Birthday party, Rodeo, Soccer Camp, and Strawberries

(click on collage to enlarge)

Amaya had her 5th birthday party on June 18th. She had most of the girls from her class come, along with some girls from church. Much to my surprise, she wanted a 'hula girl' party. She had no idea what the 'hula' was, so she ended up being very content with a fun Luau theme. We had such a great time. The girls planted flowers in little pots that they decorated with Hawaiian stickers, they broke open a pinata, played in the sandbox, and tried to out do each other on the teeter-totter. It was fun for all the girls to be together again, after having been out of school for a few weeks.
Amaya's birthday isn't until July 3rd, so we look forward to some more celebrating.




Our not-so-little cowgirl. We went to the Sister's Rodeo with my parents. We camped out for the weekend, went to the Rodeo parade, and then to the Rodeo on Saturday night. The girls had a blast. My parents gave Amaya an early birthday present, so she could be decked out for the big event.
She was all smiles when a bunch of people commented on her outfit. She was even more excited when the Rodeo princesses came by, and autographed some pictures for her. I never thought I would be hanging pics of Rodeo princesses in my 5 year old's room. I guess there are worse things...

A movie night for Father's Day. After a BBQ and some strawberry shortcake, we all camped out in the living room for a movie with my dad and John. It'wasn't quite the relaxing evening we envisioned, but fun nonetheless.
Tennyson never sat still for more than 5 minutes.

Amaya loved her soccer camp, despite the excitement that happenned on Tuesday.

There were four girls from Amaya's class at school that were doing the camp. It was fun to get to know the moms better as we sat and watched. Here are all the younger sisters looking on...

The girls and I went and picked strawberries last weekend while John worked. It was cute to see how excited they got. Tennyson was showing everyone that passed us her bucket, saying, Look at how many I got!" She had maybe 10 berries in her very large container.

She probably ate 10 berries for every 1 she picked. Amaya actually was a great help. She picked about three pounds. I was a little over zealous when I was gathering containers at home, and envisioning a freezer full of jam and berries. We picked about 15 pounds in 2 hours.

The results!

We were on out way to a graduation party, and I had to snap this picture of the girls! Sometimes, I still can't believe how blessed we are!

Too young to know about shootings!

Amaya's quotes from the day:

1. "If you shoot somebody that's bad, will you still go to jail?"
2. "What happens to the person's money when they go to jail?"
3. "Have they caught the other two suspects yet?"
4. "So kids get spankings and time-outs, but adults have to go to jail when they do something bad?"
5. "Mom, I can't sleep. I just want to be with you."

Usually my response to this last one is simple... "Amaya, get back in bed. I have been with you all day... I'm right downstairs."

Today, we snuggled up on the couch together... and talked and kissed and hugged and talked some more. We were thankful just to be together.


I signed up the girls for a free soccer camp this week. It sounded almost too good to be true: FREE, it started at age 3, so Tennyson (theoretically) could be a part of it too, and free goods: t-shirt, water bottle, shin guards, soccer ball, and Bible.

Tennyson wasn't too interested yesterday, but Amaya had a blast, despite some disorganization on the camp's part. She was just happy to be on a team with friends from school. She's usually my laid-back morning kid, wanting to stay in her pajamas until the last possible minute. This morning, she was dressed before she even came downstairs.

What started out as a joyous morning turned out to be very frightening. About half way through the camp, there was a loud gun shot. There wasn't immediate panic... even Tennyson asked what the sound was, and I blew it off as a tire back firing. Not 30 seconds later, a lady rushed by and said, "Grab your kids. It WAS a gun shot."

We were at some soccer fields at a private school in Rockwood. In front of the fields was a Mexican Tienda where the attempted robberry occurred. The thief shot his gun while the store owner and some shoppers tried to pin him down. The altercation was less than 50 yards from the soccer fields. All 150 kids, parents, and younger siblings were shuffled to the back of the field to avoid any further danger. The soccer coaches and instructors rallied around, trying to keep kids calm.

I immediately grabbed Tennyson in my arms, shouted for Amaya, and bolted for the back forty. My next thought went to all the kids at the camp who didn't have parents standing by to grab them, comfort them, and love on them. I was grateful that I was the one explaining the situation to my children and not some other adult who only had known my kids for a few hours.

Emotions ran high. The thought of being so close to something that could have potentially turned very tragic was in the forefront of my mind. An open field. Masses of people. Desperate gunmen. Thank you, Lord, for your protection.

The gunmen was arrested by police, while two other men drove off in a 4 door white sedan. As far as I know, they have not been apprehended. I am thankful for the many circumstances that made today safer:
-A friend's husband, who is a Gresham Police Officer, decided to accompany his family to the camp on his day off. He was first on the scene, and called 911.
-Tennyson wasn't involved in her part of the camp, which allowed me to be right by Amaya when this happenned.
-T and I went to our car to get water, and returned to the field just before the gun shot rang out, which was only a few yards from our car.
-Having so many friends that were there with us. It was nice to be huddled together while we waited for the policemen to clear the parking lots. I was so thankful to have other moms and my girls' friends surrounding us. It was nice, also, to have people to debrief with during the day. Jen, Christine, Mars, Heidi, and Tricia- love you each so much (and all your kids too!)

Amaya and I have talked about this, in some way, over and over and over today. She processes through things by talking, so this is what we did. It served to be a great opportunity to talk about our sinful nature, the consequences that come with every bad decision that we make, and that God does not want us to live in fear.

I constantly remind Amaya and Tennyson to be bright lights in whatever situation they are in. We had just talked about that this morning.

For that reason, plus a few others, we are returning to the camp tomorrow. Amaya asked if it would happen again. I told her that I couldn't guarantee that. But what a good reminder for us to cover our days in prayer, and step out in faith. God will protect us. We cannot thwart his plan. We do need to continue to be bright lights, especially in a world where evil can seemingly flip the switch.

Last of the Idaho pics

For some reason, I couldn't these pics to post all together, so there in about 4 different posts. 

The Leiby clan!

Amaya and Bella, the horse lovers!

More Family Pics from Idaho

The NEW BOAT.  It's a beauty.  We acquired the old.  We'll have fun with that one too!

Amaya pushing Uncle Jim in!

The three older cousins!  Amaya had a perma-grin the whole time.  That girl loves tubing!

Almost asleep.  That's what being woken up at 4am, a 7 hour car ride, and playing on a boat with cousins will do to a two year old.

Gigi and Cousins!

My grandparents live in Fresno, CA. They came in March. Thought I would throw this in. They were reading together.

Matching sisters...

Mothers Day at the park. Mom was in CA with Em.

Cousins Jackson and Bella in Idaho. We went to help celebrate their mom's graduation from nursing school. They also just go a new boat. So we had a great time playing around on the river.

Gardening

Sometimes I give John a bad time about going overbaord on things (ask him to go to the grocery store to get 5 apples, and he'll come home with 15). This time, however, I was thankful for this quality... because he made some awesome garden beds.

We just finished planting yesterday. We did some of our own starts inside (sugar snap peas, cherry roses, dill, cilantro, beets, and corn), and then added to it with some starts from a local nursery. I think in a couple of months, we'll be sorry to have planted so much. Since this is out first venture into gardening, I wanted to try out a bunch of different things. We'll see what happens...
For the record (so it's documented for next year), we tried mini pumpkins, corn, eggplant, kohlrabi, sugar snap peas, cucumbers, green and yellow peppers, 3 varieties of tomatoes, onions, beets, 2 kinds of lettuce, yellow zucchini, dill, chives, basil, cilantro, cherry roses, and mexican sunflowers.

Gardening, Hannah's graduation, and Em's visit

Seems like it has been forever since I last posted... and it has. The pictures below will tell the story of all we've been up to in the last month.

Thursday morning, we were all sitting (well... I wasn't, but John and the girls were) down to breakfast... I was getting silverware out, flipping pancakes, taking drink orders, and listening to Tennyson say, "Mommy" over and over and over. I am pretty sure I acknowledged her, but there was nothing else coming out of her mouth except, "Mommy."

John proceeded to tell her, "Tennyson, say 'Mommy' once."

Her response? "Mommy once."

I addition to the treat of having Dad home for breakfast, we all started our morning off with a good laugh!

Messed up on my 'posting order'... pics were before this!