Fun with the Prentice Fam

Some of my cousins from California are in town for the week and we are having lots of fun being tourists with them. I can't even believe how grown up Claire, Hayley, & Cole are. Cole is going to be a senior in college this year and I remember him being 3 like it was yesterday. Time flies!

Lauren is in heaven having these "big kids" staying at our house. She LOVES them and they are all so good with her!

Lauren & Hads made a store last night at my parents. They sold us all sorts of baby products (rocks, sticks, you know, the necessitates). The best part was that they had a bucket full of money (pinecones) that you could use for shopping. That is my kind of store!

Ben spent most of the evening sitting on the quad in Pa's garage.

He did take some time out for a stroll with the carriage though.

And the night wouldn't be complete without shots of whip cream in the mouth- gross!!!

They loved it!

Ben kept wanting it in his mouth but then would spit it out every time.

Be ready for lots more family pics. 5 more Prentice family members from CA are arriving on Thursday! We can't wait!

Portland

We headed down to Portland on Sunday. Kevin had a meeting and it was our 7th anniversary so the kids & I tagged along. We had a very romantic anniversary dinner at Red Robin with the kids:)

Lauren & Mama

Ben LOVES his truck books. He is starting to just sit and look through books by himself which is so nice.

Going to the pool- the highlight of the trip!

Lauren brought her scuba gear!

Ben did end up getting in the pool but he also enjoys just standing on the outside telling us all where to go & what to do. "Mama sit that" or "Mama jump", etc... He is too funny.

Lauren found the gorilla at Target and just couldn't live without it, or I guess I should say it couldn't live without her. She kept saying, "But mom, it doesn't have a mommy and if you don't buy it for me it will never have a mother". I'm such a sucker and she so knows how to work me...

Longview Spray Park

On the way home from Portland Kevin had a meeting in Longview so the kids & I had some time to kill. We passed this park and Lauren said, "Mom, I think that would be the perfect place for us to go during dad's meeting." It was great, the kids got to cool off & get a lot of energy out.

Ben spent most of his time standing on the perimeter making sure all the buttons were pushed and making sure none of the other kids at the park got to push any buttons:)

Lauren was a crazy lady and ran in and out of all the water and made friends with lots of kids. Some were quite interesting...to say the least! Well, actually it was their moms that were interesting, not the kids.

Ben, the manager of the spray park!

What was he doing?!

Last night in the bath Ben took the suction cups from the bath pillow and put them on his nipples. He thought he was SOOOOOO funny.

We have no clue where he got this crazy idea from. This is totally something Lauren would have done when she was his age because she was obsessed with pumping but Ben has never seen anyone pump...hmm?

Love this Happy Face!

Babysitting Baby Mackenzie!

Last night we got to babysit baby Mackenzie while Laurie & Graham went out to dinner. Lauren & Ben were both in heaven, they LOVED taking care of her.

Mackenzie watched the kids run around her for the first 2 hours and was a little hesitant to get down and play but all of a sudden she warmed up and got down and showed us her crawling and scooting moves! They were so excited.

The theme of the night was eating. All the kids wanted to do was feed her. Ben fed her puffs every chance he got, he even snuck a few for himself.

Lauren fed her some applesauce for dinner. I love how she is opening her mouth while feeding her!

Mackenzie hanging out with Kev.

Of course Ben had to feed her too.

a bite for you, a bite for me

What a fun night, we can't wait to babysit again!

Sprinkler Fun

Finally the weather is hot enough to have some fun in the backyard!

Of course Lauren had to change suits in the middle of playing. The girl can't wear the same outfit for more than 10 minutes. I already imaging her wedding, she's going to want 4 different dresses for each stage of the wedding!

Ben would only run along side it, he was too scared to run in the middle.

Not sure how they fit...

but they did!

Handy Man is at it again

Kevin was tired of watching our neighbors play pool so he decided to make us some window shades. He did a great job and they look fabulous!

Though I sort of liked snooping on the neighbors:)

He also installed this fan at the top of our stairs. He had himself suspended up here for a couple hours and I was one nervous lady! I just kept going over the scenario of what could happen if he fell in my head. But he did it, our house is so much cooler because of it, and it looks great. I'm just not looking forward to the day a light bulb burns out in it!

Remlinger Farms

Lauren, Ben & I headed out to Remlinger Farms on Monday to pick Raspberries. They were closed for Raspberry picking but luckily they had just opened the blueberries! Due do our lack of sun there weren't a ton of ripe ones but we still had a great time picking them.

Lauren thought it was fun to try to eat them off the bush. Weirdo.

Ben preferred taking the ones I picked out of my basket. Lazy or Smart? Maybe a bit of both:)

Raspberries are supposed to open up again the end of this week so we might make the trek back out there. Or we could save ourselves a lot of time and gas and just go buy them at Costco, but that wouldn't be any fun!

My New Blog!

Lately I've been getting a lot of questions from people about eating gluten free. I attended a class last night about eating gluten free and I actually had a lot more real life answers to the questions people were asking than the teacher! So in the car ride home my friend Karen (who I went to the class with) and I decided I should start a blog with shopping tips, info on products, and recipes about being gluten free. I JUST got it started today and have a lot of work to do on it but for now, here it is:

http://valsglutenfreefavorites.blogspot.com/

I'd love all the followers I can get, one of these days I might actually try to make some money off of it but for now, it's just fun:)

Thanks & let me know if you have any ideas or advice!

~Val

Kelsey Creek Park

We met up with Laurie, Graham, & more importantly Baby Mackenzie (as she will forever be known!) at Kelsey Creek Farm today.

Lauren had a great time being the big helper.

the cutest animals on the farm!

love her cute face!