Bolhas, Gelado e Divertimento

(hopefully the title is portuguese for bubbles, ice cream and fun)

I know I'm so delinquent on this blog. You'll forgive me, I know.

This post should have been written the last week in July. Now that I should be showing pictures of leaves falling and pumpkin patches, you're getting an eyeful of ice cream and sunshine. Also, we're in Houston and these are in Oregon. Oh well.

At the end of July my beloved college roommate Heidi and her beautiful family came up from Brazil to visit the States. She went to Brazil for a college thing, met a handsome pastor, married the chap and now lives in the Amazon changing lives. While they were here, the kids got to play with their two children for the afternoon. We had fun goofing around and even learning a little Portuguese.

Here is Sarah. The kids were so excited when they figured out that if they were wet they could actually hold the bubbles.

Tim tries to stretch the bubble to its limits. Major difference between boys and girls. The boys were all putting the bubbles to the test. The girls were decorating themselves with them.

Scoochy and Sarah with their bubble buddies. Unfortunately, right before I snapped the picture, Sarah's buddy popped.

Concurrently with the bubble machine we had the sprinklers on. It wasn't quite warm enough for the Brazilians, but to the Oregonians, if the sun is out, it's warm enough.

Ice cream time! Tim enjoyed a cone while patiently answering the kids'questions. For instance:

Scoochy: How do you say green?
Tim: In Portuguese? (he always asked that, it made me laugh)
Scoochy: Yeah.
Tim: Verch. (yeah, I know that's not how it's spelled, I'm doing it phonetically, k?)
Scoochy: Verch?
Tim: Yeah.

Princess Cutie Pops enjoying her cone. Man, just look at that hair. It is such a pretty color.

The whole group drying out from the sprinklers, enjoying some ice cream and some warming rays in the only bit of grass that isn't wet.

Okay, I included this one because I am amazed at how handsome and old this boy is getting. Sorry, total mom-bragging but I couldn't help it. It is one of those "Wow!" pictures that you take every once in a while and they actually turn out.

Jamison Square + Friends= Fun!

On the way home from Texas we spent the afternoon at Jamison Square with our buddies.

Here's three of the girls, in height order: Mercedes, Princess Cutie Pops and Scoochy.

Uh oh! Here comes trouble.
Samab, Princess Cutie Pops and Tank, all in formation.

Can you say "Hot Mama!"?

Deadpool and Dodge trying to break the law...of gravity, that is!
Guffaw! Guffaw! (I know, pretty bad.)

And last, but certainly not least, Lil Red.
Can you get cuter than that?

How to become a ninja - Part 1 - Look like a ninja!

Our family loves ninjas. Dodge had a ninja party for his last birthday and we all love the ninja movie Iron Monkey. (Think Hong Kong Robin Hood.) My favorite webcomic is Dr. McNinja and we love watching Ask a Ninja. One of their favorite games as siblings is to dress like ninjas and fight "The Bad Guys." They run around the house and ask me for Ninja Missions, during which I have to come up with highly ambiguous yet poetical objectives for them. For instance, "Go to the land of the sky clouds and save He Who Has The Long Snout from the evil Scorpion Tongue. If you do this you shall be honored with the name Flying Arrow." Basically, I just told them to run upstairs and bring me Dodge's stuffed elephant, Ay-Ay, after pretend fighting whatever they encounter. Sometimes they interpret my missions completely different than what I hint at and it's really interesting to see what they come up with. Today, Tank would like to show how you, too, can be a ninja!

First, find a t-shirt with long sleeves.

Second, put the t-shirt on your head so that your face is looking through the neck hole and the rest of your head is covered.

Third, tie the arms around the back side of your head.

Last, adjust the neck hole so that only your eyes are showing.

Tank is posing as "Fire Ninja" here. The great thing is that anyone can use this method. Just use the size of t-shirt that you wear. The only problem is that a kid size 3T or smaller will have a bigger head than his shirt arms can reach around. Just use a bigger tee.

And that, my friends, is how you can be a ninja!

When life gives you lemons, draw pictures of them and rake in the dough!

Lemonade stands are such a thing of the past. Last year the crew tried a "Filtered Water" stand. Not too much luck. This year they struck gold with...Art! Yep, that's right. They drew a ton of pictures and sold them for $.25 a piece. In the end they raked in about $10! I was pretty impressed with their entrepreneur spirit. Of course, I'm sure they wouldn't have been half as successful if we didn't live two blocks from a university, but hey! What's that they say? Location, location, location!

The gallery!

One guy who came by didn't have any money. He told them to draw his old-school bicycle and he would buy it the next day. The kids, thinking it would be a popular subject, thought they should draw a number of the bikes. Scoochy drew the first one and then Dodge and Princess Cutie Pops held her drawing up to the window and copied it. Those bikes were the first ones to go the next day. So chalk that up as a little homeschool economics lesson in supply and demand.

The proud owner of a Scoochy original!

Bubbles, bubbles everywhere!

We bought a bubble machine from K-mart and I have to say, they are fun! How can you go wrong with the power of 4000 bubbles a minute? You can't! I know I enjoy it at least, if not more, than the kids. And everyone that walked by had a smile on their face, either from watching the kids with the bubbles or just watching the bubbles themselves, I'm not sure which.

Always the sweetie, Princess Cutie Pops tries to give the little bubbles a kiss.


You can't tell but the bubbles were really moving. The fact that I took this picture at just the right moment for it to be perfectly centered in Tank's mouth is amazing. And not due to any skill, but purely to luck.


Scoochy is trying to balance a bubble on her little nail/styrofoam pedestal. As you can imagine, she had very little luck with this endeavor.


Chasing bubbles is exhausting. Dodge told me how cool it was to watch the bubbles float all around you so I joined him on the grass and he was right. Bubbles are pretty cool.

Freezer of Mystery!

In order to put a large pan of cheesecake pops in my freezer, I had to rearrange the little space. In the process I decided to clean out the thing. I came across this frozen ziplock bag with colorful specks. I had no idea what is was. The kids love freezing things in water. I've found bowls of ice with rubber bands frozen inside. I've also found ice cubes with paint, rocks, toys, and plants. I couldn't tell through the ice what it was so I left it out over night.

In the morning I found gems and sequins! It was treasure ice! What will be in there next time? I'll let you know...

Tank to the rescue!

I have a secret weapon in the fight against debris behind the washing machine: Tank and his robot arm!

For his 3rd birthday, Tank's best buddy, Cole, gave him a robot arm. By squeezing the handle, the claw at the other end opens and closes. We found that it becomes a powerful tool to reach down into the narrow space between the wall and washing machine.

Previously we had lowered his older brother, Dodge, down by his ankles (he was the only one brave enough), but this is far more easier muscle-wise and funner (yes, I know it's technically more fun). It also makes Tank feel important since it is his robot arm and he can do this task on his own. Another benefit of this scenario is that his little butt sticking up in the air is super cute as opposed to the frightful picture of my overgrown haunches in the same position.