Kindergarten

Alia LOVES kindergarten! Aside from being a bit of a chatty cathy (who would have known?) she's doing really well! Her reading and writing is progressing great!

Alia has had homework for 2 weeks now. All she talks about is wanting to do her homework!! Here she is writing her letters and numbers.

This was how Alia wrote her letters right after school started.



And this is her alphabet this past week. Even though she's been able to write her letters for a long time now, I was amazed to see how much better the letters are-after a month of kindergarten! She's still struggling with a few numbers-but she's doing great!

Today!

This morning we decided to take a drive to Three Rivers and spend the morning. We've never been up there so we didn't know what ot expect.

We went to a retreat/conference center and walked around a bit. We walked around a portion of the grounds that had the stations of the cross. So the kids asked some questions and got we explained it as best we could to a 5 and 3 year old. :) at one point we turned a corner and Jason said, "OH my gosh...you've got to be kidding". I was a few feet behind him and was expecting to see a big hole in the sidewalk or something. We I turned the corner a huge buck was walking across the walkway-about 20 feet from us. The kids loved to see it...and then it ran away. I snapped a picture as it ran into the grass.

Then we started to take some family pictures.

Boy, it's hard to get all 5 of us looking at the camera!

And one of just mommy and daddy. :)

Of course a trip to Three Rivers isn't complete until you stop at the candy shop. We ate lunch at We Three restaurant and then stopped to get ice cream. YUMMY!

We promised the kids we'd play in the river...so we had to make a stop. It was pretty hot so we didn't last long. But it was long enough. I think this place was called Slick Rock. We came home with a bag of rocks-grammpa jim, you'd be proud!

Pictures!

So, I've been pretty behind lately due to some technological issues we've had.

Here are some pics from the last few months...with minimal diologue. :)

Kid after my own heart...double fisting the McDonald's french fries! :)

Ethan at SUPER MEX!!!

Back to School!

In celebration of Alia going to Kindergarten on Thursday and Elijah going to Preschool on in a week I made these super cute chalkboard cupcakes!! I found the instructions at FamilyFun.com . I ended up using candy melts (I LOVE THEM!!!) instead of going out and buying the cookies for the chalkboard and candy for the piece of chalk. So, I had everything on hand, which was great! The kids had a lot of fun helping me and watching the creation come together.

Here's to a new school year!!!

To Infinity!

Elijah is starting preschool on Aug 17th! It's so hard to believe that he's going to be going to school!! :) I can't wait to see how he learns and watch him make friends. He's a big boy now, that's for sure!

At his preschool they have a rest time...so I decided to use the pillow that Alia used when she was in preschool but it needed a new pillowcase. Pink would not do for Mr. Elijah! We went to Joann's this morning and Elijah got to pick out his own fabric for his pillowcase. Then, this afternoon, while the kids were napping I got to work. I think I was more excited than he was...but once it all came together (Elijah woke up and got to see it in it's final stages) his little eyes lit up. It was pretty cute.

Here's Elijah with his new hand made Buzz Lightyear pillow!

Ducky Tub!

Another Backlund baby takes the plunge into the oh so fun ducky tub! Ethan loved it! Keep your eyes out for a video soon. :)

4th of July

So...we went to the Bandon, OR 4th of July parade. It was fun...here are some images.

There was a Coast Guard boat and they were letting kids take little tours. Jason took Alia and Elijah to look around.

Portland Zoo

My parents took the kids and I to the Portland Zoo. We had a great day walking around and looking at all the animals. It was fun to watch the kids faces when they saw big animals.

We went to the Portland Children's museum...SOOO fun! Here are the kiddos in the building area. The "dirt" was made out of recycled tires (i think)-they looked like bark but they were rubbery.

We got to visit with our friends, the Nealons and Stroms, while we were in Portland. Here's the best I could do at a whole kid picture (the Stroms didn't have their kiddos with them).

Beach pics

We had some great mornings hanging out at a beach nearby. It was called Sunset Bay, I think. Since it is a bay the ocean waves weren't rough so the kids could put their feet in the water. It was fairly cool so we bundled up. It was great to relax and let the kids play in the sand!

Ahhh...the peace of the ocean. I took this pic...and I really like it. It says a lot about Jason and I.

We found some tide pools and the kids had fun looking at the animals. There is a group of sea anenomes in this pic.




Me and the kids on the beach.

Grammpa did a great job helping the kids around the slipery rocks. Elijah fell a bunch and got so dirty. He doesn't like his hands to be dirty so he had a bit of a hard time.

Ohh...little Ethan on his first swing! Gramma Barb sat and swang him for a while at the park. Ethan LOVED it!

Here, here little fishies!

We went on a little fishing trip with my parents while we were in Bandon.

This was how the kids fishing experience ended up. :)

They had a lot of fun tossing rocks into the lake.




Their first fish! After this picture grammpa threw him back into the water since he is so little.

I'm getting bigger!

In the past month or so both Alia and Elijah had their annual well check DR appts. They are both doing really well...both on the small side of things-in the 20th percentile for height...but doing good. :)

Here's Alia-she went for her 5 year appt. She got about 4 shots and was so brave. She wanted to watch the nurse give her her shots. I tried to convince her not to but she wouldn't put her little head down. She wimpered a bit but then was fine. She did great! Now she's all ready for Kindergarten! Hard to believe my little girl is starting grade school.

Elijah had his 3 year appt! Here he is trying to put up 3 fingers :) He can actually do this by himself now-he's had lots of practice . No shots for Elijah-horray!