Give him a Five

He turned 5!!!! Like, what?? I seriously swear he was just a squishy baby yesterday and now he's a squinty smiler, silly facer, present loving 5 year old. His birthday has been a month long affair, starting with a small family only (plus Grandma Tina:)) party with blue cupcakes and silly faces. The birthday hat was courtesy Miss Allen because Clark took more cupcakes to preschool. So...yeah...he was good and sugared up that day. 

Grandma Tina got him awesome Super Soakers, which sadly it's been too cold to use yet but come the sun...oooh man get ready.

For the big present he got: A BIKE! He was torn between blue and green for a while but finally settled on the green. Funny story: did you know you need to pump up the tires on a new bike? We didn't. Which is why our first bike excursion crashed and burned and poor Clark wore himself out straaaaaaaining to move even over flat surfaces. Yeah, we are terrible. But we fixed it and the next outing....bliss!

Finally, to cap the month of celebration, we had our joint Char/Clark birthday party. We started with Mini Golf at Meadowbrook Fun Center. Clark was a WILD man. The Washburns joined us (sadly the other Gailans were sick:( ). It was kinda fun just letting the big kids run the course probably 3 times while us grownups took our time

 After golf, Grandma Tina bought an arcade card and let everyone play games to their hearts content. (At 25c a game, we had a LOT of fun). Clark tried racing, which was slightly hilarious since he couldn't touch the gas pedal so Mom did a solid and floored it for him.

Finally, we returned to our casa for pizza, soda and cupcakes. Clark's were golf themed and Charlotte had princess crowns, of course.

Clark made out crazy good this year with a squirt gun and elephant chair from Grandma Tina, golf balls and pillow cases from G&G Gailan, a pirahna book from the Washburns and, of course, his big green bike and a Where's Waldo book from us. Best. Day. Ever!

Mr. Clark, you are the best. So weird. So silly. So dramatic. And so sweet. For mother's day you made me  a foot sugar scrub at Preschool. All the other kids choose pink but you choose orange because "I know you like orange best, Mom". :) I don't, actually, but that's not the point. You thought I did so you picked orange just for me.

This year you have mastered counting to 100, ABCs, the sounds letters make, all the Storybot songs, coloring in the lines, riding a bike (almost), wearing a purse the right way, telling jokes that don't make any sense and having a very big opinion about everything. Sometimes I look at you and want to cry because you are practically all grown up now. Happy 5th Mr. Clark.

Last Preschool Photo Dump

The year is over. I am sad. Clark is sadder. We will miss these crazy kiddos and lovely teachers!

Making my sugar scrub:

Butterfly art (my favorite of the year)

Splat the Cat. Ooookay.

Superhero Day

Last day of school potluck at the park. It was one million degrees, give or take. He and Steven spent the whole time using their bubbles as swords. Boys. 

LDS Baseball Night

It's become a tradition to go over to Seattle every June for LDS Mariners night. This year the girls stayed home for some R&R while Dana, Grandpa Sonny, Uncle Matt, Aunt Kristen, Brooks and Clark braved the loud noises and waded through $10 gourmet hot dogs for some serious fun. Clark had a blast learning exciting new words from the cars in the parking lots and spent most of the game either in the kid center or with his hands like this:) Classic Clark.

Preschool Photo Shoot

We practiced all morning and it paid off in spades! This kiddo has quite the cheeky smile. His whole class (with Miss Allen and Miss Sydney) has been just the most fun this year. Off to Kinder we go...

The Sun has Arrived!

And with that sun, comes lots and lots of fun!

Grandma Tina and Grandpa Pat came for Jilly's baptism so we took the opportunity on a HOT Saturday to walk around the Ellensburg farmers market. They have a balloon guy who can make just about anything. Clark originally wanted a dinosaur and then froze at the last second and picked...a bunny. Dad was amused:)

Clark and Jilly each took turns playing robot soccer while the rest of us slowly melted.

The approach of summer has meant a wave of house projects. What started out as a tiny prefabbed shed from Lowe's somehow morphed (in a matter of minutes it seemed) into a huge 10x12 foot custom shed with matching gigantic deck. In short - we went a little crazy. But it is AWESOME
And it meant that most days Mike Sykes was in our backyard with power tools and Clark and Char were in peeping tom heaven.

Memorial Day we set out down an old familiar Cowiche Canyon for a cloudy, lovely hike. When Miss Char Char got to heavy to carry, she got to walk. And she only almost fell in the lake three times.

The most pleasant afternoon stroll came about 10 minutes before this torrential and super random downpour. We opened the windows wide and screamed like crazy.

 And yes, when the temp drops back down a few degrees, we still throw on a jacket and try out the slides at the park. Charlotte fell down that ladder the next day but jumped right back up like a trooper.

 These crazy kiddos of ours. We love 'em!