Isabel is 6!!!

Isabel turned 6, and she keeps correcting me when I tell people she's five. So she's SIX, everybody....

And for her birthday we gave her the choice of a party with her friends or a party at Grandma's house, and she chose Grandma. (I don't think Grandma minded one bit :) ) Here are a few pics!

Isabel requested a pinata for her party, so we got a princess crown one. All three kids took their whack at it. Even Joshy!

Enjoying the spoils from the pinata :)

There were two little noisemakers on top of Isabel's cake. Becca, clever little thing... figured out that once she ate the icing out of them she could blow them both at once.

Happy Birthday Isabel!

Run Forest, Run!

It's been a busy week around here! On Wednesday, Isabel finally became a Kindergartner. She's been waiting a LONG time, at least if you ask her :) She rides the bus to and from school, and loves it. Rebecca misses her a lot while she's gone, and prays every night that she might get big and be able to ride the bus to school. Soon she'll figure out that it's better to have a little while without Isabel, because then SHE gets to play with Mom and Dad without Isabel's taking over. Here are some fun pictures and movies that we took the first day.

The other big fun even for us this week was Josh's Alumni Run at Redmond High School. It was for the Cross Country team, and apparently it happens every year. Josh hasn't been able to even consider it because of his knee, but since he had surgery on it in October and it has been much better since, he was excited to do it this year. The current team ran along with whatever alumni showed up. Josh was trying to beat some of the JV girls, and actually beat a LOT of JV girls. So we were proud of him, and he was just glad to have finished in one piece. About halfway through the race he ran past us and shouted, "I'm not dead yet!"

Not that Josh, but I liked the picture :)

Josh's cheering section!

He didn't want his mom to come with the milk jugs with pennies in them, so we let the kids show up with them instead! Josh had a jug with pennies, Becca had a soda can with pennies, and Isabel had a football shaped clapper. They could raise quite a noise when they got into it!

Josh's best monkey impression!

No, he didn't win, but did very well, considering he was racing 16 year olds.

After the race, BOTH Josh's were all tuckered out :)












And just for aunt K, here's a little video of Joshy finally talking. So he doesn't say much that's intelliglble, but has gotten VERY good at his non-verbal communication. He points and "ooooo"'s in a variety of tones to express himself. But here he is saying "Grandpa", one of his favorite words. He wouldn't say it facing me, so he's quiet, but it's the best video we've gotten so far.
PS, we don't know why he says everything in such a high girly voice, we hope he grows out of that one :)