for eight 5-7 year olds on my own.)

Five was such an exciting year for Spencer.  He had lots of firsts and grew up so much.  He learned to ride a bike without training wheels; started kindergarten; played soccer, basketball, and now t-ball; lost two teeth; and became a really great reader to name a few.

When we measured Spencer tonight, he came in at just a smidge under 4 feet - that's two inches of growth this year.  I just bought him new pants, again.  (Update: At his well-child check-up, Spencer weighed 48 lbs. and was 48.5 inches tall.  That puts him in the 64% for weight and the 92% for height.  Still tall and skinny!)

Many of Spencer's favorites have stayed the same.  He still loves his Car's "eye guys" and now loves Disney's Planes too.  He plays with Legos more now and trains a lot less (yippee!).  He spends a lot of time reading every day.  Spencer still adores Alan.  They went through a Yahtzee phase when they played several rounds of it every night.  They also love to shoot hoops in the driveway together when the weather is nice enough.  I can hear them laughing and laughing from inside.

Spencer is such a sweet boy.  He loves to give kisses, but hates to receive them.  He still its on my lap in the glider for stories every night.  Afterward, he tells me that he loves me "infinity times infinity."  When I get new clothes, Spencer will often compliment me on them (especially if they are pink or purple!).  He's getting to be a very good helper (if it doesn't interrupt his play time) and can do lots of things around the house.

It has been really neat to see his little testimony starting to grow.  He loves to read scriptures with us every night and listens really well in primary.  Spencer takes his turn teaching the Family Home Evening lesson every third week and does a good job teaching and bearing his testimony.  He came up with an awesome FHE game the other week that involved trying to guess which color of marble was hidden in an Easter egg. :)

Kindergarten has been awesome for this little boy, but I'll say more about that after his parent/teacher conference next week.

I thank my Heavenly Father every single day that I am Spencer's mom.  (One thing I didn't like about his 5-year-old year was that Spencer decided he was too old to call us "mommy" and "daddy" anymore.  It's just "mom" and "dad" now.)  He says and does the funniest things.  There aren't many more rewarding things for me than seeing him learn and really understand new concepts.  I love you with all my heart buddy!  Happy Birthday!

The Day Before Easter

The Easter Bunny visits our house on the Saturday of Easter weekend.  He came while Spencer and I were cleaning our church building that morning.  Spencer was thrilled to see our backyard covered in eggs when we got home and didn't hesitate collecting them for a minute even though it was raining.

 I don't think the Easter Bunny knew how rainy it was going to be that morning though.  We had to spread all of our wet eggs out on a towel to dry.  Some of the candy had gotten wet so we had to spread that out too.

You know you live in the NW when you find baby slugs on several of your eggs.  So gross!

 Spencer and I dyed our eggs after lunch.  We're not very crafty or creative, but we had fun mixing colors.

Father's & Son's Fishing Trip

Our ward held their annual Father's and Son's Outing last weekend.  Alan was scheduled to time two races on Saturday so he and Spencer couldn't camp, but they did get to go fishing on Friday afternoon.  Alan had already planned to take the day off work to spend time with Spencer for his birthday, so it worked out perfectly.

They left early in the afternoon and met a few other dads and sons from our ward at Hebo Lake.  The lake was well-stocked and Spencer caught his first fish ever on his first cast ever!  He was really excited.  They wound up catching five fish during the few hours they were there, but Spencer's excitement waned after a little while. :)  Happily for me, they threw all five of their fish back so I didn't have to try to clean and cook any of them. 

My boys stopped at McDonald's for dinner on the way home and wound up having a great daddy and Spencer afternoon.  Alan doesn't enjoy fishing, but I'm so glad he took this chance to bond with Spencer.  They made some good memories.

Missoula Trip

About a month ago, Alan's sister Dani had a stroke.  She had just turned 29.  Crazy!  She lost the vision in the left side of both eyes and cannot lift more than five lbs. for at least three months.  We are all SO grateful that it wasn't worse (because it could have been much, much worse), but it still really stinks.  

Dani and her husband Scott live in Missoula, MT and they have two adorable kiddos: Ryan is four and Kaylee is 15-months.  Dani's lifting restriction prevents her from picking up her baby and doing most housework so, all of the women in the family are taking turns staying with her and being her hands.  It has been so awesome to see how our family has come together to help.  It's not too hard for me to go since I can drive and I just have Spencer to make arrangements for, but some of the others live clear across the country and have 4-6 kids yet they are coming to help too.

I left for Montana right after Mom and Michelle left here.  Alan took a little time off work and a couple of friends helped out with Spencer.  It's about a 9-hour drive, but I had a good audio book to listen to and just zoomed along.

It was so fun for me to get to know Dani and her family better.  She was doing so much better than I expected her to be doing, but still got tired easily and just didn't feel well a lot of the time.  Ryan is so energetic and inquisitive.  We played a lot of Legos and trains together.  Kaylee is a little sweet heart.  I had forgotten how fun that age is.  It's got to be hard for them to not be able to do all of their usual things with their mom and have their routines messed up by visitors, but both kids were so good while I was there.

I had lots of time to hang out with Dani too and was so impressed by her positive attitude and drive to be the best mom she could be during her recovery.  We spent every evening watching Downtown Abbey.  Fun times!  

I was there a little over a week and missed Alan and Spencer a lot.  Funny that I miss Dani's family now and hope I can see them again soon.  Spencer and I may go back after school is out in June.

Spring Break

Spencer, Alan and I were thrilled when my Mom and Michelle decided to come visit us over spring break.  Then Katelyn decided to come down from Seattle for the weekend too and that just made the week even better.  

We started out by experiencing Portland with a ride on the Max to the Portland Saturday Market.  Michelle and Spencer loved the train ride and we definitely experienced Portland's weird culture.  (You know what I'm talking about if you've ever been to Portland).

This isn't a good picture of it, but there were some street performers blowing tons of huge bubbles.

We all ate a questionable lunch at the market.  I don't think I'll do that again.

Dancing to the street musicians.

We wanted to try out the famed Vodoo Donuts in downtown, but the 200 foot line out the door helped us decide that we really didn't want donuts that bad.

Since it was sunny day, we hit up the park by the zoo.  I don't think Michelle will ever outgrow parks.  She loved it!

Katelyn is such an awesome aunt to Spencer and was definitely the favorite while she was there.

We made the most out of the three sunny days we had and went to a couple of parks in Sherwood too.

Bowling at Big Als!

Michelle found some beads!

Crazy hair!

Spencer loves his Grandma LeFevre.

It was such a fun week and I'm so glad Mom, Michelle and Katelyn came.  We wish Dad could have come too though.  He had to work and it just wasn't the same without him.  Thanks for coming all of that way guys!  We love you!

Spencer's Leprechaun Trap

St. Patrick's Day wasn't super thrilling at our house this year, but Spencer did make this awesome trap to catch a leprechaun while he was at school.  I had planned to help him make the trap, but he did this one on his own while I was busy.  The leprechaun was supposed to climb up the books to get the pennies on top of the lego box.  

When he got home from school, he found some green footprints and chocolate coins in his trap.  The little sneak had also turned lots of items upside down all over the house.  Spencer was thrilled!

We had yummy potato soup, Irish soda bread and roasted cabbage for dinner.  It was a good day