Mia's 7th Birthday Party

For Mia's 7th Birthday party, she wanted a Justin Beeber party. Our compromise was a Rock Star theme;-)

Mia enjoyed making the invitations.

Rock Star cupcakes with "microphones" on top.

"Harmonicas"

We decorated the walls and tables with pictures and posters of pop stars from a magazine.


When the girls first arrived, they had to decorate their microphones (made from toilet paper rolls, aluminum foil, and electrical tape) with stickers and jewels.

The Stage- (the back drop is now hanging over Mia's bedroom door)

What Rock Star party is complete without the red carpet, VIP list, and Bling to put on? The girls got to take the star with their name on it hoem to hang in their rooms.

Pin the sunglasses on JB

Luckily it was warm enough to go outside for a bit, their was a little too much energy in their to be contained in doors.

First hike!

 So, we're much more settled now. Erik and the girls are busy with school and work. I am busy healing from my surgery. Two weeks out tomorrow! Then I get to start doing a tiny bit more. I have been allowed to start taking walks, 2 miles per day has been encouraged by my surgeon.

 Yesterday was the 1st day that we'd gotten out for a walk somewhere besides our neighborhood. It was Heaven! The temperature was around 50, the sun was out, a bit windy, but just beautiful! We decided to check out a paved trail (a bit too muddy out with all the snow melting) just about 5 miles from our house.

 Our goal was to go just to a train trestle that we had seen in the distance. As we approached the trestle, we could hear running water, so we decided to go a little further just to see what it was. We were so happy that we did! As we walked up to a little valley just off the trail, we could see the brook. Resting at the brook, was a female moose!

Our attempt to take a picture of the moose.

 She looked at us and decided to get up and walk up the other side of the valley, just to be a little further away from us. (I was glad about that, because I had images of the story that Erik told about being chased by a mad mommy moose when he was in Canada during college.) Unfortunately, the sun was facing us, so our attempt at capturing her on the camera failed. What a neat experience though!

  

Stop to enjoy the view.

Mia's biggest climb ever!! She was very proud.

  Erik decided that the trail just wasn't exciting enough, so he and the girls climbed up a little ways to explore. I kept my post-surgical self down on flat ground. After taking a few pictures, I had to walk ahead because it was a little too much to see my babies up so high! We all survived.:-)

Paige enjoyed the exploratory climb. She stayed well ahead of the other two.

So, we've been in the house for 3 weeks now. Pretty much everything is in it's place for now. It feels like it's been so much longer than 3 weeks. We've slowed down a lot since that initial burst of trying to get things in place for the house to be liveable. Not taken many new pics, will make sure to before my next post.
The place we settled into is in a nice little community. Used to be military housing, so it's just a little neighborhood of houses and duplexes that all look alike. It's only a 15 minute drive to downtown Spokane, but a nice drive, starting in a more country-type setting, and then a plunge into the city. (the main exit that we take into downtown I have lovingly dubbed "Hobo Central")

Not my pic, but a nice one of downtown Spokane.

I am pretty happy with our place. The house is by no means our dream home, but it has just enough space and a great location. It'll do while we save up for that dream home.

The girls started school on the 6th. I could barely swallow, there were so many nerves floating around in the car that morning when I took them for their first day. They rode the bus home and came bursting in, happily talking about the friends that they had made and were happy to go back the next day. Three days into being at the new school, Mia has started a Washington chapter of the playground club that she had started back in Ohio. Her club is called "Furry Kittens" and has 5 new members here! She has also almost taught one of her new friends how to whistle. She's been a busy girl. Paige, of course, is a bit more reserved about sharing about her new school, but says she likes it and one of her new friends even plays soccer and has the same favorite band. She has had 2 of the friends over to hang out, and is at one of their houses right now for a sleepover. Paige is taking a web development class and is pretty excited about the website that she's creating in that class.


Erik is pretty busy. He's covering about half the state for his job. In Ohio he only covered 5 counties, so it's much more driving. Luckily, they are letting him use a company vehicle for trips out. As the program grows in this area, they will hire more Wetland Farmbill Biologists and he won't have to drive quite as much.


I am awaiting, but actually looking forward to my discectomy tomorrow. I never thought that I would actually be happy to have surgery, but I've grown to accept that it's the only way that I will get back to normal and am happy for that to come. Erik and the girls will be super busy this week picking up my slack. Even with my disc problem I was able to do a good amount around the house, just in little spurts. This week, I won't be able to do much, no bending at all. It'll all be worth it here in a couple weeks.

We're happy, but missing our friends and family back home. I'll post again before too long, hopefully with more pics to post :-)