Heritage Park

Growing up, my mom would take us to this cool "Island" park or that is what I called it.  It is a park that has an island made to look like the Colonial times.  When I was a kid, it was more of a rock, but they have since made it look like a little town.  Too Cute and my kids had a blast playing with their cousins.

Feeding the ducks while Grandma prepares our picnic lunch.

With Grandpa and Grandma at the entrance to the bridge leading onto the island

All the cousins climbed up onto this water wheel and it turned out to be a super cute picture.

Kya (7) and Karli (3) playing with Lauren (10 months)

Grandma and Lauren.  Her little knees were black from crawling all over the place!

The men folk talking.  My brother, my cousin and my dad.

The boy cousins.  Noah (5), Caleb (4) and Seth (6)

Elsie and my brothers kids on the Mayflower.

The inside of all the buildings each have their own jungle gym.

The outside of one of the buildings. 

My kids and I with Paul Revere.

Happy Birthday to Me!

I turned 39 years old and can honestly say I am struggling with this age a bit. I can't believe this is the last year of my 30's. Yikes!!!  At least I have myself one awesome family.  I woke up to breakfast in bed; a yummy waffle served to me by Seth and finally got a bicycle seat that won't hurt my bottom.  The family let me have the day to myself, which I used to make and can chunky applesauce and then took me out to dinner at The Cheesecake Factory.

Me and my cute kids

My handsome husband

The crazy five!

Future Entomologist?

It all started when Kya was 2 years old and she found a dead fly in the window sill.  She carried that dead fly around with her for 3 days, and then had a melt down when I threw finally threw away her "baby".  Well, here we are five years later and she still love's finding and taking care of bugs, but at least they are alive now!  Kya can spend hours hunting for caterpillars, feeding them and watching them.  I honestly don't understand her fascination with creepy, crawly bugs, but am glad she has herself a 'hobby', and who knows, she just might make a living one day as a professional Entomologist!

Lake Gregory in Crestline, CA

As a kid, my family spent one week every summer in a cabin at Crestline, CA.  Most of our days were spent at the lake and in the evenings we would hike, swing on a tree swing behind our cabin and play games/cards.  Although, we did not rent a cabin for the week, we did get to take our kids up to Lake Gregory for the day and it was lots of fun watching my kids to many of the same things I did as a child.  I am hoping that next year we may be able to actually stay in a cabin for the week and make a full vacation out of it.

Kya and Elsie when we first arrived.  I made them eat some lunch before heading out into the water, knowing that food would be the last thing on their minds for the rest of the day.

Daddy and Seth just before lunch.

I am not sure why they have the water spraying up constantly, but do remember it as a child too.  Must have something to do with keeping the water moving and fresh???  Another great thing about going to the lake vs. the ocean, is it is pretty quite and we don't have to worry about our kids being swept under by big waves.  The water is very shallow for a good ways out, so the kids were able to play out pretty far without us having to be right next to them.

Playing in the water with the beautiful mountains as our back drop.  They also have a waterslide,but you have to be 48" to go on it and so far only Kya is that tall.  Maybe next year we can all take advantage of it.

One thing I remember as a kid is always finding some other kids to play with.  Luckily, my kids did the same thing!  They played with sand toys that some kids brought up with them and helped them to build sand castles.  Unfortunately, one of the little girls was a bit bossy and I really didn't want my kids hanging out with her, but it wasn't long before they made friends with another family with kids that I loved.  Turns out they live only 15 minutes from us and attend the church where I had MOPS for the past 6 years.  I am hoping to see them again soon.

They rented these paddle boards and let our kids play on them as well.  I didn't post any pictures of the other kids due to not knowing if they allow their kids to be on the web or not, but their kids ages are 4, 7, 11 & 13.  Elsie and their 4 year old looked a lot alike and their 7 year old was built just like Kya.  Fun!

Bowling

We took the kids bowling and learned that our 4 year old is a MUCH better bowler than all of us, including her parents.  Elsie got 2 strikes and 2 spares, and that is without the ball hitting the guard rails!

I love that we were able to take our kids to something fairly active, while still in an air conditioned facility, especially when it is close to 100 degrees outside.  I remember walking thru a bowling alley when I was a kid, but wasn't able to stay and play due to all the smoke and alcohol, but now that California is smoke free, we are able to play these games!

We did  have the guard rails up, preventing any gutter balls and the kids would switch back and forth between throwing the ball and using the ball ramp.  Kya looks pretty excited here.

My very 1st throw of throw of day was a strike!

We will definitely be bowling again next summer!

Here Come's the Bride

Elise got to spend the night at my parents house by herself, for the 1st time a few weeks ago.  Here she is getting ready to sleep in my old trundle bed with one of my old baby dolls.

The next day, after riding bikes to the park and then playing in the pool, she asked to watch my wedding video and then dressed up in my wedding dress.

I must save this picture for her own wedding someday!

Here she is in my wedding dress, while watching me on my wedding video.  She will make a beautiful bride someday, even though she currently claims she is never leaving us to get married.  I will remind her of this one day!

We all have the same pose!

 I love how it looks like we are all looking at each other!

Happy 6th Birthday Seth!

Seth is 6 years old and is growing into a fine young man.  He is 46 pounds (50%) and 47 3/4 (90%) inches tall.  He loves to play baseball, football and soccer.  He is learning to be a gentleman, even though it doesn't always carry through with his sisters.   He loves to play guitar and sing occasionally with his daddy's on stage at various churches.  He has memorized several bible verses and loves to pray.  As  he enters the 1st grade this year, I am excited to continue watching him grow.

We celebrated his birthday with an Outer Space theme.  It started with the invitation and carried through with the food and decor.

His cake

The ceiling is hard to see in this picture, but it is covered in stars and planet wall stickers, along with star lanterns.  I also put up posters of astronauts that my parents brought back from Washington and a couple of space shuttle toys.

The menu:  Rocket Dogs, Asteroid Beans, Rocket Fruit Sticks, Intergalactic Veggies, Meteorite Chips and Moon Crater Dip.

Some the of the food.  The Moon Crater Dip was actually spinach dip in a bread bowl. Cute!

We played a couple of games.  One was stick the Astronaut on the Moon and the other was the kids had to throw paper airplanes and try to get them the on the highest points on the runway.  The last game didn't really work out too well.

I couldn't believe  how many kids turned right, instead of walking straight towards the poster board.  Pretty funny.

Seth's favorite part was opening his presents.  When I asked him what he wanted, he said chaps for riding.  I then said what else and he said "whatever the people want to bring me.  I just want lots of gifts." lol

Blowing out the candles on his birthday cake.  He got all 3 with one blow.

The inside of the cake.