Last Friday I got together with one of my good friends here in Oregon. The goal was to can about 80 pounds of pears. As they were coming over I was wondering how far we would get in the canning process. I had heard that pears were harder to can than peaches and I wasn't sure how James was going to do. My friend's little boy is adorable, very obedient and nice little boy, but usually when we've done things together we've had Hailee with us. I wasn't worried about Spencer, I was worried about James.
I shouldn't have worried at all. Spencer and James played so well together. They played cars, drew with sidewalk chalk, and had a great time playing. Kristin and I got all of our pears done in one day. It was so much fun. It is so nice to have a canning friend, it makes canning so nice. But even better than a canning friend is when they have good kids for your kids to be friends with. Spencer is a great example for James and I am always happy when they get to play together.
We got so many pears done. I love being so close to the farms here in Oregon. We got these pears for about 45 cents a pound. I think it is something we'll do again next year...up next tomatoes.
Over the summer Hailee started developing a bad habit. She has been reading up a storm. She had over 5000 minutes of reading, as best as I could guess. The main problem I had in keeping track of her reading was Hailee would stay up late finishing her book. A lot of the books that she started reading just that night. I discovered this by mistake one morning when we were taking Todd to a dentist appointment. He just had a teething cleaning and I wanted the car that day so I told Hailee to grab her book (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) that she had just started the evening before. She told me that she already finished it. I didn't really believe her until I questioned her and sure enough she had stayed up reading until she finished her book.
Over the summer she read so many books, most of them several times over. Some of her favorites were:
Magic Treehouse
Charlotte's Web
Ella Enchanted
James and the Giant Peach (as well as the other Roald Dahl books)
Mr. Popper's Penguins
Ramona Series
Now that school has started again Hailee's late night reading habits are becoming a little bit of a problem. Just tonight I found her reading Beezus and Ramona at 9:00 pm well past her bedtime. She has to be at school at 7:40 am every morning and staying up past bedtime is getting a little harder. Of course when she gets into a good book it's so hard to put it down. I'm really at a loss of how to break her of this new little habit. I really thought she was doing good and going to bed, but I guess we still have a little ways to go.
Even though she is probably a little tired, she is loving first grade. She comes home excited every day and thinks she is the luckiest girl since she gets 2 recesses every day, PE twice a week, music twice a week, and library once a week (although she would really like library twice a week too). She is such a happy, tired little girl.
Fall is definitely in the air: the leaves are starting to change, there is a cool crisp in the air in the morning, the rain has come back and it's time to start school.
Today was Hailee's first day back to school. I think we're the very last ones to start this year. Hailee was so excited for school to start. When deciding what she wanted to wear she decided she wanted to wear the same thing that Cambria, her cousin, wore on her first day of school. Grandma always sends back to school packages and since Hailee and Cambria are just about the same size they have a lot of matching outfits. She was so thrilled to be wearing the same outfit as Cambria.
Hailee is in a blended class this year. There are 1st graders and 2nd graders in her class. Her teacher is Mrs. Fletcher.
Yesterday afternoon we were getting everything set out and ready for school to start when I noticed that Hailee's hair was getting too long. We decided to trim it up a bit for the beginning of school. As I was cutting her hair she decided she wanted to try a few bangs like I had. She was more than pleased with the results and I can't believe how much older it made her look. I can't believe my baby is growing up so fast.
I just loved Hailee's desk. Her school opened in the 1940's and I think her desk is from that time period. When we were leaving I was telling Todd I loved how retro her desk was and he said "It's not retro, it's just old." He's right I'm sure it is original to the school. It looks like a miniature office desk.
Well we dropped off Hailee and then Todd and James was just left with me. He did better than I thought he would. He played and got in to mischief as usual, but the difference was he was calling for me. Every time I turned around he would say "mommy...mommy" It was too funny. I rarely hear my name being called. Half way through the morning he realized that it was 'safe' to start getting into Hailee's things. Then it was time for his nap and a little break. It's kind of weird getting used to having one kid home with me, but I think it will be good for both of us.
Soon it was time to go pick up Hailee. As you can see in the picture above James was thrilled to see his sister. Hailee on the other hand had had a rough end to the day. Just about a minute before it was time to go she realized she had lost her tinkerbell lunch box. It was tragic. She was in tears for the whole ride home. I was able to calm her down, reassure her that we would find it, and get her to tell me about the rest of the day. She LOVED school. She was so thrilled to have 2 recesses AND P.E. She loved her teacher and had a good time all day. Overall she had a perfect day with the exception of loosing her lunch box. Her teacher called about an hour after school finished to tell us they did in fact find it her lunch box. She had put it in the wrong basket and the other teacher found it after school. She told me that she was still trying to finish lunch when it was time to be done. She rushed out and put it in a basket by the door. I think tomorrow she'll be a little more careful about which basket she put it in. Funny girl. I'm just glad everything else was exciting for her.
Wednesday we went peach picking with some good friends.We found a fun new farm and it ended up being more of an adventure than I originally planned.
I absolutely love taking my children when we go to the farms. I love that they see where food come from and it reminds me of going to the farm with my dad and grandpa when I was a little girl. This was the first time we had gone to a peach farm. I love the smell of a peach orchard. It made me feel like I was five again. Hailee and James for the most part really enjoy being a part of the whole experience as well. They are great sports as long as it doesn't get too hot, they are turning out to be true Oregonians.
Deneille and I in peach boxes 1981 (I think). James in a peach box, 2010. I think we found where James gets his bald head. Those Wagner genes sure are strong.
Hailee is always the best helper. I can always count on her for being the best girl.
I can always count on James being curious and a little bit of a trouble maker. While picking peaches he gave me the biggest scare to date. He likes to explore and he is never worried about if I know where he is. While picking peaches he kept running off in one direction. I had to chase him down quite a few times. One time he ran off and I didn't see him. I went in the direction he had gone every other time and I could find him. As I frantically looked for him, I couldn't help but think of every possible worst case situation. I went back to the top and asked them if they had seen him, I really didn't want anyone leaving with him. Then continued my search. I finally found him in the opposite direction he had been going and about 7 rows over from where we had been. He was happily playing in the trees. The trees in this orchard are really low to the ground (making it really easy to u-pick, but not so easy to find little boys). I finally found him because he had gotten something sticky on his hand and he fussed a little. Thankfully I was close enough to hear him and it all ended happily. I'm pretty sure he is going to be the death of me before he turns 5.
By the end of the morning we had over 80 pounds of peaches and about 80 pounds of kids to take back to weigh. The kids loved riding on the wagon.
Soccer has begun again. Hailee is in heaven. She is in the blue 'pinny' by her coach, Coach Dean. We love the program she is in. Coach Dean is so great with the kids and Hailee absolutely loves soccer. The only thing that would be better, according to her, is if she could go every day instead of twice a week.
The biggest problem with spending a great weekend camping is figuring out how to cut down 150 fun pictures into one blog post.
We had such a great weekend camping. The best part for me about camping is how much Todd loves to camp. He wants to do everything and enjoys doing everything. He loves to set everything up, cook everything and do everything around the camp site. I get to sit back, enjoy and take lots of pictures. It was the perfect thing to do on my birthday weekend.
We all had such a great time. We camped in the Tillamook State Forest, the campsite was just 30 minutes from our house. James was very please to camp next to a little creek. Thankfully it was small enough I didn't worry too much. He could play to his hearts content without too much worry from his mom. Here he is with his "game" face on. He was very serious about exploring every square inch of the place.
I am fairly certain that if he had his choice he would live in the wild. Clothes and mom's just get in the way when he really wants to have a good time. While I was packing I packed a big variety of clothes for the kids because I wasn't quite sure what to expect since it was our first time camping in Oregon. As I took the kids clothes out to the car I was worried I had gone a little overboard, but it wasn't long after we arrived that I realized that James would need every single thing I brought for him. For some reason he just couldn't stay clean and dry for very long. As you can see from the video below...
They had this great little water pump for us to get water. Hailee and James just thought it was wonderful.
Hailee had such a great time as well. The first night we were going to bed and talking about what we wanted to do the next day. Since Tillamook was fairly close I mentioned it might be fun to go see the cheese factory. Hailee quickly said "They have Vanilla ice cream at Tillamook." Todd and I started laughing to which she said, "They do, they really do have vanilla ice cream." My parents took Hailee to the cheese factory when they were visiting when James was born and she remembered getting vanilla ice cream and a cat from the gift shop. With such a great recommendation how could we not go.
We did find Tillamook Vanilla ice cream along with 30 or so other flavors and had a great time visiting Tillamook. We also went to the farmer's market and checked out the town of Tillamook.
One of my favorite things about camping is eating yummy food. Things just taste better when it's cooked on a fire. Todd and I are getting quite good at cooking over a fire and I think we've finally perfected out tin-foil breakfasts.
The best thing about taking a kid camping for the first time is introducing all kinds of new things. One of the things is S'mores. He wasn't sure at first about the sticky-ness but he did love the recees peanut butter cups.
One of my biggest worries before going camping was James and the campfire. Thankfully he was really careful and never tried to get too close. Hailee is turning out to be a little pyro after all. She loved helping Todd start the fire. James just loved running around and poking things with a stick.
I don't think we could have had more fun. It was so nice to get out and enjoy Oregon's nice weather.
James either has this smile or his serious exploring face on in almost every picture. I think he says it best for all of us with that big smile. We couldn't have asked for a better weekend together.
With his lack of verbal communication James had decided to give a few hints about what he wants to do this weekend. I'm pretty sure he wants to go to the beach.
