lucas' turn!

one of my last posts was all about emma, so this one will be all about lucas. :) he is our ever-inquisitive, articulate, video-game loving, judo master! just kidding about the judo master part, but he IS learning judo at our local dojo and he's having a blast. the other night, he was in his skivvies and we caught him doing judo/karate moves in front of his window for all of our back neighbors to see...so cute! a few weeks ago, we got a great surprise when his sensei called him forward and presented him with a medal for having "the heart of a lion." i was so proud of him! his sensei told him that he was hard-working, aggressive, diligent at practicing and attendance, and had the heart of a lion, which i looked up and found it to mean "a fierce warrior." pretty cool! a couple of weeks later, lucas took his first test and received his first yellow stripe. another proud moment! (2 yellow stripes and a third test will get him a yellow belt.) i could tell he was really proud of himself, which is awesome because he can be really shy sometimes. besides judo, lucas is loving his swim lessons, still very much into star wars and anything that involves shooting a gun, playing soccer, boardgames, and movies. our little boy is not so little anymore. :)

he was very gracious to share his medal with his sisters!

independence day 2011

we had a quiet and lovely celebration of our country's independence this year. it started out with swim lessons for the kids (no break, even for the 4th of july). it was nice because allan got to go with me and see how great lucas and emma are doing. after swimming, we headed out to burbank (wa not ca) to pick up some fun fireworks. the rest of the day was spent hanging out as a family, cleaning out the garage a little, and then having a friend over for dinner. we had to wait until it got dark before we could set off the fireworks, and lucas was in such agony over it! the girls really didn't like the loud noises, but enjoyed seeing the pretty displays of light. the funniest thing i can remember about this year's july 4th is when i took emma back into the house to go potty. she told me, "i don't like bad moms." i'm like, "what? is she telling me i'm a bad mom?" after some questioning from me, i figured out that she was saying she didn't like the MAD BOMBS. they were the ones that made the loudest boom of all the fireworks we had. so funny.

you can see from the last pic that i'm obviously not the photographer.

he was too busy playing with the explosives.

a night to myself

allan decided to camp with the kids in the yard tonight. it was a last-minute decision, so no s'mores or campfire, just a tent, some sleeping bags, and 3 headlamps. i was sick, so i stayed in. secretly, i was a little excited to have a quiet night to myself! :)

their tent

my tent

elise pointing out a bug to emma

a little facetime to say goodnight!

an orchard in our yard...almost

we went to pick cherries a couple of weekends ago and picked almost 20 lbs of bing, rainier, and benton cherries altogether! they didn't last very long in our fridge. so good! we love having ray french's orchard just around the corner from us. in fact, their orchard backs up into the yard of our neighbors across the street. the only bad side, of course, are the pesky little fruit flies that appear. now that cherry season is over, we are looking forward to some yummy peaches that are coming soon. the kids can't wait to bite into a juicy donut peach!

lucas was our "taster," or more like sampler :)

sweet elise peeking out from the trees...her shirt was filled with cherry juice at the end

emma and brayden, so cute

me and my boy

me and my other boy

pretty girl emma

our loot only minutes into the pickin'!