Every year about this time, I reflect on how lucky our boys (and entire family) are to be a part of The Island School community.   It’s a hard place to explain to people, the sense of community, the closeness of families and how tight the kid’s friendships become over the years.
At both Levi and Carlos’ birthday parties I saw this in action when I watched these kids just play together, no drama, no “cliques” but just good old fashioned playing outside.  And the parents really get to know one another as well and we enjoy eachother’s

 company.  Even I look forward to other kid’s birthday parties because I will get a chance to hang out with the parents.
Anyhow, each year about this time we get our financial aid letter in the mail.  It’s stressful, each and every year, because I can’t imagine not being a part of this community and our kids missing out on their teachers truly knowing them each year and caring about their ideas, activities, and lives outside of school.
We are humbled and grateful for the gift of financial aid we receive.

 We feel deeply blessed and know that our kids are becoming better people every single day they step foot into this amazing school.
I was talking to a parent today, who is considering The Island School, and found myself working every angle to try to convince her to (at the very least) go in and see for herself what an incredible place it is.  I may have even begged.  If you can make it happen, I can’t imagine not!
So here are some pics from the school year…pretty fun place, huh?

Carlos’ class did a little in-school fundraiser this last week to help raise money for Mayan Families (in particular, the Guatemalan family that Carlos has been raising money for through his Living on One fundraising).
They set up a plan to sell birds nest cookies, set out order forms to all of the classes, then set to work making the cookies.  They had 406 cookie orders (at $1/cookie) and a generous family offered to match the amount they raised.  You have no idea how much $812 dollars will mean to this family.  I am so proud that they are moving forward and doing something so great for others.
Also, Carlos is still doing his fundraising for this family so if you are interested, he can make/deliver more caramels for a donation!

 I have to say, this girl is a character and made her baptism something to remember!  We are so blessed to have the community of Grace Church, that has embraced our not-so-typical family with open arms and found the comedy which the girl brought to her special day.
There was a point where we were all standing up front, wait, all except for Erin, who was lying down in front of us covering her eyes.
At another point I was holding her and she was trying to get down to see Nana and when I put her down, she didn’t go to Nana, she bolted for the

side door.
At that point, it was time for the boys to go out front and get the water.  Erin went along with them, it was very sweet.
When they came back in, Bill took her in his arms and proceeded with the baptism.  It was very touching and she listened to every word Bill said.  She remembered all we had done in “practice”.  It was very sweet when he put the oil on her head and she wanted more…every bottle on the table, in fact.
After the baptism, the boys also

wanted the oil and the sweetest part was when Erin put the oil on Bill’s

 forehead.
She is so blessed to have amazing Godmother’s (Mary, Ann and Kris) who adore her, too.  What a lucky little girl.

 Carlos is 9?  Where has the time gone.  Sounds so cliche but seems I was just driving him home from the hospital yesterday.
This birthday was all about Magic the Gathering, Baseball and GUM!
Family dinner of shrimp wraps and shrimp pasta and cake with Nana and Papa and Maymay.

 I’m too cheap to buy $20 picture packages for each of the boys (that get tucked away in their memory bins and only seen 20 years later) so I take my own.  I think it’s a decent job, gets the team shot and individual as well and preserves the memories!

 Can’t believe our little guy is ten years old!  Celebration on the day with family dinner (grilled cheese with tomato soup and pineapple juice was his choice) and presents!
Lots of Lord of the Rings, Magic the Gathering and Minecraft this year.

 We had quite the adventure today, the kids got to do a faux commercial shoot for survival gear (in exchange for a family portrait session) up past the Hood Canal Bridge.
The scene was post-apocalyptic showing the “resilience of youth.”  I think our kiddos pulled it off!  They loved getting dirty, having weapons and cool gear and even posing for the pictures.  They were bad ass!
Proud of the kids, excited to see the pictures from the photographer.

First off, know that there is NO benefit to me, personally, by posting this.  I just have to make your life easier and SO much better!
I did an H2O at Home Party last month so I could get free products and learn more about how they work.  Little did I know, my friends were all totally onboard already and many reordered things and I got LOTS of free stuff to try.
If you are thinking about getting the nasty cleaning chemicals out of your house, please look into these.  I will also even give you a demo with the products I have.  Why?  Because they work and you only use water (and non toxic things like the dish soap, laundry soap, etc but really it’s mostly just water and amazing cloths).
My windows have always been nasty, we live by the water and it rains quite a bit…that’s only the outside of them.  Inside we have a bunch of little hands who can’t possibly resist wiping any condensation or putting their little paws on the window just because.  So, I got the damp H2O at Home window cloth and really, in about 5 seconds my windows were amazingly clean.  I wouldn’t have believed it (just like you aren’t right now) if I hadn’t seen it myself.
There are different cloths for different jobs and a mitt that is just like a huge Mr Clean Magic Eraser without the chemicals and completely washable.  Dee and I are actually having fun finding marks to wipe away (we have done the walls, pen marks, the microfiber couch, spots on the carpet…gone!).
So if you want to see it in action, come over or talk with me and I can hook you up with Connie the H2O Goddess!
Oh yeah, and the kids can safely clean with it, too…great news, right?  No guilt for having them do chores with nasty chemicals.
And….you will be saving the Earth.  That’s a big one.  Just try it.
Wait, this just in…I honestly just washed the entire van in about 15 minutes using the heavy duty and multi purpose chiffonettes.  Here is the after shot, and the bowl of water.  No soap!