Darth Vader... Guess which child?

Pendant lights are now up.

What Signe came home with after this morning's award ceremony

What I wanted to point out is a medallion Signe got for earning 93% on the mythology test she took back in February. It is an optional test taken after school (it costs about $6) for 4th graders up to high schoolers over Greek and Roman mythology, and since she loves to read, especially fairy tales, she asked to take the test. We ordered the book from Amazon and she read up and studied it herself for a couple weeks, then did a great job on the test! She is excited to do it again next year.
The star pin is for attendance; she only missed one day all year.

Last day of 2nd and 4th grade

Signe had a terrific year with Miss Kelsey Clemans, and she received a medal for the girl Outstanding Example in her class (Gunnar got it in 1st grade last year).
Gunnar finished off with Mrs. Connie Kimmell as his morning teacher, and Mrs. Kirstin Miller in the afternoon (she was his 1st grade teacher last year). Both kids earned medals for being on the A-B honor roll all year, with Gunnar mainly held back from straight A's by earning solid B's in penmanship. I can sympathize. They again got red national P.E. award patches for meeting certain grade criteria in the mile time, shuttle run, sit-ups, pull-ups, and v-sits. Every year they are SO close to joining just a handful of elementary students to make the presidential score criteria, but both are held back by slow shuttle run times. I have to get Nick to work with them on that.

Kitchen is almost done...

Just need to add drawer pulls and the refrigerator.

Dinner for skeeters

Zane caught his first trout yesterday... He also got many mosquito bites while the rest of had none. Guess he's just sweeter than the rest of us.

Zane's last day of preschool

Zane really had a great year and his teacher was impressed by his friendliness and even potential leadership qualities. Here he is showing the thank you note he wrote to Mrs. Handel, which is a terrific improvement, since a year ago he hated to color or write anything.
Missing from the picture with his small class of 8 students is Mia Modad. And while preschool boys may go to school with their Friday Tie-Day shirts tucked in, they never arrive home that way.

More pics...

Nick just saw what I posted from work, and he wanted more pictures. We also have a new sliding glass door sitting in our garage waiting to be installed. I will be thrilled to get rid of the old original aluminum door that I could feel cold air seeping through in the winter. It was the only major window Nick and his dad did not replace two summers ago. And to finally have a screen door! Woo-Hoo, no more bugs! (or at least fewer bugs.)
We will eventually tile a backsplash as well. But who knows when; that could well be a project for next summer.

More kitchen progress

This has been a slow process, but the countertops were finally finished today! We debated putting in granite, but I couldn't justify the big expense and it seemed out of place in our 1971 house anyway (especially with the broken window at the stair landing and the jagged driveway. They're on the to-do list, but it is a long list). And although it looks like people do it often, I was a little concerned about the weight on the IKEA cabinets. I opted for fancy fake granite laminate countertops instead. I am loving the color and pattern; you have to look closely to realize it is Formica. And I'm also excited about the humongous undermount sink, which was a last minute change of direction. Because the sink was designed more for granite in mind there is some edging visible, but it should still work great for sweeping food directly into the sink.
We still need to install the pulls, which I finally ordered yesterday, so we probably won't "move in" for a week or two yet because some of the drawers are hard to open. And the electricians will come back to install two pendant lights over the counter. I originally ordered 3, but we realized there wouldn't be room when the two large cabinet drawers open.
Our final dilemma is what to do with our black fridge, which will look fairly dreadful. We got it on Craigslist and Nick is now looking for another white one to switch out. Someday we would love to get all stainless steel, but we want to take these big expenses one step at a time.

Just what was Abby looking at?

Impromptu slumber party?

9:00 on a Sunday night and my living room is full of cousins watching Princess Bride. There is a powerfully smelly gas leak in the Sentz's garage, so they are hanging out here while Uncle Rob waits out in the dark field by their house for Avista to come check it out.
Uh-oh... Rob just called and it looks like it might actually be the VW Bug (the car I drive in high school, that Dad brought new before I was born in, what, 1972?) is actually the culprit, and leaking gas. Nick is on his way to the store to buy some kitty litter to soak it up.

Nez Perce horse parade

Gunnar gets socks for his birthday (and his Dad's old BB gun, a watch, a pocketknife, and a lacrosse stick), while Karsten grows extra long arms.

Gunnar's 8th Birthday

Yesterday I accompanied Nick and 5 boys to the 50th anniversary celebration of the Nez Perce Spalding mission park near Lapwai as a fun way to celebrate Gunnar's birthday. Cousin Ransom and classmate George Evans came along, who both also turned 8 in the past 3 weeks. Signe stayed in Moscow to attend 2 other birthday parties (whew!). There was a horse parade and tribal drumming and dancing. The boys explored underbrush, hiked along old railroad tracks, threw rocks in the river, and caught snakes and bugs. So basically a perfect day out for little boys.

Mother's Day biker

My 3-year-old is learning how to ride his bike... watch out world, here comes Karsten!!

Sunny Sunday afternoon

We road our bikes on some trails in town yesterday, and stopped to play. At Mountain View Park it took the combined weight of all 5 other Holloways squished on the teeter totter to successfully lift Daddy off his feet.

Even Captai n America gets tuckered out once in a while.

See Signe dance!

Follow the link to see Signe dance at her recital. She did quite well! Signe comes in at about :40 seconds.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fw6AHkPRPBI&feature=em-upload_owner