The Big Thirty!

The day before my birthday, a friend asked me how it felt to be turning thirty. I couldn't think of anything bad about it. I love my life, I feel genuine happiness every day. I have an amazing family. I've had wonderful opportunities and experiences in my life thus far. I still have a lot life experiences to look forward to. I feel strong, healthy, and loved. There is nothing to complain about when it comes to turning thirty. I think I'm going to like it. (and it's fun to say that my husband is still in his twenties even though I'm only 2 weeks less than a year older than him) 

I woke up sandwiched between Max and Charlie. Charlie peed on the floor in the bathroom at the beginning of the day which was weird because that hasn't happened in a really long time. He claimed he was scared to go to the bathroom by himself so he stood right in front of the toilet and peed his pants...Sometimes (most times) I don't get 3-year-old logic. Luckily, I didn't have to clean it up. Max cleaned it up then they went downstairs to make a delicious breakfast. Then Max had to go to work. SO I threw the messy boys in the utility sink and gave them a crowded brother bath. After that, Miles somehow peed on the floor through his diaper. So, both boys peed on the floor before 9 am on my birthday. I decided we needed to do something fun, so we went to the forest again. I don't know if I'm just not creative enough to think of other things to do or if I just really love the forest. I think it's the latter. I thought of the Children's museum, but that's not nearly as fun for me, neither is a park with my crazy climbers...SO I picked the forest! And I took more photos!

  

On this trip we hunted for signs of Fall! We found some!

I kind of love that most of the time, my boys like me to take their picture now.

Collecting (and showing off) their pieces of Fall!

I also let Miles hang from this branch, it didn't end so well.

And this stump is Miles' favorite place. It's a space just his size and he gets so happy to be inside!

Poor Charlie's glasses are falling apart, this is his fourth pair but I'm not buying him new ones yet because he has an appointment in two weeks where they may change his prescription, and the next pair will be covered by insurance since he's had glasses for a year. (Yes, random detail, but I feel like I should justify why I make my child wear broken glasses..haha)

I think some of my favorite photos are ones of Miles watching Charlie! He looks up to him so much!

 And then there was a bit of branch sword fighting!

Charlie was pleased to find a leaf that was half red and half green!

We came home and cleaned up the house. I found out that I was having a party that evening but Max kept me out of a lot of the details. I had told him it would be fun to get together with some friends and do the pinata that we had purchased for his birthday, but I had no idea if anyone was even available. It turns out that Max planned a Bollywood party with Indian food and dancing, (he had learned a couple Bollywood dance moves from YouTube the night before. We ended up gettting Middle Eastern food instead of Indian because that is what worked with the restaurant's schedule, but I was okay with this since the Middle Eastern Food was much more like Armenian food.  My dad arrived just as I was trying to get my kids all ready to play outside because they were being little maniacs. Around the same time, Max came home from work with all the food! Richard and Marissa showed up with their family, followed shortly after by Joe and Lindsay and their kids. We all came in and enjoyed this food so much!

Charlie couldn't keep his hands of the bread.

hummus

Dolma...but different. They call it something else, and it tasted totally different but still delicious.

Lahma-jo (In Armenia) they called this something else too but it was also delicious.

There were also Shawrma and kababs and a lot of rice. So delicious and special. We never do take-out like that and it was a lot of fun and I didn't have to cook.
Then Max taught a dance lesson. (Oh, and I didn't even try to make these photos pretty...strictly documentational!)

Dancing turned into YouTube watching!

But then it started getting dark so we went out to break that pinata open! Everyone got a turn and then Max finished it off!

Max's winning sequence!

As the kids enjoyed the candy, the grown ups got to sit by the fire pit.

 We enjoyed some birthday Ice cream and then called it a night when it was bedtime for the kids!
And turning 30 feels great!

Surprise date

A month or so ago Max had prepared a surprise date for us, he had even arranged childcare. Through no fault of my own (I was checking his e-mail to delete the Amazon e-mails that would tell him what his presents were, he asked me too...) I found out what this surprise date was. It was private dance classes!
Sadly, shortly before the date arrived, the studio called and said they would not be ready for us since construction is taking longer than expected and we would have to schedule out sometime in November. But we still wanted a date! So Max went ahead and arranged another date. We decided on this one together, we went Bouldering :) We've wanted to do this together for awhile and we wanted to check out the new bouldering gym near us to see if it would be a fun place to take Charlie.

We've never been, but we have been rock climbing. My first and only time was the summer after we got married, (6 years ago) That was back before I was a great blogger so here are some photos from that.

That was a crazy day, rock climbing is definitely out of my comfort zone but it was so satisfying to finally make it to the top.

Also, bouldering kind of goes along with my goal to be the healthiest ever when I turn 30. (I'll give the analysis on that when I get to my birthday post.)

Oh and the best part of our date...pretty much everything ended up being free.
We went to a create-your-own-pizza place for dinner. We split a pizza, and since it was the day before my birthday, they gave us the pizza for FREE! We ended up ordering a 5 dollar salad because we felt bad just taking a pizza, and we like salad too, haha!

Anyway, then when we got to the bouldering gym, we found out that half of the boulders were marked with rope and unavailable, because of a big competition the following weekend. They were giving a discount for us to use the remaining boulders but when they found out it was my birthday he just decided to let us both in for FREE and give us FREE shoe rentals and FREE chalk! That's a cheap date. I think he felt bad that it was our first time coming and we weren't able to use much of the gym.

But that kids wall was open, so that's all I needed. We started there. We progressed to the more difficult walls. The beginner walls were the best because you got to go down the slide after you got to the top.

We had a lot of fun, we tried to challenge ourselves by following the colored tape that coordinated with a certain difficulty level. (ex pink tape could be a level 2 so you only grab the holds marked with pink tape)

It doesn't look that hard but it was, especially after our hands were getting to raw and our arms were so tired. 

The slides really were the best. They were so fast and flung you onto the padded floor.

Here is my last climb, I hadn' been able to get to the top of this boulder until this point!

It was such a fun date. I love doing active things with Max, Especially as we get older and have to fight for our strength. Haha, It turns out we still had to pay the babysitter so the date wasn't totally free. Come to think of it, we should have asked her if she does birthday discounts! 

So now we still get to look forward to our series of dancing lessons and we also got a fun birthday date! 

Outdoor School

Well it's no secret that I love to take my kids to the forest to let them release some energy in a safe environment. But recently I've loved going to the forest for another reason.
I've been studying a lot about educating my children. I've specifically been reading this book...

The first factor that was discussed in the book was that formal education is much different than what it used to be,  Kindergarten now has the same curriculum that 1st grade once had  Much more is required of young children. Kindergarten used to be a time to learn from play and exploration. Now it is requiring Kindergartners to read and write. Also, competition has been removed from schools (a huge reason boys had cared about succeeding) The #1 school system in the World is in Finland and they don't start any formal education until age 7. At the age of 5 boys' brains are not ready to learn to read in the same way that girls' brains are. Boys also have a much harder time sitting still. Another big difference in schools today is there is less experiential learning (in and out of school) and more hands-off learning. Anyway, there are a ton of facts and studies that I found fascinating but all of it just verified my beliefs that my boys need to play and explore to learn...and so we went to the forest for the first of 2 times this week. 

On Tuesday, my boys were grumps, which made me not-so-happy. I was worried they were going to injure each other. I decided we needed to get out of the house and the forest has been my go-to place. It's close and free and the boys can run their little hearts out. (I'm sure I've said that before on one of my millions of forest posts) (Also, my forest pictures might look all the same to you readers. haha but I continue to take more and more) 

My boys are so happy here! Charlie tried to go a little of the beaten path.

They were so much nicer to each other in the forest!

Miles got a little upset when Charlie pulled him down (I think it was an accident) I didn't think it was that bad but he still has bruises on his face from this fall.

So one of my favorite parts of this trip was Charlie teaching his brother about roots. Here he is pointing and showing Miles the roots.

And some good climbs.

Then both boys worked on a "House for the ants"

And I don't know how we missed this tree slide before, it's on our usual loop.

So much happier in the forest.

Until Miles pushed Charlie off of the log.

He said he wasn't going to Smile for me, but he always smiles for me!

This is the helicopter that Miles and Charlie co-piloted. they flew to California to visit Charlie's friends Madeleine.

Anyway, another educating day for my boys. It makes me happy that I can be home with them and allow them to explore in this way. I'm still not sure if putting Charlie in a pre-school will be beneficial for him next year to help him ease into kindergarten the following year (Oregon now has only full day Kindergarten...boo) We'll figure that out as we get closer, as of now he is all about running and creating and being outside. Anyway, these are just some things I found interesting and have helped me figure out what is best for my kids.