More birthday parties, hit by the sickness, and our first lost tooth!

The last days of winter seemed to go fast.  Our winter here has been pretty mild with a lot of rain.  Now that I think about it, we never made it up to the snow.  Damn!  I've said we would do that for the past two years.

Trey went to another birthday party for his friend Ryland from preschool.  It has been so much fun to see all of the kids and moms from preschool, even though the majority of it has been in the context of chasing our kids around fun centers and stuffing tickets in our pockets in order to "buy" junk at the end.  Trey had a lot of fun at this party, and he really enjoyed the video games.  I fear that we are on the road to video game hell.  He is in love with Minecraft, which I don't think is that bad, but he has it in his head that we are going to buy him a video game player for his sixth birthday.

Ry and Trey playing together

Trey and Torryn riding motorcycles

Happy 6th birthday to Ryland!

Randy and Trey, long lost video game buddies

Xander, Torryn, Everett, Ryland, and Trey

Preschool buddies from Home Sweet Home

We were supposed to go to another birthday party the following weekend, but we got hit by the sickness.  I am pretty impressed that it took until March for Trey to finally get sick.  Whatever was going around seemed to linger forever, and we were all just exhausted.  

Two napping Clarks...and I bet Randy wasn't far behind in the recliner.

While Trey was sick, he was stuck to me like glue.  

The weekend we were sick was Marvel Super Heroes Live.  It was probably not the best decision to take Trey, but I bought the tickets a year and a half ago, so unless he was puking or had a really high fever (which he was not), I was taking him.  The show was excellent, and I am really glad I didn't skip it.

I've been working really hard at trying to get some of my kids to figure out reading.  I have some really stuck kids, and I feel really frustrated that I cannot help them to make progress.  This is also the time of year when it feels pretty hopeless because state testing is just around the corner, so it almost seems like our instructional times are done.  One day I was working with a first grader on CVC words  (consonant-vowel-consonant), and I asked him to make up his own word for me and read it as his ticket out the door.  He came up with this.  Ironic?  I think not.

Probably the biggest news around the Clark house is that Trey lost his first tooth!!!!!!!  I cannot believe how weird this is for me because I feel like he has now officially grown up.  He just looks different, and it kind of bums me out - but in a good way.   He now has his second loose tooth, so we will see how long it takes for that one to fall out...and the tooth fairy better be prepared with a dollar because the tooth fairy does not often carry cash.

A few weeks ago there was a spring school dance, so Trey and I walked over.  Our friends from the neighborhood were there, so the grown ups stood in the back and talked while the kids went crazy.  It was actually pretty fun, and it wore Trey out big time.

Trey and Sunny, one of his besties from kindergarten

This is what an elementary school dance looks like.  Ha!

Another picture of Trey and Sunny, sent to me by Sunny's mom

School dance selfie!

In the middle of March, Randy's parents came down for the night to attend Randy's grandmother's memorial service the next day.  We all drove out to Hood River for the event, and Randy's brother Bob flew up from California for the day.  It was nice to spend some time with Bob and also to see some of Carmen's family.  We wished Doug and Carmen could have stayed longer, but we will take whatever we can get!

Reading to Grandma and Grandpa

Family shot!

Trey and I waiting in the car for the service to end.

45 minutes of being totally quiet in the church was about all my boy could handle.

In the past few weeks I have been an assistant twice at Hipcooks in North Portland for their cooking classes.  Kathleen and I went to one of their Thai cooking classes in December, and I saw this opportunity to help out.  Being an assistant is rad.  You get all of the recipes that they make, you get to taste all of the food, you get to listen to all of the directions, and you don't have to pay.  After three classes of being an assistant, you get a free class!  All you have to do as an assistant is wash dishes and help the teacher.  I love it!

The first class I helped with was a cocktail party theme.  I had caviar for the first time and got to enjoy all of the cocktails in little shot glasses.  The food was great, and I learned a few new apps to make for parties.  Also, it was really nice to spend four hours thinking about something that was not work or school related.

With the time change, it has been nice to drive to and from work in the daylight.  I'm missing out on my sunrises, but I do get a good one here and there.  This was a beautiful morning leading up to spring break.  I am trying to enjoy and appreciate beauty and the small things (allegedly it's supposed to help with stress - I'll let you know if it works!), and this sunrise was definitely easy to enjoy.