A few date nights

We love going on dates all around the city, whether it is a trip to a Friday Night Market in Portland,

A closer-to-home "cold weather" February date night to Pizza Smith

A fun dinner and escape room date with the Battles, Warnicks, and Smiths. 

or a trip to the temple. April in Portland brings beautiful flowers to the temple grounds. We love having the temple so close. We have enjoyed regularly attending and being able to walk around enjoying the beauty of the grounds.

 

Spending time together is wonderful!

A few random pictures

Pajama time on the landing

Scripture time before bed

We got a ping pong table - the only place for it is the garage.

Middle school orchestra concert

The upper Memorial Park playground

We love being able to bike to the parks

Dani's workouts sometimes require the long bike train

Jacob did a tennis camp

Kate and Liam would take turns being the 3rd wheel

 

JenAffer birthday celebration

We figured out that the Schaffers and Jensens share birthday seasons, with Dani and Jimmy having the winter birthdays and Jared and Mel having the spring birthdays. But it is a great excuse for a double date night! For the May 2017 JenAffer birthday extravaganza, we went to Top Golf, laughed, hit golf balls, ate wings and donut holes with injected fillings.

 

The Arrow of Light

Jacob received his Arrow of Light today with a special ceremony.

He was pretty excited to have earned the Arrow of Light and to move onto Webelos.

 

A lesson in babysitting

Jacob and Claire have been very excited to have the chance to babysit their younger siblings. We decided that 11 was a good age. We are going on a date this weekend, but Dani decided she wanted to give them a little experience beforehand with Torin, who was napping in his room.

We decided that their allowance this month would help pay for the babysitter we ended up hiring for our date night. I guess instead, they got a good learning experience! 

A quick Cincinnati trip

 With Precoa's planned acquisition of the Outlook Group upcoming in the summer, Jared had a trip to Franklin to meet some of the Outlook Group staff and to plan the transition of the accounting functions, so he ended up back near Cincinnati. A last-minute message to Brad and Jason, and we all met in Graeter's for some ice cream, Jason coming straight from a bishopric meeting to join. We talked for hours, until Graeter's closed.

It was great to spend time with good, lifelong friends!

Jacob and Claire turn 11

Our oldest are 11! That is cause for celebration, so they invited some friends over for an after school party.

The family celebrate by going to Benihana's, the kids' favorite restaurant!

 

Little did the parents realize how wonderful it is to have 2 at-home babysitters!!!

A sunny Easter

One of our favorite Easter "traditions" that kind of marks the beginning of the Easter season is Jessica bringing over delicious homemade hot crossed buns. It was only through this that Jared learned that they were actually a food item, not just a song!

Easter Egg decorating with the kids - and one of Kate and Liam's class art projects!

The ward holds a short primary breakfast and Easter egg hunt at the church.

 

Kate and Lucy had matching dresses!

The Book Devourers

Claire and Jacob participated this year in the 5th Grade Oregon Battle of the Books ("OBOB") with Dax, Henry, and Logan on The Book Devourers.

OBOB consists of teams reading a selection of 12 books and then participating in a quiz team tournament battling against another team. The team has been reading through those books since the beginning of last summer in preparation and quizzing each other through detailed questions from the books. The questions consist of a round of questions where the teams are to identify the book that the question took place in and a round of questions with specific details from one of the books.

The Book Devourers first had a school tournament, with the final round occurring on the stage in front of the whole school. Winning the school tournament meant they got to participate in the regional tournament.

The regional tournament was stiffer competition, but the team ended up in the finals, taking 2nd place. It was impressive the detailed knoweldge they had of all of the books.

Taking 2nd place at the regional tournament meant The Book Devourers qualified for the state OBOB tournament in Salem.

The team didn't end up getting past the first round, but they enjoyed the experience. There were practices full of laughter and snacks (especially for Logan!). We all loved cheering them on!

The book list:

Beacuase of Mr. Terupt - Bob Buyea

Escaping the Giant Wave - Peg Kehret

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone - J.K. Rowling

Hook's Revenge - Heidi Schulz

Joshua Dred - Lee Bacon

Knucklehead - John Scieszka

Matilda - Roald Dahl

Miss Spitfire: Reaching Helen Keller - Sarah Miller

Quinny & Hopper - Adriana Brad Schanen

Ramona Quimby, Age 8 - Beverly Cleary

Rescue on the Oregon Trail - Kate Messner

Skateboard Party - Karen English

Small Steps: The Year I Got Polio - Peg Kehret

A Snicker of Magic - Natalie Lloyd

Upside-Down Magic - Mlynowski, Myacle, and Jenkins

Woof - Spencer Quinn