May Day!

Hard to believe that 2010 has reached May Day and all that the spring season brings. When the rain showers cease, the sunshine is nice and flowers in our yard are blooming colorfully everywhere. I am still watching and waiting for the garden to sprout. Enjoy your May Day!

An UPDATE!!!

I'm sure that you were thinking that we had forget all about our little blog...nope, just busy living! :)

We have been more than blessed by the kids who have stayed in our home and we truly love sharing our hearts and home! They can say some of the cutest things and I love reading QTD (Quote of the day) from cute kids so I thought I'd share some of our favorites from our foster kiddos.

Favorite QTD's:

-"Wow, you even have a laundry mat here!" (commenting on our laundry room)

-On our way to church:

D: "I just saw a cow on that farm"
Me: "Oh, really, what did it look like?"
D: "It was a chocolate milk cow"
Me: "Oh, (TOTALLY SERIOUS..) what does that look like, again?"
D: (In the "Duh!" tone of voice) "Chocolate milk cows are BROWN!"
Me: (TOTALLY SERIOUS, again..) "Well, how did you know that it wasn't a white milk cow?"
D: (In the "Duh!" tone of voice, again..) "Beeecasue, white milk cows are white with brown spots- not ALL brown!"

Me: and now I know!

-"When I grow up, I'm going to have a dog and cat that actually get along!" (Good to know, because that was our plan too until Henry and Leo decided that they both wanted to be "only children".)

-"When we get home, I'm going to pull out my loose tooth." Oh, really? "Yeah, it takes exactly 10 squares of toilet paper and then I can pull it out!"

Update: THE TOOTH IS STILL IN and wiggly (after 10 sq's..)

I'm sure that there are more "goodies" but here's a few. ;)

Fun at the cabin!

What a great weekend! We drove out to Stewart "Stub" this weekend to camp out and finally stayed in a cabin. It was very nice. Everything was like new and our cabin was the BEST one! It had a nice view, ample shade, and lots of beautiful trees and trails. Leo loves to camp and the cabin was no exception. He kept the porch guarded and brought home every piece of dirt from our site...

We went on several hikes and even got to attend a star party on Saturday night! OMSI held a star viewing party over at the day use area (short hike from our cozy cabin :) and hundreds of star enthusiasts came out and brought their (very spendy) telescopes for our viewing pleasure. Fun!

School's Out.... for the summer!

We had a very busy week and an even busier weekend!

We had to go to school today for a work day but our students were out last Friday so it was a jam packed week filled with mixed emotions. This weekend we helped my dad celebrate his birthday (a little early) by joining him for a Beaver's game in an awesome suite! It was very fun and I don't think that I can sit in the stands at a baseball game again! The suite had leather furniture, a bar, tons of snacks, hot food, a large flat screen, heated outdoor seats and a fun server that waits on you constantly and makes sure you're having a great time!
We also celebrated our nephew Alex's high school graduation with family. Congratulations Alex! We're very proud of you!!
Then, it was off to a wedding for one of my cousins on Saturday night. It was a beautifully intimate outdoor wedding. Very fun!
We also shadowed the PromiseLand shepherds at church this Sunday as we will be teaching (shepherding) the third graders this summer while the regular teacher's take the summer off. It will be a great way for us to connect with the kids and we feel blessed to be able to serve! We will be teaching at the noon service so we'll be joining the 10:30 crowd for church during the summer.
I also had the pleasure of going to a bridal shower Sunday afternoon for my second cousin, Jamie. It's really neat to see all of the new and trendy housewares and wedding stuff since we got married. It's also fun to have a "second wave" of weddings in the family since Cori and I got married 4 summers ago. Fun!

Let the summer fun begin!

Memorial Day Weekend!

Whew. lot's to update...

We spent last Saturday at the beach. It was sunny and WARM. There was a kite festival going on in Rockaway and they had trouble getting the kites up because there was NO wind! Whoo hoo. Leo loved the beach!

Sand face

Randy and Jordan built a cool fire pit on the patio. We had a nice evening outside, beside the fire. Smores tonight!

The boys were very busy today, they also put out all of the patio furniture! Dinner on the patio tonight!

Annie's (cousin Cori and Lyman's daughter) first birthday party! She loved our gift so much that she tried to climb in with it. :) Love her!

Cake time!

My first calla lilies of the season! They came up large and beautiful and we're hopeful that we'll have even more than last year. My favorite flower!

Another doodle romp!

Sooooo tired that he had to lay down to get a drink at the romp....

Whew, Leo's social calendar is filling up! He had another romp, which we had an excellent turn out for- 22 doodle dogs!! Leo was quite the social boy. As soon as another dog would show up he'd meet them at the gate to say "hi!", it was too cute!

Randy and I are officially on Spring Break! Whew, this year is just flying by. :0)

Yeah for the 3-day weekend!

Happy Valentine's Day!

We had a relaxing Valentine's Day. (We seem to still proclaim our love 365 days a year so a relaxing Valentine's day was fine by me.) Randy made a wonderful dinner, chicken scallopini, potatoes, and asparagus. Yum! I made chocolate souffles for dessert and it was an all around enjoyable Valentine's evening!! 

We've been busy this weekend and I'm happy to have the day off tomorrow! Randy works for the city Monday so he'll be "roughing" it while skiing at Mt. Hood :) .  

Roses are trimmed, taxes are done, and the house is clean... what a productive weekend!

Doodle Romp and Tookie

Definition: Doodle romp- Gathering of labradoodles and goldendoodles, some of the most gentle and silly dogs that actually "romp" (think skip and leap) when they play!

I helped organize a doodle romp in Portland last weekend and Leo had a blast. I figured that one or two other crazy people would show up with their doodle but oh, no! We had 22 dogs and their very normal (and not crazy) owners! I was so happy!! 

I have also come to the conclusion that doodle owners are some of the very best people. It was fun and the dogs had a blast playing with each other. I now have my wish list set on an apricot doodle. We realized at the romp that Leo's more of a bleached blond boy... the apricot reds were very pretty. 

The other picture is of Tookie, my fabulous assistant's miniature toucan and OUR class pet in room 12! My students are soooo lucky!! They love to read to Tookie during reading time. It's really cute. :)

7 Random things about US

O.k., so we sound nerdier than random but here are 7 random things about us. Enjoy!

1) We are Costco freaks and go there weekly. (Kelli even drove there on "autopilot" this week instead of turning to go to a dentist appointment... )

2) We met in gym class... and have worked out a lot since then!

3) We like capers and cook with them often.

4) The Stephanie Inn is our FAVORITE place to stay in Oregon.

5) We read the paper every single morning (are we OLD or just keeping the Oregonian in business??)

6) We eat dinner together (at the dinning room table) every night. 

7) You could count the times that we've eaten fast food in the last year on one hand, and we only eat at Burgerville. :)

A post that does NOT have to do with snow..

O.k., I don't really have a lot to say but I'm tired of seeing snow on the blog so it's time to put up a new post! 

Our students are back in full force after the three week winter vacation. My second graders are getting so BIG that I was a little misty eyed to see them... they're growing and not looking like the little babies that I started the year with. 

Randy's first graders continue to crack me up.... 

Here's how a day last week went in his classroom: Randy wore a (very nice) sweater that I helped him pick out with his Christmas gift cards. It's a wool sweater with different colored gray and black stripes on it and looks just like it came out of a gap catalog (which it did...). Anyway, he came home and said that the kids hated it. One said, "Mr. King, why are you wearing your pajamas today?" another one commented, " Mr. King, you look like you just got out of jail!". 

Gee, we'll see if he wears THAT sweater again! Out of the mouths of babes!

Here's a picture of my newly shaved dog... anyone know of a GOOD groomer that knows what a doodle SHOULD look like?? Ugg, I can't believe how many groomers we've gone through and I've hated every cut. I don't want him shaved (and I say this!!) and I don't want a fluffy poodle. Heeelllooo people, is it really that hard? 

Snow!!! again...

Here are the snowmen that Randy and Jordan (foster kiddo) made this morning. 

A New Year, A New Snow

This is what we woke up to this morning here at King's East. Keep in mind I even went for a drive last night to look for the flood waters of Johnson Creek, and I fell asleep to the pouring rain. It will be pretty to look at this morning, although Kelli tells me I should try to build a snowman.
Happy New Year!

In this picture you can still see the standing water in our front yard.

Can you find Leo in this picture? He loves the snow!!

Sunset

Here is a picture of sunset from our room at the Embacadero in Newport.  

Looking forward to a fun day with sunny skies!

Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas to all of our friends and family! We have had a very blessed Christmas... and will continue to do so through the weekend as Christmas with Grandma and Grandpa York has been rescheduled because of the snow and ice. (We actually made it into our cul-de-sac sideways this afternoon!!) The roads are still dicey (..and to that we're sorry that the King family Christmas couldn't be rescheduled but we can hardly make it around the Portland-Metro area, let alone out to Yamhill county!!)
Here are some of our Christmas pictures.

Leo being Leo

Here are some pictures of Leo being Leo. He likes playing in the snow and is also ready to get out of the house as well. Enjoy!

Digging Out

Here are pictures from this morning. I spent 2 hours digging out our driveway. After driving around the block, it is still a slick mess of packed snow and ice on our streets. Foster was a slushy mess, but it also had deep ice and snow piled up in the center turn lane. I watched the mail van again spin and spin with chains while navigating our cul-de-sac, even briefly getting stuck before rocking back in forth to get motoring again. Without chains, we will not be venturing out over Christmas. I do not want to be 'That Guy' who gets stuck in his SUV!

Blog Anniversary

Lost in all the snow yesterday was the one year anniversary of our Kings East blog. You can thank my mother that I remember things like this.
Looking forward to more snow tomorrow and hopefully making it out of the house soon!

A Very Snowy Snowshoe

Here are the pictures from my snowshoe adventure to the store this morning.  Enjoy!

This is me snowshoeing out for a newspaper.

Our house this morning.

Foster Road looking East at 131st Avenue.  

Yes, I am standing in the middle of the street for both of these picture.

Foster Road looking West at 131st Avenue.

Intersection of 126th and Foster.

Buried cars, bushes, and recycling on 131st Avenue.  

The orange thing on the right is a fire hydrant that is half buried in the snow.

Deep snow on a manhole cover.