The Pabst's Playground

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2011-03-30T11:00:00.000-07:00

I have been told many times that Addie is so quite at church or playdates. SO FUNNY!!!! Here is proof that the real, "at home" Addison talks A LOT!!!
FYI...she had already been talking to me for about 10 minutes before I finally decided to get my camera. :)

2011-03-26T12:34:00.000-07:00

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Addison's 3rd Birthday!!

2011-02-14T15:25:00.000-08:00

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Our Christmas Surprise!

2010-12-25T20:43:00.000-08:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCrm70U9Pps

2010-11-20T12:49:00.000-08:00

Halloween 2010

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Pabst Family Reunion

2010-10-15T11:12:00.000-07:00

That's right folks....
I'M BACK!!!!!
It has been a little hectic around these parts and so the blog has been put on the back burner. But things have settled down a bit and now I am back....and it's a big one.

So, without further ado.....

2010-09-08T10:53:00.000-07:00

The Secret Garden

2010-08-19T11:37:00.001-07:00

Robin Hood Festival

2010-08-19T10:36:00.000-07:00

2010-08-18T09:56:00.001-07:00

4th of July

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the BIG 33!

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Cousins

2010-07-03T09:41:00.000-07:00

Cousins

are childhood playmates who grow up to be

forever friends

TOO FAST!!!!

2010-06-29T11:20:00.000-07:00

Okay, so it has been almost a year....I knew she had grown a bit. It is inevitable, right?....

BUT THIS!!!

I am feeling a little sick right now.

My BABY is growing WAY TOO FAST!!!!!

Last Day of School

2010-06-29T09:27:00.000-07:00

Maya had her last day of school a week early this year. We had a Campbell Clan Reunion to go to and so she missed the last official week of school. I also had the last day of helping out in her classroom. Addison and Kai came along to "help".

Maya with her buddies Rachel and Noel during her last lunch as a 1st grader...

The best part of all was surprising Maya at the end of the day with three of her cousins. Claire, Sadie and Kate.

THAT was fun!...

Seriously....

2010-06-24T08:11:00.000-07:00

No reasonable offer refused.

Anyone?....

Her feet were also covered...top and bottom, halfway up the leg.

2010-06-23T11:17:00.000-07:00

We went to Newport beach to help cheer on Saralyn during her marathon and were able to go to the beach for awhile afterwards and play. It was Addison's first time at the beach and she dove right in....literally. Anthony had to run in after her and pull her out of the water. That scared her enough and she hung back with me for the rest of the time playing in the sand.
After about a half hour...every kid was drenched and covered in sand.

SUCCESS.

However, I was unprepared and
they drove home naked.

1st Grade Music Program

2010-06-23T11:10:00.000-07:00

Maya rocked it at her 1st grade music program.

2010-06-18T10:15:00.000-07:00

I tried something new this year. I put up "art walls" on the last day of school to help celebrate all the hard work the kids did in school this year. It was a collection of all their art projects. I took pictures of each one so that they would be preserved and then let the kids pick out their favorites to save and tossed the rest. With two kids bringing home loads of art projects, it just became too much to store. It seems to have worked great and I think I will be doing it again this next school year.

Our Graduate

2010-06-10T08:38:00.000-07:00

Our little Kai boy is growing up and just graduated from Preschool.
He now has bigger fish to fry in Elementary School.

When I asked him if he was excited to go to Kindergarten his response was "Oh yeah!...Preschool is too easy and BOR-ING."

That's our Kai boy.

Kai with his amazing teachers, Mrs. D'Amato and Mrs. Warner...

Kai with his Nana and Papa...

After the graduation ceremony they had a Celebration Party for the preschoolers with a bunch of games and prizes to be won. Kai was gracious enough to let Addison join in on the fun...

Showing off his self portrait work-of-art....

Watch out Kindergarten....Here comes KAI!!!!

Our Butterfly Friends

2010-06-10T08:31:00.000-07:00

We added 5 more members to our little family. A few weeks ago we "adopted" some caterpillars and fed and raised them over the last few weeks and watched them grow and change into 5 beautiful butterflies. It was really such an amazing thing to watch them change and I loved how thrilled my children got watching each step. We are DEFIANTLY doing this again next year.

The day finally came when we had to let our fluttery friends go and send them out into the world. Good Luck little ones...

2010-06-10T07:57:00.000-07:00

Our end of the year teacher and staff gifts. I got the idea from one of my new favorite blogs (Eighteen25)

Easy Peasy

Memorial Day

2010-06-08T17:39:00.000-07:00

We took a walk down to the riverfront with the Campbell's to look at the Portland Memorial.

Toddler For Sale

2010-06-08T13:10:00.000-07:00

Kai's Camping Party

2010-06-08T10:01:00.000-07:00

The day after Maya's birthday party back in February, Kai started making plans for his birthday party. The one and only thing that he brought up over and over again was that he wanted to be able to roast marshmallows.

SOOOO, naturally, we came up with the idea to go camping for his birthday party. He was absolutely thrilled at the idea.

So he invited the Campbells, Beddes's, Nana, Papa, and the Newman's to come and party with him at Champoeg state park. I was able to rent the very last cabin they had available and so the kids and I camped out there while the Campbell's got so stay in a tent nearby. It rained for about the first hour but then, other than the muddy ground, stayed pretty dry the rest of the time.

As soon as the fire was lite, Kai asked to roast some marshmallows...

Addie and Thane in one of their rare happily sharing moments...

Chillin' around the campfire....

Uncle Spencer had some mad popcorn shaking skills...

Yes, she really did get this dirty. Would you expect any less from Addison?....

Saralyn made Kai a HUGE blueberry pancake for breakfast....

The next day, the kids and I went on a beautiful hike along the river....

Another request of Kai's was to have a pinata (of course)...

We even got to take the kids to a Junior Ranger program the next day....

We had such a fun time camping and celebrating Kai's birthday.

Thank you to everyone who braved the rain and mud to come and Party with the Pabst's!

Happy 5, Kai!

2010-06-03T13:13:00.000-07:00

On May 25th Kai turned 5!! I can hardly believe my baby boy is 5. He will be going to kindergarten in 4 months. NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!
We had such a fun time as a family making Kai the King for the day. Our little family has a tradition that on the day of each child's birthday, they are the King/Queen for the day. Whatever they say goes. The only rule is, they still have to be kind and respectful. Last year Kai didn't quite get this tradition and kind of just copied what Maya had done months before on her birthday. It was so fun to see how independent he has become this last year and what he wanted to do on his birthday.

He kept with tradition and we got up at 6am to have breakfast at Sherry's where he ordered Chocolate milk and smiley faced pancakes with bacon...

For lunch time he decided that he wanted to go to his favorite indoor playground at Burger King's in Portland. Addie came along and the three of us had a blast playing and eating for a couple of hours...

Later on he decided to invite the Beddes's with us to watch Shrek 3 where he treated everyone to unlimited theatre popcorn...

And then, for dinner he chose RED ROBIN. He actually originally wanted Chuck E Cheese's but after some gentle persuasion (and maybe a bribe or two) he decided Red Robin would be MUCH better Ü...

This picture cracks me up. I think Emma was falling off her booster seat and was NOT happy about it....

Uncle Toph got some magic tricks and some pranks for Kai and is showing him how to use them....

Kai even decorated his own cake (per his request)...

Steph was so sweet to bring some super fun cupcakes for the party....YUM!

She also got him some super creepy and oowey gooey fun toys. She defiantly knows the way to his heart (food and fun)....

Of course the biggest kid in the room had to try out the fake eyeballs....

At the end of the night, Maya gave Kai the birthday card she had been working so hard on. She wrote a whole story inside about the two of them and then read it to him. I almost cried. It was so sweet... Happy Birthday sweet Kai Boy. We are so lucky you were born into our family and I can't imagine a world without you.

Every year I interview the Birthday King/Queen and so each year we can watch the previous years videos together on their birthday. It is so fun to see how much they have grown each year...

8 Years and Counting...

2010-05-21T12:59:00.000-07:00

Anthony and I just celebrated our 8th anniversary. We were SO VERY lucky enough to have Nana and Papa and Saralyn and Spencer watch our children for us so that we could spend two nights away together in Bend, Oregon.

IT WAS AMAZING!!!!!!!

We were able to sleep in, hang out, pig out, play, pig out and then play some more.....and all with absolutely NO children.

AMAZING!!!!!

I was able to go on a 11 mile run one morning along the incredible hiking trails. It was one of the most wonderful runs of my life. Perfect 65 degree weather, and gorgeous scenery....

This little BBQ joint was INCREDIBLE!!! So incredible that we ate there twice. YUMMMMM!!!!.....

Hey, back off....I ran 11 miles so I could eat these crispy golden pieces of heaven smothered in tender pulled pork and cheese. Oh man, my mouth is watering just thinking about it...

We worked off a bite (or two) going on a beautiful hike along the river...

2920 days, 3 kids, 4 homes, 2 careers later and I still love you, Pabst. Thank you for the best 8 years of my life. I can't wait for the next 8 ( and then the 8 after that, and after that, and after that....you get the idea.)

Mother's Day Brunch

2010-05-21T12:51:00.000-07:00

Kai's preschool put on a little performance and brunch for Mother's day. I LOVED hanging out with my buddy boy and hearing him sing to me.

Here is the beautiful pendant that Kai made for me .....

School Carnival

2010-05-21T12:02:00.000-07:00

Spring Has Sprung

2010-05-15T15:15:00.000-07:00

A sure sign that Spring has arrived here in Oregon is the Tulip Festival. The kids love to run around looking at row after row of gorgeous Tulips. After the running and smelling and posing gets old, the little kids play area is always sure to please.

Stitchy Poo

2010-05-12T10:29:00.000-07:00

A couple of weekends ago, Chris and Steph went on a weekend backpacking trip and asked us to "babysit" Stitch. My kids were so excited, you would have thought a celbretiy was coming over for a sleepover. We went on at least 3 walks, and Maya and Kai insisted on sleeping downstairs with the guest of honor.

Passion for the Weather

2010-05-10T10:53:00.000-07:00

Okay, so it will come as no surprise to those of you who know us well that we have a bit of a celebrity crush here in the Pabst household.
On any given weekday night at about 4:15 pm you will hear at least one of our three children yelling, "It's STEPHANIE!!!"
Our dear friend, and local celebrity, Stephanie Kralevich, is KPTV Fox12's Meteorologist. We all LOVE her so much.
Ever since the first day Maya met Stephanie, she has developed a passion for the weather.

Yes, Stephanie is an amazing meterologist, but it also doesn't hurt that she is also Uncle Topher's girlfriend. Our whole family (especially our little Munchies Ü) is madely inlove with her.

Since Maya has developed this passion for the weather, she has been lucky enough to be featured on the news during Stephanie's weather segement once or twice or.....okay so it has been 3 times. Each time has been just as exciting as the first. Our whole family gets so excited to see it. There is something so exhillerating about seeing your face on t.v.

So, it came as no suprise to me the other day, after a huge hail storm here in Tualatin, as we were looking out the window and Kai asked if we could go outside and take some pictures to send to Stephanie. My heart melted.

As I was taking the pictures, it hit me, that although his desire for the photo shoot was slightly narcissistic, it was still ignited by a passion for learning about the weather.

So then I thought, why don't more people do this?......take pictures of their kids being a part of the weather and send it into their local news stations? I admit, I never would have thought about it until Stephanie first put Maya's class picture on the news cast.

It has been such a fun thing for our family.

SOOOOOOO, for those of you with (or without) kids who live in the greater
Portland area should REALLY consider teaching your kids about the weather, go on a walk during a beautiful day, play in the rain.....whatever. Just make sure you take a picture and send it in ----> PHOTOS@KPTV.com. Those of you who live elsewhere, look up your local news stations and find out where to send their viewer photos. I promise you, it is SOOOOO fun and totally worth it.

And so, without further adieu, here is Kai and his Fox12 weather debut:

Teacher Appreciation Day

2010-05-05T10:03:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was Teacher Appreciation Day and since I am one of the Room Parents for Maya's class, I was able to create a couple of appreciation ideas for Mrs. Biondo. I had a great time sneaking around and creating a thank you book from each child (which I forgot to take a picture of....of course)

Mrs. Biondo's favorite treat is Almond Joy. I used the idea from Eighteen25 and tweaked it a bit to be more personal for Mrs. Biondo. She loved it.

How to Train your Dragon

2010-05-05T08:33:00.000-07:00

For Family Night we all went to see this:

We are super excited to go and see this:

and even more excited to go see this:

One of our favorite "traditions" as a family after watching a movie at the theater is to wait until all the people have left and we let the kids loose. They have so much fun playing tag and running in and out of the isles of the movie theater. I keep waiting for the day that the Big Boss Man comes in and tells us to get ourselves and our crazy loud kids out of his theater.....
But until then, and until Pixar makes the movie, "HOW TO TRAIN YOUR CHILDREN" we will continue on with our super fun tradition. Ü

Easter Sunday

2010-05-04T11:06:00.000-07:00

This year we had such an amazing Easter Sunday. We started the morning out listening to Conference while making "Resurrection Rolls". These are yummy cinnamon rolls with a marshmallow baked inside. When the rolls were done baking, we talked about the resurrection of Jesus and the true meaning of Easter and the kids each got a roll to eat up. To their surprise and delight, the rolls were empty. After one bite, Kai yells out, "Hey, the marshmallow was resurrected, too!!!!"

After conference had ended, we headed out to mom and Dad's where the kids had one last and FINAL Easter egg hunt....

After the final session of Conference, we headed over to the Strehlow's home and had a wonderful Easter dinner.

Oh wait....I lied....
Cheryl had another Easter Egg hunt for the kids. But then that was IT!!!
NO MORE (until next year)

Easter Egg Hunt

2010-04-28T16:45:00.000-07:00

Our family had a great time at the community Easter Egg Hunt this year.

Waiting in anticipation....

Coming back with some of the goods...

TOo Cool For School....

They divided the kids up into age groups. Addison's group went first and she jumped right in and filled up her bag. Later they did the older kids and so Addie was standing by my and I was gearing up to tape Maya and Kai. The second the lady yelled, "Go!" Addison was off and running. I didn't have the heart to stop her....

Easter at Nana & Papa's

2010-04-26T18:37:00.000-07:00

Nana and Papa were going to be in Utah for Easter Sunday so we were all lucky enough to have a pre-Easter celebration at Nana and Papa's, complete with our new Easter clothes, an egg hunt, Ham, and yummy bunny cookies.
Emma was the lucky founder of the coveted"Golden Egg"....

Beauty of Oregon's Rainy Days

2010-04-26T18:32:00.000-07:00

Addie in a Nutshell

2010-04-21T16:34:00.000-07:00

April Fool's

2010-04-21T13:16:00.000-07:00

On the morning of April 1st, Maya surprised me with breakfast in bed. She brought up a plate full of beautiful strawberries and a tall glass of lemonade. After huggin' and kissin' on her for being so sweet, I take a huge gulp of lemonade and Maya yells, "APRIL FOOL'S!!!"

....and then I almost died.

She had filled my glass with 100% lemon juice from the fridge!!!!! I gag and quickly grabbed a Strawberry to wash out the nasty lemon taste in my mouth,
and then, "APRIL FOOL'S!!!!"

.....and then I almost died....again.

She had sprinkled a TON of salt all over the strawberries.
That was a very proud moment for this momma. She had totally pulled off a seamless April fool's prank, all on her own. Such a funny and clever girl.

Little did she know, I had some tricks up my own sleeve.

I am a pretty mean mom and never put sugary snacks in Maya's lunch. So, for lunch I had purchased a little snack size chips ahoy bag and taken all the cookies out of the bag and replace them with carrots. *hehehe*

After school Kai, Jonah and I played this little prank:

For dinner I made a "chocolate pie with pink frosting". The kids were beside themselves when I told them we were going to do things in reverse because it was April Fool's and have dessert for dinner. It was actually meatloaf with pink colored mashed potatoes.
*hehehe*
Such a mean and sneaky mom, I know.

Let's just say, Maya wasn't too happy about the dinner trick.... Poor girl. She was so excited to have dessert for dinner. Ü

I wonder if she will try and pull anything on me next year?

Staycation Part 5 (The Aviation & Space Museum)

2010-04-10T20:13:00.000-07:00

Nana and Papa took the whole crew out to McMinnville for the Aviation & Space Museum. I knew Anthony would LOVE it. However, I was a bit worried about the kids having a good time. Boy, oh boy, was I wrong. They all had such a great time checking out all of the cool aircrafts and space stuff. It didn't hurt that there was a HUGE playground and a little airplane ride.

Thank you so much Nana and Papa (Mom and Dad Ü). We all had such a great time!

Nana and Papa with the kiddios in the Spruce Goose. Or, as Mom likes to call it, the Blue Spruce Ü...

Addie and Kai practicing their Pilot skills....

The Pabst's in front of the ginormous Spruce Goose...

Staycation Part 4 (the playdate)

2010-04-10T19:56:00.000-07:00

We were lucky enough to have Daisy over for a couple of days during Spring break. On this day, Mother Nature was not on our side and so we ventured out to Portland where there was a HUGE Burger King play place. The kids played for hours and slept like rocks!

Maya and Daisy asked if they could give each other a makeover. I should have known not to leave them to their own creative interpretations of a makeover. I guess they meant "Can we makeover our gender?" SCARY!!

Staycation Part 3 (park tour)

2010-04-10T19:03:00.000-07:00

We had another day of sun during Spring Break and so the kids and I took advantage of the weather and traveled to a few different parks for a little "Park Tour". The kids loved park hopping. We even picked up Nana for one of the parks and had a fun picnic there.

Staycation Part #2 (the Tramp)

2010-04-09T09:40:00.000-07:00

Last summer our kids spent so much time outside burning of energy and having a blast on our beautiful trampoline. So, when the trampoline finally ripped at the end of the summer, it became my #1 priority to find a new one. I finally found a good deal on craigslist awhile ago and during spring break Anthony finally had some time to put it up. The kids could not have been more excited.

Maya couldn't contain her emotions. She just had to show her love for the Trampoline.....

All the kiddios helping Anthony set 'er up....

Waiting patiently for the final go-ahead....

The Tramp and I have a deal....It will promise to give my kids hours of fun and get them all sweaty and worn out and I, in turn, will keep providing it with lots of company.

DEAL!

The cost of one used trampoline on craigslist.....$80.
The cost of hours of entertainment and exercise for a the kids this summer....PRICELESS!!!

Staycation Part 1

2010-04-08T12:51:00.000-07:00

The Pabst family spent our spring break doing a little Staycation here in good ol' Oregon.
Thank goodness we had a couple of really nice days so that we could get out of the house and play. One of those nice days we spent at Washington Park with Sara, Thane, Emma and Daisy.

Staycation Part 1of 1 (Slumber Party)

2010-04-08T12:21:00.000-07:00

Emma and Sara invited Maya over to their home for a slumber party. She had already had a slumber party with Nana the night before so Maya was on cloud 9.

Sara had so many fun things planned. They made yummy caramel popcorn to eat while watching a movie, they had a makeover and a lovely tea party. They even had crepes for breakfast! Crepes are Maya's favorite! Maya couldn't stop talking about all the fun she had when she got home.

Mom's Birthday Party

2010-04-08T12:00:00.000-07:00

One of the great things about being so close to family is that we get to celebrate a LOT of birthdays together. Last month was Mom's turn. Happy Birthday Mom, we LOVE you!!!

True Meaning of Easter

2010-04-02T12:16:00.001-07:00

When it comes to holiday's, I often get these grand ideas on how to celebrate with my children. Many of my big ideas are to try and help my children learn the true meaning of each holiday and why we celebrate it, and to be able to teach them in a fun way. Unfortunatley some of the times....ok, MOST of the times, my ideas are too big and they become overwhelming to me and then I end up not doing anything at all and then comes the guilt. BLAH!
Case in point: Monday night I was planning a really big and really fun FHE about the true meaning of Easter. BUT, after a really long day filled with temper tantrums, errands, laundry, and a huge mess that required me getting out the steam vaccum....my grand plans fizzled.
SO, you can imagine my excitment when I checked out my sisters blog and saw this genius idea. I have the pictures all ready to go and I plan on making up for Monday's disaster, tonight. *fingers crossed*
Thanks, Jen.

My Little Backseat Driver

2010-03-31T08:34:00.000-07:00

This child has so much personality, I often wonder how her little body is able to contain it all. She is always doing something to make us laugh. She is definatley the family comedian.
During our busy and full lives, I so enjoy our precious "alone" time in the car while Maya and Kai are at school. Addie is so talkative and funny when she is strapped in that seat and it is just her and I. She is always cracking me up. I swear she has the sense of humor of an adult. Her delivery and timing is genius.

Watch out Ellen....here comes Addie!

It is VERY rare to catch the "true" Addie on video. Usually the second the camera is turned on she wants to see herself and so whatever she was doing is done. So I know this little clip is a gem....