What's going on with the Nuno's: August 2013

Lots of bike rides this Spring with this bike brigade.

Instagram makes me make these photo collages which are nice for blogs too. Here are some pics of softball practice (since I played on a team this year and hadn't played since I was about 10 years old), me constructing a strawberry planter, Rivs and Reagan at preschool science night and Rivers enjoying the perfect 73 degree weather (my favorite temp) at track practice.

Country kids.

Rivers loves going to the cemetery and reading the names and dates from all of the old stones after leaving flowers at my Dad's site. My Dad is buried at the most beautiful place on earth :)

Since it got hot early this year we had to get creative with ways to cool off. Here is CD after a soccer game in our homemade outdoor shower from a 7-up bottle. You can see Rivs hand on the right side and she's holding a bar of soap waiting her turn. She actually soaped up and showered off out there.

The kids were playing on my Mom's playground and all the cows came over to the fence to watch.

The new toy...made out of a tire.

Rivers the Great...blending into the background.

Sunday after dinner softball practice....sometimes still in our dresses (That's Amber and Whitney).

CD seriously is happiest when he is picking produce. It is so funny how excited he gets. This week he went into my Mom's garden, looked around, sighed and said "oh, this is picking paradise". It is especially nice that we have an amazing garden just over our fence that we can pluck from. These strawberries were amazing!

CD looking dapper on his birthday at church.

Instagram shot from our 13th anniversary night. We went to McMennamins and Gelato and had fun just strolling around downtown Corvallis at night. I remember the day we got engaged at Yellowstone and were walking back to our car and some random guy told me "wow, you've got yourself quite a hunk there." Still a 'hunk' 13 years later.

For Memorial Day weekend we used our Easter gift from my Mom and spent a night at Salishan Resort and Golf club on the coast. It kinda blew our socks off. So gorgeous! The first day we did their free, all real grass put-put course with the kids.

......these two really get into their chess games (while we were waiting for our food).

This is a picture of the amazing golf course Carlos was going to golf on there but didn't get a chance.

The next day I got up and went running to explore the place more and found their nature trail which was crazy beautiful... felt like another world. I ran through it wishing everyone was with me, then found another trail that took me to the beach. It was so windy that I only ran about 100m down the beach with the wind at my back and when I turned around the sand was pelting me so hard I started getting a little freaked out. Of course no one else was on the beach and I had to just close my eyes and go for it. I felt like I was going to get blown away. As soon as I got back on the trail though the weather was fine...just a bit rainy...weird. Needless to say we didn't spend time on the beach that day. I did, however, run back and get the kids and Carlos and took them to the nature trail Ewok territory.

Of course the pictures don't do it justice, but they had so much fun exploring and going over all of the little bridges and walking through the huge foliage. The bad weather somehow made it even more fun and adventurous for them.

We spent a lot of time in the pool too and Reagan figured out she can swim by herself! She was a machine after making this discovery! As soon as she would swim to the wall or one of us, she would pop her head up, yell "again!" and put her head back in the water and swim back. Eventually we had to make her stop because her eyes were getting so red.

Brothers!

Cousins!

For this big boy's 6th birthday I told him I would make him anything for breakfast and bring it to him in bed, and my fruit bat said "I want watermelon, oranges, bananas, and hot chocolate with marshmallows." Done.

I love this kid like crazy. I think my favorite thing about him is how he is always so willing to pitch in and help me or anyone that needs help. He is so thoughtful and fun and creative and beautiful.

For his 6th birthday bash he said he wanted to have an outerspace/rocket party, so we did astronaut training. Each of the kids got their own astronaut training pass as they arrived and we took pictures behind the astronaut photo op as we waiting for everyone. We also had two big bins of homemade moonsand to play with.

The training started with a lung capacity test (seeing who could blow the paper off of their straws the farthest)...

Then we moved outside to do the obstacle course (as I am demonstrating).

They did anti-gravity testing by walking across an air-mattress while holding a tray with planet balls on it that couldn't fall off, then they had to crawl through the black hole tunnel, and put the space suit and helmet on and fly the space shuttle back to the next person.

The next test was shooting the green aliens with a super automatic nerf gun (thanks Carlos).

We took a break and had cake and watermelon. I almost ruined his cake! I made it late the night before his party and put it in the oven so no flies or anything would get to it. The next morning I turned the oven on to make some extra cupcakes for the adults and forgot the cake was in it!! Luckily CD woke up and I was excited to show him his cake and remembered and dashed to the oven barely in time. Some of the frosting had melted off, but it was still salvageable.

Of course he chose to eat the watermelon before the cake :)

After cake and presents we did Coke and Mentos rockets. They shot probably 20+ feet into the air. Here we are making our getaways.

Carlos then set up a real rocket with parachute that flew at least 1/4 mile into the air.

Here is the crowd lined up ready to countdown.

and cute little Riggs.

The first attempt was a misfire so we had some time for pics. It was an impressive show though once Carlos put the new engine in. It flew so high and far that we never got it back (dang it).

Here are some after church photos....

And Reagie in my old dress lookin' cute.

Team Nuno!

I planted three strawberry plants and they each had a different color of blossom...white, hot pink, and pale pink.

We had a uniquely fun year of preschool this year because all three kiddos got to attend together and I helped in the classroom a lot. It was such a fun thing to see them all together and they LOVED preschool. They went three days a week but they asked every day if it was preschool day and often made me play preschool with them and they insisted on calling me teacher Ann. For the graduation/end of the year celebration teacher Ann talked about all of them individually. For Reagan she said she loved how she was always on task and keeping the rules (um....yep....she is our strict rule keeper. She even prays that everyone will keep the rules.)

For Dreyton she talked about the improvements he had made and how well he participates in circle time. He really did come a long way from not wanting to sit at all during circle time unless it was on my lap to sitting on his carpet square and singing every word to every song (loud and clear).

For CD I got a tear in my eye because he is moving on to kindergarten and she talked about how if she ever needs help whether she asks for it or not, CD is always the first one to offer to help. She loved what a hard worker he was (and I love, love, love that too). He really got into drawing the last couple of months of preschool and we have stacks of all kinds of dinosaurs he thought up and drew. Such a cool kid. He got so big though that I would joke with Ann that he started looking like the teacher's assistant instead of one of the kids.

Proud Oma!

Next up was Rivers' birthday bash, which came too close to CD's this year because we had to have it a little bit early. Rivs wanted an outdoor movie night, so I finally found a refrigerator box and Rivers made this cute little Snack Shack. She and Madison even constructed shelves to hold the candy.

We made invites that looked like tickets to the show with all the deets.

The party started with some outside games. Here's Rivs gettin' dizzy.

Rivers ended up inviting 19 kids and only 2 couldn't make it, so we had quite a crowd.

I love how Dreyton just perched up on the fence to watch the action.

Rivers is simply the best. I am one lucky Momma.

She requested a popcorn box cake, so this is what I came up with.

Carlos manned the grill to cook up some hot dogs for the Snack Shack.

We also made Rivers Bucks and gave everyone $6 to spend at the Snack Shack (which I think was everyone's favorite).

Rivers worked the booth at her own party:)

11 YEARS OLD!!!!

Cutie pie Warren, the youngest guest.

Then everyone got comfy and we started the movie.

Now playing....The Gameplan (starring Carlos and Rivers look-a-likes)

How in the heck do I have an 11 year old? I can't even pick a favorite thing about her because she is just so great all around. But, I do love how imaginative and fun she is with her little bros and sister and all kids for that matter. Parents are chomping at the bit for her to be old enough to babysit because she is so good with kids and they all love her. I also love what a voracious reader she is and how she is always up for an adventure with me.

Rivers' spot

I was trying to get a picture of the sunset with CD and his best buddy in it, but I can never get CD to stop wrestling. At least his friend is still smiling!

Rivers is starting to look beyond her 11 years and I'm not sure I like it....at all. Stop growing up!

Love

All-comers meet - Reagan is no joke about her running. By the end of this race she was at least 20 meters in front of all the kids with serious determination in her eye. Dre on the other hand has fun with it and makes faces at the camera and smiles while he runs.