Daddy Hair Day

This is why I NEVER let Ryan do the kids's hair--he sent our son to school like this!!!! Of course, Jacob thought it was the coolest thing ever (boys!).

Oh the heartbreak

The basket on his Thomas the Train tricycle fell off and he was devastated. Since the screws are stripped, I worked magic with my hot glue gun.

And viola! Happiness is restored. :)

Guess who learned to ride her bike without training wheels?

After school, Evelyn asked to ride her bike. It still had training wheels on it, although they were waaaaaay loose. Instead of tightening them up, I just took them off instead. Evelyn hopped on after much "Don't let go, Mom! Keep up with, but DON'T LET GO!!!". So I held on as she balanced herself at the top of the driveway. She promptly took off down the drive--there was no way I was going to be able to hold on. And it was smooth sailing for her from there! We are so proud of her!

Ward Conference Picnic

In preparation for Ward Conference, our ward usually has a potluck at the fale (picnic area at church) or in the gymnasium. For some reason, we weren't able to secure either place this time around. So instead, we met at one of the beach parks in Hale'iwa. :):):) Everyone brought their own lawn chairs, footballs/soccerballs/softballs, and there was tons of tents, food, and the best of company. Bishop was overheard saying that he really likes the idea of doing it this way....

Some of the priesthood arrived early and sailed out a bit to put down a net to catch some fish. Ry and Julia walked down to see them bring in the net and to see what was caught.

"I'm coming, Mom! I'm coming!"

Can't have a ward get together without bringing out the football. They split up into two teams and had an awesome game--barefoot.

Ry just cut around our bishop (in the green shirt) to steal the ball.

Getting ready to hike the ball--Ry's letting Joshua (bishop's son) know where he's going to throw.

Serious height + insanely long arms = lots of interceptions and catches. :)

Julia absolutely ADORES her Activity Day Girls leader. We are so blessed that she lives just down the street from us. She lets Julia come over all the time to play with her dog and take him on walks with her friends.

Julia and Evelyn hanging out with some of their friends.

Someone in one of the fellow wards owns one of these rental shops that has the blow up jumping play pens. We have these at almost all of our ward activities. The kids LOVE THEM--as you can see, Evelyn is having a blast.

Hanging out with our awesome babysitter, Brianna. But seriously, good company, big umbrella, and a giant thing of cheeseballs. Does it get any better than this?

Chilling with some of my Sunbeams. :)

SQUIRREL!

Watch til the end--and for those who have watched "UP", then you'll understand the title. Or, if you're a McIlquham it'll make perfect sense (that's a direct quote from Ry).

Mom's last day

On Mom's last day (back in Feb, I know, I'm a slacker) we spend a good portion of the day up on the North Shore. Just went up and down the road and getting out to watch the waves at each strip. Of course, near Haleiwa we found sea turtles hanging out on the beach. Marcus LOVED seeing those. Mainly, we just liked watching the huge waves. There's something very calming and quite relaxing about them. We had lunch at my favorite Deli/Bakery in Haleiwa and then I took Mom to the airport. So grateful that she was able to come out and visit--and am looking forward to her coming again sometime this year!

Jacob's first Pinewood Derby!

Jacob was sooooo excited when we walked into the gym and saw this huge ramp set up. He and his fellow boy scouts immediately went up to the ramp to check it out. This thing was seriously long. I have no recollection of ever watching one of these races as a kid. It was lots of fun watching Jacob race his. :)

Before beginning the race, there was announcements and badges/achievements presented. Jacob earned 4 belt badges (for bike safety, art, ect).

Ok, so like, Ry was gone playing in the desert and I've NEVER done the Pinewood Derby before. Never made a car or decorated one. Thank goodness for Brother and Sister Hess in my ward! They have two boys in scouts and volunteered to take Jacob under their wing--we set a date and all our boys made their cars together. Brother Hess found a site online that had simple designs that we printed out. He had plenty of tools, too. Jacob was able to saw out a Lightning McQueen shaped car. At home, he got ahold of the crayola paint and painted it to his pleasure. Next year, we using acrylics. Anyway, I had no idea how to go about adding weights. I bought some fishing weights and superglued them to the bottom, but apparently, it was NO WHERE near enough. The car was allowed to be 5lbs. His wieghed in at 3.2. Uh oh! So, being the first timers that we are, we went through my wallet and grabbed most of my change and taped it to the bottom of his car. LOL! There's a first for everything! After adding my change, his car came in at 4.2. But you know what? During the first race, he came in second! NOTHING was better than seeing his huge smile and we all cheered on his car. It started out the slowest, but picked up rapidly at the end. He was so proud! He made third in the next race, but his night was already awesome since his car already did so well.

Yeah, hi, still here.

Ok, I've seriously neglected this blog. Sorry! Here's what we were up to (literally--like, at 3:30am!) one day--waiting for Ry's plane to roll in! After some delays, plane switching, ect, he finally arrived around 5am. We were all sooooooooo happy to have him back home. Each child made part of a welcome home sign for their dad and were holding them up for him to see (Marcus had his but was running around the deserted airport). And, yes, everyone was still in their pjs (I think even Evelyn didn't have shoes....uh, oops.).

Welcome home....almost

At the last FRG meeting we had, all the ladies and the kids made this sign to welcome home husbands/fathers/sons. It's too small to see names, but my pink hand is right under the "E" and the two green hands under mine is Evelyn and Julia. All the little babies had their feet stamped. It was adorable! I'm also posting this cause Ry most likely will not see it--he gets home Friday night....from Colorado. His Western Grandma passed away last week and he was able to fly to Colorado to support his mom during this difficult time. We're quite glad that he was able to go, though we can't wait to get him back!